WOMEN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 316, 30 May 1913, Page 6

WOMEN'S WORLD

MODERN {SooIFTY BALLROOMS A PROBLEM FOR MATRONS. London, May 20. The Times publishes an interesting letter from a peeress. "As a matron responsible for guiding a girl through the ways of the London season," says the writer, "I am faced with a state of affairs in some ballrooms calling for immediate attention. My grandmother often told me what a shock she experienced upon first beholding the polka, but I wonder what she would have said if asked to introduce a girl to the scandalous travesties on dancing which, for the first, time in my recollection, are bringing more young men to parties than are needed. "I would ask hostesses to let one know what houses to avoid by indicating on their cards whether the turkey trot or the Boston tango will be permitted." A ROMANCE OF LIFE A day or two ago an aged lady (the Baroness Howen) was found dead in the small ground floor flat she rented in the Avenue Wangram, Paris. She had committed suicide. The story of her life, it now transpires, was sad and strange. For the last quarter of a century she had .resided in the house where she was found dead. People .passing by noticedher as a quaintly-dressed old lady, who. niust in her day .have been extremely i beautiful.'' lbVt&eMorriln£ ; ;&iVwis*Bfeeh 'through the open-window tidying her room,, with an ancient lace mantilla covering her'white tresses, and wearing, gloves to protect her hands. Sh|e never went out, getting a street urchin or a workgirl passing by to bring her a pound, of bread, a few vegetables, or fruit. Beside the body the police commissary found a letter explaining the motive of the venerable lady's act. She belonged to an authentic aristocratic family, and had lived in luxurious surroundings until the family were overtaken, by financial disaster and ruined. She was too proud to accept charity, and having a small amount of money in her possession she arranged to spend so much per day till her eightieth year, which, she thought she would probably not outlive. She was destined, however, to live longer than she reckoned, and when her last penny was spent she ended her days. She owed "not a single sou to anyone," the letter proudly stated, and the wreath of artificial flowers she had purchased with her last franc she requested should' be placed on her coffin.

LUXURY IN DRESS A telegram from Paris to .the London Daily Express says that luxury in women's dress has reached such a pitch in Paris that society women are proposing to organise a simplicity campaign. It is not so much the prices paid for the dresses themselves as the' money asked, and paid, for accessories, which are exceeding the powers of all but the deepest purses. The extravagance in stockings has grown in inverse ratio to the thickness of the material. A shop near the Opera House sells stockings at Bs.a pair at the cheapest. An enquiry for the most expensive produced some at £4O and £4B a pair, made of Chantillv lace, Mechlin lace, or tissue of gold. In the Rue de la Paix a fashionable purveyor of white underwear stated that he had no trousseaux under £2O, and that £2 and £4 were the prices for "cheap" nightdresses.' Another shop of the same kind, making a speciality of corsets, has quite cheap ones at £4, and a little better quality at £B. "But, of course," said the shopkeeper, "when a lady wants a really fasiiionable corset she has to pay for it."

PAST FASHIONS In an article in the journal Madame on "The Weathercock of Fashion," some interesting notes are- given on past modes. It was whilst the warfare between the advocates of the hoop and the adherents to the petticoat was in progress that the fashionable world was diverted by a "novelty"—the use of straw. ' This useful "by-product of the farmyard" had been in use for various articles in France for some time previously, but, we learn, London had the honor of making it a "mode," and it is, moreover, a mode which has survived to tins day. "We are told," writes Mr. Price, "that everything was ornamented with straw at this time, from hats to shoe-buckles. . .' . Ladies of fashion even went so far as to wear straw coats, which were named 'Paillass<\' and were originally manufactured in France.

. . . . Hats of foreign make, and known as 'Leghorn chips,' were imported from Italy, and what had started as a m«r<' caprice in fashion gradually deyr'oped into one of the most important industries of the world." The next turn of the weathercock of fashion brought an agitation for the abolition of the elaborately coiffed and distasteful powdered head-dress. This vogue was quick]v followed by tl"> restoration of hair to its natural state and the arrival of hats with immense brims. In the year 1791 we learn that fashion was in a state of chaos and reverted to the Greek and Roman period. "Watteau and Lancret costumes and Pompadour robes disappeared: slippers, rouges, »atch-hnxns. a" followed the fashion of the buried past. • .... In a very short time the new vogue had caught on so rapidly that every couturiere of Paris was making nothing but classical dresses." T'lis "revival of Arcadia," which at first seemed like beiii£r. an attractive fashion, soon degenerated into a debasing mode, ami the new cult gave birth to the lenses." whose indelicate excesses s<-"'-dalised the world. Dunns? the vc-vs that fashion was running riot in France _n notable revival mad" its appearance in yellow velvet, which became the rasre. Tn a few years dross became decorous if less attractive. "From 1820 till 1532 were rears of singular ugliness." Mr. Price tells us. "Xothinsr so peculiar in its frrotesnueness bad been seen for manr cenerations. yet it was considered very attractive at the time." Full flounced skirts, eiirionslv shaned sleeves, and the "looped" coiffures all seem very ugly in liodern eves.