WOMEN'S NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 2 June 1937, Page 13

WOMEN'S NOTES.

DRESS. (By Miss Mary Tallis.) The Little Black Dress. —Paris understands the technique of the little black dress. The Paris drees collections are full of coloured, frocks; of gleam mg frocks; of dreses full of contrast. They put these into the dress collections lor the foreigner to buy. 1 our true Parisienne wants to subject her’ man all hay and every day, not just on the occasion of a lovers’ quarrel. “How sombre your women look,” foreigners say with surprise, looking at the smart women shopping, entering cars, passing irom the dressmaker to the milliner. \es, but how chic! In Paris the women wear coloured hats, belts, gloves, bags, jewels, but basically the best dresses will remain black. Yes, lime yellow suede belt, tiny line of it at the throat; yes, lime suede gloves, rucked over the wrist, clip of green and topaz at the side of the beret, but the dres6 is black. Yes, green lining to the little loose jacket and green crepe sash, knotted at the side, line of green piping on the black, loose gloves, but the dress is black. Yes, again, brilliant, gleaming brooch and bracelet and ring lor the evening, in the new chunky technique that jewellery has, but the dress is of black cellophane lace. Madame has her dresses for grand occasions, her purply-night-blue, or her pillar box-red, but it is not often she wears them. When she goes out with the man she loves, it is in her “little black,” be it chiffon or lace, or just a little black jersey. And it was a Parisienne who brought to the fore the technique of the “little black.” It was Vionnet. greatest of French dressmakers for 20 years, who perfected that technique. She realised that when the men came home, on lea.ve, from the front —-yes, all that time ago—they wanted to go out and dine with the lady thev loved, yet that lady did not want to be too conspicuous in a world so much in mourning, she did not want to flaunt colours. So, wearing all her best jewels in honour of her man, wearing a touch of colour, using black .as a perlect contrast to her skin, for the gleams in her hair, for that touch of violet shadow on her lids;, she appeared in a little black dress.

BEAUTY. The Beauty of Your Hands.—Liquid polishei-s and removers have a tendency to slightly dry the nails, but there is no evidence to show that good quality polish and remover are injurious, if the nails are properly oared for and oils are regularly used. The use of liquid polish often seems to protect nails from injury. In regard, to the choice of length and shape of your nails, there should be harmony between the shape of the nail and the finger-tip. Nails should never be filed in too far at the sides. Extreme length and points are inappropriate except for women of leisure. For musicians, typists, gardeners, housekeepers and other handworkers, long pointed nails only make for broken nails. Fashions in polish shades, as in other make up, change with the season. Fundamentally, however, shades should be chosen for becomingness to skin tone and appropriateness to costume and occasion/ Brittle, splitting nails and ridges may be due to systematic disease, to deficiency in calcium, to an injury to the nail, or to the use of strong alkalis, as in harsh soaps. A good plan is first to 6ee your doctor and make sure it is not your physical condition that is causing the trouble. Improved general health and an increased intake of calcium (a quart of milk a day helps) sometimes correct the condition. Be gentle in manicuring and buffing, wear your nails moderately short, and regularly and gently apply oils or oily creams around the n^fs. Whito spots on the nails are really air bubbles between the cells of the nails. Most commonly they are caused by an injury to the nail or to the finger at the base of the nail. THE HOME. Spiders’ webs. —A good many years ago, as some of us will remember, there was a great vogue for a type of embroidery called spiders’ webs, worked on a soft canvas checked alternately with white and a colour. Now Paris embroideresses have triumphantly resurrected the spiders’ webs, and to-day’s equivalent for.the old-time canvas is glass-towelling in Jin checks. The work is easy, bold, and handsome, and you will find it a boon for Christmas and birthday gift-mak-ing. It may. be used for tablecloths, mats, chair-backs, pyjama cases, and cushion covers. You evolve your own simple patterns and mark in pencil the squares to be worked very much as for inlay work, But the actual embroidery is quite different, as the spiderweb stitch is a form of decorative overcasting. I Use a fairly thick embroidery thread and start by filling a square with two cross-stitches, a multiplication and a plus sign worked one over the other, to form an eight spoked wheel, or web. Bring the needle through with a long thread at the centre intersection of the spokes and go round and round, back over one spoke and forward under two, until tho web fills the squares.

The needle passes between spokes and fabric only, not through the stuff, and it will be found easier to insert it eye end first.

A tablecloth might he worked in lemon and orange. %,eave one square on the outside all round clear for hemming. Then work a border of . webs one square deep, using lemon and orange alternatively. Leave a depth of four squares blank inside this border, then work an inner and smaller one in the same wav, connecting the two a teach corner with webs running diagonally. Finally cover all check lines with chain-stitching, alternating the colours in each row. Of course, with a different colour-scheme where the checking of the material matches one of the shades used, this chainstitching is not necessary. For a chairback or runner, by the way, a readymade check glass-cloth may he used, if the red borders are cut off or hemmed down to the wrong side.