EVENING WARDROBE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22615, 31 December 1936, Page 2

EVENING WARDROBE

" ROMANCE IN COTTON " dinner suits of pique SMARTNESS AND ORIGINALITY MY lIAKIIARA If you are considering a cruise this summer or an early trip to the coronation, then you will plan your c\ening wardrobe with your holiday in mind. C)u a star-bright night at sea, when the air is warmly earessive and water and sky swim isi one darkness, it is smart to go romantic in cotton, as the two young ladies in my picture have done. The first wears an adorable dream-like affair of lapis blue lace over emerald taffetas. Her overdress of the cotton lace is stiffly starched to stand proudly away from the shoulders. Cut in sweeping bell-like lines, it is made coat fashion, lightly shirred and buttoned at the waist. Completely detachable from the slip this overdress can be worn over any number of colours—an eminently practical idea. Tho other dress with its ribbon bows and doll-like print has a pleated organdi ruffle round the square neckline and tiny puff sleeves. The surprising thing about this frock and many similar onns is that the daytime material of which they are made (this one is pique voile flowered in lolly pink) should bo so exquisitely frivolous for night. You will find that your cotton evening frock can be more dashing, more provocative, often more chic an d certainly more original than any you have. Perhaps you will prefer the tailored variety—then nothing could be better than pique. Dinner suits of pique with man-tailored jackets, evening frocks with wide stitched rovers and buttons down the front, white pique used to accent black linen —all have charm and individuality. . „ .. ... Maybe vou will go in for the slightly bizarre. You will chocse a strange material —navy blue linen coil-spotted in white, Mexican stripes on a cotton crepe, shiny glazed chintz in one of the new heavenly designs (they have moons and stars and suns printed on them) and you will make it up with an eye to colour contrast. One of the most dashing frocks I have seen was a black glazed chintz with white coin spot which had scarlet rick-rack braid round neck, sleeves and hemline, and a scarlet patent leather belt. Another handblocked linen with floral design in emerald and violet on a white ground was made with ribbons of the two colours outlining waist, hem and neck, and alternate bows of each shade from neck to hem. Again you may wish to keep to the purely romantic, to swish white net skirts as bouffant as a ballet dancer's tutu, to bedeck yourself in crisp frills of dotted Swiss, or to wear flower printed voile trimmed with ribbon bows and pleated frills. First of all for

tho white net, nothing could be more enchanting than a dress which has an off-the-shoulder line finished with infinitesimal puff sleeves and tied with lettuce green ribbon bows, a tightfitting bodice and a skirt which is-four layers of net gathered in a double flounce almost 10 yards round the hem. Again white Swiss muslin dotted in black is demurely adorable when black velvet baby ribbon is threaded through a narrow beading at the neckline. round the sleeves and 'at tho waist. This dress had four flounces at tho hemline, each one edged in black. Of course, it is really more fun to choose your own material and style and design your own dress to suit jour mood. Here are a few tricks which you may fool inclined to introduce and which are handy to remember. White organdi frills, bows and pleated ruffles will lighten almost" any muslin. Black velvet bows givo an 1890 atmosphere which is right for HWG-H7. Alternate bows of different colours and similarly alternate bands of coloured ribbons will give character to a plain material and mako clever accent to a printed one. Muslins, organdies and cotton nets are best when they have full swirling skirts or when thoy are much bo-ruffled. Knifepleating in any cotton material, including ordinary chintz, adds a crispness which is seldom associated with home-made clothes). Tiny buttons, either covered ones of the material, crystal or hone ones are sophisticated and fascinating. It is almost smarter trt accent a printed frock with a colour that is not in the print than with one that is. Be sure to use the colours which come best in cottons such as lemon, yellows, emerald greens, lolly pinks, faded blues and violets, oranges and rust. Patent leather makes the right sort of belt or bow to put on a pique evening frock. The evening jacket you choose to wear with your cotton evening dress must necessarily be of cotton, too. Probably it will be white pique with wide, built-up sleeves and a Hutcd pcplum, or it will be made of your frock material in Gibson girl style. And do not forget that your frock and your coat are both tubbable. Keep them always crisp and fresh —it will double their charm.