AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ACCEPT “NEW LOOK” AS ONLY “LOOK”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22569, 24 February 1948, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN ACCEPT “NEW LOOK” AS ONLY “LOOK”

yHE wholesale adoption by women across the Tasman of the “new look’’, with all its revolutionary changes in frocking was noted by Miss Eva Matthews, formerly of Gisborne, who has just returned from four months in Australia, principally in Melbourne and Sydney.

Skirts were descending with such leaps and bounds that a shipment of skirts had left England at what was considered “the new length,” but on arrival at Melbourne, had been found to be too short. Unpressed pleats were very popular, sometimes in groups of threes, sometimes all round, and skirts were all long and full. Often wide gores were used, and draping was popular. While skirts were lengthening, so were shorts, big stores selling “clamdiggers” coming to just above the knee, something like very short “pedalpushers.” Beach dresses were also fuller and longer, she considered. The ballerina evening frocks were “all the rage” and Miss Matthews was charmed with them. There was a vogue for three-tiered ballerina evening frocks and moire taffeta was a fabric with a big following. Topcoats were enormousy bulky, loosely cut, with big sleeves, mostly caught into cuff bands. The popularity of costume jewellery was continuing, and handbags, though not specially different from New Zealand ones in style, were infinitely better quality, both in leather and finish. Hats For 20Gns. Officially the ceiling price for hats was £4 10. but Miss Matthews had been told—and believed it to be true, —that 20gns was the price of some “grey market” models. Wearing herself a pretty, halo straw with ribbons bunched at one side. Miss Matthews said that multi-coloured ribbons drooping to the sides and back were more or less universal trimmings. Flowers were often used under the brims and right down onto the shoulders, and off-the-face hats were the most worn style. Widebrimmed hats also had a noticeable following. English shoes were procurable in Australia, with their perfect cut and finish, and cost £8 or £9. Australianmade shoes were also good and sold a little more cheaply than the New Zealand product. Lace was being incorporated extensively into model frocks, remarked Miss Matthews, who described a black frock with a wide band of coffee-coloured lace across the yoke and sleeves, the pattern of the lace being outlined in

pearl and gold bugle beads, with little pieces of lace appliqued elsewhere on the frock. A visit to Caulfield a week before the Caulfield Cup was an opportunity for the visitor to see some lovely fashion innovations, one being navy blue stockings were being worn, and that stockings. She mentioned that gunmetal stockings with the seams and feet in black were a smart new vogue. She had not seen stockings in any other new shades. Luxury Lines in Clothes Miss Alatthews mentioned that frocks for those willing to buy extra-super garments with no regard to cost were priced at enormous amounts. Printed Jacqmar frocks cost 35gns., a dinner frock with long -sleeves, a short train and sequin trimmings was priced at 60gns„ and evening frocks went right up the scale to £2OO. Other aspects of Australian life which impressed Miss Matthews were the shops full of sweets, although without rationing housewives sometimes found it hard to buy sugar; the sparkling, white flour, compared with which the New Zealand product was a creamy yellow; the terrific crowd at the Alelbourne Cup, where it rained, so that fashions were hidden under raincoats; the difficulty of finding exactly what one wanted in the big stores; and the women flashing diamands—“they had rings, brooches and everything else of diamonds.” She also found that furnishing shops were full of antique furniture, which was being used a great deal in modern homes. The excellent catering establishments in Mebourne were praised by Aliss Matthews, who said that there was little with which to compare them in New Zealand. Excellent service, allied with careful cooking and attractive serving of meals, combined to make dining out a real pleasure. Menus were wide and varied and dishes like crepes suzette, paw-paw, pineapples, sea-food cocktails and filet mignon which never appeared on New Zealand menus were always “on.” Questioned as to whether she liked the "new look” in clothes, Miss Matthews said that she thought she did, and remarked that when she arrived back, after Australia and all the long skirts, she thought the New Zealand length looked odd.