MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 March 1935, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

CHANGE-STEP FASHION. EVENING STRIDE AND DAYTIME To hobble or to stride —that is the problem that modern woman will soon have to face. Itis the issue being fought out now behind the scenes at the dress houses where 1935 fashions are bing created (writes a contributor to the London “Daily Telegraph”). And the dressmakers seem to have decided, capriciously enough, that women shall hobble in the daytime and stride at night. Here is the contrast in the width of skirts for different hours of the day. For mornings and afternoons women, are to adopt the “pencil” silhouette. The skirt is as narrow as possible and hangs perfectly straight, and the pencil effect is exaggerated by the fullness of the new lumberjack coats. There are gathered at the waist and hang away from the skirt like a bell, and were inspired by the garments of the American lumber men. The skirts are less than a yard round the hem. But for evening many of the most, striking models have a hem measurement of six yards. In changing for evening, women will have to alter their walk, too. After hobbling from matinee to cocktail party, they will be able to swing with an easy stride into the ballroom.

So I learned from a young fashion creator who designs clothes for some of the smartest women of to-day. “This free line will give women greater confidence,” Mr Victor Stiebel stated. “It will emancipate them from ‘clothes Consciousness.’ They are thinking of what they are wearing all the time. The fashions are to blame. “I want to see women striding again. It will not be an ugly movement, but one that expresses this new freedom of line.” Instead of evening gowns' being tight to the knees they are to be very full from the hips. As the wearer moves these folds will sway enchantingly. Their skirts will be heavy, made with voluminous folds of the more solid materials now being used for night-time fashions.

HOW TO WEAR HOMBURG. (By a Paris Fashion Expert)? The typical 1935 Homburg has a suppressed crown, but a very forward tilt. It is seen at its best when it enters into the colour ensemble of the tailor-made. The boat-shaped toque is making a dash forward. In doing this the movement is accentuated by a quill, ostrich feather tip, or ribbon bow, shot through the apex of the crown. These motifs lie flat, and it is only when the Watteau and Manon shapes appear that trimmings actually take a perky attitude. The former shape is almost true to type, and one in organdie "straw,” that is to say, organdie plaited to look like paillassoii, has a flower of white cellophane emphasising the back brimmed perch. The “Manon” is flat-topped and elongated, with a slight bend in the middle showing an apex ornament of two nacre flower-heads in two tones of pink set back to back on black and a strap terminating in a bow to keep it on.

Cork in the form of ribbon wends its way round the crown of a navy blue, felt "Homburg,” the 1935 "Homburg” with a suppressed crown, and worn in the correct forward way. New trimmings arc in nacre, and there are cellophane floral motifs and Cupid wings. There is one boat-shaped toque stylo of glistening blue cellophane straw with pink moss roses set at one side of the back uplift. Reeds worked up into rounds on taffeta are another idea in trimming for a shape that has a low crown and lop-sided brim aspect. The clerical biretta supplants the tricorne in small and wide shapes. One in the latter group pitches the biim forward and aft with short levers up at the side. This is a new form for tailored hat lines, while Jane Austen might have invoked a little sporting shape of felt with a short brim turning up all round beneath a round crown and above a chin strap.

I . JUBILEE YEAR FASHIONS. (By a Special Correspondent). The eyes of the fashion world are on London, and West-end designers are preparing to dress, in addition to their ordinary clients, thousands of smart women who are coming over here from five continents for the Jubilee celebrations. In St. James’s Palace sit the men who have become dress dictators to the British Empire for 1935. They are high officials of the Lord Chamberlain’s office. As soon as the King and Queen return to London they will be busy issuing invitations to the many public Royal Jubilee functions. Instructions as to correct dress will accompany each of the thousands of invitations being’ issued. Dress regulations’ for the most important public and private ceremonies .ill, I learn, be as follows: March Courts. —The regulations for these and the June Courts are the same as for the summer Courts of last year. National Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul’s on May 6.—Probably uniform or evening dress for men, and day dress for women, as at the Royal Wedding. These regulations, however, are not for people who find them inconvenient, as all ranks will be represented at the service. State Banquet in May.—Evening dress or knee breeches, that is, Court dress.

State Ball in May.—No regulations beyond that of ordinary evening dress.

Women in all parts of the Empire are so interested in the trend of Jubilee fashions that London dressmakers are being inundated with requests for copies of their models, even before they have designed them! These requests come from fashion houses in Australia, India, and Canada, and also from the United States. All the time that London dressmakers are modelling their new spring clothes they are now in their work rooms, painting on their life-size canvases —the paintbrush in the case being a roll of material and the canvas the mannequin on whom they try out their new designs. Here are some of the thoughts that one can glean from the studios of fashion just now. “Yes. . . Everything must contribute to the joy of this wonderful season. Fashion, too, must rejoice. I must have materials that will be of a bright and joyous nature —fabrics that sparkle—yet, not* too much, for it is going to be a season of dignity and grace.” The thoughts of another designer run on a different aspect of the Jubilee. “It is going to be a. season of wonderful day clothes 1 ,” he says, in his queer, erratic way. “A time of great public ceremonies, for which women will want more formal daywear than for any period since the Edwardian. They will come to the London dressmakers, for only in London will they find the right atmosphere for choosing their Jubilee clothes.”

This dressmaker has prepared for the Jubilee by moving into a larger house, taking in addition two extra workrooms, employing 80 more workgirls, increasing his team of mannequins—ho has just searched London for two blondes —and securing a special titter, who will devote her time to modelling smart day clothes, mostly for Jubilee functions. .

As for evening clothes, the Jubilee, the dressmakers believe, will prove that London is the world’s smartest capital. "Englishwomen are showing the world how to dress,” I was told by Major J. B. Handley-Seymour. “There is no woman who looks more graceful in evening dress or is more capable of carrying it with dignity. In Paris very little evening dress is worn. Paris in the last few years has become dowdy.” Women are no longer dashing off to Paris for their clothes, this authority. assured me. The London designers are getting a greater reputation. In the matter of Court fashions they come into their own, tor even the French designeis with the greatest names cannot understand the environment of Court life. Some of the effects of the Jubilee are already apparent in the West-end. The spring dress shows, for instance, are to be speeded up by a month, and held in February instead of March. One house has chosen February 18 for its display, another the last week of February. The collections will be unusually large. Women have got to choose more clothes for a five months’ season than they would for the normal season of under three months. Designers are therefore creating more models.

There will be fewer exaggerations in dress, thanks to Court influence. The Jubilee line, evolved to harmonise with the pageantry of Court functions, will produce a year of very graceful modes, with some Edwardian tendencies. This is the ideal source for Jubilee Year fashions as Edwardian days were the heyday of Court influence In social life. Members of the Royal Family will fittingly decide the most fashionable colours for their own year. 1 learn that when the Queen and the Duchess ot York visit the British Industries Fair the Queen will select a shade which will be known as “The Jubilee’” and the Duchess will choose the shade that appeals most to her, to which the name of “Margaret Rose” will be given. The Royal choice will be communicated to the British Colour Council, who will notify the manufacturers, with the result that they will be I predominating shades in the fabrics and other fashions of the coming summer.

The designers are eager to keep in the closest touch with Palace opinion this year, as women are choosing their clothes so much with a view to the Royal functions. They are determined not to transgress in the way that spoilt last year’s Courts from the fashion point of view—by designing “imbalanced" necklines, high in front and backless. The Quern, as rheady mentioned by Marianne Mayfayre. is hoping that those attending tho coming Courts will choose a more pleasing decolletage. Court dress, it is pointed out by Palace officials, is more or less a uniform. and should not break away too much from conventional linos. Exquisite materials have already hem choren for March Courts. These arc in many cases woven with silver thread to form delicate embroideries. Diamante will be used to decorate corsages and trains.