MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 February 1931, Page 3

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST (Notes by Marjorie)

FUR TRIMMINGS.

FOR THE AUTUMN.

An outstanding fashion in the coming autumn and winter season .will be fur trimmings. Advance displays of the new season's models show that fur bands are featured on many coats, ensembles, suits, and frocks. Evening gowns and formal, afternoon attire, as well as heavy topcoats and woollen frocks, are banded with fur. Deep bands of fur, put on in unusual ways, trim the heavy face-cloth and tweed coats for winter wear. The former fashion of simple collar and cuffs of deep bands of fur does not appear again, however. Fur trimmings are much more complicated and follow the line of the sleeve, bodice, or skirt which they adorn. Sloping bands of fur are used on coats, where they accentuate the flare of the skirt. The short jackets of the two-piece ensembles have their flared hems made of fur. Fur again appears on the sleeves, 'but not at the wrist. The fur is now used as a trimming at the elbow, or sometimes composes the whole sleeves of the jacket from wrist to elbow. The long rever- collar of deep fox or similar fur’ is seen on the heavy winter coats, but more popular are Hie upstanding, short collars of such fur as falyak, astrachan, Persian lamb, or ermine. White furs are very fashionable as trimmings on black cloth suits, coats, and frocks. If real ermine is too expensive, then white clipped hare is used. Short-sleeved afternoon frocks of printed silk, the sleeves ending in cuffs of fur, are one of the modes to be introduced next season. Evening gowns show a great liking for fur trimmings. Particularly successful are the satin frocks in such tones as ivory, peach, parchment, and cream, which are adorned with bands of flat fur in brown and black. The fur is used to outline the flared peplum, the tiers, or the intricate draping of the evening gowns for autumn and w intei. It is never used in the old way, that is, in' a deep band at the hem of the frock. The new season’s gowns demand something with more line, and so fur trimming is placed on the body of the frgck itself, where it accentuates the skilful cutting and 1 handling of the fabric. ’

WRONG NECKLACE.

AN ERRING SALESMAN.

This curious story of a pearl necklace is told in the New York “Herald Tribune,” with the assurance that it is perfectly true. A Mrs Brown, of Minneapolis, during a visit to New’ York, went into a famous Fifth Avenue jewellery. store and purchased a handsome imitation pearl necklace for 45 dollars. Some time later Mrs Brown was wearing it when a child grabbed it and spilled the beads upon the floor. They were gathered together and taken to a local jeweller to be restrung. Two beads, however, were found to be missing, and to Mrs Brown’s astonishment she was informed that it would cost 850 dollars to replace them.

To her statement that the necklace had cost only 45 dollars, the jeweller declared that there must be some mistake, for in his opinion it was worth at least 50,000 dollars.

The New York jewellers from whom the article had been obtained were communicated with, and a member of the firm went to Minneapolis to investigate. After looking it over, he said, “Yes, it is a 45,000 dollar necklace. With necklaces of that grade we don’t bother to mark in the thousands on Ihe price slip. We simply marked it. ‘45.’ The gross carelessness of the salesman is inexplicable; he will be immediately discharged. But the necklace, Mrs Brown, is yours. It was a bona-fide cash sale.” With this he took his leave.

Mrs Brown was a lady with some conscience. After thinking the matter over she returned the necklace. “It was a. mistake,” she wrote, “and I should feel like a, criminal if l took advantage of it.” She requested that a. 45 dollar necklace should be sent to her, and she also put in a plea that the careless salesman should be forgiven. The jewellers sent Mrs Brown a 600 dollar necklace and a case of silverware in appreciation, and also reinstated the erring employee.

PRE-WAR MAN.

A CHARMING COMPANION.

It is becoming increasingly the fashion in certain circles to describe as pre-war anything which the speaker holds in supreme contempt, -writes a “Modern Girl” in an English paper. In fact, the only survival from those days which seems to command real respect is pre-1914 whisky usually alluded to almost with awe. But is is about time someone pm in a word for the men who drank it--sensible, sane, straightforward creatures with manners and morals uncomplicated by any of those inhibitions and- urges which aparently make iife such a burden to the modern y °ls lll it revolutionary to state that I much prefer to be taken out by a man of forty or over than by most of the boys I meet? • Experience has convinced ,me tout the pre-war man is not only a. charming companion and a very efficient escort, but that he excels, more than anything, in the almost forgotten art of looking after.a woman. Till I first dined with one o*. the despised breed I had not realised how dreadfully lucking in manners the younger men of to-day really are. It was a novel experience for my remarks to be listened to with deferential interest and not to bo rudely contradicted if I ventured an original opinion or idea. Even the way he lifted his hat and opened doors left me latllei stag ° Such courtesy I knew was considered comic by my own generation, but I found myself distinctly flattered by

11 Since then I have become a. wholehearted convert to the pre-war type of escort. , Two of my most delightful friends are even in the late fifties, but thencheery voices on the phone are moie welcome than the blase drawl of numerous young men who ring me up. Even if they frankly state that they loathe American jazz bands, most m them know how-to choose a marvellous dinner and the right kind ct wines that make it perfection. And that’s a change from swift foxtrotting between cold and scrappy courses. And they will always allow vou to pick the play when deciding on a show, instead of making you sit through something you’ve already seen because they' want to go to it. Of course, you have to reason them out of'a few little prejudices—such as that there hasn’t been a really good dancer since Genee or that the Blue Danube” is the only tune- it’s possible to waltz to. Also that no modernmusical comedy can compete with “Florodora” and no chorlis flapper o. to-day can be mentioned in the same breath as the late George Edwardes’s 10-stone Gaity charmers. They detest certain modern expressions such as inferiority complex and sex appeal, and I have known use of the word : fan in connection with films and' sport to provoke acute control-

6i'3y. But against these slight drawbacks set the amusement of- taking them to an exhibition of modern art or sculpture and watching them turn white with shock and then red with rage and amazement! And it is such fun educating them up* (or down), to the talkies, tvam:lat'ing “whoopee,” “sugar daddy,” “big stiff.” “wop;” the “onceover,” and the “low down” in reply to their bewildered inquiries. , ~, But the nicest thing of all about the pre-war man is that he allows; jou to cherish and preserve a few precious illusions. Ho doesn’t scoff at love, marriage, fidelity and permanence, as youth does. . „ He isn’t afraid to be sincere, or of being thought a sentimentalist —in fact, he rather refreshingly glories in So with him you don t have to bother to keep up that boring postwar attitude of brightness and flippancy without which no girl is now ever considered a creditably Bright Young Thing—exuding a. perpetual string of" “wise-cracks” —a worthy member of the “gang.” He can write divine love letters, because when he was young two--seaters and telephones hadn t made ‘that a lost and unnecessary art. • You feel that he means what he bays and only says w’hat he means, aniotiier virtue that is rapidly departing Ifrom our midst. i And for these reasons, although I -am not yet thirty. I shall probably end as “an old man’s darling.:’

FIRST AT THE WAR.

“W.A.A. C.’fi” AT REUNION

Two of the first women to leave England for France as members ot the W.A.A.C. met for the first time since the war at a reunion dinner in London recently. One holds a high Government position, the other is a farmer’s wife from the north, who paid her first visit to London since 1918 for this dinner. Thrilling war-time stories were ex changed among the 650 women pi<..sent. Factory girls and servants who had saved for weeks to pay their fare came from all parts df England, Scotland ami Wales, and sat beside women earning large incomes. . “Do you remember?” was a phrase which marked the beginnings of most questions, and reminiscences followed, some amusing and some infinitely I pathetic. Elderly “W.A.A.C.’s” forI got the years an dexclaimed with delight over deeds of women they had known as girls in their ’teens. One grey-haired woman swept away the years with a gesture as she looked at a. snapshot of a much younger companion’s two children. “Mary with twins three years old! she exclaimed and forgot that twelve years had passed since she had known Mary as a girl of 19! And in all the gathering there were only five men, among them MajorGeneral Sir Frederick Maurice, K.C.M.G., C.B. Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan. chairman of the council of the Old Comrades’ Association, presided over the dinner. This was the tenth annual dinner i of the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps Old Comrades’ Association, and ■- -many of the women have attended each function without a break.

ROMANCE or frocks?

> WHY WOMEN GO TO WEDDINGS. Women are never more long-suffer-ing than when they are waiting to see a bride, and a crowd of them provid'ed another demonstration of courage and feminine curiosity at the recent wedding at St. Margarets, Westminster, of Lady Mary Lindsay, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Crawford and Balcarres, and Mr. Reginald Man-ningham-Buller, son of Sir Mervyn and the Hon. Lady Manningham-Buller, states the “Daily Mail.” Long before the time for the arrival of the bride women gathered outside the church, and they stayed there stoically in the rain and cold till the ceremony was over. Most of them were without raincoats or umbrellas, and the chilly drizzle trickled down their faces and blew against their silk-stockinged legs. Repeated applications of powder failed miserably to banish the chilled look from their faces —yet in spite even of this they kept their vigil unfalteringly. “Why do women flock ito weddings, no matter how miserable ithe weather may be?” one of them

vas asked. “Perhaps it’s because those who have been through the experience of getting married • themselves want to see how other brides stand the ordeal,” she replied: “And' perhaps those who haven’t been married are lured by the spirit of romance in such occasioris. Most women, too/’ she. added, “will brave anything to see beautiful dresses.” And nothing certainly, could have been more lovely than Lady Mary’s long-trained' dress of ivory satin —except Lady Mary herself.