NOTES FOR WOMEN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20311, 20 January 1928, Page 13

NOTES FOR WOMEN.

By Phillida. (Continued from page 12.) BETWEEN FRIENDS.

“ Very few people are qualified to change others ” I heard a girl say the other day. Someone else had been exclaiming against the smug, and remarking that it seems impossible to challenge them or shake them out of their complacency. The girl agreed to that. " The more you ‘ sit on them ’ the worse they are. They become worse in self-defence. You can’t do anything.” But the other speaker seemed to cling to the idea that something should be done, or at least attempted. Perhaps the chief qualification for changing others is to be so unselfconscious that you have no thought of your effect on them, one way or the other. People of wide imagination can change us — those of us who are not too smug—it is true, by their very talk. They can show us points of view T.jlch have not occurred to us. They can throw out a suggestion which, upon examination, seems almost infinite in its implication. With them we do “ walk among the stars.” Yet even these are not necessarily the people who bring about deep changes in character. They add tremendously to our delight in life, but there is the danger that we may remain satisfied with the pleasure they give us. Besides, they are sometimes, perhaps often, inclined towards egotism themselves. It is simplicity that cuts like a knife through the egotistical or complacent crust which surrounds us. It is when we find that people are not trying to impress us or to alarm us, or to do anything but serve us, should service to us come their way, that we find our layers of selfishness being torn off us. The beauty of their being changes us. Npt what they say, not what they set out to do for us, or to us, hut just what they arc. Those people bring with them a set of values different from the customary; they are care-free without being careless, happy without being preoccupied. They change us by our desire, however momentary, to be like them.—Daily Chronicle.

THE CULT OF PERIOD FURNITURE.

It a remarkable thing that at the present time, when everybody is encouraged to express his or her own individuality as clearly as possible, we have only just begun to produce distinctive twentieth century furniture. Every other period has its own easily recognisabe furniture, from the solid, heavily carved Elizabethan coffers and chairs, down to the hideous, but characteristic “suites” of the Victorian era. The old craftsmen of Cromwell’s time, or any other bygone age, did not, of course, deliberately set out to produce period furni ture. They made the things that were most suited to the ordinary everyday needs of the time, so that the Tudor period, for instance, when houses were draughty and inconvenient, has left behind heavy carved screens, high-backed chairs and huge cofers, into which all sorts of household goods could be stowed. As houses grew more convenient, furniture became lighter and more ornate.

In the Victorian age, when solid comfort was far higher in public estimation than artistic merit, the big, ugly, padded armchairs and sofas were high in favour, and the old furniture was banished to attic? or sold to poorer folk. The form of furniture in which this pre sent age excells is in the basket chairs. Never before can there have been such a variety of cane chairs in all shapes and sizes, from the little tub-shaped chairs, so useful for the garden, to the long, luxurious affairs beloved by the sybarite, with a space for a tumbler to ffit securely in one arm and a pocket for books in the other. These, like the heavy oak chairs of the Tudors are produced to fit the needs of the period, which in 1928 is for gardens end verandahs.

PACKING THE BASKET,

We cannot all have our picnic baskets elaborately fitted out, but those who are habitual picnickers will do well to spend a little time, and money, if possible, on their picnic .paraphernalia. The fitted picnic basket, complete with special cutlery, silver, and glasses, is beyond the reach of most of us, but there is absolutely no reason why you should not buy an ordinary picnic basket —these are quite reasonable —and fit it up yourself. You can line it with holland or, if you want to be very gay, with a piece of bright cretonne. With care, too, yon can make little pockets and bands to hold your plates and cutlery, but this is not necessary if you feel you cannot make a neat job of it. It may seem an extravagance to buy special things for your picnic basket, but if your household silver and cutlery' are at all good and you value them, you will not take it wdth iyou when you go picnicking. Cheap spoons and forks and glasses may be bought at most big stores. But if you indulge in cheap knives, too, be sure you take one good sharp one with you as well, for cheap knives are apt to be blunt. Of course, if you prefer a sandwich picnic, you will not need a whole set of knh i, forks, and spoons; but even then it is rather nice to have little plates for your sandwiches. It is a matter of taste whether you have the cardboad picnic plates, which you can buy very cheaply, use, and throw away, or little cheap coloured china plates, which you take home again. The former need not lie dull and uninteresting, as they can be obtained with a willow pattern on them. Thev have, too, the advantage of being lighter. If, however, your picnic basket is being strapped on a car, this last need not be considered. River “ fans ” are perhaps, the most original over their picnic requisites. But they have more encouragement, and the spectacle of a prettily-arranged boat table must amply repay their pains. They have, more often than not, special picnic tea-services, a gay little cloth, and everything they could possibly require for outdoor meals. As they wash up on the spot and, perhaps, keep their picnic basket in the boat or in the boat-house it is, of course, absolutely necessary for them to have special requisites. A supply of paper serviettes should always be taken on a picnic, and if you want to be truly original, you will buy yourself some of the pretty cheeked cloth material and make special picnic serviettes. A little picnic doth to match would complete the set. Salt, of course, is frequently forgotten, hut who has not sometimes suffered agonies of thirst looking at ginger beer, lemonade, or cider bottles for which there is no opener? So many of the bottled drinks are made with the little tin tops instead of the screw tops that it is always advisable to put one of the little special bottle-openers in your picnic basket. It is superfluous to say, I think, that drinks are best bought on the way. Bottles take up a lot of space and weigh very heavily in a picnic basket. To carry them in a car which is going to be subjected to a certain amount of jolting is dangerous, particularly on a hot day. Bottles containing “gassy” drinks_ have been known to burst in these circumstances.

FASHION EXPERIMENTS THAT

FAiL.

Recent years have seen many interesting experiments in ianhion that have failed to be generally accepted (says a Daily Chronicle writer). The most conspicuous failure is the long skirt. This is presented to ns in all sorts of insidious ways —by means of picture frocks (exquisite, but from the modern point of view ridiculous); uneven hems, culminating this year in the queer swallow-tail; transparent hems falling several inches lower than the short skirt itself. We are interested, amused, but we remain faithful to our good sense and our short frocks.

Wo rejoice in nnr frocks and hats which follow natural lines. There is an attempt just now to wjden the silhouette at die elbows; this effect is often achieved hy enormous fur cuffs. Again wc arc interested, but we do not intend to look like that. Wc would almost as well wear our hair long and build up elaborately on our heads with a hat pinned on top of the structure, inches from our skulls! it is doubtful whether women will ever again submit to really senseless or inconvenient fashions. These will appear from time to time and make variety, but the majority of us will keep to our favourite simple lines and will _ follow only the subtler changes of fashion.