THE CHIFFON COAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 23

THE CHIFFON COAT

A PRACTICAL GARMENT It may sound absurd to say so, but

1 one of the most enjoyable, and even j useful, garments a woman can have is a three-quarter-length coat, ur lined, of white chiffon. This should be cut, made up, and tailored on the lines of last summer's so popular "coolie coats," as ' they were called. Chiffon, as every woman knows, wears and washes ' extremely well, and it takes up just no room at all in one's drawer of one's week-end bag. And for what purpose is this extra garment to serve? Its use is twofold. For one thing, it can be slipped on over an3*thing else one is wearing, day or evening, when one has to repair or make a hasty toilette. Few things are more annoying,v if one wants to recomb one's hair or to use powder, than the inevitable strewing of hairs or white stuff over the neck and shoulders. It is not always convenient to use a dressinggown for the purpose, while dressingiackets are definitely what a recent heroine calls "disglooping." In fact they are a nuisance, which is perhaps why they are "out," so far as the welldressed and practical woman is conkcerned. And now that the dressingI gown is a thing of charm, no woman wishes to be seen in one that has marks of powder and cleansing cream round the inside of the neck. Good dressing-gowns are not always so easy to wash and iron as all that, and it is not everybody who has mere than one to be going on with. But the chiffon coat is washed out in a handbasin and ironed in a few minutes. Besides, it does not show marks nearly so readily nor so unpleasantly as silk, especially if the marks are greasy. The other the chiffon coat is to wear in bed over a thin nightgown when the nights are cold, or if the wearer is susceptible to cold in bed, vet does not care for warm or high-necked or longsleeved nightgowns in winter time. With its'sleeves to the wrist and its neck high at the back and sides, the chiffon bedwrap is becoming and dainty—far more so than any additional garment of wool, however fine, and it is as warm. It keep's off that distressing draught that has a way of creeping in at the back of one's shoulders. In fact, if you can have a couple of chiffon coats, one for day and one for nicht wear, so much the happier and well-equipped you will be. No directions as to the cutting and making need be given, except that such a coat wears longer and looks better with set-in sleeves than with the Mag- 1 yar sleeve. But this is a /matter of choice, as is the question whether to have .a loose wrist-band or a bell-sleeve. I am all for the wrist-band myself, as for day use it protects the dress sleeves, and for nierht wear it does not ride up the arm. The seams, of course, should be double French ones, so that there are no raw edges anywhere.