NEW SEASON'S FROCKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21717, 5 February 1934, Page 3

NEW SEASON'S FROCKS

" WIND-BLOWN " EFFECTS INFLUENCE IN LINE "Stormy weather" is how designers have described the now influence in line Everything has to look as if it has been blown back by a high wind, and the right way to look at the new gowns is sideways. There are flying scarves, stiff, projecting revers, and flung-back sleeves, while one famous dress designer ties a fly-away tulle train to a slim evening frock so that one may either look as if one had swept into a drawing room in a howling gale or one may leave it at home. Almost every evening dress has some sort of wrap into which one is swathed, wrapped and enveloped in all sorts of complicated ways. The newest material is known as bath towel cotton. It is very new and very beautiful, "and has been used for a lovely, clinging evening gown which falls away into a train. Its name, howover, is misleading. An ordinary bath towel would hardly givo the same effect. Halo or Sou'wester Hats If your hair grows in a widow's peak you should be able to show it quite soon, for soon will appear all those new hats which returned travellers have described as Anne Bolcvn hats, or as haloes. Eyebrows, brow and hair are all going to be acknowledged again. Frenchwomen have their own names for these bryw-revealing hats. They are like diadems, Madonna haloes, fishermen's sou' westers, peasant women's head-dresses and even like small boys' sailor hats, and they are all worn pushed back on the head. Hair, so we are told, will follow suit. Instead of brushing downward, brush upward. Curls will be piled on top of the head, and, perhaps, at night an enamelled diadem set with carved coral globes will keep the halo idea of the day in everybody's memory. While Paris has completely reversed the manner of wearing a hat, it has reversed necklines, too. The high neckline in front and the incredibly low back appear to have gone before countries further distant have had time to decide whether they like them or not. Paris has decreed that necklines will be cut into what used to be described as a "daring V." For day-time frocks Paris designers are focussing attention on the neckline by trimming them with fur bows, or with round collars built on exactly the same lines as a baby's bib—with gold lame replacing embroidered batiste. Gowns worn by the wives of Henry the Eighth in the Charles Laughton film are supposed to be responsible for this new neckline — just as they haVe been blamed for or credited with the halo hat. New Colours "Dirty"

After dirty pink comes dirty green, dirty grey and dirty brown —all those colours which, although they may annoy the purist's ear, are sufficiently lovely in themselves to be employed for the most elegant of day-time frocks. Brown will be combined with all the dirty pink shades and, with peach colour, a greyish blue, a bright apple green, grass green, grey and beige. In the evening the peculiar shade of crushed mulberry or blackberry, which returned travellers have talked about, has been develoyed into off-black shades. There is a blackish green, as well as a blackish blue and a blackish prune colour.