MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1933, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

STOCKINGLESS CRAZE. “SOCIETY” COPIES BUSINESS GIRL London—not excepting the social world—lm>: Kcc-'pted tae prosent baic-lcggcd fashion with superb coniposuie (writes a Fashion Expoi in the London Daily Tei'.’grapli ’. Each day this week increasing numbers of women, well-dressed in all out stockings, have made their appearancc in the fashionaolc f hopping streets during the moinm t , in the restaurants at luncheen-ume. and at the 'dunces at night. These bare legs created no sedation, but were -accepted us ajm.umi of course —in marked contrast to inc consternation that such a dibp.ajwould have caused a very lev, je.n. ago. , , At the junction of the Strand aim 11 aia.lgar-squaro. yester lay, eight bare-legged women, all of them smaltly dressed in the latost fashions, v. me counted in less than three minutes. Further west the numbers wore greater, Bond-street, between tho Piccadilly end am! Brook-street, produced nineteen in the short time taken to walk the distance. Still further west, in the crowded area: of Knightsbridge, and Kensington, it \*as impossible to keep count. Net the least interesting feature ol ;i mode Hi at would have shocked an rarlicr generation is its history, it may be said to. have had iiS formal English inception some three year a ago, among sportswomen at Wimbledon' and thereby to have brought about a storm of controversy. Paris by then had already indulged in a. stockingless movement to display sun tan acquired on the Riviera. Since then recurrent heat waves have won over more and more converts. Fortunately for the hosiery manufacturers, the fashion is likely, thanks to our climate, to be brief and spasmodic. This explains the anomaly to be found at the great drapery stores yesterday, of bare-legged women 'Pronging the counters in quest of bargains in stockings.

BABY’S FILM CONTRACT Baby Leroy, the delightful and astonishing infant who would have walkaway with honours in Chevalier’s “A Bedtime Story." if only he had been old enough to walk, has been given a seven-year contract with Paramount. His immediate salary will be £3 a week when not working, and £lO aweek when acting. At the end of each year he is to get a rise of £1 a week, when lazing about and £2 a week when on the job. As he is still only a year o.ld, and his mother has no means, and was under the care of the Salvation Army when he got his first contract, he is quite the youngest breadwinner in the world. ABOUT RINGS. Romance was not associated with engagement, rings when they were originally devised. The ring is said to have originated as an "instill* ment” to hold the fickle and forgetful man to his bargain from the time he declared his passion until the wedding ceremony took place. It was during the second century B.C. that women began tc flash an engagumen! ring, on the fourth finger of the left hand as a symbol of betrothal. It was displayed on that particular finger because of the belief prevalent at Hie tune, that a special vein ran from that finger to the heart. In Russia the ling was worn on the forefinger, and •in Prance on the middle finger. in the seventeenth century English women wore the ring on the thumb. Al one time the ring consisted of three hoops looped into what was known as a puzzle ring. On the wedding day one of the rings was given to the bridegroom, another to an intimate friend, and the bride kept the third. For many centuries the engagement ring .did duty also as a. wedding ring. At the outset the marriage ring was an article almost, as practical as a frying-pan 1 The wife was given a plain gold ring witli an attached key sc- that she, and she only, could have access to household goods. The wedding ring was adopted by the AngloSaxons about A.D. 860. Haring the generations since then it lias been alternately plain and elabor.it c V. i y often the rings were inscribed in a puzzling fashion by interlocking 'die names of bride and grmjm. BLONDE BABIES Twice as many blonde babies are be ing hoi n in Britain now as 10 years ago. Doctors say ’hat moder;.! d•• i ‘ Icpnients in the diol and habits of ’heir mothers, are responsible. If the habit's were 20 ycais elder, they would he- called ash simile < \li' imly rare only a lew yc:if: ;m->.

DIVORCE AND MARRIAGES. U.S. AVERAGES. NEW YORK, July 6. The depression has had its effect here upon divorce as well as on wedding.-:, for the statistics relating to b.'i.t year, published to-day, reveal that while the number of marriages fell by 7.5 per cent., divores were redued by 12.7 per cent. It is now estimated that, on an average throughout, the Uniten Elates there is approximately one divorce to every six marriage's.

The proportion varies widely in different areas. In West Virginia there arc fifteen weddings to each divorce, but in the State of Nevada—where Reno is situated —nine marriages may be expected to produce, on an average, five divorces. Hollywood is congratulating itaelf that, compared with most industries in the past twelve months, its wedding returns show a very moderate “deficit.” Its divorces only outnuniiieied its marriages by nine to seven. The total number of marriages was 951.759 out of the whole Unitod States population, which is estimated at 125,000,000. This is a low record. Financial stringency is blamed for this state of affairs. The previous low-water mark was in when many men were serving in France.

MODERN * BEAUTY. THE NEW STYLE. Who is the prettiest woman in society just now? (asks a London daily). It is a difficult question to decide, because this season is already famous for. its lovely women. The new type of feminine beauty is at once more fatal and more elusive than the synthetic brand with which we have become all too familiar. Perhaps it can best be described as “beauty-plus”—beauty, phis a magnetic and indescribable quality which is as rare as it is irresistible. This kind of girl is not in the least “pretty-pretty.” Her charm is threeparts personality. She has a suntie. shy, and disarming quality, which acts like magic on a world grown tired of pretty girls determined to make every ounce of capital they can jut of their looks. She combines childish candour with complete naturalness and poise; accepts her beauty and the power it gives her as a matter of course, and does not work hard, like the rest of us, to attract and triumph. Her spell is involuntary, and cites envy of a particularly virulent kind among ether pretty women. And naturally, for she makes them feel rather trite and obvious, poor things. Very often she is even lazy about her looks, and carelessly dressed, has a way of making the studied effects of other women look silly. She' is never aggressive, self-assertive or markedly jealous, simply because there is never any need for aggression or self-assertion on her part, except perhaps where members of her own sex are concerned. Like the age we live in modern beauty “holds something tragic within its magic”—a capacity lor intensive sufferings,’ or delight which stamps it as twentieth century. It combines sophistication with complete simplicity, is more spiiitual than physical in its appeal, yet has a direct charm which does its work without the coquetry, posturings and other boring appurtenances of the femme fatale of honoured memory.

Can this type of beauty be acquired, or must one be born with it? The answer is that its germ can be either extinguished or coaxed into life, but it must be there to stai c with. The germ is not uncommon.

The most pretty women who have "beauty-pink” In embryo never cultivate it. It is the one great untapped source of feminine attraction, yet they fail to take advantage of it. They study make-up, and dress to the last detail, and neglect poise. In their eagerness to rivet attention they become tense, restless creatures, amt forget that in a harassed world women who have learned the ait of repose have it all their own way. But the modern girl is no fool. She is beginning to realise that the hard-and-fast beauties of yesterday are at a discount to-day; that, they are too noisy and there are too many of them. She is beginning to turn her attention to simpler pleasures. She reads serious books. She is beginning to get back the balance lost in the noisy post-war years. Giadually her face is reflecting this change of mood, as it already has done/with the more sensitive and intelligent women of to-day. A WATERPROOF ROUGE Rouge for cheeks and lips that is intended either for bathers or those who do not want to be "making-up" in public during the hot weather is now being compounded in a Bondstreet laboratory. This will defy salt and fresh water,’and though it look's orange in the box when it is applied io the skin it turns a blight coial pink and does not run. A sun ian lotion that can he used

i-y both, blendes and brunettes, the (’iii’cience being that blondes only

u<_ <?d oi:e application at a time, while m (incites should smooth on two coatings, is another bright idea. The (tdour this produces is a pale peach gold.