PLEATS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 2 April 1927, Page 15

PLEATS.

A becoming and practical fashion point is the variety of pleats, which are more than ever favoured for walking skirts, says a fashion writer. Apart from tweeds, cloths and all the vcolien and silk fabrics, velvet and heavier velours are being skilfully inserted to provide comfort in movement. Several country coats, as»well as skirts, show the' inverted pleat at thei back on the lines of a jacket, and in the case cf the long coats there ca n be a series of pleats at both back and sides placed well below the waist. A clever coat in fancy tveed had a strap down the centre back, but huff-way down, where, this ended, there came an inverted pleat, which also appeared. below the strapping on the Lip. Another pretty idea is to have fanshaped pleats that, when extended, show a c-ontraisting colour or fabric. X‘‘or example, a coat-frock in black duvetyn had side pleats inserted with biege petersham ribbon. The biege ribbon also formed part of a new high collar and pleated jabot. Contrast Jn. the dull and shining surfaces of materials is a mode that continues to find favour — velvet and satin, crepe de chine and taffeta, a dull silk or woo 1 , and a shining (lacquered) .satin. . Several coat frocks are made more interesting by the alliance of contrasting materials. It adds brightness, while preserving the harmony of the ensemble, and it lings the changes to those darker clothes suitable for dull autumnal days. There is no excuse for clumsiness of finish in the frocks of to-day. There seems to exist every type of machine to pleat-, to- picot, to feather, faggot, or hemstitch. Details of this kind g'-ve a distinctive and well-finished appearance to the simplest garment.. Smocking, too, is a feature in the “little frocks’’ of' this season, ,so fashionable for small social entertainments like the dansant or bridge party. An easy and pretty way of finishing the. uneven hem of chiffon or georgette is to put on the scallops with machine-done faggotstitch ing. Several fabrics havei rows of stitchery ready done to use as -a border. and the picot edge is still the favoured mode in finishing the simple .skirt hem or jumper suit.