STYLES FOR ENGLISH WINTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24793, 18 December 1941, Page 5

STYLES FOR ENGLISH WINTER

TO USE LESS YARDAGE In spite of the prospect of a long and dreary winter in England there was nothing dismal about the clothes for the chilly seasons, which were shown recently. High class stores and Mayfair designers have been showing daily collections, small but well thought out, and essentially practical. There are heavy topcoats for December snows, with roomy armholes, dolman sleeves, flaring back fulness, all with a vague Russian air, especially when topped by a high fur or furtrimmed bonnet. There are chic, sophisticated dresses of the afternoon, up-to-dinnertifne category, as well as coloured wool dresses for dreary Monday mornings, and sturdy tweeds for “depths of the country" week-end suits. All this needs a lot of clothes-ration-ing figuring, but most women have learned to be coupon-wise by this time, and there are few husbands, sons or brothers who are not willing to “ chip in ’* with a few missing coupons for that one indispensable number.

The silhouette is generally easier, more fluid, with form-fitted bodices decidedly on the wane. Women who spend most of their time in uniforms want to be able to slip easily in and out of their play-time clothes. Bias-cut skirt fulness is also disappearing—it calls for too much fabric—and any fulness is straight-forward, up-and-down but massed at strategic points The idea is to use less yardage, but to avoid the shapeless, sack-like effect of the chemise dress of the last war. This is done by stressing the waistline in no uncertain way by all manner of bolts, darts and tucking, so that streamlining is still a necessary factor to achieve smartness.