MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1931, Page 7

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(Notes by

Marjorie)

KNITTING BOOM. NEW WAVE OF ECONOMY. The biggest boom in knitting since the time when almost every woman in the country was making socks for soldiers is being experienced in England to-day. Hand-knitted gaiments are suddenly enjoying a tremendous vogue and in tubes, trams, and buses defU fingered girls are once again busily plying their needles. One of the reasons for the extraoidinary boom in knitting is the new wave of economy that has swept the country. Partly as a gesture and partly because it really is a saving, women are making their own wool len gaiments.

During the summer they have been making swimming suits and tramping stockings. Now it is woolly jumpers, jumper suits, and underwear. Queer places where I saw busy knitters yesterday were: — A theatre queue. A motor-cycle sidecar. The foyer of a West End hotel, cinema. The woman in the cinema kept he • needles going busily all the time she was, apparently, deeply engrossed in a thrilling talkie! DYED EYELASHES. An American visitor to Paris flew over to London recently to have her eyelashes dyed in Bond Street. She returned to Paris in time for dinner. This is a typical instance of the way in which foreigners are now coming to London for their beauty treatments. states an exchange.

The piocess of dyeing lashes has alone attracted hundreds, for it is a highly specialised one, and requires a skilled expert to carry it out. Each hair is dyed separately, taking threequarters of an hour in all, and paste to grow and curl the lashes accompanies the treatment. During the past year 1000 women have had their lashes dyed and curled in one parlour, a big percentage of them being visitors from abroad. One woman beauty expert who controls four salons, and employ’s only English girls is making a strenuous bid to'keep Englishwomen at home this winter. Vichy baths, mud baths, foam and needle baths —all are working in competition with the re diicing and health baths of the Continental spas. There is at the moment a swing of tho fashion pendulum toward short hair, in the salon of a Park . Lane hotel 30 women had their hair cut short last week. The new style costs only 4/6 to set every 10 days. The style is called the “Swivel.’’ The hair is parted on one side, and the parting carried down at the back; it is then swirled round the head and curled at either side.

J! RIC HTE R MARRIAGES. At last, a way has been found <’f bestowing upon registry office marriages some of the dignity of weddings in church i writes a Faris corespondent). The Mayor of St. Maurice, a commune on the banks of .be Marne, has installed an up-to-<‘ate gramophone, complete with amplifier. in his town hall. It was first used yesterday morning to the astonishment and delight of the young people who were being made husband am! wife. As the bridal pair entered the vestibule of the Mairie the beadle pressed a button just inside the door, and the amplified strains of the 'Wedding March” from “Lohengrin” tilled lhe building. When the legal formalities had been completed, the beadle pressed a second button in the wall, and in the room in which the marriages are solemnised, the digni.hd music of lhe “Meditation de Thais” was heard. Finally, as the young people and their friends were about to leave the town hall the; beadle pressed a third button and the March from “Tannhauser” rang out. In future, when a youth of St. Maurice says to a maiden of tint place, “Let us play the town hall gramophone,” she will know that his proposal is serious.

BRIDE—YET UNMARRIED. A MANNEQUIN’S RECORD. There is a girl in London who has walked up the aisle in wedding dress 300 times —but she is still without a husband. The wedding bouquets this girl has seen droop and die would fill a florist’s shop. She has had so many bridesmaids following her that, placed end to end, they would reach from London to York. She is Miss Lucy Clayton, a mannequin, who was lately appearing in the Fashions Exhibition at Olympia. “I have worn so many kinds of wedding dresses at fashion parades that I’m sure I shan’t get the slightest thrill from putting one on for my own marriage, when it comes,” Miss Clayton said recently. “I have heard the Wedding March so often that I could whistle it backwards. All I shall want when my real wedding arrives is a register office ceremony, a tweed coat, and skirt, no flowers, and no music. That will be thrilling.” BASQUES AND BOLEROS. FROCKS UP TO DATE. Now that the winter styles are established, we can survey our wardrobes and see to the necessary renovations. as well as additions (writes the Hon. Mrs C. W. Forester in the London “Daily Telegraph”).

The basque, that at first appearance seemed so suggestive of a certain dowdiness connected with its period, is proving rather charming, and in many ways can successfully alter the look of last year’s frock. For example, any of the straight up-and-down-house frocks or the later waistcoat variety can, from below the band, have a plainly shaped or frilly basque. Sometimes a “fitted” princess frock will a half-basque, just at the hips, or two pieces appearing like high pockets. In dark dresses of cloth or thin wool, a. basque collar and cuffs above the fulness at the elbow, can be of satin, silk or velvet. A flat thin fur is also usable. The variety of basques add to the helpful uses of the mode. A basque can be used to lengthen a coat tightly fitted round the hips, or just a slight flare is often noticeable below the waist of the new thin tweed belted cardigan. In the case of the coloured coats, a verj- bright, brown over a dark pleated skirt may be cut with a pointed basque at the back —put on with a piping, sloping, and moulded at the hips. Sometimes in the evening or afternoon a swallow tail coat of dark velvet is seen over an underdress of white or pastel-shaded fine cloth or satin.

Some of the lace frocks that did duty in the summer are improved by a frilled basque of contrasting lace to balance a half-cape epaulette effect, or to match a scolloped collar, which all gives that wider shoulder look. The boleros, many of which are exquisitely embroidered after the old Zouave way, also permit of much scope for change. They are mostly sleeveless —as the new top-sleeve is easier when placed on the corsage or blouse worn with it. A navy blue wool frock can well take a red braided bolero, or a matching velvet bordered with fur. I

The longer sleeveless jacket of 1880 shape is also seen. This in a coloured cloth, stitched and embroidered, can strike a pleasant and gay note on a flannel house frock. Both this flat straight coat and the bolero can look very well with the full topsleeve and waisted line. They certainly do recall the fashions of the late ‘nineties.

This same period is represented in the return of both the wide and nariow leather, and fabric belts—not forgetting that of flexible silver and the narrow velvet ones with eyelet holes of gold or diamante and clasps to correspond. As such details in dress have made gieat strides in beaut!y and good taste, it is not surprising that some of the new belts and buckles are very lovely. Often such accesories form the most decorative part <if the frock. z

Black or dark brown frocks have white or pale contrasting coloured tops, generally joined by fine hand ! - work, hut nearly always a leather belt inserted with the two colours in enamel or fine jewelled setting appears.

With a black and white scheme the hell of black leather may have a beautiful clasp of ivory work and black onyx. A sports frock of brown can show green and cream enamel links and buckle.

Dull silver and dull gold is a smait alliance with black or with coloured wood. In such cases the collar or scarf will have a clip to correspond, which may again be reproduced in the cap or hat. Sashes and girdles are much favoured by the younger woman. Here again, the bolero idea is correct. Some novel girdles iu a dark colour, embroidered and pailetted to match a bolero, both being worn with a light frock, which has elaborately embroidered cuffs io transparent sleeves, arc extremely eff ecti v e.

WARNING AGAINST KISSING. “Don’t kiss me. I don't, want to b° sick!” The “sweet young thing,” who bends over a baby to salute it in the usual way gets a rude shock when she sees these words inscribed on its bib. The bibs are issued by the health department, of Newark. New Jersey, to every baby in the city as part of an anti-kissing campaign. Newark’s public health officer recently arrived in Britain to spread the news that kissing is dangerous. MOL. J BLANC CLIMBED BY GIRL. LONDON. September 19. Miss Pamela Wilkinson, aged 11 years and 1 months, of Brunner Close, Gcddersgreon. London, has just r? s turned to London after accomplishing the remarkable feat of climbing Mout Blanc, which is 15,750 ft in height. Miss Wilkinson has thus beaten the record of Charles Stratton, the son of the Chamonix guide, who climbed Mont Blanc at the age of 11 years and t; months, in September, 1889.