LADIES' COLUMNS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4807, 7 July 1939, Page 3

LADIES' COLUMNS

LONDON FASHION NOTES. A SPICE TO PLEASURE. The gaiety of this season proves that people enjoy pleasure most when there is a lot of work to do and a spice of danger in the air, states a London corrrespondent. Gipsy Fashions. Gipsies are very much in the fashion limelight this year. Dame Laura Knight has deserted the circus as a source of inspiration for her Academy pictures and has concentrated on wonderful studies of gipsy women, their life, and families. Early in the season Chanel of Paris launched a flambuoyant evening dress in gipsy style, with full skirt, deep black belt, full muslin blouse, and shoulder handkerchief. This model w ( as made in gay-coloured striped silks and white muslin, and has led to a dozen different styles, all imitating the same idea. I have seen it copied in two different prints—the full gathered skirt in flowered print, the blouse in stripes, and deep band of folded black crepe or velvet clasping the body from the waist to just under the bustline.

Again, the skirt of one print, a tiny low bodice of white muslin above the deep-belt and a striped bolero, and of course as much gipsy jewellery as you can collect. Many of these ornaments are in gold, brass, and bronze, and consist of heavy ear-rings and massive necklets, and many intricate bracelets. This is a style of the moment you can utilise for winter parties. It is youthful and so decorative, and you can be as flambuoyant as you like in your choice of colour schemes and -bold printed fabrics. A slightly darker make-up and vivid lipstick seem necessary to keep up the local colour.

The Dinner Skirt

The blouse and skirt v fashion has developed into an important style for the evening. So many functions call for informal dress while giving one the opportunity of indulging in the feminine fluffiness that is especially appealing after wearing uniform all day.

The long black dinner skirt with several changes of "tops" seems just to fill the bill, especially when a limited dress allowance has to be stretched to get variety into the wardrobe. The skirt may be made in any of

the newest styles—long and slim, or gathered from the waist and very full. A compromise to these extremes has fullness in a gathered panel across the front, or again a smooth hip and waist with gored fullness from the knees. These skirts are sometimes cut on corselet lines well above the waistline, or have deep folded belts, and so there is a style for everyone. Materials are just as varied. Crepes and velvets hang softly graceful, and for those who have a liking for crinolines and hoop skirts, the rustle of moire and taffeta gives much the same effect in less elaborate style.

"Tops" Extremely Simple

"Tops" can be extremely simple. A shirt-waist blouse is often worn made of chiffon, satin, or muslin, with turn-down collar, short sleeves, and buttons down the front. . A tiny jacket with a deep square neckline that just reaches the top of the deep belt and with short puff sleeves is often made of pale-colour-ed printed silk, or a loose Magyar blouse with long sleeves to the wrists, and a boat-shaped neckline reaching from shoulder to shoulder and made of cream satin, is extremely good style. For very cold evenings shortsleeved sweaters of pale-coloured angora are really smart, and to reverse the style very striking printed skirts with a short black angora sweater with a pale background and bold design in bright colours, has the charm of novelty and chic.

SMALL WAISTS. THIS SPRING. The dismay with which some of the more robust of us regard the new small-waisted spring models is unfounded, comments an English writer. The tiny waistline is not only a matter of inches. The square shoulderline and bouffant skirts make it appear smaller than it really is by contrast. At the same time £he waistlines of some of us may need a little re-education in the way they should go. Much depends on the way the figure is held. One reason why the Victorians could boast of eighteen-inch waists was that the use of the backboard in their girlhood saved them from the

habit of slouching, and so encouraging surplus tissue about the waist and hips. A straight spine encourages a waistline that is at least neat even if it is not particularly small. Meantime, if a surplus half-inch or so is to be removed a couple of minutes nightly can be allotted to a simple exercise. The "patient' should lie on her back and perform pedalling movements from the hips. This is good not only for the waistline but also for keeping the digestion in good working order.

A BALANCED DIET. LECTURE TO WOMEN'S FOOD VALUE LEAGUE. "A balanced diet is one which is based on the known and proved scientific facts about food," said Miss A. E. Lorimer, M.Sc, A.1.C., at a general meeting of the Women's Food Value League in Wellington last week. "Therefore a balanced diet is one which has in it, every day, all the elements which are necessary for building a human body." She pointed out that the composition of foodstuffs was sufficiently well known for the fact to be appreciated that unless the food which was eaten by a human being contained some minerals and/or, some vitamins, there would be an unbalance in the day's food, which would lead eventually to some deficiency disease. Miss Lorimer stressed, however, the fact that of all foodstuffs which are normally eaten, white flour and cane sugar were the most demineralised and devitaminised. She said that she would go so far as to say that these should be almost completely eliminated from the daily diet. The use of whole grain products such as wholemeal bread, porridge and yeastfermented cakes, was essential if an adequacy of vitamin BI was to be maintained. Lack of vitamin BI was known to be one of the chief contributory causes of digestive disturbances and nerve troubles, said the speaker. If the family was irritable and upset, said Miss Lorimer, it was probably the fault of the wife, because she did not give them the right sort of food.

Cane sugar was condemned as devitalised and the use of other sugars

such as raisins, dates, dried fruits or honey was suggested instead. More cheese, eggs, milk, fresh fish, shellfish, and the organs of animals, such as liver, should be used in order to get an adequacy of vitamins as well as proteins. An adequate dietary should therefore be composed of plenty of milk, green vegetables, fruit and wholemeal bread, and first class protein other than muscle meat, said Miss Lorimer.

The importance of the use of seaweed for thickening soups, making custards, and so on, as a supply of iodine, was particularly emphasised, as more than 20 per cent, of New Zealand's school children were suffering from goitrous conditions resulting from a lack of this essential element. Cod liver oil, Miss Lorimer also mentioned as a necessity to supply vitamin D which was one of the limiting factors in the problem of dental caries.

"If we cannot learn to use eels, herrings and salmon every day we must learn to have cod liver oil every day,' she said. "It must be regarded as much a part of the daily food as milk and vegetables."