FINGER-POSTS OF FASHION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 6 (Supplement)

FINGER-POSTS OF FASHION.

FRILLS AND FLOWERS. TWINKLING CHAINS, ZEBRA FUR. [SPECIAL TO N.Z. HERALD. —COPYRIGHT. ] LONDON, Ausust £3. Life in Paris recently has been a continual rush from one great dressmaking house to another. For those lucky ones who are busy replenishing their wardrobes, the only difficulty is choice. Overseas buyers 'really compose the largest proportion of guests at these early shows, so that it is a very critical assembly, intent on securing models that contain ideas likely to appeal to their various clients all over the .Frills and flowers sum up the new fashions for the autumn as far as the dress designers have deigned to disclose them. Dresses are not content with one or two. but three and eyen four frills are seen on many of the new models,.while flowers ' are more important than ever. It is not suffieffent this season for a woman to just buy a smart buttonhole which is merely an artificial flower. Smartness is much more difficult to achieve than that. For early autumn milady may wear a bunch of crystal flowers mounted on a background of fur to give it a seasonable touch. If, however, she chooses a crepe de chine ensemble then a fur flower is the correct buttonhole. The tailormade suit requires even greater attention to detail. Here the flower on the hat should match the one in the coat, which in its turn should match one's shoes and handbag. Should you select a beige, cloth coat, worn with a plaid or checked skirt the flower on the little fawn hat to match should be made of fawn kid or felt, and of course a replica fastened in tho buttonhole, fawn kid shoes, and bag of fawn leather and felt. For the economically minded this coat could also be worn with ■a pleated skirt in the new black stiff satm. Then a black hat should have a flower of black felt and dull kid to match the one in the buttonhole, arid black patent leather shoes, black handbag, and black kid gloves will create a second ensemble which is both striking and in perfect taste. Undoubtedly the new frocks will all accentuate the feminine note, and Poiret is bold enough to offer us the old undulating line/of the figure which was that of our mothers and grandmothers. All his frocks descend well below the knee line, they are narrow round the waist and ample in the slyrt. Other dressmakers are more cautions, but the same feminine tendency permeates the majority of collections. Sleeves are very new and resemble those worn at the beginning of this century. They may be straight above the elbow, and very ample below. All the dressmakers feature this balloon sleeve for their coats, the upper part being of cloth; tho iur forms an enormous balloon cuff which comes up to the elbow, or else the sleeves take the shape of a horn of plenty and become wide at the wrist. • - Some of the dresses have broad belts which mark the waist much higher than usual; this is particularly noticeable on the dinner gowns, while some of these have a decidedly medieval princess cut. The dress artist is specialising- in afternoon gowns of crepe romain that are cut absolutely circular with enormous fullness, and yet hang perfectly straight by means of bead loops that weight them down to a straight slender silhouette with drooping curves to give an uneven hem line. There is to be much jewellery worn again and long chains of stones are considered ultra smart. Madame Chanel shows twinkling chains of strasse mounted exactly like diamonds, and they are extraordinarily effective over an all white or all black" chiffon gown; while another artist favours strings of polished turquoise. In fact, jewels designed to wear with the gown are the hall mark of the season's mode. At the famous French furriers, Les Fourreurs Max, they have discovered a new animal. The calfskin having been passed on to the " too ordinary " catalogue, we now have zebra, and perfectly beautiful they are even if a trifle bizarre. The skins are so supple and tho surface so glossy that they drape round the figure like velvet, and already the great Bianchini has duplicated this fur into an exquisitely woven material. Truly there is no, end to the ingenuity of the modern manufacturer of fabrics!