RUSTLING PETTICOATS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 18 February 1939, Page 16

RUSTLING PETTICOATS.

Petticoats hold their own again after a very long period of being thought too demode for words, says an English writer. Even the starched and frilly ones are “in” again, and those trimmed with wide circular flounces of book muslin with lace insertions and fine tucks to give the flounces substance. An attractive fashion, and an entirely new one, is to have brilliantly coloured taffetas petticoats to wear with black velvet dresses. Some are in checks and plaid patterns, others in bright yellow, begonia green or scarlet. With a black velvet gown trimmed with a Medici collar in white organdie goes a petticoat of the finest lawn, daintily embroidered. A soft white satin dress gets a shell-like tint by being worn over a rose-red petticoat. Under a black taffetas full skirted gown is worn a petticoat with frills of parchment-tinted lace, which match the wide bertha of guipure on the bodice. The pretty fashion of nuttens persists, and there are taffetas shawls which rustle and are in brilliant shades of green or flame, with picqtedged frills that add to the late Victorian effect. “The frou-frou of feminine skirts”—what an oft-repeated line of davs gone by—and the lovely rustle of silk on silk gradually became a sign of vulgarity, and clothes relapsed again into silence if worn by anyone who wished to be in the forefront of fashion. However, we were all once more, and one can predict that sounds like a hurricane among autumn leaves will soon herald the approach of every woman who claims to be well dressed. Evening dresses continue to be strapless. These are becoming only to the owner of well-covered and shapely shoulders. I saw a beautiful black velvet princess gown in this style, the full skirt flaring froni the waist, the top of the trim bodice finished with wide full ruchings of black tulle. In distinct contrast was a white soft satin dress draped in Grecian style defined on the hips with cross-over bands,of glittering diamante. The bag and shoes to go with this dress were heavily covered with the diamante worked on silver tissue.