IN FASHION’S REALM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 71

IN FASHION’S REALM.

WEEKLY UP-TO-DATE DRESS NOTES.

By

MARGUERITE.

One reason why coats serve so well as “dresses’’ nowadavs is that they are developed more or less on the same lines. And, correspondingly, one reason why dresses, where of the severe type, look so much like coats, is that they suggest one through the way they are cut. It comes about largely through the long bodU- and flared continuation therefrom known as a skirt. Naturally, if a coat is flared- it is generally well down, and so, with all the rest straight, there it is at ouc-e. The severely cut dresses or costumes of to-day have a very coatish look. The revers are of great length, the fastening is low down, and the one thing that discounts the impression is the collar. This is generally mannish aqd unembellished and the coat collar is hardly ever so. To test the argument, slap a piece of fur round the neck to simulate a collar finish, and it will be found as I have said. As though in a flash the dress or costume will be given a coat effect. But, of course, there is the flare. V y well—if a coat doesn’t flare it will never look like a dress, whereas the dress may look like a coat whether it flares or not. * * * The materials just now wonderful. With v>*& n again oTthf i S i T ler **hd e d when it was the leade.' expensive. But not this . time. Frequently, if we can go by the price, it is simply nowhere. It is the last mentioned and bears the smallest ticket. The really aristocratic materials are woollens with a rare finish, both plain and in stripes and checks, with tonings that are a treat to behold. And leading all, so far as my own inspection allows me to judge, is a plain material of exquisite finish, the pattern in which is stamped. But it is a coating material, and quite out of the reach of the slender purse. In all which connection let us stop our idolatry of the man who invented “Sniafil.” Finding, by invention, a new rav material to make a finished one is not, to my fancy, half so wonderful as evolving a new finished material out of the same old stuff. The new materials, by which I mean those ready for the scissors, are so extraordinary in their beauty that studying few I am left wondering how ever they were made. * * * And now with respect to hats—the pullon kind; which, incidentally, are sometimes pulled on a little too much for a really .artistic affair. For, you see, when a hat is on, th. head is part of it. and vice versa. Well, there is infinite art in the way the brims are treated. You can have the brim turned up all round or m front or at the back only, and with that you can have it with a severe line or an ornamental one. Take- the

latter. A scrolled brim is an admirable selection with a severe crown; but it takes a picture to explain it, and here is the one that does. is in the scroll, as something must be allowed for the bend. Consider the two thi lgs together, with this for the result. The brim gains from the crown and the crown from the brim—an elegant hat of the pull-on kind. * * * The white felt hats are particularly smart. A leading authority says that they give the face a quite angelic appearance. Well, I expect that a good deal depends on the face. But conditionally that the wearer is pretty and blessed with a clear skin, there is something particularly alluring about these white felt hats. For the felt is always of a superfine quality, as indeed it should be. With all trimming practically out of it, the manufacturer can put everything into the material. In other years you paid for a hat and a feather, etc., etc., combined. Nowadays you pay for a hat only. Felt is not the only material used for the hats of this autumn-winter season. Duvtyn is another choice, and then there is suede. For a really fine hat suede is ideal, but I am not about the colour. * * * As a rule fashion drawings are best when just abreast of the times, but occasionally one may reach out, and the more pardonably -when it doesn’t mean showing a revolutionary change. This is a lookahead selection to emphasise just three things—that fur is going to have a very long innimrs, that coats will not be discarded till we are absolutely obliged to discard them, and the lines of now arc going to be continued. But there are two other notes, and these are related to the dress. The tie is one and that side ape is the other. For a useful adjunct commend me to the tie every time. In ordinary parlance, it costs very little and goes a long way. * # # If I note tlfis it is merely to leave it on record. I did the roll stocking for the same reason. Opening an American paper the other day, I saw the heading “Bell Garters.” It was a message from a place called Clairsville stating that the bells were not liked. It seems that the too extra smart set of New York set the fashion at some time or other in the form of a little ribbon buckled round the upper part of the stocking with a tiny “tinkler”

at the side—i.e., a metal case with something in it that made it tinkh. Who was it said, “It is a mad world, my

masters”? I myself cannot say, but whoever he was he was right—here and there. * * * A more pleasant thing to note is the bobbed hair net. It is a shape, and it goes er the had ' r the vening. It came out in Paris, and being a pretty fancy caught ou at once. The net is a very <v on ir 'R I and fits the head just like a hat would. It goes over the hair to just that exte: and now and again the sides have little tassels—anything for a change. 1 have not seen the actual article, but 1 did see a picture, and it won me at once. The bobbed lair net it. made in all sorts of colours, b to harmonise with the hair and to be in contrast with it. The latter kind prevail. The picture I saw was a bit hard to make out, as it was a photo, but 1 think that beads were emploved w-herever the r crossed. i** * . Again I look ahead, but a little farther than before. As 1 mentioned a wreck or so ago, cape-coats are coming. Picking up such e-’sea papers as I get, I see that they were the rage everywhere with the waning of winter. I drew what you see from a photo, impelled by certain features and again by the possibilities. A i rettier handling of the cape has never come under my notice. For the cape is hard —

a style that requires a lot of thought to prevent dowdiness. The designer made good use of whatever was used for the edging. Observe hcrw it is carried below the cape, suggesting a tie. and then what is used with the lur necklet. The capecoat when it comes will feature a lining to serve as a background for the coat proper when the cape is raised in the way of the sketch. * * * Even though it savour of repetition, I cannot omit all mention of fur. Week bv week l refer 1 to it, and it is because of its prominence. We shall have a wonderful fur season, as the best authorities agree that everything lias been done to brings it in as often as possible. I am never as concerned over the fur garment as I am over fur as a trimming. It can be used appropriately enough to trim almost everything. But, of course, its greatest place is in decorating the coat—the lovely great coat that gives warmth t the wearer and beautifies her at the same time. The collar is as varied as eve art can have it. and the edging is the grand finish. With the fastening ever so low down, the effect is grand where the collar, suddenly narrowing, gives place to a border which becomes part and parcel of it. But although it is not always so, I hold that the fur should stop at that. In my opinion, if it is carried round the hem it takes from the 8: art effect. * # * Having shown the flare in so many ways, front view, it occurred to me that it would not be out of place to show it from the back. For, after all, the back is quite as important as the front —anyhow to the beholaer. The picture serves to prove the value of the shaped line. This means from where the flare starts. There is a dash about this flare that is half of its recommendation. It seems to fairly switch