PARIS FASHIONS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 July 1923, Page 13

PARIS FASHIONS.

STRAIGHT SILHOUETTES. Each succeeding new- show of fashion models this season has contained some daring novelties in the matter or skirts either fuller or longer than last season’s; but all are doomed to failure that give an suggestion of bunchiness. The Parisiemie wishes still to retain her straight, plain silhouette, and yet to give an impression of novelty. To attain novelty more material is now used in each model, but this must be so disposed, and cut and arranged, as to retain the necessary perfectly straight lines.

Two new designs, however, appear to have gained popularity to a certain degree. One is the fuller skirt called the■ “Robe de Style”—usually made of taffetas or rather stiff silk, which is remindful of the" gowns of IS3o—but these are only possible for very young girls. Indeed, these full, befrilled taffetas dresses, with plain, almost tight long bodices, are exclusively made for very thin, youthful and immature figures.

For maturer women the unequally cut skirt ‘is now- greatly advocated. By this I do not mean that, it has an uneven hem, but its cut at the back is quite different from its cut in the front. It is achieved thus: The back gore of the skirt is a perfectly straight panel of the -width of the material. But the front panel is cut on the cross, so that the garment when finished appears to be of an almost skimpy tightness at the hack, and though possessing some very full gores in the front, all fullness of whatever kind must he either in the front or at the sides, and in all cases the material at the hack must, be taut, plain—almost without a wrinkle.

Where the fullness is at the side tiie effect is acuieved by means of two straight, narrow panels—one right in the front of the skirt and the other in the centre of the hack, while two narrow side panels cut on the bias of the material are inserted at each side'. This second model bids fair to be the more popular. Vet (ho laste for - fullness in the front of the gown prevails in some houses. The material even of the side-gored skirt is often drawn up high at the waist in front to emphasise its fullness. Even With tailored cresses of the fancier kind this effect is aimed at, but it must be most carefully executed not to look either rdiculous or ugly.

THE AVAY OF THE BLOUSE. Nearly all the new dresses for street wear are of the three-piece or the coat and skirt persuasion. Indeed, one cannot yet say which of these two models is to have supremacy'. The two-piece suit has the advantage of being transformable by Ihe adjunction of a smart blouse; hut the costume that has the blouse attached to its skirt always sets better. It is to be noted that there is not a single instance of the short blouse that is tucked into the skirt-band. All the modern blouses are made long and loose, and fall down over the top of the skirt. The skirt-band is now nearly always made of the new elastic gros-grain. or Petersham, so that both skirt and blouse can he pulled on over the head, which is the acme of facility and comfort for the woman who has to dress without a maid. The Parisian dressmakers are so clever at making the separate blouse and skirt look in perfect harmony that it is often diflicult to see whether they are actually sown together or are separate. With the new short hip jacket now in favour it is even permissible that the independent blouse—provided it has a straight lower hem—should be perceived under the edge of the jacket. Porhaps for the woman who lias a limited dress allowance the independent blouse and skirt is preferable. There are any amount of new blouse models—the various types of these being the “ mariniere” or loose blouse, cut like a French sailor’s or fisherman’s short linen shirt, that has not the slightest suggestion of a waist-line, and is not confined to the flgure at. all, falling merely loose and straight down to the hips. The other favourite model is the "casaquin,” which is cut upon the same lines as the “mariniere,” but is tightened and held in place on the hips by means of fancy buttons, or is made with a tight hip-belt.—em-broidered or braided—that causes the top part of the garment to bulge over the skirt. When the three-piece costume is used, its top part is usually incrusted into the material of the skirt in regular tabs, rounded or square—the entire dress must hang' quite straight to the feet.