UNPLEASANT DRESS

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 85, 16 May 1914, Page 6

UNPLEASANT DRESS

PASSINdiOF XHE'&IT SKIRT

The manifesto signed by the :.>ost aristocratic women .of France, printed in ihc "Express," urging Frenchwomen to boycott the tv. nitric fashions which certain Parisian dressmakers are forcing en 'ike public, has created a sensation here, wrote the Parts correspondent of the "Express." .

When I called to-day at the office of the League of Patriotic, '■'■ Frenchwomen, tlirough whose organisation the manifesto was issued, I found the staff busy opening the hundreds-.of letters that, had been received containing signatures of approval. " Kae.h post brings us more requests for forms,'' said the secretary. "We have had one thousand applications to-day." A more t opportune moment of attack against the freak dress could not have been found. The groat dressmaking establishments in tlie Rue de la i'aix and the Place Vendome are showing their secrets, hitherto hidden, to the buyers from London, New York, and all the world. "Sort of Bustle." Such dresses! Skirts that are caught up behind into a sort of bustle so that as the wearer walks thev

give sufficient glimpses of silk-stockinged calves. Skirts cunningly arranged in. folds aud flounces that seem to fall apart with every movement to reveal legs and ankles; skirts that are not simply and honestly cut short, but capricious skirts' that can appear shorter than: they really are at first sight. Blouses of the texture and transparency of tissue paper fall over bare shoulders draped Avith golden thread, through which one sees a glimpse of a low pink corsage. !ilhc:;e arc thing that have aroused the indignant protests of the best of Paris society, revolting against the fashions of the demi-monde monopolising the attention o'f the world.

M. Worth, "who inherited the famous dressmakingbusiness from his grandfather, a Lincolnshire man, gave me his opinion on the protest "to-day in his peaceful study in the Rue de la Paix. "L think the fashion of to-day is very pretty indeed," he said. "It dresses women closely, though not too tightly, and it suits the women with graceful figures. Of course, I deplore the extravagances that have followed this fashion of close fitting, and on that account I approve of Ika manifesto. "But those are only exceptional, and I can assure you the majorily of my clients have no such taste for eccentricity. I never advise it, but if I am ordered.to lower a bodice or slit a skirt I must execute my orders. "Quite recently one of my customers who was trying

a dross for the Monte Carlo season complained of the thickness of the taffetas lining, which, by the. way, was thinner than a cigarette paper, and asked for a kind of aerial pongee. 'lt Avill be like an X-ray dress,' I said, 'but as you are paying the piper, madame, you may call the tune.'

"The Avomen Avho dress extravagantly are very few, and I fear that the manifesto will have on their dresses an effect quite contrary to that which it is intended to achieve. Those avlio dress-without extravagance, the great mass, Avill go on as usual. ''The feAV who make themselves notorious by excesses and audacities Avill probably, in order to spite the reformers, only multiply their excesses and audacities.

"We have had many crusades against fashions, but they never amount to much, because errors in taste are the exception and not the rule." Mme. Paquin declared that the slit skirt is doomed. "The manifesto of the League of Patriotic FrenchAvomen comes too late,'' she said. ''Skirts Avill no longer be slit, but they will be wider and give freedom to the limbs. "Slit skirts answer to the needs of modern life, or at least to the needs of the modern dance, but 'they have their faults. The Avearcr needs to have a very beautiful figure, and ungraceful walkers spoil the charm of the dress. "There are only tA\o sins," concluded Mme. Paquin, "in the making of a dress—ugliness, that exposes itself, and deshabille, that provokes attention. "We have seen the danger, and the new fashions Avill remedy it." THE DUTCH CAP. A pretty trifle to wear with the negligee is the Dutch cap.- It may be made very quickly with a strip of Brussels net and three triangles of lace, together with some fine wire. Fit the strip of net over the head, bringing it closely to the hair line at the back and sides and drawing it almost tightly towards the forehead, where all the fullness must be gathered into the point of a tAvo-inch triangle of lace. This Avill make a straight line across the brow, and its outer points Avill run to the front points of the typical Dutch triangular wings of wired lace which extend straight outAvards from above the ear tips. SHOE JEWELS. Dancing shoes are nowadays fastened to the feet by the aid of ribbons, and these ribbons entail the use of eight separate pieces of jeAvellery. There is a buckle, three slides appear on each side of the slipper, and a second buckle is used where the ribbon ties above the ankle. Some of the jewelled sorts are lovely examples of tlie designer's art and the goldsmith's skill.