MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 June 1938, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

DANCING TIMES. I ! SOME USEFUL HINTS. | You’re not really a “dancing girl,” although you go to a dance or two during the season —the tennis dance, the office dance, and such, so you’ve never bothered to polish up your ! dancing, have you? Then it is high time to start improving your steps light away—to lift yourself out of the I rut of the ordinary dancer who plods ■ around year after year, doing the same old steps or making the same old' mistakes.

You owe it to your partner to be able to “follow” well, so that, for both cf you, dancing will be the healthful and pleasurable recreation it should be.

There is nothing more soothing to tired nerves than stepping out to the music of a good dance band. There is no better corrective to the strain cf modern life or the humdrum monotony of the daily round, for, besides toning up your nervous system, dancing is excellent for development, poise and graceful movements. Take the fundamental movements' of dancing, the walk, with which is associated balance. Learn to walk easily and naturally. Swing the legs freely from the hips, keeping the body erect, and, placing the heel firmly on tho floor, continue on to the ball of the foot.

When moving forward the weight of the body should be over the / foot you are stepping with. In moving backwards the weight of the body is kept forward. Swing the leg well back from the hip. and do not lower the back heel until the other foot passes it.

Remember always to move naturally and easily—to dance as though you loved every moment, foi’ good dancing is dependent on natural movement.

JerkinesS is very often caused by incorrect turning movements. If you are going into a right turn, turn your left hip and shoulder slightly towards the right as the foot goes forward, and in a left-hand turn viceversa. You will find this movement will help you to turn in a polished manner.

The turn can also be improved by slight body sway (except in the tango) towards the centre' of the turn you are making. This sway takes place from the feet upwards, the whole of the body being slightly inclined. When dancing, you should never Jean heavily on your partner. You should be able to lift your hand, resting as light as a feather on his shoulder, and dance without his support. If you hold your arm too stiffly it will soon begin to ache. This will make your dancing heavy. Here is a good exercise that will prevent your arms aching when you are dancing: Lift them shoulder height, bending the elbows slightly and keeping the palms of the hands upyards with the fingers gently curved. Then let, them travel easily up over your head, keeping the shoulders) and neck well back, and down in front of you. still keeping them shoulder high. Repeat this ten times at first gradually increasing the number until you do twenty every morning.

As a matter of fact, a few minutes dancing each morning instead of a sot. “daily dozen” will kill two birds with one stone. It will keep you supple and light, on. your feet and at the same time keep you feeling that your dancing days are not done. It is only when you have got out of the way of dancing that you are inclined to say a regretful "No” to an invitation lo a dance. A friend of mine kept a little portable gramophone in her bedroom, and in the warmth of a radiator she danced in her pyjamas night and morning —a barn dance first to warm her, a few fox-trot steps, then a waltz, and she finished up by exotic arm wavings and' body swayings. She told me that “her secret dancing made her feel light-hearted and young all day.” A word about your feet. When dancing always wear shoes that are perfectly comfortable. And when preparing for a dance find time to bathe your feet, using some refreshing pine bath salts, while a last minute application of toilet eau de Cologne will make them fit and fresh. If you want no ill-effects 1 from late dancing nights, take a. little trouble after the dance as well as before. A hot drink will prevent chills, and fborough relaxation in a hot bath ensures deep and refreshing sleep. — Home Chat.

STARTLING FASHION. HANDBAGS THROUGH HISTORY. When women first began to carry handbags, a century ago, men s'coffingly called them “ridicules”; and so the word “reticule” for a small bag came .into the English language, states the London “Daily Mail.” It was certainly a startlingly bigchange in fashion -which introduced the handbag. For hundreds of years women had carried their belongings in, pockets hidden in their voluminous 1 skirts, or in little purses strung on belts round their waists. But the new style gowns demanded a. pencil slim line over th© hips, and so bulging skirt pockets were forced out of fashion. Some of these okl purses and early handbags are. on exhibition at a famous handbag shop in Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. It is interesting to compare them with those in vogue today and to trace the handbag from its earliest beginnings to 1938. The oldest purse displayed is made of red velvet finely embroidered in metal thread, and is dated 1450, thirty years before the Tudors came to the Throne. In those days men had no pockets in their suits, so they wore purses round their waists, like their womenfolk, and it is probable that this 1 exquisite little purse was made for a gentleman of fashion. The Elizabethans combined several purses in one big bag on their waist belt. One bag of this, period ill the exhibition is very modern in inspiration. It is a large double bag in natural coloured leather, containing five little drawstring purses ornamented with leather rosettes. When the . crinolinesi came into fashion, after ’the days of slim skirts and reticules, skirt, pockets returned' and the handbag was not seen again until 1911, the year when narrow skirts came-back into vogue. Since then the handbag has remained an essential'paft of every woman’s ward-' robe.

| WASH-TUB WISDOM. SPECIAL CARE FOR WOOLLIES. To wash a woollen garment with success is not an easy feat, however 'guaranteed, but if you take sufficient I care there is no reason why the most 'delicate of woollies should not be • washed so that they look like new {again. j In the first place, use soft water if {it is humanly possible, and see that it iis lukewarm. Then prepare a good I lather with soap-flakes. There is one j brand which starts to dissolve the [instant it touches the water, and in a i minute or two gives, a fine, sparkling, soapy lather. Before you start washing lay the garment on a piece of paper and pencil round the outline, so that you can pull it back -when wet to its original shape. Run a draw-thread round a polo neck to keep it from stretching. Having plunged your woolly into the lather, resist all temptation to rub it. It is really too much to expect that delicate -wool will stand such rough usage -when it isi w r et. All you need to do is to squeeze it gently and then swish it up. and down. You need not put it through a second lather unless it isi very dirty, but you should rinse it well in three more lukewarm waters, lifting the garment up and' down until all trace of the soap has disappeared. Now squeeze and shake gently—never wring out your woollies; for if you do you risk ruinging them. A little blue added to the last rinsing water will keep white "woollens snowy. You should have chosen a 1 good windy day for your washing, for woollens should not be kept wet a second longer than you can help. They are best dried out of doors, but not in brilliant sunshine. Dried by the wind they will be as fine and fluffy (provided that you’ve -washed them properly) as they were when new. Before you put your woolly outside press it gently in a turkish towel to remove some of the moisture; then, ,if you have made the “sketch” of it. referred to above, you can lay it over the pencilled outline and pull it out to dry on a flat surface. If the weather is not suitable for outdoor drying, spread your woollystretched to fit the “sketch” on a clean sheet of paper—and put in a warm place to dry slowly. For those types l of woollens which are not too stretchable it is a good idea to hang them from a pole run through both sleeves and' tie this from a. line. And if you want, angora wool garments to keep their fluffiness brush them occasionally while they are drying.

COATS AND SKIRTS, VARIETY IS THE KEYNOTE. Before the big fashion shows, are staged in London all kinds of little unofficial displays take place behind the scenes in the shops, when buyers reveal the new spring styles. A London writer, visiting one. of these fashion shows, was given an interesting survey of the new- season’s suits. Here are the fashion points which she noticed in the new coats and skirts: — Jackets are longer, she says. They are 11 to Sin more in length than those of last season, and the fashionable measurement is now about 21in Waists are nipped l closely and' the coats fit smoothly over the hipline, giving a. flattering silhouette. In some cases beltless jackets have intricate gauging and goring at the back and sides to give an ultra-fitted line. Belts except on real country suit, are conspicuous by their absence. Knife-edged pockets appear in abundance —on one or two suits I saw as many as three of them on either side, the lowest placed far down to define the longer line. Colour contrasts predominate. One smart little suit I was shown, which is single-breasted, with buttons down the front, is made in the. loveliest colour alliances. A wheat jacket has a nigger skirt. Azure and wine, blue dust—a chalky blue-grey colour—and mahogany, and parma violet with a black skirt were some other colour schemes. Yorkshire tweed in bold "horse blanket” checks in a mixture of rust, green, white and greyish-green is used for one suit. Another amusing

novelty is a suit in “tiger stripes” narrow orange, brown and green stripes which run horizontally. The jacket of this suit is bound with suede and fastens, with suede-covered buttons. For slim figures there are the fascinating cylindrical suits. I saw one of violet Petalwate wool, with a taint “carnation red” strip manoeuvred horizontally across the 1 tube-like jacket; it has a collarless neckline. The strip goes vertically down the skirt and sleeves, also the four patch pockets; this gives the wearer length. It is “zipped” up the front, ending, in two “carnation red” pom-poms. A very unusual suit had a skirt, of classic herringbone in a combination of wool llama and liid mohair, in two shades of olive green; with this is worn a plain, short-sleeved green Anfora wool pullover, and a cardigan jacket of coral wool mesh, with gold buttons.