FASHION NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 7 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES

COLOURS FOR FROCKS AND HATS. EEL GREY AND WHEAT YELLOW. (By Colline Rouff.) It was a woman designer who first bestowed interesting names upon tones and tints in materials, as well as upon the creations which she fashioned from them. The dress world took up the idea with enthusiasm, and every blue, grey and red now has its own attractive and descriptive name. Grey, which promises to rule the sartorial roost for many months to come, has given those who invent titles for the new colours a very interesting time lately. For a soft tone, lighter than “battleship,” which is particularly suitable for little coats and skirts, they have hit upon the name “eel grey”—and the woman who likes a hat of distinctive shade will be glad to know that she can wear with this soft grey headgear of red, purple, black or even white. LAVENDER TONES. One authority on dress hazards the notion that the craze for chromium in dress accessories is largely responsible for the popularity of grey among the ■Tash inn experts. Be that as it may there are the loveliest tones of it available, and if pure grey is considered too cold there is a range of shades with a hint of lavender—most becoming of tints—in them, and several examples of “cloud grey,” which, as might be expected, has a slight hint of blue in it. This is a tone which is to be used largely for evening frocks, and, expressed in tulle, is particularly lovely. Blue and white is proving a favourite combination. What is known to the dressmakers as “light navy” is being chosen for coats and skirts, while for jumpers to be worn with navy skirts there is “deep-sea blue,” and this is usually finished with a touch of white about' the collar. Berets and scarves to match it are being knitted by the girl who likes to be right-up-to-the-minute in regard to colours. ’ CHINESE RED. Red seems to have returned to stay, every tone of it is seen, but probably the favourites —which are quite new—are . Shanghai red, and Pomegranate red. The former suggests the Chinese genius for using this colour in tones that, though rich, are never garish. It has something of the temperament of a Chinese lacquer red, and is softer and much more becoming than the sealing wax red which was inflicted upon us last year. The Pomegranate red is being offered to us in two tones—the one closely resembling the ripe, the other the unripe, fruit in shade. Touches of these two reds are being introduced with various shades of mauve and yellow. “Wheat-yellow” is only another name for our old friend, maize, and is as suitable as any yellow for blonde and brunette alike. It has nothing of the harshness that makes yellow so difficult, as a rule, for day-time wear. PLATES OF THE PAST. TREASURES THAT HAVE SURVIVED. This is an age of unrest. We do not want to be bothered with anything that gives us any trouble because there is a feeling in the very air which we breathe that life itself is unstable and there is no time to waste on the future because the present is too uncertain. The pot of life is boiling over,—but it will settle down with time; it always does.

The only things likely to survive from this age are the war memorials scattered all over Europe. We are making no material treasures. And, as the material treasures of the past have taken to themselves quite another aspect with the passage of years, we go to them to satisfy our natural craving for something lasting. Never was there such a hankering after the past—exhibitions of relics, excavations of buried cities, lectures on the ancients—it is amazing to see how these things attract the people of to-day. Perhaps it all boils down to the fact that, the future is blurred and therefore the past appears substantial beside it. In any case, the public seems quite willing to pay hard-earned money to gaze at the furniture, jewels, and plate of our ancestors, which have survived merely because unlimited time and care were spent upon them. To-day, we break a plate and throw it into the dustbin; it means nothing to us. In the past a plate could not be broken, and it meant everything to its possessor. It was the symbol of integrity, rank, and citizenship because it developed gradually with man. When man first began to fashion vessels out of. silver and gold they were for the adornment of an altar, but when he discovered that he was also something of a god in his own way because he too could create, he desired to decorate his own house with these honourable treasures.

. The word plate, meaning silyer, comes from the Spanish plata, and the reason why, comparatively speaking, so much plate has been preserved is because it was regarded as an investment—a sign of a man’s standing in the world, and not in any way utilitarian. Very few of the magnificent pieces of silver and gold plate seen in our numerous exhibitions were ever used. They were objects to be reverenced for their beauty, the visible proof that man could change a lump of metal into an exquisite dish if he wanted to, and a proof that he could pay a skilled smith to work for him. Goldsmiths and silversmiths were artists, and their achievements were placed on shelves to be admired. When Cardinal Wolsey entertained Henry the Eighth he set his silver plate on five shelves, and the King was seriously annoyed because five shelves of plate was the right of royalty, only three being used by great nobles. Henry established his superiority by inviting Wolsey to dine and displaying seven shelves of silver; his plate was necessary to him as a background. In the days of Charles the Second, when silver was so plentiful that the King had chairs and tables of silver made for Nell Gwynne, plate was actually used, but still symbolic of a man’s worth. We find Mr. Pepys rejoicing innocently in his household gods when he says that he is ‘abounding in good plate, so as at all entertainments to serve wholly with silver plates.’ THIS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU. If you have children, one day they will fall in love, get married and leave you. This is bound to happen, so be ready for it. If you are ambitious, either for yourself or for someone dear to you, you will one day have to take a risk or make a decision that involves a risk. Make ready to meet the eventuality. One day you will find that you are “puffed” after climbing a few stairs, that you get sleepy after ten o’clock, and that you are in fact, growing older. There is nothing of which to be ashamed in age; indeed, one might well be proud of it, for it proves that one has been strong enough to overcome so far the forces of life. If you keep a pet dog or cat, you will be forced one day to the conclusion that the animal is too old, and must be destroyed. Be ready for that day and, when you have to bid good-bye to your pet, think of all the good times you had together.