MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1929, Page 8

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OE INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

EROM A FRENCHWOMAN’S DIARY. (By Colline Rouff). Frocks for wear in the morning have never been so simple, so smart, so effortless in appearance as they are this year. Nor have they had the same power to make a woman look as if she were young enough, supple /enough, to enter into any kind of sport. The favourite materials in Paris’ are heavy spun silk and tussore, and some amazingly smart effects are obtained with them! A young girl’s frock, of natural tussore, made with a plain fitted bodice and a full flared skirt, had a stitched belt of navy blue tussore to indicate the natural waistline. Over this frock, which had long, fairly tight sleeves, went a loose, collarless, sleeveless coat, cut on exactly the same lines, but made of navy tussore. A fine navy blue felt hat, in the new poke bonnet shape, cut right away at the nape of the neck and almost hiding the face at the sides, ■went with the suit, and the whole silhouette was charming and girlish in the extreme.

The Sleeveless Coat Vogue.—The vogue for the sleeveless coat, as well as for the sleeveless cardigan, continues to grow. A beautifully tailored frock of grege jersey tweed, which achieved a double breasted ellect. by means of four huge pearl buttons on the rather short bodice, and which had a flat pleated skirt, was worn with a long straight coat of the same material. The coat had a deep roll collar and an outer collar of fine white pique, but no sleeves. I was quite surprised when the wearer slipped it off, for its sleeveless style was not noticed at first. Now there is another little problem for the smart women to decide: Which is better—to order a frock with sleeves and a coat without, or a coat with sleeves and a frock without?

Printed Silk With Jersey to Match. —One of the most chic morning suits I have seen lately was made for a trousseau to be worn in a land of much sunshine! The slim, long bodice, cut straight to the hips, was joined to a flared skirt by a heading of small scallops. The material was rich creamy spun silk, gaily patterned with a design in cherry red, black, and. just a suspicion of parrot green. The- neck-line was square, outlined with tiny scallops; but it was not very large, for this young bride was not anxious to look like a coffee berry! The coat was of fine wool jersey, in exactly the same pattern as the frock, and it had long sleeves. Naturally, the colours did not come up so brightly in the wool as in the silk; there was a slightly blurred effect, which was charming. This idea of using two materials printed in the same colours and pattern is a very smart one.

3 Scarves are part of every toilette. —Since we cannot possibly hope to be considered chic unless a scarf completes the ensemble, we have to pay. much attention to the choice of this detail. Big squares no longer interest us—except for evening, when they take the place of wraps. Just now the preference is for very long, very narrow scarves in the two predominating colours of the toilette. Perhaps these may be beige and yellow, navy blue and raspberry red, or black and white; whatever the scheme, the narrow tie will be one colour on Iho one side and. the other on the reverse. Somewhere on the frock —at the back of the neck, on the shoulder, or on the front of the bodice —will be a small embroidered slot, and through this slot the scarf is slipped, Io be arranged at will. It may be left to float long and straight; it may be tied in a bow in front, or thrown to the back and there tied in a small bow with ends that float, to the hem of the skirt; or it may be simply wound round the throat —as you please!

IMITATION JEWELS. FAVOURED BY AMERICANS. The bandit who broke into Mrs W. K. Vanderbilt’s Paris house, a few weeks ago and stole three raw eggs, a string of pearls, and some other things, also filched an item that was not charged against him in court. For he robbed certain not-so-rich people ot two continents of an unquestioning credulity that had long been theirs (writes Sally McDougall, in an American journal). Ever since the burglar broadcast the information that the stolen pearls v/ere not real, and that he had dropped them into a sewer to get rid of them that necklace has been rising night and day from its damp and untidy grave to disturb the faith of trustingpeople who would not have thought of questioning the genuineness of the Vanderbilt jewels. Now these disillusioned ones arc taking their suspicions with them to brilliant centres where wealth and society form part of the show. In nights gone by it used to be taken for granted that all the brilliance in the famous diamond horseshoe of the Metropolitan Opera. , was authentic. \ But on opening night this season a man was heard to ask: — “How is one to know how much of that, sparkle is genuine?” 'Che answer is readily given by Fifth Avenue jewellers —those who deal in genuine articles as well as those who deal onlv in imitations. Blocks apart and behind quite different show windows, their replies were practically the same. It seems that the pearls and gems we see are the real things when worn by wealthy women at any brilliant function in New York. But av lien wo see these same women weighted with jewels far from home we must not. expect to be dazzled by the iridescence of treasures from pearl reefs of the Orient or the sparkle of stones from African mines.. When women go abroad or to the mountains or the seaside they usually leave their most cherished and expensive decorations in-some burglar-proof safe in Manhattan, and take along their copied jewellery. That arrangem nt is calculated to contribute to the carefree enjoyment of the outing, taking into consideration the presence, o£ strange servants in hotel rooms. LADY ASTOR’S PEARLS.

On her recent, trip to New York, and Virginia, Lady Astor wore a necklace of imitation pearls, and an artisan on Fifth Avenue proudly remarked that he had mended the diamond clasp on that much-used string. The vivacious member of England’s Parliament has such fine copies of her enriching regalia that her colleagues would be nuzzled to know which are false and which genuine. As a matter of fact, she copied Astor tiara, is worn much more often than the original. Years ago, after the death of another Mrs Astor, the discovery was made that ninety pearls of her somewhat celebrated necklace were imitations. She had had the rope lengthened in a hurry one afternoon for about 90,000 dollars less than she would have paid if the added beads had actually been those chaste products of pain-racked bivalves in Oriental seas, where celldries of lowly and afflicted oysters have been converting their, trouble nidi lustrous jewels that have come to be a symbol of the beautiful and pure. Miss Minnie Cosgrove, known as an

expert woman jeweller in New York, 'S that European -women arc much more addicted to the imitation jewel 11.':.» arc American women.

“Most New York women who have beautiful and expensive jewellery wear it, except when they are travailing,” she said. “As everybody travois, it is customary to have good jewellery copiefl.” She knows a Now York woman who son.t-times wears more than a million djiikrs’ worth of pearls.

“An ocean voyage wouldn’t be much fun if one had the care of that sort of thing,’ she explained. “Some women would not. even want the responsibility of a. bracelet if they were going abroad and moving about among strangers.” “Even though jewels may be insured for their full value,” Miss Cosgrove went on, “their loss may take on the aspect of a. tragedy, particularly in the case of pearls. For pearls have an intimate way of insinuating themselves info the affection of- a person who wears them. They are often built up tis a hope-chain, a pearl or two at a time, over a period of years. In this way a woman gets to know them one by one, and prizes them above most other things. I know a New York lady who has a name for each pearl in her necklace. And so these people have their pearls and other jewellery copied by someone who can do a good job. Those of us who for a moment view them in passing, especially if the view be concentrated on the clasp, may not know the false, from the true. For invariably the clasp is set with real gems. If the string is a short one the clasp is pretty sure to be worth more than the rest of the necklace. And if a thorough job has been made of copying, an owner is sometimes puzzled to know which is the original. Sometimes it is the imitation necklace that is copied. A Fifth Avenue jeweller told of a business man who came to the shop, dived his hand into a coat pocket, took out an unwrapped pearl necklace, and explained that the. clasp needed fixing. The man behind the counter remarked on the customer’s irreverence toward a pearl necklace —carrying it loose in a coat pocket. “If they were real pearls, I might be more careful about them,” the stranger admitted. “But they are real,” the jeweller informed him.

“I guess I know what I paid for my wife’s pearls. I gave her these tvhen we were married. The whole thing, clasp and all, cost 60 dollars. Some day I hope to buy her a real string. But not just yet.” A pearl expert was called and he declared the pearls were real. The customer who had come in with a broken clasp went out with a baffled countenance. When next the jewellers heard of him, his home, for some unexplained reason, was being disrupted by divorce.