MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1937, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

PRINCESS JULIANA.

A TRANSFORMATION.

Princess Juliana has returned home from her honeymoon—a new woman. The trim, smart, self-assured girl who. stepped from the little green ear is a very different person from the timid' bride of three months ago, says the Hague correspondent of a .British paper. She has lost at least a stone in weight. Her movements aro quicker and more graceful, her face has lost its sleepy-eyed look. And her new clothes

. . . . Yes, Juliana is a new woman, for there was coquetry in the tilt of her little hat, and chic in the cut of her tailored suit. Always regarded by the Dutch people as the pattern of womanhood, she now has even more title to their admiration.

Her good looks, they declare, are evidence of the happiness of her marriage. But if Prince Bernard, who so breezily shoulders the responsibilities of consort, has been one cause of the transformation, another has been his mother, the Countess zu Lippe-Biester-feld.

This charming, cultured woman is the opposite to the well-meaning but old-fashioned ladies whose ideas of how a princess should dress included woollen stockings. Princess Juliana acquired her first taste for pretty clothes on her frequent visits to Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone., Hen wardrobe was always gayer when she returned from England. But the rigid Court atmosphere quickiy suppressed this, and the Princess was not sufficiently interested to put up a determined fight.

Friendship with the Coutatess zu Lippe-Biesterfeld, however, fired her ambition to emulate the smartness of her bridegroom’s mother.

It was on the visit the young couple paid to her that a plot was hatched.

The princess limited her trousseau to the barest necessities. But in secrecy, under the Countess’s supervision, a modern wardrobe, with lots of flimsy and figure-flattering garments, was in preparation. This awaited the bride when she arrived at her honeymoon resort.

Then a slimming regime of diet and exercise began.

The campaign reached its peak when the Princess appointed a famous Parisian dressmaker to design the gowns which she wore for the British Coronation, at which she was Queen Wilhelmina’s official deputy.

Encouraged by Prince Bernard, Juliana is now using jewellery far more than she used to do. He particularly likes her lo wear ear-rings. ‘ Another thing her honeymoon, with its freedom and meetings with now people, has done has been to cure her of that timidity which formerly made her sometimes appear gautehe. At heart Princess Juliana is extremely sociable. But she shrinks from the lionising that dogs her. Prince Bernard shares hex’ love of company, and his skill in arranging their honeymoon in pleasant little places where they were rarely recognised achieved its purpose.

’ This freedom gave Juliana a new' confidence. Never again will she be the shy little daughter, eclipsed and retiring on State occasions. With the opportunity to run her new home at the Castle of Soestdyke, with its up-to-date private cinema and other amenities, she will be able to indulge her love of entertaining. And, seeing the Princess so happy, no one is better pleased than the Queen.

ROMANTIC GOWNS. Romance begins when youth dons its first ball gown. More romantic than ever will be the recollections of those coming-out during this historic year, for debutantes are to look more charming than ever. The wide range of gowns does not appear to have been equalled for almost a century. The new robe-de-style is Early Victorian, and in picturesque mood makes a perfect contrast, spreading an occasional crinolined movement, amidst a group of totally different outlines. Satin, taffeta, and lace are all used to give effects (writes the Paris correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph”). Other wide hemlines appear in mousselines de sole, which is gathered softly to natural waistlines beneath fitted baby bodices. Skirts to these gowns in pastel shades, white, red and even black, show flat lace insertions, spaced at intervals, round tho width or in lengths, down the skirt. When lace is introduced it is repeated through the corsage, posed in dainty kilted frills round decolletages and short puff sleeves from time to time. Graduated widths running to wide hemlines also occur in mousseline de sole.

. These hemlines make a picturesque appeal when tho soft fabric is given character through a series of multicoloured ruchings or a deep application of artificial flowers posed a short distance from ground length. Gold lame leaves appliqu'e on white chiffon follow this theme. In other models an identical line, without trimming and perfectly cut from plain or floral patterned organza, is set over narrower taffeta foundations. The idea appears again in satin, over which floats an eyeletholo Swiss muslin skirt in the same tone of soft canary yellow.

Satin corsages to plain coloured organza skirts of the same type is yet another pleasing fashion, and in sapphire blue the outline looks charming surmounted by a fairly wide belt of deep rose pink sequins.

WHITE KID GLOVES. AVhito kid gloves may be cleaned by rubbing with cream of tartar, or with a piece of flannel dipped in petrol or benzine. If the gloves arc coloured. they should !><• rubbl'd with a flannel dipped in milk ami soaped, 'f'he flannel should be rinsed frequently. and when the gloves arc clean they should be. pulled into shape and left to dry on a. clean towed. They need not be rinsed. Suede gloves should be well rubbed with fuller’s earth; if the gloves are light or white, dry pine clay may be used. The best method is to put the gloves on and rub the hands together. Chamois leather gloves should bo soaked in warm, soapy water, and then pressed and squeezed until the dirt is removed. They should never be wrung out.

5,400 WOMEN’S INSTITUTES.

“COMING-OF-AGE” CELEBRATIONS

LONDON, May 11

Next month 340,000 women throughout the country will celebrate an important “coming-of-age” and 800 of them will attend the great birthday gathering at the Albert Hall on Juno They will represent the 5,400 Women’s Institutes which have grown up in England' and Wales since July, 1916. As for several years past, Lady Denman will be in the chair. Problems ranging from the League of Nations to the supply of cheap milk to country families will occupy the discussion of this “Country-women’s Parliament,” whose decisions have so often influenced the action of both Government and local authorities.

Their proceedings this year wilt open with a Loyal Address to the King on his accession, coulpled with a grateful reference to the interest shown in the Women’s Institutes by the Queen and Queen Mary, who are joint presidents of the Sandringham Women’s Institute.

Already various Federations have prepared special celebrations for this, the 21st year of their life. Among the most interesting is the Old Times Exhibition at Oxford, where some thousands of . exhibits from flint arrow heads to wooden ploughshares and wig curlers have been gathered together from the surrounding districts of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and N or thampton shire. It is, indeed, surprising how much of the every-day lives of our ancestors can be reconstructed from the possessions scattered- among our country houses and farm-houises, especially in areas where for centuries life has been peaceful and prosperous.

A SPOILT GOWN. Beautiful dresses, intricately made and finely embroidered in days when all was done by hand, recall an elegance that is not known to-day despite the 20 0-y ear-old drip of brown gravy that still marks the delicate blue-striped taffeta bodice of one Sunday gown! Bui silks were rare in those days. So the material of one magnificent gown of Spitalfields brocade was bought in 1787, but was not made up until 1850! Corsets, aggressively firm, of wood and whalebone, are there to detract from any envy one might feel for the luxurious gowns, and dress-holders for lifting long billowing skirts out of the mud themselves tell of the incon u veniences of the fashion. A lavish calash of cherry silk, worn over the massive powdered wigs of the 1760’5, as we see in Reynolds’ or Gainsborou'gh’s portraits, a pocket nut-meg-greater—for every * gentleman prided himself on making good punch —and an ear-pick—all draw up a picture of the lives our ancestors enjoyed. But this lively Federation of Women’s Institutes has gone further than the mere niceties of silks and fancies. In a complete 17th century kitchen is a jack for harnessing the draught in the chimney, thereby keeping the spit turning, and among the host of kitchen utensils is a pair of waffling irons that confute America’s claim to inventing those luscious toasties. Gone centuries come alive again in the smock of home-grown, home.-spun, home-woven linen that lies across the settle witflr Jits coloured scajrf and beaver topper that a Brize Norton man wore at his wedding 200 years ago. And life becomes yet more vivid with the crude iron tooth extractors that were part of the blacksmith’s equipment, for in those old times the sufferer seated himself on the , warm anvil to have his tooth hauled out! Romance is there in the needle-run apron of white muslin worn by Anne Gardner when she married the twelfth Lord Saye and Sele, in 1733, in the Fleet Prison—then a fashionable resort for gentlemen in debt. Amusing to the modern cyclist is the boneshaker’ bicycle, with its wooden, ironrimmed wheels. This was brought in Paris by the Sth Duke of Marlborough when Marquess of Blandford.

A COOK’S ADVICE. A good cook, writing in the “Cape Times,” states: — Quick and confident manipulation in tho art of preparing food makes for greater success than painstaking hesitancy. This is particularly true of quick breads or quick cakes. Make a practice always of getting all your utensils and materials ready first, whatever you are planning to make. Master the technique of one type -of dish at the lime, then its future preparation will require less time and effort to ensure 100 per cent, success. Batter for muffins, or quick loaf breads should not be beaten until perfectly smooth. It should look rough or lumpy to ensure good texture. More baked custards are spoiled by adding too much sugar and putting them in too hot ovens than for any other reasons. One-fou'rth to onethird cupful of sugar is ample for two cupfuls of scalding milk. Bake in a pan of hot water in a slow oven (325 degrees). Orange or lemon juice does not produce a definite flavour iu baked products —but grated rind of either does. The flavour of any cooked pie filling using flour or corn is greatly improved by thorough cooking—ls to 20 minutes.