Lobsters on CHAIR-COVERS!

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

Lobsters on CHAIR-COVERS!

British Textiles at Paris Exhibition

THE Lord Mayor of London paid a State visit to Paris recently to open the United Kingdom Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition. A great feature is being made there of British textiles, which are hung round the walls of the pavilion, and visitors may see the new furnishing fabric which Ims designs tufted on to it, and which has already been chosen by the Duchess of Kent for her Belgruve Square house. In the restaurant, materials are woven pictoriully to represent typical English foods. Curtains and chair covers, for instance, show realistic lobsters and roast beef, pork pies, and pheasants and trout, and the chairs are so arranged that each one provides a different course!' For weeks Lady Chamberlain and her dress committee have been choosing and deciding upon materials and to be shown in Paris, against appropriate backgrounds. The racing scene, where. His Majesty's racing colours are introduced, provides an opportunity for displaying English tailoring at its best. Cumberland tweeds, boldly checked, are used for a number of the suits. Leather is another favourite, made into jackets and brightly coloured waistcoats. An evening in the country presented somewhat of a problem, since no one denies the French their supreme skill in designing evening clothes. The mistake of taking coals to Newcastle was, however, neatly avoided by concentrating upon cotton evening frocks, which have never been especially popular in France, but in the last year or so have grown into a habit witit Englishwomen for country house parties. Lagos cottons, made in Mn nchester, but inspired by the sprawling, brilliantly • coloured native patterns of Africa, are the newest product from Lancashire, to be seen at the British Pavilion, It was decided that the most appropriate background for a display of men's clothes would be a room from Boodles' Club, that most English and conservative of institutions. Then came a difficulty—no woman is admitted to Boodles', and yet a woman had been commissioned to paint the backgrounds. Finally, the problem was solved by the painter being allowed into one room, from which nil the members were rigorously excluded until she had finished her work!