VOGUES AND VAGARIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 638, 15 April 1929, Page 5

VOGUES AND VAGARIES

Bv MADAME JEANNE VARREZ Tunic bodices and kilted skirts ain among the vogues of the moment, botl. for sports suits and for afternoon dresses. The typical sports ensemble includes a short jacket to wear over the tunic jumper that is allied to the kilted skirt.

The tunic-and-kilt afternoon frock is often designed in one, the skirt being set at the end of the long tunic. An effect of even more perfect hipfitting is attained by clever strappings with narrow self-coloured bands that tie in one or more bows at the side. Such bows are a much-favoured embellishment just now, and appear at

their daintiest on a soft-toned 'crepe model. When worn. over the skirt, the tunic-bodice is converted to the tunic-blouse, but the hips are similarly girt and tautened, as it were, to maintain the slender line.

The banded idea prevails conspicuously among the new modes. Cloth coats are trimmed with self, bands, and tweeds are trimmed with kid or leather. Even our accessories reveal the same all-prevalent tendency, and charming printed-silk hand-bags of the pochette variety are engagingly bound with bands of patent leather.

Though necklines are still eloquent of the sports influence expressed in a square-cut front and a high-fitting back, or of the morning- dress tailoring that clings to the fever style, some ot th enewest afternoon frocks show a neckline reminiscent of the fichu, as it falls in graceful folds from a slightly open-front decollete. Such a collar conceit is charmingly feminine, and is well exemplified in a model materialised in navy crepe de chine, collared in small patterned navy and beige crepe de chine, and belted with a simple girdle of black patent leather. Youth and gaiety lurk in the seams and flutes of the new skirts that are cut on the circular plan. They betray no hint of dowdy rotundity, thanks to the genius of the designer. This same genius provides so many contrasts that, in our day, “set” modes are nonexistent. While a miraculouslyseamed and slightly circular sports skirt is very trim and skimpy, the same idea translated to an afternoon model becomes an exquisite illustration of the godet or the flare. The tube-like frock with a black drapery that recalls the train, appears to be engaging the attention of some designers. It certainly provides a sharp contrast to the ultra-full jupe that still insists on the slender hipline.

Charming little dining coats, made of sequins, but none the less apparently of mannish persuasion in their immaculate tailoring, are a last-word novelty. Cut very short, after the prevailing “odd coat” fashion, such models are frequently bound and revered in plain gold kid, or silver kid, according to the choice of colour scheme. Evening shoes match the revers. Chiffon is the approved lining of these dainty dining-coats.

The millinery that may be taken as a presage of forthcoming modes includes a new and wider version of the helmet shape, the Dutch bonnet style, and the turban in a narrower form than heretofore, with classic folds of altogether satisfying beauty. Superperfection of line, in short, is the hallmark of the turban as at present materialised.