IN FASHION'S REALM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3254, 26 July 1916, Page 60

IN FASHION'S REALM.

WEEKLY UP-TO-DATE DRESS NOTES. By Margi'ejute. My four illustrations to-day arc with a • special object, and it is expressed in four words —aim for simple lines. The first may be noted in conjunction with the second. The semi-princess is a very modish note, with an assured life. This is the upper part of a costume. By glancing at the full figure you can form a good idea of the skirt. Tho contour is beautiful, and that panel extension ideal. It gives length and gracefulness. The bib-like neck is a

feature—silk inset with fur-edged collar, and vesteo vyith high collar. You will like the sleeve. The tendency with many is to widen steadily—a kind of flare. This is bordered with, the fur with an under-extcn-sion with bishop's frill. The semi-princess is an admirable selection for plain velvets and tweeds, but particularly the former. There is. not much to say that is new in millinery. ;We shall not see any radical change till spring comes. It is now cheaper to buy a ready-made than to renovate. 1 catch sight of a black velvet sailor trimmed with black corded ribbon band and bow, and finished with steel buckle. Then, again, a ribbon hat in black, with a dash of colour, lined with velvet to tone; then a very smart felt with band, bow, and buckle; then a black felt velour finish trimmed with black ribbon band and bow; and then, again, a fancy straw and silk in navy —all at half-price, because of the time (the season) and the times (those in which we are living, happily pro tern). Still, many like to renovate, and if the shape is there, not good enough to wear as it is, and too good to discard, what of the oddment counter in association? You can pick up the necessary odds and ends for a trifle, and sometimes for next door to nothing. The ribbons are exquisite and the colours superb. There are merv ribbons in eaxe, flambeaux, copper, navy, black, and cerise; soft merv and glace, in purple, grey, brown, black, white, cardinal, and emerald; military stripe in fine dark colourings; and all just now at a song. As for ornaments, you can fashion them for yourselves, get them ready-made, or combine. A young friend of mine who is full of resourcefulness brought along a military button —our flag on a blue ground with a red border inscribed. She just covered the lettering with an overfold of silk, turning this into a border, and pinned it into the centre of a bow, and, presto ! it was as pretty a thing as ever you beheld.

The blouses at the winter sales attract. They arc seen in number galore, in des : gn infinite, and in value as varied-as the shades of the chameleon. Blouses in silk, crepe de chine, voile, delaine, flannelette, silk crepe —every blouse material known. You can get a silk blouse at what you would imagine was less than the cost of making, and so right on through the list. Blouse designs are distinguished for their' collars and sleeves, the lower part especially. The old sloppy kind is a nTemory. What we have now is at least a fit; but the collar is often a work of ait. Again, some blouses are designed for an accessory in this way. They are both economical and sensible. The vestoe with attached collar plays its part both indoors and out; and the fur chin-chin collar in the latter relation has still some weeks to go ere it is put aside. I am not enamoured of the furtrimmed blouse—that is, the separate. Fur trimming is for the costume or the coat. Nevertheless, there are narrow widths of smooth, close fur that do not look out of place. Blouse mentions always bring one to neckwear. There are very pretty organdy roll-collars beautifully embossed ; transparent organdy fronts finished with high, closefitting lily coltar, buttons, and hem-stitch-ing. All these tittle accessories attract, and the satisfactory thing to note is that the price is such that practically anyone can always get a few rather than one only. This is a very chaste semi-princess,. It is something like the other, but note ejuito. Incidentally, that neckwear talk has immediate application. By taking the two you can see what is possible with two or more alternatives. The sleeve here is close, and the front.' instead of being plain, is relieved with three handsome motifs. If the she is objected to, the choice may be smaller. The advantage in a design of this character is that, apart from other recommendations, it will carry. Some designs are for a season —they come, they go, —and nothing can identify with the next. Not so with the semi-princess, which, fashionable enough now, will be more so later on. Fresh Arrival from England: "You are behind the times. Well dressed? Why, not one in 50 is. Don't you understand that you should be in short skirts—oh, I mean shorter! Don't you understand that you should in cases be wearing dresses over

semi-crinolettes? Don't yon understand that with s : lk frocks you should be wearing silk boots? Don't "you understand that you should be wearing, always wearing, small hats? Don't vou understand?" j The Native Rebel: "Well, frankly, we don't understand, and yet may, better than

yourself. When, pray, did you leave England?" ' Fresh Arrival: "Middle May." Native Rebel: ''Precisely! Practically . summer. Are you aware that the earth slants, and that when it is summer in the north it is winter in the. south? And are you aware that our seasons do not precede, j but follow? Are you aware " [ Fresh Arrival : "I nover thought of that. Apparently, then, it is the country that is ! out of date. Its latitude is half a year j behind the times. Well, what do you think ! of my get-up? Everybody has been star j ing." i Native Rebel: "Naturally! What do J I think? That you are out of date, postdate, months before your time. You are j wearing a frock which will be in fashion j just when the earth has reached that point ! in its revolution round the sun that, causes j the lawn-mower, to .get busy. You are j wearing a hat that will attract our favour- J able attention when winter gives place to i spring, and that will be when it should, j And you are wearing " shoes—shoes ! —that j are as out of place just now as an apricot would- be on a leafless tree." Fresh Arrival: "I suppose there is something in what you say." Native Rebel: "Something! Go to your* atlas and study the globe! Peradventuro it will be different sometimes; but then it will be the south that will lead, and the north that will follow. La Mode in that day will have her throne below the equator, and not above it; and what wo wear in spring you at the other end will wear next spring, and what wo wear in summer you at the other end will wear next summer. And what wo wear in autumn you at the" other end will wear next autumn. And what—going? Well, good-bye! And if I were you I should pack that frock away for some weeks. The coats and skirts down at " But Fresh Arrival was too far off to reach. You can find plenty of fresh arrivals, and also old ones masquerading as fresh. Good dressing is seasonable dressing. Good stylo i.s the style which La Mode designed for the time. And the right materials are the materials she loomed for that time, and not for later. It takes hut five or six weeks for the British catalogue to roach this country; but it takes exactly six month'', for this part of the earth to reach the rays or the lack of them that dictated the design, j I shall make hid oven clearer. Suppose Miss Northern in England and Miss South- | crn here, each as fashionably inclined as I the other, decided to exchange places, leav ing their native heaths at the same moment. | And suppose each packed a wardrobe according to this to wear on arrival. This is what would happen: Miss Northern, on arrival here, would Ifave a wardrobe at least four months before its time, and it might j bo even five or six. And Miss Southern, on arriving there, would have a wardrobe at least six months behind its time, and it might be even seven or eight. There is still another way of bringing this home. Read the fashion letters that come from England, and that are .published on arrival, j Just now they are telling you what to wear; but it is for summer —the summer you have yet to roach. .. And when you have reached it, what they will bo telling you then will be for winter, the winter to como. Dressing is just as out of date

when it is in accordance with the modes that were set for the exact hour, and when tha materials are those which were made to express them. _ For example, here is a very pretty deSign, upper part of frock. Docs anyone imagine it would be worn in London in July? It is one of the range that is modish here for this month. That pointed front is an emphatically pretty note, as is the collar that goes with it. As a matter of fact, the design is after a New York mode!,

which itself was, after a French, and that one of the exhibition lot which Paris always sends over. _ 1 selected it for the same reason that dictated those semi-princess ones -to give something pretty and vet econo mical. Now coming back to that reference to shorter lengths. It is true that Paris and London have been making some styles shorter, but it is equally true that many houses of note have been insisting on a few inches longer. Is it a case of doctors disagreeing? No, but one that may b 3 expressed in this way—recognition of the limitations. First and foremost the short skirt is girlish; ergo it is a girl's style. Then it is for the slender; ergo the stout can only adopt it with some degree of hesitation. How can a woman of years turn out in a short skirt. And, above all, how can anyone, girl or woman, former having reached the age of comparative wisdom, turn out in one if a stone in excess of the normal weight of her inches. Study any full figure fashion you like—mine too —and then a photo from life. The artist idealises to emphasise the beauty of the design. Well he. or she, knows that not one woman in six has the slenderncss of the fashion plate, which achieves its purpose—observe! —by lengthening the limb. You will understand the little "trick of the trade" better by noting a photo of any Court beauty in her presentation dress, or sometimes an actress in her theatrical robes. The subject stands on something, and the photographer brings the train round, and so gives height. Next thing about these shorter skirts and their condemnation > is the times we live in. Hundreds of thousands of Englishwomen . have refused to wear them, and are still refusing, and will continue to refuse Because they consider them indecent? Certainly not, because they are not so at .all —"Honi soit," etc. It is because we are at war, and they recoil from wjrat is not strictly decorous! with death knocking at so many doors at one time. Did you ever read Milton? Ho wrote two famous poems, one on joy and one on sadness. In the first he started by saying, "Hence, Melancholy," and telling he_' to begone, sung of meadows, rising larks, and lovers telling their time-worn 6tory. In the second he started by picturing "windows richly dight casting a dim religious light," and became sedate. That is the hour with all Europe in her travail, and that is the hour more or less here. "Daisy" still calls for fine raiment; but for

cue "Daisy" there are a dczen "Rachels." Too sad for dress? Not a bit cf it. It is the guiding line. Here is a decorous dress, or rather the upper section of one. The skirt is plain, with front panel, widening a.s indicated. The little coatee with belt is always acceptable. This is very prettily cut and braided; peplum being slanted for a series of tabs and emphasised with the braid. And this is laid on a belt of self. Tho vest with high collar has a close row or stud-like buttons. —these employed also on close-fitting sleeve. The shoulders are gathered—ever" a pretty idea in these designs. If you wet a spoon before using it to serve jelly you will find that the jelly will not stick to it, and the serving is more easily accomplished. Ladies know them to have no equal— Martin's Apiol and Steel Pills. Sold by all Chemists and Stores throughout Australasia. —(Advt.)