IN FASHION’S REALM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3756, 9 March 1926, Page 72

IN FASHION’S REALM.

WEEKLY UP-TO-DATE DRESS NOTES. By MißOUiun-i. I was looking at some French fashion designs the other day—all very fine ancl the fashions by masters, season about the time now with us, etc., etc. An.l what ttruck me more than anything <•>*«; was the masculinity of them. It set me thinking, and thinking hard—this short skirt, gaiters (they were there), top boots (they, too, were there), and eventually the garment you can imagine (suggested). And so, what with bobbed hair and the like, at some time or other, a woman’s suit not materially differing from a man’s. Now some peopb might say—why not? But perish the day! You see ther. is an inherited sex instinct, and it is explained by mentioning the difference of mind w'heiv purchasing. We shall assume, for the nonce, a woman bent on making her own dress, and, extraordinary as it may read, a man bent on making his own suit, both, as it w'ere, at the one counter. The woman has her eye on something pretty in the way of a pattern, the man on wit at is plain; the woman on a wealth of little things to decorat the dress, the man on the mere buttons. And then we shall assume the same man and woman seeking the finished thing—the woman always has in mind what she can do to put on this or take off that, and then, if she desires, to alter, whereas the man will the buttons to make sure lhat they will never come off, no matter what the usage. We are born differently, we think differently, w’e grow up differently— every woman, if normal, a dressmaker at heart, but no man really a tailor; a woman instinctively turning to a needle and thimble, a man never. It would be an evil day if men got the femininity of mind indicated, and it will be an evil day if ever women get the masculinity of mind those French designs just mentioned seem to point to when you come to study them cud think.

Which is an easy lead to what we can do to beautify our autumn finery when confined to dresses. We can with severe types decorate the lower part of the corsage where the flare starts, and the sleeves, and if a tie is used have this decorated too; or with the non-severe eee a chance for some beading or braiding or whatever else you like to suggest. Then, as for evening frocks, we can reve. all this* and, with the corsage plain, decorate the flared skirt portion as much as ever we like, especially by using beads, though in very open designs, ribbons, etc., and these >re, and anything else that is right and proper. But day or evening, the flared skirt affords us infinite opportunities because of the nature of the flare —one achieve in sections that undulate more or less and offer a field for the needle either on the extended parts in the way of motifs or on the spaces between, and very likely in the way of motifs again.

But let us have an illustration that will explain this a little more forcibly, and here is one that does it quite effectually enough for all purposes. In the example on the left (day) you have a dress where the decoration is in the corsage, and in the one on the right (evening) where it is on the skirt. They are autumn models,

and serve several other purposes—one (left) to show a very popular way of achieving the flare, one (right) a good alternative way, and one (left and right together) to demonstrate the contour, or what I sometimes call the silhouette.

Shall we sec any painted dresses? Over the other side, the great cities north of the equator, they have been going in for them —Baris a good deal, London less, New York and other gay American cities greatly. The painted dress is a fad. There is the dress to start with, plain of course, and an artist paints a flower r.n the corsage, and sometimes, to go by a picture I saw, as large as a small cabbage; or on the skirt if it allows of it; or, as is more frequently the case, on the cape. They rave about this work; but I know something about drawing, and all I can say is that if the work is .no better than the photographs of it reveal it is not very good.

Come to coats—greatcoats, the coats we shall favour in autumn and more than favour in winter. The design here is to emphasise just two things—the size of the collar, the harmonious size of- the cuffs, and the open front with a coat that buttons in the way portrayed. It is only one of the many styles I shall nave to show as I proceed—a score, perhaps, large and small and useful ns grouped, a few now and again, us hints ns to a good choice.

Curious things will be done with fur if ,we follow the lead from abroad. I was lookfug at somo designs the other day where fur had been used just as the whim of a moment might suggest, but still very prettily used. For example, there was a coat with a fine fur halfcollar, and, for the rest, instead of having

fur cuffs, the ordinary one bore a fur motif on the side, and there was another just above it, though small. But a more engaging idea was carried out in the case of a coat where, with a fur-half-collar there was no fur on the cuffs at all, but only two -patches on the coat itself just

there were two crisp ribbon loops and ends. When you come to think of it there is not much scope for the indulgence of ideas in the application of fur, but such as there is the designers certainly make the most of it. For a whim the little fur motif on the shoe is pardonable enough, but it is going a bit far to have a fur border round the ankle as I saw in the case of an ultra-smart turnout as photographed in New York, where, it seems, they can do anything that' no one else can.

Here is a composite picture, where you get tw r o hats and a delightful coat of the nature of a dress, or dress of the nature of a coat. It is the shape of the hat that counts, and though small enough the pictures still serve, in that they slmw the style with the brim down and the

style again with the same up. The hat is governed by fixed laws nowadays, the dress dictating, but the hair doubly dictating. The coat has been drawn as you see to avoid length. To complete it, patch the one section over the other to get that line near the hand on the right, and there it w'ill be—complete.

I have been reading again about bobbed hair —a man’s article, —and the statement is made that in another generation not a woman with her crown of glory as it used to be will be alive. I am not so sure of this. For the "pointer,” how many elderly women do you find with bobbed hair? Not many. I think that, generally speaking, you can divide the «rox into two great age groups—one young or young enough, and the other not young enough and old; and there is the one group bobbed, but the other, save, in cases, not. Miss Pert looks very pretty with her bobbed head, but then she is young. Some day she will be forty, then fifty, then sixty, and may her shadow never grow less till long afterwards. And, alas! grey hairs will come, as “Henry V” says in Shakespeare. We have yet to see how the bob will fare when all the Miss Perts of now have grown up—i.e., reached fifty.

Everything has to be noticed, and this is of them, an old Victorian mode of

treating the skirt which, I see, is likely to come in again. It arises through the

desire to have a bow at the back, and 60 the draping to make it as effective as possible. Somehow it puts one in mind of the styles which were in evidence when Queen Victoria was on the throne and Alexandra the beloved was the great leader iu fashions.