DRAPING THE BERET.

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 September 1934, Page 7

DRAPING THE BERET.

(By Hon. Mrs C. W. Forestei). Women will certainly rejoice in the fact that the new headgear will be easier to wear. The latest are quite comfortable, though flat in the crown. There is not that shallowness that makes them slide in all directions. The appeal ot these berets lies chiefly in the wonderful drapery. Some are very wide, worn well on the forehead; others narrower and showing a novel side movemen® but the head is securely fitted. All sorts of easily-draped materials are used. Softest straws, taffeta, ribbon, cloth or duvetyne—even tweed, with lovely pannes and velvets. The milliners promise us greater comfort in the new shapes. The widebrimmed, shallow crowned hats ot summer were liable to be disturbed by the slightest summer breeze. The draped berets and newest pancake shapes, tied on with a wide ribbon over the crown and under the bunched curls at the back, spell a compromise between Watteau and Bopeep fashions. Where there are plenty of curls and back-trimming this is a picturesque and happy style for the remainder of the summer, as velvet ribbon is looped over light crin-straw or open trellis-work of fabric cire; this will later on give place to panne and velvet.

Panne, chiefly in black or a new red-plum shade, will herald the autumn. It is light and yet rich and becoming. Tomato, a flamingo-tone, will be among the brighter colours. The dead Victorian shades will be favourites, especially with the wide draped berets made in finest cloths. Too bright colours would prove overpowering, and the dead-leaf tones are flattering to most English complexions.

The coolie shapes are no longer so smart. A few in taffeta to match the kimona wraps are to be seen, but their day is over.

Although lightly and cunningly introduced by means of fine handwork, hats will show plenty of trimming. Beautifully made wings and feather fantasies are placed right across the back of the remaining straws and on the new felt shapes. Flowers and bows of ribbon and fabric will fill the back spaces of all these tilted-forward shapes. So many women prefer that straight-on-tlie-forehead style, though the smartest and newest movement is that of the large 1 draped beret, tipped right over to the right side. It is not hard and is entirely different from former side effects. It is a revival, only the 'draped hat of Victorian days was heavy, and rendered more so by being perched up on mountains of hair.

Decorative fabrics that look like embroidered taffeta, damasks, or raised plush effects will be chosen later on.

FOR EVENING GOWNS. UNCRUSHABLE VELVETS. On the eve of the Paris dress shows, London fashion houses seem to have combined in an effort to “get in first” with their new season models. They are launching fresh styles before too much attention is concentrated on what is to be shown on the other side of the Channel (writes the London correspondent, of the “Sydney Morning Herald”). I have attended three dress shows this week, intending to give an early lead on what smart women will wear as soon as summer’s hottest days have gone. Many of the models shown by those houses —Worth .Sport, Ronald Morrel, the young English designer, and Matita—-are, of course, uncompromisingly autumnal or wintry in character, but. it is not ■ too early for Australian women to know of some of their details, and the evening fashions may guide those choosing gowns for the Victorian Centenary festivities. Ronald Morrel claims that .dignity is the keynote of the new evening mode, and expresses it by featuring fi y ocks moulding the figure tightly and dispensing with any great assistance from draperies and trimmings. His new collection stars skirts slit at one side like a few he introduced in a tentative fashion last season. Some of them are slit to the knee, and follow modified Directoire lines, with high waists and low', square-cut decolletages.

Another star point is his use of materials wider than one has ever heard of. The fabric of one velvet gown was 65 inches wide, and several others were widths almost as extensive. Perhaps we shall have to coin the word “treble width” fabrics to express ourselves accurately. They reduced the seams of the fabrics to one, and so enhanced their regal line. The new uncrushable velvets appeared in the Worth and Morrel collections. They are said to live up to their name, to the extent of coming unmarked through the ordeal of being thoroughly cork-screwed between tin? fingers. Most of the new velvets are plain, but some are interwoven with tinsel threads. Mr Morrel showed one exquisite new fabric which 1. found difficult to place. Close inspection showed that it was chiffon, striped with alternate lines of corduroy velvet and silver thread. It is called metal velvet and was the medium for a charming Empire model with a fishtail train, and novel shoulder straps and little puff sleeves in moleskin, dyed midnight blue.

Another new fabric in the Morrel collection was hairy taffetas. It was used for a blouse to accompany a lainage coat-frock, a type of garment.; incidentally, which is prominent among autumn modes; The taffetas was in electric blue, with its surface of angora-like hairs in black. Hand-blocked wool fabrics uro still another Morrel innovation. One attractive example was a blouse in gay Bulgarian colours. All there shows laid emphasis on the simple tailored line, using whalever decoration might be employed to accent the basic simplicity rather than to obscure it. In coats the sevep-eighths length was to the fore, and belts and fastenings were given an almost exaggerated importance. Pockets also showed themselves to be in favour again.