MY LADY’S DRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23514, 31 May 1938, Page 19

MY LADY’S DRESS

A LETTER FROM LONDON Dear Phillida,—No garment is more consistently useful than a silk afternoon frock. Its popularity never wanes. In summer we wear the frock alone, in spring and autumn we put it underneath a light-weight wool coat to make a redingote ensemble, and in winter it slips comfortably beneath a fur coat or a fur-trimmed one Yet at the beginning of each season this chameleon garment conforms to a new silhouette. What, you ask, is different about the new afternoon dresses? It is this; That plastered, sculptured look, to which we have become accustomed, has given way to an all-pervading looseness and easiness of fit. Skirts may be wide—either pleated or flared—sleeves may be long and balloon shaped, bodices may blouse, but all this doesn’t mean that we have lost sight of the waistline, or that the silhouette is a sloppy one. Always there

is a sttorig nipped-in suggestion between ribs and hips; sometimes it takes the form of a belt, and at other times it is cleverly contrived by piercing and seaming, usually to give the impression of two or even three separate waistlines. In other words, the evening corselet, though not actually present during the daytime, has left its imprint there. Newest and most popular of all are the American shirtwaist, two-piece frocks, of which I have spoken in an earlier article. They cleverly combine every one of the new points. Their blouses can be as wide and balloonish as they wish, and their skirts can be either pleated all round or with flare directed to fall in graceful folds at back or front. They are most chic when made of outrageously expensive-looking materials in the simplest, most innocent-looking styles. This is a fashion to cultivate if your bank balance is as young and slender as your figure. Sale time remnants can be fashioned into adorable blouses at the bidding of ingenious fingers. My sketch shows one of these blouse-and-skirt dresses. An all-white gleaming satin makes the ballooning blouse, with naive turn-down collar, and black

silk velvet drapes the skirt. An interesting belt of petunia suede studded with jewels marks the waistline. There are two variations of the blouse-and-skirt theme. The first and most universally popular, because it is ideally suited to almost every type of figure, is the bolero, and the second is the tunic frock. Boleros dance their way through the entire mode. Morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. Sometimes they match the frock or suit of which they are part, but more often they contrast brilliantly. The afternoon bolero is sometimes an exception, as it is often part of the frock itself. Its newest and most interesting feature is its briefness — often it is little more than a curtain across the breasts. Tunics may be long and tight, moulding the figure from shoulder to well below the hips—in which case they then break into knife-pleated skirts, or they may be soft bloused in the bodice and of three-quarter length, with a great deal of fullness pulled either to the back or front; they will then top a pencil-slim skirt.

The prize for the most interestingly individual decoration goes to Schiaparelli, who has made of her entire collection a circus arc;.a. She tosses clowns and acrobats on her prints, forms lines of rearing plumed horses round the applique edges of breasthigh boleros, and puts ruffs round the necks of her afternoon frocks. Her hats are sometimes high-peaked, with brilliant bobbles atop them like those on the clowns that gesticulate m her belt buckles and brooches. Less obvious, yet equally brilliant, than those with human or animal figures on them, are the “streamer” prints, on which brightly-hued streamers curl and weave themselves on black or navy grounds. Also sketched is a very charming frock of black moss crepe. Emerald green, satin ribbons are threaded through at three different places to tie in soft bows in front. You will notice the graceful draping of the bodice and the unusual fullness of the skirt. This is an enchant- * » ing frock for a /, y, tall, slender wo- K. .nan. April 1. 1938.