MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1931, Page 3

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

TROUSER SKIRTS.

DIVIDED OPINIONS.

Mme. Elsa Schiaparelli, the Italian dressmaker, whose slogan is “trousers for women,” talked to a “Daily Mail” Reporter at her West End hotel about the attack on her ideas by a woman reader in a letter printed in a •London paper. Mme. Schiaparelli was wearing one of her divided-skirt gowns, which, until she walked, could hardly be distinguished from a very long wide skirt. “I came to England to buy British materials for my salon in Paris,” she said. “I am confident that no one who has seen the trouser-gowns that I have designed could possibly describe them as anything but modest, comfortable, and chic. Senorita Lili de Alvarez was one of the first women to wear my ‘trouser-skirt’ in a tennis match at Monte Carlo, and Was congratulated by spectators on Its charm. Numerous fashionable ■women from New York and Paris have also taken to the costume with great enthusiasm. I wear the wide and lovely ‘trouser-gown’ for afternoon, cocktail parties, the theatre, and for dancing, and in my salon 50 per cent, of my collection has the ‘trouser-skirt’ for all occasions.” Here are some opinions concerning the "trouser-skirt”: — The Ranee of Pudakota said: “I think that all Mme. Schiaparelli’s ideas are wonderful, and particularly the ‘trouser-gown,’ which I think is admirably suitable for the tall, slim, English woman. It is graceful and becoming; so chic and easy to wear.” Lady Craig, wife of Sir Gordon Craig: “I admire completely feminine women, and 1 do not think that a gown with a divided skirt is at all becoming.”

A STANDARD WOMAN.

DIFFERENT TYPES.

A knotty problem is being considered by the Drapers’ Chamber of Trade (states the London correspondent of “The Post”), the trouble being to decide “What is a standard woman?” The matter originated by a proposal to standardise the size of women’s clothes, and to have stock sizes such as exist in the cases of men’s hats, etc. It was urged by one speaker that such standardising was impossible owing to the fact that the Yorkshire woman (for instance) was larger than the London woman, and that this obtained in many other parts of the world. An expert opinion was that it was worth while trying to standardise, to hold goods according to special standards which will become well known, so that women will know what to ask for in respect to their own size approximately. It is rather surprising that such a discussion should have arisen, as for many years women have been accustomed to ask for “small woman's” sizes, or else the more diplomatic remark, “O.S” when an “outsize” is produced. It is not usually necessary for a woman to ask for one size or other, as the shop attendant measures her customer with her eye, and produces ■either "W” or “0.5.” as the case niay be. If it is arranged to have other gradations of sizes, it will extend the usefulness of factory-made clothing, but in these days of unemployment this will be a very doubtful blessing.

BEAUTY OF MODERNS.

“NEAR THE GREEK IDEAL.”

RISKS WOMEN RUN .

SOME HAIRDRESSING PERILS.

PARIS, June 23. The Academy of Medicine holds that women are not sufficiently aware of the perils they face in the. process of hairdressing. Some time ago it appointed a special committee to investigate these dangers. The report drawn up states that highly inflammable liquids are too freely used, and that, apart from the risk of fire, customers and hairdressers alike must suffer from the effects of breathing noxious fumes. It is held to be impossible to control the use of such liquids except by their total prohibition. Many hairwashes still in use were found to contain a substance which was expressly forbidden for such a purpose in 1916, as the fumes from it are very harmful to the heart and lungs, and might even cause death. The Academy has sent to the Minis ter of Health a strong recommendation of the prohibition of all dangerous substances. Attention has also been drawn by the death of Mme Maillard, at Caen, to the possible dangers of electric curling irons. She was using such irons on her hair while sitting in her bath when she was electrocuted. The water had acted as a conductor, and the current, which should simply have heated the irons, shot through her body, killing her instantly.

TEN YEARS OF SHOPPING.

To-day, the average woman, it has been computed, spends from on’sixth to an eighth of her life in shopping of some kind or anothei in the obtaining of ordinary household necessities or on more interesting shopping expeditions. In a period of 50 years there is many a woman who, if only she had taken a reckoning, would have spent 10 years of her life in shops, buying. Such a wide appeal which the shops now exercise over the minds of humanity would never have been created but for the sensitive thought and care of the buyer beforehand. The humblest typist of to-day can go and spend her money on the choice of thousands of necessities, pleasures, or vanities that no mediae' val emperor, with all his wealth, could ever have procured .

“Not for generations has the standard of woman’s beauty been so high as it is to-day.” states Mr Bertram Park, the- London artist and photographer to the “Daily Mail.” “Women to-day,” said Mr Park, “have personality and character expressed in their fine mouths and chins, whereas in bygone days the mouths were pinched and the chins narrow. In old portraits of notable women you can see evidences of good family ami breeding in their foreheads and even noses, but the mouth and chin seem to fall away, “In bygone days the contours of a woman’s face were admired merely from tlie picturesque point of view. While the small mouth and chin are picturesque, they lack the personality that stamps the high standard c£ beauty we find to-day. Now women are admired as much for their charac ter and expression as for superficial attractiveness. “ Besides, mere beauty soon loses its superficial charm, but. modern beauty increases with the development of firm contours and expression of character. The higher type of beauty to-day is more complex. The fine chin and mouth of the woman of to-day are moulded by modern conditions of life. “As regards figure, too, the modern ■woman is much taller and bigger in the waist and shoulders, but perfectly proportioned. She approaches to the Greek ideal height of seven and a half heads, while the mediaeval woman was only say, six and a half heads in height. “In brief, the beauty of the modern woman is more like the classical Greek beauty than any other generation that has gone before.”