A Page for Women

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1926, Page 16

A Page for Women

Fashions and other Items

TO=DAY’S FASHIONS.

FRILLS, FADS AND FOIBLES. VOGUES AND VAGARIWS. (By Madame Jeanne Varrez.) (All Rights Reserved.) Lots of afternoon frocks are fashioned from delightful crepes: crepe Juliette, crepe Georgette, crepe romaine, crepe de chine. A powder blue romaine gown was -trimmed with painted suede—an indescribably lovely ensemble. On a frock of Juliette crepe in a 'bewitching parma shade, was introduced a new style of pleating, vandyke manner. And nearly every frock in the new collections shows a flared hem. or fulness introduced in one way or another. A very few have flat backs and very full tabliers in front, set on the. slant. Innumerable floating panels are. seen, flat and narrow, as well as vandyked hems edged with ordinary frills. Many of the new evening -dresses “feature” tunic effects. They are exquisitely graceful in their new genre, with the fulness commencing below the hips. The line of the waist is determined by the placing of the pleats, gathers or pretty flutings. Sometimes, in Paris, the waist is worn high, though the general trend so far is definitely low'. .But there are al! sorts of ways of changing the position of the waist. A tunic of satin or chiffon, made on full lines, may be drawn into gathers, high or low, and allowed to flare out over a slim cut undershcath. One -sees side panels placed at a perfectly normal waistline, whence they hang straight till they near the hem; then they fall bewitchingly into flutes, or are ’‘flared” with a 'border of pelt or feather. Very novel and pretty is the newcomer to the lingerie department; a corset or combination brassiere and belt carried out in silver tissue. An ideal fabric, since its peculiar substance gives all the necessary support without boning.

Multi-coloured “Romany” or gipsy sashes of tissue are a new note on black frocks, which now are seldom seen without a touch of colour.

Amid the influx of increasingly feminine modes the one or two mannish fashions that still persist are accentuating themselves most amusingly. Quite dandyish and foppish is the neat black suit with -skirt kilted in front, showing a wide black kid waist-belt edged with white and finished in front with a smart buckle. Little coat fronts, too, come from the underarm seams and are edged with two-inch 'bands of kid. A narrow, fairly deep square-cut neck reveals a dicky in one with a stand-up white collar! The collar of the frock is tied with a narrow ribbon round the white collar. And, of course, we have the monocle and the Eton crop and the gardenia in the buttonhole. A POCHETTE FOR EVERY FROCK. The modern pochette should match the modern frock if the toilette, as a whole, is to be a success. It is, thcre-

fore, an excellent plan to make these little bag-3 at home The usual difficulty experienced by the amateur pochette maker lies in the lack of a sufficiently stiff foundation. An old book cover of the required size will do away with quite a lot of this trouble, and make an interlining which will keep the pochette quite firm when in use. The silk covering must be measured

half as long again as the 'book cover when opened out flat; this allows enough material for the flap, which will be lined with buckram. The silk lining, if sufficiently thick, can be pasted neatly to the inside of the book cover, the edges Wing turned over so that they are hidden when the outer cover of the bag is attached. Small stitches in embroidery silk Will neaten lining and outer cover at the edges, and a large press stud will serve as fastening. Sec that the sides of -the pochette are strong enough ito keep the contents secure when in use. A little embroidery in steel beads, or a rat button of cut steel or jet. will give a still more professional appearance to the home-made bag.

The gilt and coloured leathers sold for coat collars and cuffs lend themselves admirably to pochette making, for they are thin and supple, and quite easy to manipulate. The mottled ones are practical, -since they can be used with a variety of toilettes of different hues, and look in keeping with each. “LET ME BUY YOU A HAT!” Mclisande opened the final demand for income tax. “And now 1 shan’t bn able to buy that little purple hat,” she mourned.

There was a moment’s blank silence. Then: “Let me buy you a hat, ’ said her husband.

Melisande began her usual emphatic “Oh, no— —*’ Then stopped suddenly. ’Darling, I’d love it,” she said instead. “What an awful shame,” protested her sister, when she heard about it later. ’You have far more money to spend on hats than he has. in spite of every thing.’’ But Melisande’s thoughts had gone deeper than that. They had married on an extraordinarily small income; they had agreed that Melisande should go on with her work, and that expenses should be on the ahare-and-sh a re -a 1 i k e princ i p 1 e. Il has to be, nowadays. And the wives are the last to complain. But they do sometimes regret —just a tiny bit, the passing of the days when husbands puffed out their chests with pride and sakl “I would never allow my wife to earn money.”

No longer does the husband feel an overwhelming responsibility for his wife. And. while she will cheerily earn money rather than be a charge on him in times that are not plentiful, she can’t help feeling that little, tiny regret for the passing of the old order. Melisande knew that the new hat would mean a week of scanty lunches for her husband. But lie would feel a glow of pr/teelive manhood every time he saw tJ/at hat. The pleasure of giving to l‘/s wife would urge him on to fresh endeavour.

It. is not all honey —to sharo-and-share-alikc. And many wives would give a great deal to go back to the old regime under which the woman “stayed at home ami kept house.” But it cannot always be. And it is just those unexpected flashes of responsibility —which the wife must never ignore or question—that will save her own happiness and her husband’s selfrespect.

EYEBROWS TO ORDER. Prettv eyebrows give charm and cliavacter io the face, so it is worth while taking a liille trouble to acquire them. You can have the kind you want if you are willing to spend a little time on their cultivation. The arched eyebrow is most admired, but the fine, delicately pencilled straight line is eq unify beautiful. If you are dissatisfied with your eyebrows, <the first thing is to decide in what way you want to change their appearance, and, before you decide, you must try various styles to see which suits you.

This can easily be done with the help of a little powder and an eyebrow pencil. First cover up your eyebrows with powder so that they are practically invisible. Then with the eyebrow pencil make the delicate arch, or the fine straight line, or the strongly marked “forceful” eyebrow that yon fancy. Consider <thc effect carefully from various angles, with and without a hat, and decide if it is pleasing. Then you can begin to train your eyebrows in the way they should go. Remove the powder and pencil marks and apply a little vaseline to the tip of an eyebrow brush, brushing the eyebrows in the shape you wish. Then with a pair of toilet tweezers pluck out any hairs that spoil the line. These hairs are not deep-rooted, and the process is not painful if the brows are first bathed with warm water, and if only -three or four hairs are pulled out each night. Thin, vague eyebrows can be improved by applying a little vaseline with the fingertip and gently brushing it in. Castor oil and olive oil are equally good. AU three not only strengthen and darken the eyebrows, but make them smooth and glossy if applied regularly every night for a week. A PILLOW TO PLEASE YOU. I have just made a cushion, and il. is such a great success that I think you would like a similar one, so L will describe my cushion in detail. On a big plain pillow of lustrous black taffetas, 1 have arranged a gold basket piled to overflowing with wonderfully coloured fruits and flowery—• am'ber and turquoise, emerald and amethyst, carnation and malachite green — in a riotous medley. The “basket’’ is made from a piece of coarse-meshed gold lace, six inches long, and four inches wide; a fifteen-inch length of heavy gold cord is the handle. First I lightly appliqued the lace on to the pillow, curved the cord above from side to side, attaching it with the tiniest of stitches in gold tliread. Some of tne flowers are old artificial marigolds, camellias and roses, left over from last season’s buttonholes. I cleaned up the soiled ones with benzine, and repainted those which were dull and faded with w^ter-colours; other blossoms I made from scraps of satin and gold ribbon. 1 sewed them into the “basket” almost anyhow; they seemed to group themselves naturally. And I mixed bright-hued fruits in with the flowers—oranges, plums and grapes, all made from scraps of ga,v silks padded tightly with cotton wool. Some of the leaves and petals were allowed to hang over the rim of the 'basket, giving the whole a wonderfully natural look. When everything was in place. 1 added a few splashes of gold paint here and there as a finishing touch.

COOKING ODOURS HOW TO DISPERSE THEM. Any odour of cooking, however insistent, can be ell dually dispersed by scattering on the range a pinch or so of cedarwood dust, which can be obtained from the herbalists. The ..taste and smell of Push which clings so obstinately to forks, no matter liow thoroughly they may be wash-

ed, can be got rid of by rubbing thorn with a rag dipped in mustard. The housewife Who, after handling and cooking fish, finds the odour adhering -to her handri, can get over this trouble very quickly by washing her hands in warm water to which a little mustard has been added*