FEMININE INTERESTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18630, 28 July 1930, Page 4

FEMININE INTERESTS

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES, j Miles of Chiffon for Ascot: Even well-dressed and well-poised women grumble about the difficulty of wearing ankle-length dresses at the opera. A particularly soignee creature was tripped up by her own draperies one night. Many of the long gowns made for Ascot, lovely and graceful as the majority are, caused even more worry. Compare the brief journey and the carpeted foyer and stairs involved in a visit to Covent Garden, with the car or train expedition to Ascot, and the lawns of the Royal enclosure, possibly after a shower, and you will have some idea of the distractions of the wearers of thoie long frocks. , Nearly everyone has chosen the flimsiest of materials, chiffon. Aesthetically, the lawns will make an admirable picture, given good weather, for these chiffons, florally patterned with every shade from peony red to sweet william pink, will give the effect of a moving herbaceous border against the ememld lawns. A rough calculation shows that about 20 miles of this i fabric have been used to make dresses j for this meetinr. A hundred per cent, more material, j and thirty per cent, more work than , in 1928 —when dresses were short — ' have gone to the making of these gowns. Almost without exception, skirts reach the ankles, while the majority are frankly evening gowns worn with a military cape, a bolero jacket, or a frilled coatee to match. This, bf course, is a useful economy. A leading dressmaker finds that she has received more orders than she can cope with, mainly because these Ascot dresses need not be confined to the rare occasions when England provides good enough weather to make them wearable out of doors. A few of them

definitely clear the ground. Lady Warrender has chosen black chiffon, with a swallow design in pink for one of her Ascot gowns. Pink chiffon flowers and a tailored jacket tc match complete the ensemble. Caped coatees provide a welcome variety. Lady Sheffield, of Normandj Park, has a long-sleeved jacket with a small fur-trimmed cape over each shoulder to wear with her dress ol yellow chiffon, patterned with autumr leaves. The skirt of slanting frills dips to the ground on the left side Lady Noreen Bass, too, has a coatee with a capelet at the back to match her "black chiffon Reville gown printed with a flower design in rose pink anc leaf green. For another day she has chosen beige georgette draped with gold cobweb silk lace. Both Lady Sinclair, of Milton Park and Lady Pulteney, have preferred fulj length chiffon coats to the more usual hip-length style. Lady Sinclair’s coat and gown have been carried out in a fern design in blue-grey chiffon, the cuffs and loose yoke being composed oi fine pleats. Lady Weymouth is one of the minority of women who favour plain materials. One of her Ascot gowns is in grey chiffon, the skirt long and flowing, and the sleeves tight to the wrist, while her three-quarter-length cape fits closely to the neck. She has chosen a grey crinoline hat to match. Here and there among the gay chiffons a black gown will make an effective contrast. Mrs Guy Yersberg, Sii Maurice and Lady de Bunsen’s daughter, has a black lace gown and bolero jacket relieved only by a bunch of camellias, while Mrs Arthur Paget’s gown of black chiffon has a spray of gardenias embroidered on the left shoulder. In order to introduce her husband’s racing colours—myrtle green and white—into her Ascot gown, Mrs Washington Singer had her material specially dyed. It is a new silk fabric of a particularly heavy weave.

A Yorkshire Wedding: Only a year ago wedding preparations were being made at Bramham Park, the home of Colonel George Lane Fox, M.P., and the Hon. Mrs Lane Fox, who' is a daughter of Viscount Halifax. Then, the stir and excitement was on account of the wedding of their daughter, Marcia. This year the bride of the house was Miss Mary Lane Fox, who was married to Captain the Hon. Robert Bridgman, son of the Viscount and Viscountess Bridgman, at the Church of All Saints, Bramham, recently. The bride’s father is well-known in connection with the Bramham Moor Hunt, with which Princess Mary rides. All followers of this pack endeavoured to attend the ceremony.

A feature of the ceremony was the ’cello solos played by Miss Susan Jones. Masses of pink rhododendrons, in all their glory, from Bramham Park Gardens, decorated the church for the occasion.

Double ivory satin charmeuse was modelled into a gown for the bride on straight lines. There were little sprays of orange blossom on silver ribbon at the waistline, and from the real myrtle headdress fell a veil of lovely old Brussels lace. She carried Madonna lilies, as well as her seven bridesmaids.

Each member of this retinue was either a relative of the bride or bridegroom. It included Dorothy and Margaret, the bride’s sisters, Miss Felicity Lane Fox, and Miss Mary Sutton, her cousins, and on the bridegroom’s side the Hon. Rosemary Hamilton-Russell, niece of the Earl of Hare wood, Miss Jeannine Bridgman, and Miss Cynthia Radcliffe, all of them being the bridegroom’s cousins. He gave them charming necklaces of crystal, divided by pearls and green stone beads. These toned with their frocks of pale lily leaf georgette, and their veils of pale green tulle held by shaded leaf wreaths.

The young couple had a hearty send-off when they left in the afternoon for a honeymoon in Austria. The bride travelled in a dress of periwinkle blue romaine with a short bolero. She took v/ith her one of her wedding gifts, the fur coat given her by Viscount Bridgman. Lady Bridgman gave her a diamond pendant, Viscount Halifax, her grandfather, ruby and diamond rings, and from her mother the bride received several gifts, including a diamond watch. The Hon. Mrs Lane Fox gave the bridegroom pearl studs which matched the mother-of-pearl and pearl links and buttons his bride gave him.

A Colonial Type—Miss Amy Johnson: The departure of Miss Amy Johnson from Western Australia this week on her homeward route—this time by boat instead of aeroplane— was the ! occasion for a great farewell in Perth. | While in Australia she was interviewed : on many occasions, the “Tasmanian , Mail” recently publishing a record of j her experiences. i “My plans are quite indefinite,” she told the interviewer. “I expect to be home soon, but who knows? Had I made Darwin in record time, I would probably have turned again and tried to create a new record in the flight back home—but that’s all over. The route from England to Karachi has been well pioneered by Imperial Airways, and is wonderfully organised. I can’t quite visualise the London to Sydney service in full working order all the year round. In the first place, there’s the trouble with monsoons. They aren’t to be overcome with any j time-table. They don't stay in one ; place, either, but move about, and so ! they are blowing somewhere or other for nearly six months of the year. But the R.A.F. cruises have done much research, and still more is being done every day, so that in the end science may beat the weather. But at present it hasn’t done so. “Further I cannot prophesy. Flying is very fashionable in England now, and you can see dozens of women arriving at the aerodromes dressed to kill. They’ll never fly in this world. I care not a jot about the fashions, my grubby old breeches are good enough for me. I love them, and I do not think at Stag Lane we take our flying very seriously. I’ve had good friends all the way. The Dutch were charming, their air organisation beyond praise, and but for their bad weather, I should have loved the trip across Java. One gets the most beautiful glimpses of places from the air. i Sydney I shall never forget. It loomed | beautiful—unforgettable. Here, the fog obscured my view, but I should say Melbourne was essentially a city to be seen from the earth; its spaciousness is best appreciated by the foot passenger.” Her north country accent is slight but unmistakable. Her colour is fresh with a covering of tan. The tiny lines the weather brings are round her eyes and mouth, and the hands are very thin. Curiously enough, she is the double of a woman solicitor of Sydney —even to the wave in her hair, if she were not from Hull, she might be from any part of Australia or New Zealand. The very slightness of her figure, the quick movements, the sudden smile, the slight tendency to impatience over women’s foibles—“dressed to kill,” she said, with heaps of contempt in her voice—are all characteristics of a type we see every day, particularly in the country. A “down-right” woman, she might well be called; not a reckless one, but a woman who. born to a life of rather less activity than she wanted, sought an outlet in stern endeavour. Hollywood “Royalty”: Miss Olive Snell, the artist, lias just returned to London from Hollywood, where she has been drawing portraits of the brightest stars. Miss Snell spent weeks in the inner circle of film star society—the inner circle to which only those who have first been received by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford can hope to penetrate. She has recorded her impressions of the stars’ appearance in her attractive tinted drawings, and to an art critic she gave her impression of their personalities. “The Fairbanks,” said Miss Snell, “are the Royalty of Hollywood. The visitor from England must first be presented at their court. Then, if Mary Pickford likes you, she sends for her secretary and says: '‘Who would you like to meet? Just dictate the list and we will fix it.’” Miss Snell chose Lily an Tashman, Alice White, Marion Davies, Joan : Crawford, Loretta Young, Evelyn Brent, and Greta Garbo among the fair sex—“literally fair,” she said, “for they all have hair bleached to the palest primrose”—and Douglas Fairbanks, jun., Grant Withers and Charlie Chaplin among the men. M "Lillyan Tashman,” said Miss Snell, “is like a white panther. I watched her at a party. She has a way of

: looking through her half-closed eyes i that is enormously effective. i “Alice White is just a lovely ‘cutie’; J Loretta Young has eyes like a Persian i kitten, and the most entrancing fig- . ure; she is just 19, and her marriage 1 with Grant Withers, who is just 20, i was a real love match. In Hollywood £ they depict a brilliant future for this I pair. i ; “Douglas Fairbanks, jun., and Joan J Crawford are another attractive pair. C , ‘D.F., jun.,’ writes poems, and illus--1 trates them with drawings of an l Aubrey Beardsley character. Joan t | Crawford, influenced perhaps by her ? husband’s work, is herself acquiring 3 j the strange charm of the women in ■j Beardsley’s drawings. . | “Douglas Fairbanks, sen., is quite >j unaffected by his son’s aesthetic taste. : He is still the great apostle of physical , fitness. He lives for the day, and . enjoys it. r “Greta Garbo is an outstanding per- ; sonality even in this company. When > she arrives at a party, one would ask • all about her, even if one had never ; heard her name. She is casual, and, l I thought, rather prone to melancholy. » I doubt if she is really happy as a film ; star. She loves the sea, and a simpler, : more natural, existence. ; At the Opera: , 1 Wherever they go the Duke and i j Duchess of Westminster are always > j two of the most distinguished-looking . people, and one night recently, at , Covent Garden, many eyes were 1 turned towards the tall, slim figure of ! the Duchess clad all in white, the only : touch of colour being her pale green [ velvet shoes. l Her satin frock had a train—which i she really let trail, instead of spoiling [ the effect, like so many women do, by i , picking it up so that it will not get ■ soiled. Lovely diamonds sparkled on ■ her neck, and a very chic touch to her [ white ermine coat was a huge collar i of black fox. - Many of the best-dressed women f wore white satin, notable amongst ; them being Madame Dresselhuys. the divinely fair and very tall wife of the Liberian Minister, and Lady Cowdray. , Audiences at the Italian operas do 1 . | not seem to be as well trained as those • ; : who patronise the German season. I ; I Several times this night there were • i bursts of clapping after a specially i ! lovely song; to which irregularity the i more sophisticated opera-goers showed i i their market disapproval by hissing, i . | while Vincenzo Bellezza stood with his , i arms folded and the expression of a ; : martyr on his face, waiting for the , ! contretemps to end. • i Certainly' it was often quite difficult 1 I to refrain from applauding the lovely ■ ! melodies in “Marta” —especially “The • ! Last Rose of Summer," which Miss l t j Edith Mason sang in English. ; Russian Dancer’s Memoirs: Tamara Karsavina, the famous Russian dancer, second only in importance to Ana Pavlova, who was her senior during her novitiate, has written her memoirs. She calls them “Theatre Street.” J. M. Barrie has added a preface, and the book is said to be the j vivid outcome of a fine and sensitive mind and a highly cultured woman. ( j Karsavina was a member of the Imp- i erial Russian Ballet, and she describes j ■ the discipline for its children as strict i as a monastery, and a good education I other than dancing was provided. | 1 Their clothes were plain uniforms like i , charity school children. Half the book is devoted to her early stages of study I und preparation for the stage. Her parents were very poor, and the strug- ' Hie was always very great to keep beauty in the home. The youthful [ Tamar shared the honours of the Russian Ballet when Diaghileff took it to Paris, and she was the partner of the remarkable Nijinsky, and shared his laurels. Eventually she married an Englishman, and settled in England. but not before she had conquered London as the premiere danseuse of the Russian Ballet. Colour Fashions: Lately returned travellers tell us that beige has utterly disappeared from the world of fashion, and pink has taken its place. But not the clear, soft shade, almost mauve-pink or grey-pink, a wonderfully smart tone. And Paris still keeps to the short frock i for day wear, even shorter chan j London is wearing; for evening, how- I

j ever, the frock is not only long, but : very often trailing. The Parisienne has taken to detachable collars and cuffs, round Peter Pan collars, and three-inch close cuffs are most popular ; and lingerie sets are once more the vogue. Hem-stitched crepe de chene, | georgette, and organdy collars are ! finished with narrow ties under the chin. Newer, and extremely attractive, are bead-encrusted collars and cuffs. Enormously smart is a set made with iridescent white beads in alliance with black ones, worn with an otherwise unadorned black georgette frock. A set made entirely of pillar-box red, gold and white beads is extremely chic for wear with a navy blue crepe de I chene frock. Quaint are the gauntlet cuffs worn on short sleeves, highnecked frocks, which have round collars to match.