London Fashions

Southland Times, Issue 19897, 16 June 1926, Page 11

London Fashions

(From our Correspondent _t London, April 29. An extraordinary number of new materials, both in woollens and silks, show borders and patterns. A number of the new kashas show chene patterned borders like the pastel colourings on old chene ribbon, and hundreds of the new georgettes, silk muslin and crepe de chenes are covered with floral, geometric or patchwork designs. There seems to be an extraordinary feeling for roses of the tea variety, either arranged like those on an old-fashioned chintz, or else in borders, like one sees on the top of a plain wallpaper. Many of these are hand-blocked, designed, and so printed that they stand out like intaglios. Black silk muslins patterned all over with tea roses, and interlarded with green leaves, are in big request for informal dance frocks, and Will presently be seen made up for garden parties. On old ivory grounds formal studied patterns in navy and black are to be seen, mostly in crepe de chenes, and there are lovely morocains with huge gold borders. This is particularly good in the new pastel grass green. There is a white morocain with a hand-blocked border of roses and a black border added with an embroidered metal fringe, which is quite lovely. Embroidered morocains and crene de chenes for little coats and boleros are very Oriental-looking, some having dots like metal, and others are embroidered all over in metal thread, picking out a patchwork jazz design in colours. This patchwork quilt look in lozenges is a favourite with some silk manufacturers this year, and looks well for odd effects, pierrot panels, and the like, and is sure to find favour with milliners. too; they always look to the new silks for inspiration for little hats of the pull-on variety. BLUES AND PINKS. The number of new colours is astonishing. and also the names devised for them. There is in plain silks and chiffons a wide range of pinky fabrics, pinky greys, pinky beiges, pinky blues, and so on. Pink is to the colour-mixer this year what garlic is to the old-fashioned Italian cook—a necessity. A lovely new colour, which the silk merchant who showed it called “brandy and milk,” is the nicest of the pinky-browny beiges, and there is a big range to which the description “chair,” or flesh, has been given. But it is not a real flesh tinge, rather a more milky—brandy and milk.

Terra cotta red and mulberry are two other tones that have got mixed up with others. Pervenche blue is a fashionable colour on a distinctly mauve tone and pastel shades of greens and reds, and cyclamens and other favourite colours are general. There was a demand for pinky-grey a little while back, and dove greys and pigeon greys still sell, but the demand is not likely to be as strong as for the beiges. Grey is a matron’s colour, and nowadays it is the flappers who set the fashions, and the matrons who follow them. What Miss Seventeen says to-day Madame Forty says to-morrow, and that is the biggest change in fashions as in colours. A new pale amethyst is pleasing, and may replace cyclamen presently, but certain colours stand out for a season only, and

then pass away, and some of these new colours are bound presently to feel the draught from old favourites. There are no cold colours this year, and that, I think, is one of the biggest changes of all, for last year some of the solid colours were cold and harsh, and becoming only to very fresh faces. Black and white, and navy and white are finding favour; also black with a strong dash of colour or metal for the evening; and white with silver. There is a new farce, “Mr Abdulla,” at the Playhouse,

wherein nearly all the best colours are featured. The most successful dress is a black and gold, worn by a lovely newcomer called Frances Dobie. It is in black georgette, with stripe of gold sequins embroidered straight down the bodice to the hip line, where they are met by a skirt of georgette petals embroidered closely with the sequins. It is a charming dress. A dress of amethyst and silver, with a cross-over bodice, and pointed cane wings at the back, is worn by an elderly duchess, and a pastel palm-green with a ladder back and embroideries of silver and fringe is worn by a charming young girt HUSBAND PARTIES. A new form of entertaining, which has met with a considerable degree of success, has been established by Mr Wilfrid Ashley in London. Mrs Ashley is the wife of the

Minister of Transport, and the stepmother of Lady Louis Mountbatten. During the Parliamentary session she will be at home to husbands only who like to come round to Gayfere House and drop in for tea or a cocktail and cigarettes on the way home. A chat in the congenial surroundings makes a pleasant interlude between the cares of the day and dressing for dinner, and Mrs Ashley is an admirable hostess, as well as a beautiful woman and a smart frocker. Men from Parliament, clubs, and offices have availed themselves of her informal invitation to such an extent that the idea has spread to women’s clubs. Any time after the usual women’s afternoon tea crowds have faded away, the lounges of many women clubs are thronged with men guests, and the custom has done a great deal to increase the popularity of women’s clubs. On the other hand, the “husbands only” parties may have had something to do with the decision of one club not to invite men to a forthcoming party, because if husbands would spoil the club spirit.”