Spring Magic Costs Very Little

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23121, 20 August 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Spring Magic Costs Very Little

Uplift for Depressed Frocks Special to The New Zealand Herald By NIKI of PARIS OPRING is in the air and the shops are filled with prophetic fashions that will lure you to buy wardrobes full of clothes. But take a care! Many of the trends at the beginning of a new season are so startlinglv different that it seems as if they were expressly suppled to give you a jolt, and, in spring especially, the jolt is in the nature of a reaction against the drabness of winter. It is far wiser to wait and watch

how things develop than to plunge into orgies of early shopping and sewing. Not all of the amazing fashions will be popularly accepted; some are just freaks to awaken your interest.

That is why 1 am going to tell 'you of some spring magic as practised by smart ana economy-minded Parisians, that will tide you over 'tween seasons with littlo or no expense. / There is no doubt about it —"uplift" is what dark wintry clothes most at this time of year. So sort out your clothes and at the same time survey the new trends and see how some of them apply as possibilities for renovations.

The simplest but most effective changes can be made with fresh bibs and tuckers on your dark frocks, and even your top coat. Starch is the secret of a lot of the sparkling crispness that linen, lace, muslin and pique must acquire to be smart accents on vour clothes. The Greeks had a word for "chic," too, which in their case was expressed in the soft drapery of their modes. Try long panels draped in the "angel" line on your favourite but tooold evening frock. Make your black day-frock young again with front panels of a gay print tied round from the side seams in apron effect. Be lavish with flower posies, braid, ribbons and dazzling white lingerie details and enliven your old clothes in any of a hundred different and exciting ways , until the warmer weather really does arrive. •