NOVEL FASHION PARADE.

Northern Advocate, 28 June 1924, Page 12 (Supplement)

NOVEL FASHION PARADE.

"SEANCE" TOR MEN ONLY.

At the invitation of a Ir.dy who represents one of the famous Paris dress designers ii. London, ,«v notable

innovation was made in the severe traditions of the fashion seance (states a writer in the "Times"). Usually these solemn occasions are reserved for ladies only. To-day thore ware no ladies present except the mannequins, and the onlookers wc/e men only. It wa.s an artistic, theatrical, a'id journalistic assembly, among whom Mr W. George (novelist; and Mr George Belcher (ertist) were noticeable. In an a:atercom whiv,e-suited bartenders served - cocktails to fortify the fainthearted. The courageous ones sat around in very ■sasy'.chairs, on yielding liumpties, or spacious divans under a biillif.nt electric iLhminalion watching the Oriental screen at the end of the large thickly-carpeted salon decorated with gilt mirrors and light colours in the Empire style. The locale was Albemarle Street, W.

Two solemnly resonant strokes on an invisible gong and a mannequin entered. For normal occasions when ladies attend to study the latest Paris'.tm provocatins music is played. A fox-irot makes the mannequins' task easier. To-day these wonderful ladies, in some way resembling the chorus ladios of the theatre and yet somehow quit} different aii'l far more romantically exotic, paced the carpet without obbligato. They showed not the faintest trace of shyness or embarrassment. Rather they seemed politely to mask their bored contempt for the amusing occasion, like war veterans at the Bank HoiUlay parade. They walked with a curious, short-stopping movement exaggerated at the hips, and occasionally extended their arms to show their exquisite dresses off with a gesture almost like a serene apostrophe to Mad .'.me la Mode. They striking ladies of fine physique, with beautiful black eyes ami not the slightest trace of humour. Indeed, the cathedral solemnity of the whole performance was what most impressed. "nScance" is the right word. One girl \v. taffeta pyjamas of brigh: scarlet flnd grass green, with closely shingled hair, singed a cigarette in a long holder to ni i at> , h her costume.