IN FASHION’S REALM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3774, 13 July 1926, Page 65

IN FASHION’S REALM.

WEEKLY UP-TO-DATE DRESS NOTES. By Margtjibiti. Here’s a short story—characters, of course, imaginary. Mrs Pert and the two Misses Pert live somewhere or other, and there Mr Pert, too, but, short of providing. he doesn’t count. Mrs Pert dressos up to* ones, the two Misses Pert up to nines, and people say—you know what people are —“Poor Mrs Pert!” and when the two Misses Pert are mentioned—well, they tighten their lips. Now I, who know the family, know that it is just the other way, that it is—“ Wicked Mrs Pert,” and that as to the two Misses Pert it is—“ Poor girls!” It is this way: Mrs Pert feels that she has arrived, and that it doesn’t matter, and so she goes around the house anyhow, and this kind of thing thriving by the indulgence down the street in the same way, the while the Misses Pert read this column, are up to date, and that kind of thing, also thriving in the same way, are sma-rt and winsome. I could shake Mrs Pert. The other day the two Misses Pert did. Mr Pert had given the three a :ather nice little cheque each, and what the two Misses Pert did was by instructions. I believe the words were: “Here, shake your mother up, and go into town and enjoy yourselves, and don’t com© back with a penny or there’ll be trouble.” They managed it, in that they got her out. infected her, by degrees, with their own enthusiasm, and next day it was one deliverer after another, and all in the way of what we call “glad rags.” * * * Now. I am not given to preaching, but if I were Shakespeare I should write the seven ages of women, and in order to drive something home take Mrs Pert for my example. She was born with a lovo for pretty things—all the sex are, stage one; she romped, but she had a groat idea of a pretty frock—likewise, stage two; and she wooed, nay. was wooed by Mr Pert, in such garments as never wore, or he thought so—stage three; and for a while, as Mrs Pert, she kept up—stage four. It is stages five, six, and seven that would engage my attention, and especially five and six. She cooled off in her affection for nice clothes, at first slowly and then fast, and. not to disguise tHe fast, incurred that frightful disease “Don’t care.” This is my little lecture: We owe a duty not only to ourselves, but to those we love and who love us to dress well to the very end. There is no one more charming than a well-dressed matron in the forties, unles it is in the fifties. There is no one more charming than a well-dressed woman in the sixties, unless it is in the seventies. And I shall never forget the pleasure an old lady of eighty gave her family when, having visited the milliner, she came back in a pretty black silk hat with jet trimmings, and when asked why she didn't get a bonnet said: “A bonnet I It makes me look too old.” # # * Which seqms a rather long-winded way of bringing ill a mention of scarves again. But it is this way: if there is too much sedateness, well, there is too much, and then, presto! emplov a gay little scarf and the birds sing. Here, of course it is & case of youth, or near enough for the purpose, and with a suit such as indicated there is the scarf to give lifo to it and the wearer together. There are all sorts of ways of employing the scarf, and here it is by uniting it with the collar and letting the generously long ends flutter in

whatever manner the air, breeze, or wind decides.

I myself picked up a lovely scarf the other day—picked up, meaning bought at a sale and not in the street. It was of a crinkly kind of silk of grey persuasion, the ends of which looked as though they had been stained with half a dozen colours, both distinct and rolled into one. When you buy one scarf you are privileged to look at a dozen, ana 1 always take every advantage of my privilege. There were some glorious scarves in the one colour with variegated ends, and a fair masterfiioce with a pattern. The soarf came in ast spring with a . rush, in summer bloomed, in autumn wilted a bit, and with winter declined a bit. But it has returned, and is going to be a greater accessory than ever, and it ia my opinion that there has been a certain amount of unconscious compulsion behind it It is thk way: we have beoome motorised. All things considered, it is important. In other

days it was only a few who knew the luxury of carriage cushions, but in these days show me the woman who is not at home in a motor oar, even if it is only a hired one The scarf is related. The scarf is an accessory which lends enchantment to the wearer and the beholder at any time, but it took the motor car to make it indispensable. * * * As in this case. She has, of course, just descended from one, and is evidently glancing in at a window preparatory to going in to buy something, or it may be that she is just about to go out in one, and is surveying herself in tho glass to seo

how she looks. The scarf! The sketch is with an eye to the future, because with ihe sleeve that is in contrast to the coat or dress the scarf may be in keeping, and as the season advances very often will be. * * * We are rapidly approaching the hour ■when it will be a case of the changed scene, and so all buds and opening leaves. Hail it! The two great extremes in dress will be the cape and the mannish, meaning the coat or dress featuring the cape or the cape sleeve, and the mannishlydesigned suit through the little coat cut on the lines of a man’s dress jacket, with or without some variation. They will be the Alpha and the Omega in the ways of standards, and between them will run every conceivable design that dress artistry has been able to evolve. But I am not too sure about the flare. In my opinion it is starting lo die out. challenged even though not killed by the pleat. The pleated dress is coming in as though from all sides, but, mind, as related to the skirt, and then broad pleats and not narrow ones. With nearly everything in the way of the tailored, or near enough, the pleat will be a predominant feature, and so very broad that sometimes half a dozen will complete things. But pardon —beware the single pleat in front, as, say what they may, it suggests a divided skirt, and. seeing the length of this, it is, to my view, an abomination.

The cape engages my attention without any reservation whatever. It is a beautiful thing. Observe that it is a different cape, and that, as a matter of fact, it is so resolved with the sleeve and dress as to figure as a drape. Again there, is the cape of the dress and then there is the cape of the sleeve, the first combining with dress and sleeve, but the second being of the sleeve only, and so two capes one for each sleeve. I have seen both, but I found it impossible to choose, hnd it was because they were equal triumphs. Asked any earlier and I should have said at once that a cape and smartness were rather hostile terms. But the cape of now and the cape that is to be are smartness itself, and it is all the triok of the arrangement.

For example, here is a cape sleeve, but shown from the back in order to show that it is not a cape that goes all round. On the contrary, it is all part and parcel of the sleeve and linked with it, and for

the rest it mefges with the side of the farment, whether this is a coat or a dress, t is impossible to denjr the charm of this style, but I'll add a word of cautinn—it is no kind of design for the amateur. • • • Small though it is. the hat will convey somethi nr simply because that something is shown. It is the ornament on the side, well down. Thu is a note of the moment, and a growing one—the bunch of ribbon, or whatever else it is, in just that position; a trifle, of oourie, but then trifles light

as air give one. and it. an air of distinction. Hats incidentally become more

charming every day, and that side peak with the finish indicated ia one of the very latest in the way of ideas.

Once more a fur note to remind you that a little is going to be continued, and then to say this: that, if it is a collar, the addition of a ribbon works wonders, look at the example on the right, and then at the one on the left. The drawings explain this. HINTB AND SUGGESTIONS. To ensure puddings being light tho flour must be well sifted. - Keep a lump of beeswax handy and rub your thread along it before sewing on buttons. Hard water is softened by using a tablespoonful of borax to about 2gal of water. When fruit juice is spilt on table linen sprinkle at once with salt to prevent a permanent stain. C'akes will not stick to their tins if the latter are placed on a damp cloth when removed from the oven. A piece of salt about the size of a walnut put in the saucepan if an egg has cracked will prevent the inside from boiling out. A little bicarbonate of soda mixed to a paste with cold water ia splendid for removing scorch marks, perspiration, and other stains from white silk. Grease stains on a stove should be wiped off immediately with newspaper. Before cleaning the stove rub the stain with a cloth dipped in turpentine. When preparing potatoes for boiling choose them equal in size to ensure even cooking. Avoid cutting them, as cut potatoes boiled arc never so nice as whole ones. Enamelled saucepans should be hardened when new by being put into cold water in a larger vessel, brought slowly to the boil, and boiled fast for a few minutes. When washing a white silk jumper to which you want to give a little stiffness add a few lumps of sugar to the rinsing water, roll tightly in a clean towel, and iron while still damp. Locks that are stiff and hard to turn should be oiled with a feather dipped in good machine oil. Insert the feather through the keyhole, and twist from side to side. This oils the parts and loosens dirt. Onion juice will remove rust from knives. When linen has been scorched boil 2oz fuller’s earth in half a pint of vinegar, and add the juice of three onions. Spread this mixture on the scorch, allow it to dry, and then wash the linen. A teaspoonful of borax added to warm water when washing the hair removes grease and improves its appearance. When washing silver place a teaspoonful of borax in the water. Blacklead marks can be removed from a carpet if a paste made of fuller’s earth and water, to which a few drops of ammonia have been added, is left on the stains for some hours. When the fuller’s earth is brushed away the marks should have disappeared. A rubber hot-water bottle should never be put away flat. Blow hard into the empty bottle, then screw the top on quickly. If knives are to be put away for a time clean them, rub with a few drops of sweet oil, and fold them one by one in flannel, baize, or chamois leather. When cleaning knives mix a pinch of bicarbonate of soda with the bathbrick, and they will polish more easily. Mahogany should be washed with vinegar or cold tea. To keep cheese fresli wrap it in a cloth that has been dipped in vinegar and wrung as dry as possible. Keep in a cool place.