LADIES’ COLUMN.

Grey River Argus, 3 September 1927, Page 3 (Supplement)

LADIES’ COLUMN.

SHORTER SKIRTS. There appears to be approaching us a change in woman’s dress such as the history of fashion has never before see. For. however women have dressed in the past the emphasis of distinctively feminine clothing has always been on drapery, on the skirt.' Judging by the models shown at this year’s most exclusive dress displays the emphasis is now—to be quite frank —on legs. Skirts are not only shorter and still shorter, above the knees in many instances, but they tend more and more toward transparency. The smart little sports suit of the hour, made probably in angora and crepe de chine, is not worn over a petticoat, but over very neat, matching knickers. Evening frocks of lace make a point of revealing the satin breeches worn beneath; the breeches are a deliberate part of the creation, the dress designer visualising the model that way before it was made. All evening frocks and many afternoon frocks show the outline of the leg through the skirt. If petticoats are worn they are so short that they can be bettet described as tunics; they end somewhere midway between the hip and the knee. Exquisitely fragile draperies, fringes of silk and pearl and feather, are seen on many evening gowns and sometimes these are moderately long, but the skirt itself is shorter than ever, or looks so by contrast. The emphasis is not on the filmy drapery, the hanging ropes of milky pearls, but on the silk-clad legs that move in and out of these charming decorations. It is no use to hold up the hands in horror at the fact that legs are soon, for wo are going to see still more of them. Old-fashioned are sometimes not quite logical. Many of them are not at all put out at the sight of a girl on the beach in her bathing dress, far less at a motor-cyclist or fa rm-worker clad appropriately in tunic and breaches. But if a fraction of leg above the knee is exhibited by a walking suit consternation is expres sed.

FIRST AID FOR FLOWERS.

The lives of cut flowers can be lengthened considerably if those who pick them will take a little trouble in looking after them. Two aspirin tablets placed at the bottom of a vase in which the flowers are arranged will work marvels in reviving them if they are drooping or likely to die. If this is not at hand, a ■ew drops of sal volatile added to the water will revive them wonderfully. The water should be w.arm, as this adds still further to the efficacy of the treatment. Under the hands of those who love and really understand them, flower? undoubtedly respond. A strange fact, but none the less true, is that flowers infinitely prefei to be arranged in green or brown receptacles. Possibly the green vases lull them into a false belief that they are still growing among the green freshness of other plants, which brown is the colour of the mother-earth'' in which they have been reared. Be that as it may ,the proven fact remains that they will live longer the closer Nature is copied, x Fresh water should be substituted without fail every day. and a little

cut off the end of their stolks at the same time. There is a right and a wrong methow of snipping the stacks. The right way is to cut them under water. As soon as the stalk of a flower is cut a certain amount of water is then drawn immediately up the stem, which is very beneficial to the flower. If cut in the wrong way air is drawn up the stem and works harm. Before returning to the vase again, a small slit up the centre of the stalk from the bottom upwards, ensures the water being easily sucked in. If flowers have hard-wood stems, such as laburnum, roses, and syringa, they should be peeled a quarter of the way up the stem, leaving the green centre exposed to the water. Otherwise they fade rapidly, being unable to derive sufficient liquid through their hard exterior to sustain them for a reasonably long period of time.