LONDON AND PARIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 14

LONDON AND PARIS

New evening gowns in London are in dull crepe-like materials and are pleasantly trimmed with velvet (says a writer in The Times). An evening gown of heavy white romaine, made with a freer hip-line than that of last season, has a cable decoration of olive green velvet on the bodice; and another evening frock of a creamy-yellow crepe mongol has knots of brown velvet on the bodice and at the waist-line. This freer line is so far the chief change in evening clothes. In day frocks and coats there is a tendency to a side movement seen in buttoning and trimming towards one side. In dresses this side trimming can lend itself to becoming and novel draped effects, but it is more odd than pleasing in coats. In furs there will be some important changes. Nutria is now cheaper and is to return to favour in new tailored styles instead of the heavy, wraps in which it was formerly made. The golden nutria as well as the darker fur will be worn, and there are some neat double-breasted short coats being made in golden nutria and also long coats with tailored collars, revers, and -neat belts. The belt will be on a number of fur coats in heavy fuA and also in sports furs, such as coltskin, through not on those made in the handsomer furs, such as black broadtail. Grey furs are another new fashion, and grey Persian lamb and broadtail, which has a curious brindled look, will be worn in both long and short coats. Grey American broadtail is used for many slim coats, and the sleeves are made in fancy styles, some with a fullness like a modified bishop sleeve, and others with a new cuff at the top of the sleeve. Silver fox is used as trimming on a short coat in grey broadtail and borders the coat as well as forming the collar, the silvered part of the fur being brought to the back and the dark being used in front. Grey ermine makes delightfully soft short coats in casual loose shapes, as deep furs are better left to take a straighler line than those with'a flatter surface. A number of fur sleeves are fuller below the elbow like a modified bishop sleeve, but fullness in fur sleeves has to be very carefully managed. Black broadtail is in perennial favour, and this coming season will see a number of fine coats with their collars draped less fully than last winter, and the line of the coat following that of the figure more closely. Sable is likely to be particularly noticeable. Many rich capos and wraps have already been made of it, and they are of double utility as they can be worn in the afternoon or evening. The cross-over effect looks very well in fur capes; in some it is in the fur and in others, such as white ermine, it is in satin beaute, which also forma the inner collar from which the fur starts. :!i * * Every evening Paris becomes skyminded (says an exchange). Women

dance, in frocks that seem fashioned from clouds and tinted by rainbows. The new summer fabrics —crepes, chiffons, cottons —have the dull, mottled, pebbly texture of clouds. They cling in fluid statuesque folds from their low-cut bodices to their clinging instep hems. And . their colours run the gamut of the skies. Dawn pink and midnight blue, smoke grey and citron, sunset red and mist white. _ It’s a smart woman who appears dull this season. _ This new simplicity of line • combined with integrity of fabric is indicative of a new fashion mood. Watch it! We’re getting away from .tricks and fads and what nots. We're going classic. We’ve discovered that one looks smarter in a good cotton'than in a sleazy silk; that one good silk is worth a dozen ne’erdo’wells. Clothes chatter has switched from bargains to values. No longer do we hear prices quoted. We hear instead, “I’ve worn and worn this dress; it’s been cleaned a dozen times, but I always feel right in it.” That cheap clothes are the height of extravagance, and no woman is wasting money these days. This trend holds sway not only for evening clothes but for entire wardrobes. There is a renaisance of those clothes termed classic —so called because they are good season in and season out. The double-breasted sports coat, the soft, narrow-brimmed fabric hat, the tailored suit, the mannish sports dress and simple afternoon frocks.

And dressing classically isn’t so monotonous as it may read, for the shops are filled with gay accessories. It’s amazing what a change of scarf, hat, bag. belt, shoes and gloves can do to an outfit. Given a good, dark blue coat, add white dress, shoes, gloves, scarf, hat. Now switch to blue ones trimmed with white. Now beige. Or to a white sports outfit add accessories of Kelly green, lemon yellow, lacquer red, shiny black, cinnamon brown. Then go Olympic and mix them._ To a good beige dress try adding a set of brown accessories, then black, now red. see about blue, jumble up your red and blue and so create a triad of red-blue-beige. But when you’re doing your mixing you’d be wise to stick to colours only. For instance, a red bag, scarf and hat ale good. But don’t go in for _a_ combination of fussy designs and brilliant colour. You’re likely to present a rather dizzy effect if you do. Stick to your colours and go simple on designs. With a tailored suit waistcoats are a great help these days. They can be made of anything and anyhow. _ Knitted, crocheted. Suede, plaids, ginghams, dots, checks, diagonals. They are really a matter of remnants, imagination and a hat, scarf and bag to -harmonise. They have been carried to glory on this great _ white wave which has engulfed fashion this season. For never in years has white been so popular. It’s a “ white-and ” seasou! A sporting summer!