FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18622, 18 July 1930, Page 4

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES. A Large Congregation: St. Margaret's, Westminster, was packed to overflowing for the marriage of Miss Margaret Darell, eldest daughter of Sir Lionel and Lady Darlel, and Mr Helmut Schroder, only surviving son of the famous banker, Baron Schroder. The church can seat a thousand, but every available comer was filled, and the bride and her father, v/ho gave her away, had to wait in the porch while the crush was induced to melt away from the entrance to the aisle.

Over one thousand excited girls and women crowded to get one thrilling glimpse of Miss Darell a 6 she entered with her attendants. The women broke through the police cordon and slipped under the noses of the mounted police horses, peeping at Miss Darell’s long, graceful gown. In spite o+' precautions gate-crashers got into the church, with the result that a number of the 1.300 guests were unable to obtain seats. An official said the congregation was the largest he had ever seen at a wedding at St. Margaret’s. Several women were overcome by the heat and had to be helped out. Miss Darell’s glittering retinue, described as one of the prettiest ever seen in London, was in proportion to the congregation, for she was followed by seventeen bridesmaids wearing long frocks of tulle shading from pale pink to cherry red, and mob caps, and four pages also in pink. Among the maids were the Hon. Angela Pearson, Lady Caroline Agar, Miss Marjorie Glasgow and Miss Angela Duncan Miss Darell had chosen white satin for her wedding gown, and her train was of Honiton lace. She carried a lovely bouquet of white orchids which came from her father-in-law, Baron Schroder’s garden. The corps diplomatique was well represented among the guests by the Swiss Minister and Mme. Paravicini, the latter in brown velvet relieved with a spray of primulas, the Polish and Turkish Ambassadors and the Swedish Minister and Baroness Palmstierna. Sir Maurice de Bunsen was a distinguished figure with a grey topper to match his imperial beard, and others to be seen were Lady Lindsay. Sir David Murray .Lord and Lady Cornwallis, Lord and Lady Ducie. Lady Jellicoe and Lady Edward SpencerChurchill.

The younger set. too, turned up in full force. Lady Mary Lindsay accomnnnied Miss Pamela Bowes-Lyon; the Hon. Dorothy and the Hon. Frances Tollemache wore red and black respectively; Lady Dashwood wore black; while Miss Gwendolen Wilkinson was in green. Trooping the Colours: The eighteenth century ceremony of Trooping the Colours has not only developed into a huge spectacle for the general public, but is also a social function of no mean importance. Those who are lucky enough to procure tickets from officer friends in the brigade turn up in their smartest and best to watch from the tiers of seats which are erected for the occasion on either side of the Horse Guards arch.

Officers of other regiments were to be seen on the morning of the King’s birthday in full dress uniform; men had donned top hats, while women were in their most chic creations. Unless the occupants of these seats arrive before a quarter-past ten, they have to wait outside the gates in Whitehall until nearly 11 o’clock, when the State carriages have arrived, and at a few minqtes to 11 there was a large crowd of smartly-dressed people waiting for admission.

The party on the Royal balcony were as interested spectators as anyone else on the Government buildings facing the square. Princess- Mary brought her two sons to see their father, in the uniform of the Grenadier Guards, ride beside the Duke of York as an officer of the R.A.F., the Duke of Gloucester as a 10th Hussar, and Prince Arthur of Connaught in the scarlet and bearskin of the Scots Greys, which is somewhat similar to that o? the Foot Guards.

At an adjoining window were Lord and Lady Cambridge and Ladv Mary Cambridge, whom many peonle took for Princess Elizabeth. The little Princess, however, had remained at Buckingham Palace to keep her grandfather company, and she came out on the balcony with the King to watch the procession as it turned un the Mall. The scene was wonderfully imoressive, and the ceremony seemed to have a solemn and dignified rather than a martial atmosphere. It was only when the band played such light and wellknown airs as “The British Grenadiers” and "The Keel Row” thnt the spell was broken. It seemed a pity, incidentally. that the pipers of the Scots Guards were not heard, especially as it was the colour of that regiment that was being trooped.

Concrete Furniture: Artists are for ever springing the most amazing modern schemes of decoration on us, and for sheer novelty —and probably also for discomfort!— Mr Gerald Reitlinger nas, in all probability, beaten all records with the new studio he has just taken in Chelsae in which he is using concrete furniture. The studio is in Glebe-Place, and was well-known for the parties Lady Erroll gave there before she sold it a few months ago. But the people who knew it in Lady Erroll’s time will hardly recognise it when Mr Reitlinger moves in. everything will be so very modern. Even the dining room table and chairs are being made of concrete, to match the walls. Concrete divans stretch all round the walls, and the lighting is in concealed tubes that run from the ceiling to the floor.

Flying “Kit”: The Marchesa Malacrida is very enthusiastic about her new Moth 'plane and the flying suit she has made from her own design, states an English exchange. The suit is very original and practical. Beneath the short leather jacket there is pair of woollen tights which do up at the sides with Zip fasteners. She says that an aeroplane ebsts little more than a car to run. As with both, the consumption of petrol and oil depends on how much you use the machine. The garage costs £1 a week, and she pays £3 to £3 10s a month for service, which includes cleaning and small flying repairs.

A Leader of Women: Lady Aberdeen, who presided over the quinquennial meetings of the International Council of Women, which took place during June in Vienna, has been for nearly 40 years one of the lending personages in rhis great world movement. To say that she Was one of the founders of the council would, perhaps, be more sweeping than accurate; but all the same she was “in at the start”—or very nearly so.

Lady Aberdeen was staying at her Aberdeenshire home, Haddo House, when—on a summer day in 1893 —she received a cablegram from Chicago stating “You have been elected president of the International Council of Women. Writing.” The message was signed Rachael Foster Avery. Lady Aberdeen accepted the invitation: and it was largely through her influence and her kindly offices that the members of the Quinquennial Council, which met in London in JB9S, were received by Queen Victoria ai Windsor. That the first of many great receptions which, since then, have been accorded to the Women's Council by Kings, Queens, Presidents and Prime Ministers. At the Council meeting at Vienna, 700 delegates were present, representing over 30,000,000 women.

While the delegates were busy at Vienna. Marjorie Lady Nunburnholme helped to organise a big dinner in their honour, which was held on their return at the Hyde Park Hotel.

A Capable Woman: One of England’s most capable business women is Lady Honywood, who started as a hotel proprietor but a few years ago with one hotel in London and now manages no fewer than ten in different parts of the conutry. Her latest acquisition is the Pump House Hotel at Llandrindod Wells, which has just been reopened with much pomp and ceremony.

Parties came from London and from all the Welsh towns and country around to see the new baths there and drink the waters, and, in the evening, to dance to the band of the Welsh Guards and watch a drework display in the beautiful grounds. Lady Honywood loves colour r:d has used bright chintzes in pretty f-cral patterns in all the rooms at the I i mp House. Gay red and olue patterned china, copied from an old family design, is another feature of all* her hotels, while the men servants arc dressed in powder blue livery and the maids in cherry-red dresses with white aprons and white mob caps tied with cherry-red ribbons.

Real Gold and Silver Dresses: Dresses and decorations of real gold and silver are among the newest items of feminine interest. They are fairytale frocks come true. Heavy velvets, the lightest of flimsy georgettes, and even the soft hair of a squirrel fur are enhanced in beauty by a surface of gleaming gold and rilver produced by this new all-British invention. The process, which is known as "Molecular Bombardment,” is an application of the operation of electricity on the cathode rays in the atmosphere. To the uninitiated the process may be compared with the more humble duty of making toast, for in the same way as bread when applied to heat becomes brown so material under this new process is “bombarded” with gold from heavy bars which are 99 per cent pure.

For stage decorations this real-gold material has already proved successful. Five hundred yards have been used for a curtain and to dress Mr Cochrans young ladies in the 1930 Revue, while he also purchased a silver curtain to be used later on in the production. From the feminine point of view these gold and silver dresses have two advantages. They are actually cheaper than gold lame, and they wiil never tarnish. Also, when the material has been worn for any length of time, the manufacturers are willing to tal-e it back and to pay for the gold which they can recollect from the stuff. In every yard of metal-bombarded material there are from J of a gramme to 2J grammes of real gold. So if the Mint chooses to collect the gold from the dresses of Mr Cochran's chorus, it would result in—roughly— l4o golden sovereigns!