Oddments In The Dress Scheme

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 109, 11 May 1939, Page 14

Oddments In The Dress Scheme

In every dress designer’s showroom where there is an “accessory section,” and in the fancy department of every large store, you find a fine selection of the kinds of “oddments” calculated to do a lot for a weary suit or dress, says Diana Dane.

Jaunty little bows are back, in stiffened white lace, muslin, organdie, and a crisp mesh of firje twine which is new. Time was when we were content with just a single bow at the throat. We need not be so prim now, but can wear three, all the same size or in graduated sizes, down the front of a bodice. Laundry? Well, of course, they have to be washed every other day, at least, but it can be done at home, and is well worth the trouble to secure the fresh effect they give. If three seem too many to keep spotless stick to the one. There are “fronts” and vests of all types, too, which seems to suggest that the vogue for a thin suit, rather than a dress proper, will develop as the season goes on. A thin suit to wear indoors, 1 mean, like the Frenchwoman chooses for mornings. But it need not be debarred from appearing in the afternoon, or in the evening, for that matter, since cocktail suits are as good as cocktail frocks until 7.30 or so.

The little sleeveless “fronts” or “blousettes” to wear with the suits are delicious. They are decorated with hand embroidery, hem-stitching, tiny flower sprigs and even with thinly scattered sequins. Some have V necks and deep cascading re vers; others come close up to the throat and have demure turndown collars; others, for the “tailored” type of woman, have quite high necks with bones at the sides. The last, I suppose, are the outcome of the designers’ insistence upon high collars on some of their sterner frocks and blouses. If you don’t like buttons in front of your bodice, you can have them at the back, and if you want to be in the swim with at least one evening dress you will have it fastened with minute buttons from the V of the corsage to well below the waist at the back. The buttons are usually plain moulds covered with material to match the dress, but variations are produced in contrasting velvet, and I have seen some good results from the | use of diamente, which looks specially j

Necklets And Bracelets

good on black velvet. Little pearl buttons are used, too, and all kinds of “near jewels” can be dragged in to make up a colour scheme. Long, fitted sleeves, with full tops, either standing out some inches from the shoulders or pointing upwards, have rows of buttons from wrists to elbows. Some dinner gowns have sleeves of the same type, and lots of the new day dresses show them. Here, again, there is scope for imagination in choosing buttons to give a flash of jewel brightness on a dark background, or if you use them on a thin wool frock you can have them in wood decorated with miniature painted designs.

We have been told that buttonholes of artificial flowers are “out” for day wear, but you would not think so if you saw the displays in the designers’ sale rooms. They stick the posies everywhere, in hats, on lapels, through the waist-belt, round the wrists, round the neck, and even into the flaps of what are known as “dressmaker handbags,” made especially to go with different outfits. Some of the bouquets are cleverly scented, and the artistry employed in their making makes them look so real I that, combined with the perfume, you feel you are buying from a florist rather than from a dressmaker. One of the prettiest ideas I have seen for a long time is the conceit that came to me from Paris a few days ago. It consists in about 27in. of narrow ribbon velvet, in the centre of which is sewn a small bunch of little velvet flowers, with a few loops of the velvet posed behind them. The specimen I have is made of deep violet velvet, and the blossoms are wood violets, a couple of yellow velvet primulas, a couple in a soft old rose shade, one in deep purple, and a tiny sprig of mignonette. The scheme is to wear the decorated velvet as a necklet with evening dress, tying it round the neck so that the flowers come under the chin, if you like them there; otherwise they can nestle under one ear. If you don’t want to wear a necklet, you can use the decoration as a bracelet round the wrist or above the elbow, in which case you would have to twist the [ribbon twice round the arm. One or two of our designers insist upon

“jewellery” being specially designed to go with their models, one in particular being very fond of rather barbariclooking metal necklets and bracelets set with enormous coloured stones, the stones taking up the colours in the ensembles. Some, on the other hand, are bringing back sentimental lockets with their “period” frocks, and cameos fastening dainty lace or chiffon fichus are other revivals of days gone by. Returning for a moment to barbarism, 1 there are extremely heavy gold “shackle” chains, worn round the neck and round i the arms, which appear literally to weigh | down the poor women who are tempted jto put them on. And dangling from the ; neck chain, you can, if you like, have an 1 outsize oval metal frame enclosing an outsize imitation jewel. For further 1 amusement, you wear a ring set with a matching bit of glass which reaches up to the knuckle.

No one minds wearing artificial jewellery nowadays. I have seen ropes of | improbably large tinted “pearls” worn, most effectively, with black cocktail I dresses by women in the “inner circle” of London society.