IN FASHION'S REALM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3325, 5 December 1917, Page 57

IN FASHION'S REALM.

WEEKLY UP-TO-DATE DRESS NOTES By Marguerite. Never had the dress writer a greater responsibility. The call is for economy. Ninetents of our visible self being dress, naturally personal economy centres largely in this department. What is money anyhow? Simply the token of rewarded effort on behalf of others. If you have earned it you know; if it has been given you, you must learn. This token while you have jt is that much expended labour for others in reserve for yourself, and hence the wisdom of him who said that anyone with sixpence over and above liabilities is a capitalist. For capital, you see, is simply the saved excess of past labour. Well, this token was certainly not acquired except by those who paid it weighing the value of what it was exchanged for. Hence, when it comes to transferring it again, exchanging it for the labour of others, it behoves whoever has the voice to weigh the valuo with equal care. The majority of the economy articles on dress begin, if I may be allowed to say so, at the wrong end. This is because eo few women have studied economics. As one—if you will pardon me—who has, I aver that the first lesson is to teach tho fact of what money is, what it stands for, and what it represents. It is not dross, but in a sense sacred, simply because of what I have mentioned. A worn coin jjreaches a sermon. Here is one of Queen "Victoria's, 50 years old, head just visible. Suppose it has passed through 100,000 hands. In that case as it is a halfcrown, it has tokenised by exchange a value of £12.500; and when it leaves my hand to rest in another's, no change being given, this will becoino £12,500 2s 6d, and so on. That is the first lesson—you give value to get it, you get valuo when you part with it—an endless chain from the mint to tho time when it has become too smooth to pass. Every girl has a dross allowance simply because she has to be clothed. It is simply a question of whether it should be spent for her or by her. While she is. too young it must' be the former, but when she has reached a certain age tho responsibility should be her own—first in part, and then by degrees wholly. And no matter whether she is destined to eventually earn her own money or not, this should precede that stage in order to make her wise. _ But—a dress allowance I Well, in my opinion, no; but only a general one, including dress. If a girl is educated to believe that everything 'she gets is for dress it will very likely cause her to go on that way. No; some should be for dress, somo for other things, and some—l am going to be insist-* ent on this point—to save. Half the misery in tho world is due, in my opinion, to tho neglect of this lesson in youth. A child is encouraged to bolievo that whatever is given her is as an agent of someone else, whose -till it should reach in the .shortest possible time. It grows on the mind, till eventually, no matter what the sum, whether given or earned, tho all-consuming desire is to get rid of it as though it were a thing accurst. And as a certain "Old Gentleman" is never without his maxims, the favourite one is: "Have a good time when you are young." When this war is over I hope that dress economy will be taught as part and parcel of economics generally, simplified to suit, and that it is in tho school.

If this seems like preaching too much, blame the hour. I have spent a week mixing up with war workers, more or less as one of them, and I have heard things, and they have set me thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that the old go-as-you-

please days that distinguished this country are as dead as Ctesar. We are going to become continentalised as regards making ends meet by making odds and ends do so. And this hat is an example. Never were summer trimmings so scant. And never did we imagine that so much could be done with so little, The shapo_ Is the thing, and to start with this is serviceable as well as pretty. Go through the drawer where odd things have been accumulating, and exercise your ingenuity for the adornmentLittle scraps of ribbon, Ends of this and that, Sorted out and freshened, Trim this pretty hat.

To those with a colour senso and deft fingers millinery in these times ought to bo a very small expense. The secret is—don't retrim old hats that are old, and don't uso old bits of stuffs which have that tired feeling which no iron can remove. Simply keep your eyes open for untrimmed shapes of good lines and (if you don't happen to havo collected them yourself) for odd bits of now things in the shops. Then never buy merely because it is the last word, but primarily because it suits you; and if what you do buy has a palpably long life in itself study the hour and see if it will conform with what's coming. Delightful effects can be secured by using cretonne cut out as a trimming, and this, I may say, is used by many good milliners. It calls for artistic ingenuity; but can easily be copied at home. The material for such charming millinery can bo secured by looking out for remnants of cretonnes and silks in the furnishing departments of drapery houses. As a hint, this is-from England: "The model-makers for many big firms may be seen prowling round at sale times looking for odd bits, and tho skilful fingers of the home milliner could utilise these with equal advantage to her head and her pocket." The sports coat reigns supreme, as do a ■whole range of blouse coats and coats so treated at the waist as to convey something of tho blouse idea. And collars are generous, and pockets likewise, while the sash is sometimes indispensable. As for skirts, it all depends whether they are or a coat and skirt suit or of a. frock. _ If the former, then they are Invariably plain. The illustration shows a modish coat and skirt, and one of the best. It is on artistic lines,

and another of those excellent examples that show how much can result from little as tho result of application.

To design, say, embroidery, one, must have what I may call - the "draughtsman's instinct" for symmetry and line effect as distinct from tints. Start by copying, and, if you want the best of all lessons, tako the head and tail pieces in books and printers' borders. But you must enlarge them, and this is how to do it. Divide the original into little squares by cross-ruling it, using a scale and a parallel ruler. Then, say that you want to double, or treble, or quadruple the size, rule the necessary sized paper to that enlargement. And then copy from'the small squares whatever they contain into the larger ones; and then perfect the drawing with compass and ruler, rubbing out to the faintest and repencilling till there is no fault. And for the "repeat," if the design is continuous, simply trace, or if the design reverses, go to the window and trace it in that position. Keep at this till you learn symmetry '• and balance, and then draw mouldings, copy flowers as gathered, turning them into designs, and using your fancy for all it is worth. Half the scrolls in embroidery, unless by skilled hands, are broken-backed—scrolls that don't turn properly, and, so forth. You must learn how to turn circles and curves first, and the principles of balance. When you get on far enough you will discover that much rests with illusion. You may want to embroider a monogram; but, to start with, how many can letter properly, even professionals. Type is no guide. In a line of the alphabet this is the law—all printed letters as "A," "V," and "W" .have the points carried beyond the line. AH letters like "T," "L," and "F". must press against the next in order to lessen the hiatus, and the main stroke be thickened, in which connection the letter "I" is always the thickest of all. I'll not deceive you—designing is a study of years. Here is a blouse, for instance, and suppose you were a perfect designer, what could you not do with the front? You might embroider a single scroll and double its value; you might work in a monogram in a circle that would: be pronounced a work

of art. But don't despair, since, not being such, you can easily copy another. Still, leaving this out, it is a very pretty blouse effect, and has been chosen to emphasise something—the bib, or apron-front, in its new form. This is of a frock, and so the balance comes in tho girdle. But blouses are shown with tho apron carried down, same effect at back, and hip of skirt free. The sleeve, too, is pretty, and one of the' popular styles. I come now to a remarkably pretty oyerblouso just brought home by a relation. It is of Georgette crepe, as light as a feather, and something which you would imagine you could blow away. The blouse is in semi-coatee form, with a "V" neck and sailor collar, this being in white ninon ill contrast to tho pink, and hemstitched. Below the "V" the fronts are "caught" with eight little bows of cord. Then the sleeve! This is something like the one just pictured, only a looped extension is just below tho elbow with a tassel, and curves into a close extension "drawn" in with another eight little bows. Finally, the cuff is simply a band of ninon, hemstiched and cleverly united to the crepe, the cuff having a diamond end over tho hand. A frivolous possession to be worn over a suitable base; but a delightful creation all the same. You may or may not like this; but if I had omitted it I should have left my pictorial panorama for the season like a ring with ono of the stones missing. Tho upstanding deep frill over a hedgeljke line of gathers for tho yoko of a skirt is a fashionable note.. I have, as you see, imposed a blouse, or, rather, the lower

end of one. to show how it looks in associating Imagine the blouse ending at waist, in which caso the skirt would bo seen smooth behind the frill to a waistband, and

observe that the pockets in the frill, for there are such, would be clearer.