HOME TOPICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14069, 24 May 1909, Page 3

HOME TOPICS.

THE PRETTY GIRL. . • SOME.OF HER WORRIES. '• _ There is one kind of emancipation that is never very jubilantly received. Yet it is emancipation of a very peculiarly comfortable quality. No woman. ever remembers the exact date when the order for release arrived, but some day she knows with sudden thankfulness, that she is free. M 6 goes shopping one morning and sew a joyous bevy of attractive young persons obviously absorbed in filling the role of pretty girl. And she sighs with relief and' blesses the years that have begun to crowd rather thickly around her fireside. They bring such blessed immunity. "';"•; For the pretty girls, and all the faithful endeavourers to be pretty, aic anxiously adjusting and readlusting' their furs every other minute, and all trie minutes between are spent in delicately drawing their veils a fraction of an men lower, or patting away a wrinkle or two from the collars of their blouses, or putting their shoulders forward or backward as the case may be, that their coats may hang faultlessly, and express a drooping elegance or a buoyant littleness. The very backs of their heads, the swing of their ekirts, the angleor curve their elbows, the click of their heels, betray a consciousness of ' their responsibilities, a consuming anxiety lest a hairpin Or a skirtfold or a shoe-lace- may be behaving lawlessly. And if this thing should come to pass, it would be a cataclysmic calamity. No less! For someone might notice the fatal misadjustm.ent. Some one? Nay, every one! The very shop windows would mock and torture with inquisitorial gaze. (We believe this with searing conviction when we are young.) ■'■'.■ u The older woman, remembers it allhow well! Until that day which she can never remember, when Time set her free without saying anything about it till afterward, she, too, had been bond-slave to the duty of being pretty. But these tense days be overpast for ever. A tranquil uiconspieuousness Time hath vouchsafed her. Oh, the peace of knowing that a cinder may light upon her cheek— upon her without blighting her entire future; that if her most cherished tailor skirt is splashed with mud, this is not a blot on, the family escutcheon, and that even the occasional wearing of goloshes does not necessarily, mean that she must dwell in Coventry henceforward. And when she reaches that statewhich iseven more loftily calm, that high philosophy which teaches her to recover her balance after slipping on a muddy crossing without immediately losing it again at the unmistakable sound of a titter—then that ; serene woman-spirit may' be said to have attained Nirvana, and thereafter the most I scathing allusions to the grapes that are I sour cannot disturb her invincible content.

THE YOUNG GIRL'S WHITE c BEDROOM. It is the girl who has the furnishing of her room in her own hands and is not de- $ pendent on the plans, of a decorator who gets most pleasure and profit out of it. There is no room so unattractive that it may not be vastly improved by a small ex- 1 penditure of money, provided good taste be exercised. Just at present the white bedroom is very j popular with young girls. Nothing could be fresher and '-weeter, but a little care must bo exercised lest it look too cold and severe. v For this room the valla are usually White, or they .may be papered with., a sprigged ) pattern on which there are small, stiff buds or leaves at intervals on a white ground. Whit© enamelled paint and furniture of white enamel and cane or entirely of enamelled wood are used in the white rooms. *:■ '-• '■■'■>: ' '"' : ' '■■'".' ■ The dressing-table may be without drapery or draped with thin white material , or with a sprigged cretonne or chintz. When the dressing-fable is of cane and ; enamel, with some ornamentation of raised .; wreaths in the wood, etc., it is usually not draped, as it is sufficiently decorative without the curtains. When it is of plain white enamelled wood, however, it is usually draped, as otherwise it looks a little bare and cold. The white room may have painted or papered walls. An attractive wall is made by painting in a light ivory, just off the white, and then panelling the room with strips of moulding also painted in ivory. The panelling is close or far apart, as is desired. It stops at some distance from the ceiling, being finished with a transverso moulding. Above this- the wall is plain. This wood panelled wall gives an excellent background for pictures and other ornaments. When a white paper is chosen it may be plain, t-atin striped, or decorated with flowers and conventional designs all in white satin on a mat ground or the opposite. If a girl is anxious to achieve the very last word of daintiness and delicacy she may complete her vhitc room by adding to her white walls, and ivory furniture hangings of diaphanous mull, lawn, net, or linen, draping the dressing-table and the bed in the same transparent material. The only contrasting note of colour will then be furnished by the coverings of such, chairs as are upholstered or the cushions used on can© chairs and couches. Such a room, with cushions and upholstery of striped, flowered, or figured brocade, chintz, or cretonne, is most charming. It is necessary, however, to choose just the right tones of white"in order t> have it attractive. The enamel furniture should be an ivory white, instead of a blue white, and yet care must also be taken to keep the effect white rather than deep ivory. For the girl who begins refurnishing her room with the principal articles of furniture already on hand, especially if these be happily of old mahogany or black walnut, there is nothing more attractive than a flower room. 1 > '

In making her room a flower room the owner should settle upon on© flower at the beginning, or, if not one flower, then a group of flowers should be carried out in r all the decorations, for now many of the papers and chintzes have charming formal bouquets of varied blossoms instead of the one flower. ■■ ' '/".-"-.." " <■ It is really more charming to', select a flower as the guiding note to decoration than a colour, for the possibility of harmonious variation is greater, while at the same time the shapes of things as' well as their colours are ; selected according to -a general rule. It is not so difficult to carry out a floral idea in the room as , one might. at first imagine, because chintzes and cretonnes are now made to -natch wall-papers. Therefore, if the room to be refurnished has an old mahogany or a black walnut get, there may be a wall-paper of old-fashioned garden roses scattered over a white ground, and tied with 'duo ribbons, and cushion covers and upholsterr of the same. , Tie. hangings of the window would not. be attractive if of the same design as the side walls, and so ; vith the flowered side' walls the hangings should be of white or the plain blue to match the ribbons in the paper, of plain rose of the shade of- the flowers, or of plain green of the shade '.if the leaves. ' An attractive device for using tile flowered paper and at the same time the flowered" chintz for hangings 'is to have the side walls plain and the flowered paper used for the frieze and ceiling, creating the.effect of a bower. ' ••-'■•' ■ ;. '. - WHAT IS YOUR COLOUR? It is asserted by students of shade, and tone that black should be worn only by the young and happy woman, and should be shunned rigidly by those who are middle-aged, sad, or tired. Grays with;a pink or! lavender tint in them should be chosen by the blonde, for she will appear radiant in them, and there is nothing more becoming to the olive tinted skin than the dull pewter tints, which, look charming when brightened by a distinct and well placed da-sh of crimson or green. The possessor of a florid skin clings to white and black, hoping to detract from the colour in her face, but this as a rule is a mistake, for an' intense dash of colour at once reduces the flaming red of the countenance. White is for all, from the cradle to the grave, says an authority on all matter? appertaining to dress. ; i. ; ;