FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18581, 30 May 1930, Page 3

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES An Oxford Venture: The modern woman, realising her own shortcomings in so far as domestic work is concerned, and finding difficulty still in obtaining and keeping a maid, has come to realise that the lack of one generation must be prevented in the next. So domestic training has been revolutionised. Her grandmother was content with cooking bj rule of thumb, she herself was taught to value her intellect, and led to suppose that it had nothing to do with the kitchen. Her children must be taught young. They must have domestic work reduced to a science, if it itto engage their interest.

Headmistresses, if they are progressive, have stepped in to equip the wives and mothers of the future. Oxford is particularly fortunate in the scheme of domestic science training at the Girls’ Central School. A room has been skilfully converted. It contains sinks, a boiler, gas stoves, a kitchen range, and a large iron heater made from a converted sewing machine. There are well-furnished dressers, rolling boards, and a titled larder nearby.

This domestic science room is a hive of industry. Even the 11 year olds take the dishes they have made to the gas oven. There are pots and pans to clean and put away, the brass to be polished, and the tables to be laid for lunch.

Food values are explained at progressive schools, and hints on marketin e given. The foods are tested in the science room. For the modern tendency is to correlate all subjects, so that the interest is sustained and increased. School work becomes an experiment an’d not the acquirement of specific facts. Geoeraphy is also related to domestic sc’e~' , ° tb° places of

•~tion are learned The girls pr» taught to choose a nouse or flat, an* know how to take into account the aspect, drainage, ventilation and all other essentials.

In the art room thev experiment with their own designs for decorating the curtains, or for embroidery. And modern schoolgirls know how to menu as well as make. Thev learn how to study the health, comfort and happiness of the household, while a love of cleanliness is inculcated. Discussions on suitable colour schemes for the home are greatly enjoyed, and the girls revel in making out price-lists for the outfit of a well-equipped kitchen. But a woman might set up housekeeping with all these qualifications, and yet have one missing. She might not know how to spend her money aright. This is taught the school-girl, who learns how to make the best use of the weekly wage with the usual allotment for rent, heating, light and food. French Styles of Furniture: Why does the Empire period of furniture make such an abrupt departure from the other French periods, which are so charmingly feminine? Many of the styles in French furniture which were inaugurated and encouraged by the favourites of the French Courts' seem to have culminated during the succeeding r scendencies of Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry. Characteristic details were expressed in an artistic combination of rock and shell motifs, generally known as rococo, which produces a sumptuous effect. Marie Antoinette added garlands, wreaths, baskets of flowers, rope carvings, naturalistic things in abundance. Love-knots and festoons of ribbons, flaming torches, lyres and urns were prominent. Colours in soft light tints prevailed . Favoured colour combinations were green, gold, white and yellow. Napoleon directed that a new style of furniture replace the delicate effeminate designs of Marie Antoinette’s choosing. Its adoption was almost a royal edict or command, which was readily accepted by all the French people who, were desirous of being liberated from all associations of nobility. According to expressions accredited to Napoleon, he expected women to have weak brains and uncertain ideas. The little Corsican requested of women “constant and perpetual resignation and a sort of indulgent and easy charity.” He distinctly disliked women of wit and spirit, which devoided the Empire furniture of all feminine charm. Napoleon was aided in his artistic undertakings by great masters. Thomire, Rorio and Odiot. bronze designers, and Desnalter, the cabinetmaker. Design and decoration were symbolic of Napoleon’s conquests, winged human figures and animals, such as the lion and the Egyptian flying discs, lyre, acanthus leaves, flaming torches, Greek bands, the pineapple (a symbol of equality and hospitality), laurel wreaths and honeysuckle enclosing a little “N,” identify the Empire period of furniture, and reflect the imperious ruler’s anxiety to perpetuate his name in ether than military accomplishments. Back from Africa: Lady Diana Gibb has only just returned from a trip to Africa with the Hon. Mrs Henry Mond, and is looking very well after it.

Mrs Mond has the most luxurious house and farm at Makalanga in Rhodesia. It is situated on a hill 0,000 feet up with a wonderful view across a maize valley.

There is no question of roughing it at Makalanga, for the house is modern iii every way with electric light and Plenty of bathrooms—in fact with an the comforts of an English house com- ' billed with the quaint attractiveness of semi-tropical surroundings. It is built in a square round a courtyard with a huge and beautiful fig tree in the centre, and you have only to walk a few yards from the house to pick strawberries, mangoes, passion fruit, paw paws or oranges.

It is really a delightful place for a holiday so Lady Diana says. There is riding and all kinds of games, and the only drawback seems to be that you must not walk. Lady Diana announced her intention to a resident of going for a walk one day. “But vou mustn’t walk! Snakes in the grass will bite you, baboons will chase you and leopards will jump on you,” was the horrified rejoinder. A ramble in Rhodesia seems as dangerous as progress along the metaphorical social path of Mayfair!

Fairy Tales: One of the most fascina-ing exhibits of the Ideal Home Exhibition was that of the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory in the Main Hall. It was to "tear oneself away from the charms of the exquisite figures and animals carried out in underglaze and overglaze painted porcelain. There was a series of vases and trays decorated with reproductions of scenes from Hans Anderson's Fairy Tales by the artist Vilhelm Peterson, which should have on no account been overlooked. This series was specially made in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the great children’s romancer. Seeking a Wife in Greenland: In Greenland the man seeking a bride asks permission from the parents to seize the daughter that he admires. Permission obtained, he endeavours to find her alone, the marriage being complete on his tearing from her some of the coats, fish nets, and straps with which from the day of the asking she has been constantly enveloped. But this is not easy in Greenland. For the idea of pursuit must still be maintained until the knot is tied—giving no chance to back out. And there is the story of the passionate young Esquimo who, after carrying his wife off in >~3r sleeping bag, heedless of her squeals of protest, broke down his ice bridges behind him. Safe at last in nis own igloo, he hauled her forth from the bag, only to discover that he had eloped with her grandmother.

English Silver Wedding: “Although a silver wedding is usually regarded as justification for spe.iathe day quietly. Mr and Mis Philip Si.'owden hardly had time for pausing to realise that their silver wedding day had arrived,” says the London coirespondent of “The Leader.’

“When I called at No. 11 there were several cais outside the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. and the only personal note was when Mis Snowden, who was just hurrying off for another appointment, arrived in a taxi cab at her door, wearing a navy blue suit 'she has always been fond of simple tailored clothes', and carrying in her hand a gay bowl of brightly-coloured tulips. The Chancellor of the Exchequer spent most of the day in the House of Commons, but no doubt there were brief intervals when his mind would travel back over the long spell of years—extraordinarily happy ones— to the March day in 1905 when, at the old registry office in Otley, Yorkshire, Miss Ethel Annakin became the wife of the then chairman of the Independent Labour Party. His bride was a young school teacher, gifted with good looks as well as brains, and greatly interested in the women’s cause. Mrs Snowden is extraordinarily versatile in her interests. Great audiences know her as a brilliant voice, and a fine flow of language. She has also written books, and is devoted to music, but is at the same time interested in such feminine matters as clothes and home decoration. She is a perfect hostess, whether the gathering be a small and intimate party of friends at her country home or the more formal and ceremonial occasion when she entertains as the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Downing Street. In fact, Mrs Snowden has been a success in most departments in life, and in none more so than of helpmate through twenty-five years to her husband.”

Winter Wedding Hats: “At the wedding of Miss Ramsden to Mr Randle Feilden a ’ittle while ago.” says a London correspondent, “I saw ■.l bright idea for bridesmaids. So many brides are completely stumped when choosing headgear for rn eutumn wedding. In ihe summer bridesmaids can wear large, floppy, lacey hats, but during colder months what sort of hats can they wear without looking heavy? Mrs Randle Feilden solved the problem by choosing scarlet hats of softest felt trimmed with geraniums for her attendants! They provided a marvellous background for her bridal gown of white and gold brocade, and wert> certainly in keeping with the atmosDhere of the Guards Chapel at which the marriage was solemnised. The small page wore a miniature uniform of the Coldstream Guards, which is the bridegroom’s regiment!” Fans to Match Berthe Capes:

As the Queen’s preference for fans Instead of flowers is so well known (she thinks that the latter make the air in the Throne Room and the crowded ante-chambers too heavy), nearly all the debutantes are carrying tiny ones made of lace, net or chiffon, to match the berthe capes and collars which are a feature of this season’s Court gowns. The large plumey fans are left to the older women.