"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3414, 20 August 1919, Page 57

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially Written for the Ladies' Page.) JUNE. May has "deepened into June," and with the sunshine and warmth has come the spirit of happiness; discontents have thawed, and given an occasion for expression the British Isles are in the mood to shout. «> The safe return of Hawker and Grieve—counted lost by all save his wife —gave the country an opportune occasion for rejoicing, and not since Armistice Day have there been such scenes, in which all classes united, as on the day when the brave Australian airman and his companion came safely home. London can outdo the Avhole world in its "gathering together" on great national occasions, but on this occasion London out-did itself. And although Hawker, the brave son of our Commonwealth, did not actually "come in first" in the great race in the air acrors the Atlantic, he will always be held in sentiment as the first, though not at the actual winning-post —a mechanir cal mishap, and not any fault of the navigator, robbing him when so near home of the actual prize of the victor. But he has had so much more—the acclaim and the love of a kingdom. A short spring of weeks of gprgeousness has drawn to a clcse. Into its late days have been crowded a marvel of bloom upon which winter-stricken eyes have feasted. The primrose and bluebell and cowslip have faded, but the gorse and the broom and the first roses, poppies, and cornflowers, lupins, and a wealth of bloom herald the summer. The blossom is falling from the trees, and lies beneath in faded showers, but the leafage has thickened and spread and intensified its green to perfection, and the grasses and rushes beside the streams are a-bloom. It is an England of infinite charm just now, and the people are out and about basking in the sunshine and revelling in the sweet airs. This first summer of peace is notable for its note of Empire. Everywhere the Dominionite is with us in our triumphs as in our sorrows—Melba at the opera, Australian cricketers at Lords, and New Zealand in the late football victories and elsewhere. A New Zealander drew one of the £SOO prizes offered by the Daily Mail for the best architectural plans for ideal cottages. The sons and daughters of Empire are holding their own in the running, and one of the happiest (British; results of the war is the closer sense of comradeship between the Mother Country and the Mother-lands . overseas. _ Every week the Empire soldiers are leaving for home in thousands, but on the surface there appears as many here as ever, only fewer are in hospital blue. White flannelled -men —who carry no shame with their bats and racquets — and white-frocked women mingle in the crowds once more. For five years the women have been without fashions—except in uniform,—and, returning to civilian clothes, have rushed in some quarters to extremes. But good taste is reasserting itself, and London society is making its stand against the outrageous, the too elaborate, the unladylike, and it is. prophesied by the fashion experts that Ascot will not forfeit its reputation of being the best-dressed assemblage in the world. The fashions of Ascot will set the seal on the leading styles of the year, and it is said that dresses made as though for the ballroom will not be among them. The best people will not wear dresses cut short almost to the knees, and sleeves above the elbow in the daytime, leaving the arms bare. And wherever Queen Mary appears will be one modestly-dressed woman. Women's mendacities in clothes, or the lack of them, have been the subject of a recent discussion' in the Weekly Despatch, several of the writers putting the worst possible construction upon the indecencies called "attire" in which young women have lately disported themselves. But other notable women (the Ranee of Sarawak and Lady Askwith among them) take saner and more charitable ° views. The Ranee of Sarawak says:

I am not an upholder of women: sufficient be the fact that they are a, necessity! But I think the majority of them stood the test well during the war. They folded away their pretty clothes and they came out in the garments of war. They swathed their naked Tegs in putties, and they covered their bare shoulders in khaki. And the men? Did they like these Amazons, ox do they prefer Viscountess Templetown'-s truly fearful and sparsely clad females? .... London is the arena of marionettes. They are not real, these present-day people, they are the wages of war. They do not mean to be indecent. They are like a lot of leaves that have lain under a grim pall when the covering is suddenly released. , . . The pressure gone, they scatter about in mad enjoyment oi

their freedom.. It is a joke I This England is laughing, she has been hi tears too long. Women cannot -shout for joy, so they dress fox joy; or, like so many overwrought, excited children, they fling off their clothes and dunce. There .are no evil ihought-s in their minds, their bare backs are forgotten. . . . 1 agree with Lady Teonpletown in that I think our minds and our bodies are most grotesquely abused. But I repeat wo do not mean to be indecent, we are not a so>:ious enough nation to take serious tilings (seriously. It is an over-developed sense cf humour that makes us under-dress. The nation is at a standstill, waiting confused and blinking in the sun that has suddenly blazed into our eyes. It is not fair to judge her now. Let her step forth from her blindness slowly. Let her dance lightly for a little while. Polly ■ . . . . Of course, it is her folly, but it will no* last. Like the falling of a curtain on an act, the music will quieten down and the pretty scanty frocks again be put away. Lady Askwith says: I do not myself take so black a, view of things as Lady Templetown. After every great war money changes hands, and people who have not been able to spend largely before will always be extravagant until they get used to a new standard of living. They will settle down soon. As to outrageous and immodest clothes, they are usually confined to a small class, and that not the leading one. These clothes are chiefly worn by the "society people" who, as someone says, you see "in the society papers and nowhere else!" With regard to the great majority of women, I think that clothes have never been so sensible, so healthy, and so becoming. The wicked fashion of squeezing in the waist has vanished, apparently for ever. Short skirts are infinitely more sanitary and more convenient than long ones, and collarless frocks are healthier; there is nothing radically immodest about ankles, and though one could wish that seme women had looked in the .glass before adopting the fashion, still,: if they don't mind, no one else needL Some dresses are cut much too low, but I think it is the exception. We progress slowly: we have set-backs. Silly people do silly things, but, on the whole, I am sure we are progressing. We may even be, as a whole, less refined and more vulgar, but, as Charles Kingsley said. "After ail, 'vulgar' only means 'common,' and, thank Ocdl all the best things are common 1" The Baroness Percy De Worms also holds a charitable and unexaggerated view: 1 think that the word "Fashion" is very misleading. Dressmakers start the main idea in dress, but the carrying out of the trend of fashion is left to tbe good taste or abuse of the wearer of the clothes in question. To my idea dress is now very simple and very charming if only a litti© good taste and discrimination is exercised in choice of dress. Long, simple lines, little trimming, and the natural figuro left unpinched and as God intended it to be. I deplore very short dresses, very low dresses, and all ex±remea in fashion; but think that, on the whole, never have ladies (in the beset sense of the word) ever looked more charming or more comfortable. I. entirely agree. There have always been women who, whatever the fashions, will dress to their extreme limit. Take the fashion which has grown grotesquely during the last few years—that of painting the face, —which is especially resorted to by young women with the idea that it enhances good look?. Never was a greater mistake. There is only a very short, period of youth when the skin of a girl is at its softest and prettiest bloom, and to smother it with powder and paint is an artistic error, to say nothing further. Paint and powder on a young face destroys all its charm of youth; its tints are blurred and its outlines distorted. The chief society bride of the week wasl Lady Diana Manners, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, whose marriage to Mr Alfred Duff Cooper took place to-day (June 2) at St. Margaret's, Westminster, where a large congregation were present. Gold has been chosen by the' beautiful bride for the chief colourscheme of trousseau, and her radiant wedding dress is of beautiful gold tissue veiled with lace, with a train that is composed of the bridal veils worn by the mothers of the Duke- and Duchess of Rutland. A lovely' going-away gown is of delicate amber crepe de chine, embroidered in scroll devices with milk-white beads, cut in the chemise fashion with a Ushaped neck, with a narrow girdle knotted loosely at one side. The sleeves end just above the wrist, and are split a few inches up the back. With the dress is to be worn' a short cape of golden-brown duvetyn, embroidered with gold and silver threads. ~. Among the summer capes is one of great smartness. Of a hint of the old dolman style, it is made in squares of velvet in dusky gold and the deep brown of wallflowers, lined with dark blue satin, with golden oranges breaking the stripes. Another long cape is of thick charmeuse with a silver tissue lining and a hem of nee.dje-run silver thread, audi anotjher black satin cape is hemmed and collared with fitch and a lining of gold tissue. The Duchess of Rutland was "At home" on Saturday afternoon at Harrington street, where hundreds of beautiful presents were displayed in the reception rooms. The King and Queen gave a diamond brooch with the monogram "G.M." surrounded by the ribbon of the Garter in blue enamel. The Duke of Rutland gave the bride a cheque as well as beautiful jewellery. Besides Lady Diana Manners and Mr Duff Cooper, Major George Bruce, only surviving son of Lord and Lady Balfour of Burleigh, and Miss Violet Done are being married to-day, and there are quite a number of other society weddings during the week.