WILD AND FOOLISH RUMOURS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

WILD AND FOOLISH RUMOURS.

THE PRINCESS SILHOUETTE. BOVr*s FOR TRIMMINGS. [SPECIAL TO JJ.Z. HERALD.—COPTEIGHT. ] LONDON", September 20. Rumours, wild and foolish, have filled •he air since the firs: openings of the Paris Fashion Shows. It was suggested that dresses would be so tight this reason that we should not be able to sit down in them—because even the model dresses worn by the mannequins were bursting at the seams. Women were advised to hurry forth and ! secure reducing corsets as their figures would have to Le entirely altered! I am perfectly certain the average woman o: to-day wouid do nothing of this kind. Surely it is time these fashion scaremongers realised that models are models —with every line exaggerated to make the season's fashions more apparent. But women have long since ceased to be slaves to fashion, and it is obviously the fitter's business to modify her copies of original models to the best, advantage of her client. The long close-Siting " Princess " silhouette will undoubtedly be used a great deal this autumn, and mannequins may weil be bursting out of their dresses—they ! always do in the end. This does not necessarily mean they were too tight at the beginning—but when half a dozen mannequins have to show anything up to 200 dresses in about an hour and a-half every morning and afternoon, it does not seem so surprising that they finally come to pieces. This is too practical an age for any dressmaker to persuade her charming middle-aged customers with comfortable figures that they should wear evening frocks cut below the waistline at the back, or a princess gown copied exactly like the one worn by the mannequin. Model gowns are meant to guide women, but uo ono takes them too seriously. If, of course, you are blessed with the kind of figure that can wear model clothes —then your dress problems are already solved, however slim your dress allowance happens to be. The art of the ready-mads has improved so rapidly in the last few years that it is almost possible to buy any type of frock " off the peg " unless you are absolutely out of proportions. As I write of winter fashions your shops are probably showing new clothes for sunny days, and I am perfectly sare you will soon be- surrounded with floral chiffons—just as we have been. Choose these with care—and sparingly—for Paris has finished with floral chiffon for the evening, and not one Pimple flowered chiffon frock is to be seen in any of the new collections. Bows are still used as trimmings—there are even tweed! bows with fringed ends placed on coats at, the back of the neck. Silk bows have their hems edged with kilting like the skirt of the dress they trim. Buttons—of the show variety only—are being used quite a good deal. A double row will run half-way up the front of a jumper from tho waist, or down one side of ibe skirt or, again, down the centre of the back of a bodice. Sometimes they appear to be useful, as in the sketch I am sending of a very new yoked tweed skirt, with a tuck-in jersey sweater, that has a scarf collar to match. This is a useful model for sports, and, with the addition of a short or threequarters coat to match, either collarless or with a narrow upstanding collar of stitched tweed, would make an excellent countrv suit.

The bead necklace has a persistent fashion and, like the scarf, is ever with us, but both undergo a change each season.

The necklace of single beads is no longer smart. Every bead is now rolled after the style oi rock coral necklaces. Thick ropes of beads are constructed similar to those vrorn bv Hav.aian maidens, and these are vrorn round the wrists as well. Gun metal colour beads are extensively used, and these have strands of white beads mixed in with them.