FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18510, 6 March 1930, Page 3

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES. Spanish Infanta’s favourite Palace: The Alcazar, the Royal Palace in Serville, is the favourite home of the young Infantas, who revel in the brilliant sunshine and its beautiful old gardens, where roses, lillies, jasmine and orange blossom grow in great profusion. Life in Seville is more unconventional than in Madrid, the natives are happy and cheerful and happy and nobody hurries! Some of the reception rooms in the Alcazar, which have large stone balconies overlooking the beautiful gardens, are entirely furnished in the old Moorush style, with walls, ceiling and floors of mosaic, or inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and arches instead of doors lead from one room to the other. Valuable old rugs cover the floors, and exquisite antique lanterns, some made of pure gold, and inlaid with precious stones, are used for the subdued lighting. Other reception rooms in the palace are more modern in style, with rose-red brocade hangings and curtains. Enormous old cut-glass chandeliers are lighted by tall wax candles, and a number of goyas and Murrillos hang on the brocaded walls. Children’s Fancy Dance Dance: Lady Wimborne lent Winbome House for the Children’s Fancy Dress Dance which Lady Moira Lyttelton arranged for the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies. Few places are better suited for large parties than j Wimborne House, for all the reception ! rooms open out of one another, and are : built round a square courtyard which I with the fountain standing in the centre makes a charming outlook from j every window. The party was a great success. ; Besides the dancing, there was a cinema show where four special children’s films were shown. There were twenty-four prizes for the best costumes, and the judges had a very difficult task. The first prize—a portrait Sketch, by Mr de Laszlo, who was one of the judges—was won by Mrs Leslie Lang’s daughter, Pamela, in a gown copied from Nattier’s portrait of Princess Marie Isabel de Bourbon, at Versailles, and Lady Queensberry’s three year old daughter, Lady Jane Douglas, a sweet, little figure in a pale blue bustle gown and pork-pie hat, was second. Among those present were Lady Bertha Dawkins and her daughter, who j was one of the ushers, Lady Guendolen Cecil, Lady Moira’s sister, and Lady Helen O’Brien, whose little son Desmond, dressed as a moujik, won a prize. Capt. and Mrs Arthur Paget had their seven months old baby son dressed as a white rabbit, with them, and Mr and Mrs Edward Wills’s daughter was a chicken.

The Eyes of the Parisienne: Black is almost the only smart wear in Paris just now, but the Parisienne is making up for the lack of colour in her clothes by applying it to her person in .various interesting ways. Nails of blood red, green, gold or mother-of-pearl hue, have been the vogue for some time, and lips and cheeks are rosier than the deepest blush rose. Now it is the eyes, upon which all the beauty specialists are lavishing their attention. If your eyes are blue, they must be set off by eyelashes of a deeper blue shade and eyebrows to match. The blue look is the height of chic. But if you should by chance be favoured with optics of a greeny shade, they your lashes and brows must be tinted green, and brown eyes are encircled with a dark brown make-up. The effect Is not nearly so bizarre as it sounds. In fact you almost forget that things as lashes and brows exist, and seem only to see the intense blue, green or brown of the eyes. The blue look is so fascinating that it is almost certain that even the gentleman who wrote. "Could you be true to eyes of blue, if you looked into eyes of brown?” would change his mind. "Doll’s House” Vogue: Jessie Lady North is among the everincreasing members of societv who now forsake large houses for small. She was fortunate in securing what she calls a "doll’s house” in Charles-street. Knightbridge. No. 10 is charmingly decorated. The

"William and Mary” green colourir.j of the salon, the "bufi-biscuit” of th dining room, the bath room witl marble-coloured walls and a real blacl marble bath, are proof that taste ha. been exercised. Parquet prevails ever; where, on all the stairs as well as th* floors. Lady North was married when ver;young indeed, and her daugher follow--3d her example, so she is such ar ixtremely youthful grandmother tha: the two-year old, fair-haired blue-eyec grand-daughter, Heather Mary, n taught to ignore the relationship and — most modern of babes—addresses hei "Mother’s Mother” by her Christian name. Lady North is a keen swimmer, so makes good use of the chief attraction, of the Bath Club. Recently she was seen wearing, on a dark costume, a most attracive "shower” of multi-coloured beads. Young Girl’s Fortune: Miss Lettice Mary Talbot, a beautifu. girl of 22, whose home is at Cheltenham, in England, has been left the greater part of a fortune of more than £1,000,000 by her great-uncle, Col. W. B. Brocklehurst, of Butley Hall, neai Macclesfield, who died last June. Col. Brocklehurst was a bachelor of 78 and was formerly head of the silk manufacturing firm of J. P. Brocklehurst and Sons, Macclesfield. Miss Talbot is the only child of Col. Brocklehurst’s sister’s son, Capt. Talbot, who died in 1918. She is a tall fair girl, with blue eyes. She was presented at Court in 1927. The value of the gross estate of Col. Brocklehurst has been sworn provisionally a £1.031,425. This, however, includes property passing under the will of Col. Brocklehurst’s uncle, to which another member of the family. Capt. H. C. Brocklehurst, succeeds as tenant for life. Col. Brocklehurst’s own personal estate is £829,832. There are several personal and charitable bequests, including one of £IO.OOO subject to which the interest on the personal estate passes to Miss Lettice Talbot for life, with power, if she marries, to appoint the estate among her children at her death, provided that she "obtains her grandmother’s (Mrs Talbot’s) consent to her marriage, if such should take place during her lifetime, or that of the trustees, or the majority of them after the decease of her grandmother.” Ice-Skating Craze: London’s newest craze is ice-skating, and in addition to the rinks already in existence, a magnificent rink has been opened at Hammersmith. The old Palais de Danse has been converted into a picturesque and spacious skating rink, and it is amazing to see how many thousands of Londoners arc experts in the art. write? a correspondent. There is a large body of professionals, both men and women, at the Ice Drome, and they not only contribute a splendid cabaret, but ar? ready at all times to teach those vho want instruction. .Among them are Freda Whitaker, a world’s champion; Alfredo, a brilliant exponent from Italy; and Hans Witte, a German champion who contributes a comic interlude. In the cabaret Joan Stapley. a child of 3£ years, gives an amazing display. Group Weddings: Twelve couples were married together* at the Church of St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark, on Christmas Day, but explained the rector, the Rev Edward Neep, it was not "mass i marriage.” These group marriages are. 1 think, a very good thing,’” he said. “It is the great day in the life of these people and they like to make a splash. It is an old custom at my church for several couples to be married at the same time on Christmas Day. It existed long oefore I was rector, ana has become almost a tradition. They like to bring their friends to the church and to celebrate together.” A thirteenth couple would have been married at St. George-the Martyr, on Christmas Day had not Fate intervened to prevent the unlucky number. On Christmas Eve the prospective bridegroom of one of the couples was reported missing. He had not returned from work and could not be found. But there was a happy sequel later in the week. The bridegroom appeared at the church and asked to be married the next day. "He was found wandering by a friend on Boxing Night,” said the rector. "He had been working very hard and his memory had given way.”

Fashions for Princesses: Visitors from foreign courts must be amazed at the informality of our English Princesses. Lady Cable invited a London newspaper writer to come and see some lovely frocks at her house, and there was Princess Helena Victoria—looking so nice in a beige coat over a red dress, and her pretty white hair showing under a black hat —sitting on a settee by the window, and Princess Marie Louise in a practical mulberry-coloured tweed dress standing before the fire and smoking a cigarette in a long holder. Princess Marie Louise chose for herself a dress which was my favourite— a soft black satin with a cluster of satin tabs in the small of the back—but first of all she stepped into the centre of the room to take the priceticket off a necklace the mannequin was wearing. "Now I must go and have my hair washed,” was her remark to her hostess, as she glanced at her wrist-watch and hurried away.

"WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG.” BRILLIANT CHARITY BALL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 17. Mr Douglas Byng has been congratulated on all sides on having produced the finest entertainment ever seen at a Charity Ball. At the "When We Were Very Young” Ball, held on behalf of the Brompton Hospital, for Consumption, his Revue written specially for the occasion, was a masterpiece and really amusing. It was a parody of things that amused us in our youth, and had the delightful description of "Past Bedtime. ’ Mr Ernest Thesiger opened the show with "A Few Words from Nurse,” and then came the school children who recited skits on well-known nursery rhymes. Miss Viola Tree was one of the school girls, and her make-up was a masterpiece. Straggling hair protruded from beneath a straw hat; her blouse might have been worn by Daisy Bell; an abundance of cotton petticoat was to be seen beneath her extraordinary skirt; and she rode round the ballroom on a bicycle. Miss Eva Grossmith was another amusing school girl. Funniest of all, was Mr Byng himself in his "Song by Mother,” and a good second was Miss Cicely Courtneidge, as Fairy Queen. She together with Miss Vera Pearce, os the Principal Boy. ana Mr Leslie Henson as The Dame, gave “Memories of a Local Pantomime.” At the end Miss Courtneidge came on as Britannia in a bath chair, and there was difficulty in opening a door to admit the vehicle. The others had to proceed without her, until she could make her triumphal entrance. Mr Leslie Henson made a splendid Dame. His short skirt of Madras muslin looked well above honest trousers, while a Victorian wrap was in keeping with a modern toque trimmed with cock plumage as well as the entire bird. Miss Edith Dawkins, the prettv daughter of Ladv Bertha Dawkins. Lady-in-Waittng to the Queen, ton* the role of Alice in Wonderland, and her ctunint :ed and white dress, and mapnificant red and white striped stockings, made a colourful setting for the flamingo, which she carried and which boasted a neck! Lady Bertha, who did so much for the success of the Ball, was referred to in the prologue by Mr Ernest Thesiger, as the Nurse. Douglas Byng showed originality in the second half

of the couplet. He made "uneartha” rhyme with "Lady Bertha.” Several society women took part in the fairy tales, these including the Hon Mrs Henry Mond as Aladdin, Mrs Carl Bendix as Peter Fan, Miss Sonia Converse as Cinderella, and Lady Eleanor Smith as Puss in Boots. Mr Julian Hall accompanied Miss Converse as the Prince. The Revue, which took place shortly after midnight, was a long show, lasting nearly an hour. ou f . unlike some of the tedious pageants witnessed, everyone was sorry when it was over, and the author was loudly demanded. The party did not break up till the e.my hours of the morning. Notable among the spectators '-as the Duchess of Norfolk who had brought her second daughter. Lady Katherine Howard, looking i lost attractive in white. Lady Katherine is to be a debutante oi the coming season. Another beautiful wearer of white was Miss Gwen le Bas. and her sister Molly favoured a lo.jg frock in a shade of. wine red. White also garbed Mrs McCorquodale and the •vlarchesa Malacrida. The pretty Mrs Henry Mond, wore a frilly frock of green with a green coatee. Mrs Mond only returned from u flying visit to Paris just in time for the Ball. Two young and notable wearers of pink were the young debutante Lady Patricia Moore, who brought her ten dinner guests, and the Hon. Diana Skeffington.

Sir Hugo and Lady Cunliffe Owen brought a large party. She was in black, as also was Lady Diana Gibb. Lady Baron’s dove-grey gown, embroidered with sequins, made a charming contrast with simple white worn by her niece. Miss Baron. Lady Bertha Dawkins in black, was chatting to Mrs Frank Braham. whose rainbow-tinted dress of varying shades of green and russet tones, showed up her silvery white hair. The Polish Ambassador added distinction to Lady Bertha's party at supper. Miss Murial Barnby. wearing one of the new transparent coats of diamante over black, came with the Commander and Mrs InglebyMackenzie, and Miss Betty Mawdsley, niece of Mr Algernon Mawdsley, the yachtsman. Among others present were Lady Carnarvon and Elizabeth Lady Cheylesmore vho both brought large parties. Lady Greville. Lady Kathleen Rollo, Lady Sharp. Mrs Van den Bergh, and Mrs Wesley Watson. The supper menu. ircldentaPv. was completely non-committal in adhering to the spirit of "When We Were Vo rv Young.” The sole was described as "Tommy Tittle Mnu'e." consomme “Old Woman in the Shoe.” and snDde "Peter Rabbit.” while the champagne appeared as Special Chilled Milk.”

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