FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18831, 20 March 1931, Page 3

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FAiSIION NOTES, Two Recent Weddings: The Chapel Royal, Savoy, London, was recently the church chosen by two New Zealand-born bridegrooms for their weddings. On January 26, Major Eric Francis Wallace Mackenzie, M.C., 0.8. E., R.A.M.C., elder son of Dr. and Mrs. F. W. Mackenzie, Wellington) was married to Miss Violet May Ainsworth, elder daughter of Colonel R. B. Ainsworth, D. 5.0., 0.8. E., hon. physician to the King. On January 31, Squadron-Leader C. R. Carr. D.F.C., A.F.C., R.A.F., (eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carr, of Rotorua) was married to Miss Phyllis Elkington, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Elkington, of Red Lodge, Amersham, Bucks. At Major MacKenkie’s wedding the choral service was conducted by the Rev. Percy Young. Colonel Ainsworth gave away the bride, who wore a beautiful gown of white and gold lame broche georgette and a tulle veil which had been worn by the bride’s mother at her own wedding. This was held in place by a diadem of orange blossom. A bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley and white heather was carried, and the jewels worn were a pearl necklace (gift of Mrs Ainsworth) and a pearl brooch given by an uncle of the bridegroom. Miss Muriel Ainsworth was in attendance, wearing a dress of gold lace and a becoming head-dress to correspond. She carried a bouquet of red carnations. The Jhapel was beautifully decorated with white lilac, spring flowers, and palms. The bride’s parents held a reception at the Officers’ Mess of the Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, and the string band of the Royal Army Medical Corps was in attendance. Many beautiful presents were received, eluding a handsome bowl from the Officers’ Mess. The bride and bridegroom exchanged with one another a fitted travelling case. The honeymoon was spent at Harrogate, Yorkshire, thp bride leaving in a travelling costume of blue embroidered crepe de chine, with blue felt hat, and a fur coat of grey squirrel. The place of future residence of Major and Mrs Kackenzie will be Wellington, Southern India. The Carr Elkington wedding was conducted by the Rev. H. B. Chapman, assisted by the Rev. C. E. Briggs and the Rev. P. Young. The bride was given away by her father, and wore a dress of cream needlerun lace, over pale pink chiffon, with transparent chiffon sleeves, and a yoke to the plain princess corsage. Her skirt was shaped into a train, and over it fell a pink silk tulle veil, held by a wreath of orange blossom and white heather buds. She carried a sheaf of red carnations and lilies-of-the-valley. Master Stephen and Miss Diana Elkington (nephew and niece) were in attendance, the boy wearing blu«& velvet trousers, with a georgette shirt, and the girl a long velvet frock of turquoise blue. She also wore a wreath of forget-me-nots, and carried a posy of blue and red flowers. Another Fashion Stir: Among the many new fashions that came not from the great Paris designers or from the Hollywood studios, but from Mr. C. B. Cochran, were the present long evening frocks and the moulded figures (states the “Daily Mail”). This arbiter of feminine destinies has launched still another bombshell in his “1931 Revue,” which opened in Manchester last month. It was nothing less than a very modern version of the flounced petticoat. “Every woman in the smart Westend ballrooms will soon be wearing one,” said Mr Cochran. “I like the fashion because it breaks the harsh line of those streamline dresses of which we are all tired. It differs from the Edwardian calico frills, so seen in the Piccadilly scene of my last year’s revue, in being designed for picturesque effect rather than for warmth or for the satisfaction of Mrs Grundy. I do not propose that it should be adopted for day dresses, as its dirt gathering disadvantages are too obvious.”

Miss Doris Zinkeisen, the young Scottish artist who was responsible for the design, states that the new season’s evening go\yns will be anklelength and very full in the hem. To give a new flow to these wide skirts, and to counteract the Paris idea of transparent gowns worn over a tight slip, she evolved filmy petticoats of a special silk net made in Devonshire. "The petticoats were not in the least like the many-tiered flounces of our childhood,” she said. “That would be far too bulky for the present slimhipline. The new garment is built up in four delicate layers, with circular frills which were seen when the 16 ’Young Ladies’ walked or danced, but did not give a clumsy effect to the dresses. The white petticoats were in obvious contrast with the very modern evening frocks, which were of British artificial silk satin in a variety of colours. They were absolutely different from the matching slips to which we are accustomed.”

Petticoats of net, tulle, or other filmy materials in white or off-white colourings will, if they are generally adopted create a revolution \n fashion. They will completely change the present streamline tendency and revive bellskirts, and will involve miles of British material and untold hours of laundering. Their obvious disadvantages are that they will soil easily, and may hamper movements. There should, however, be no outcry on that score from women, who last season submitted to trailing trains of white satin. These ankle-length, filmy garments are not intended to interfere with feminine freedom.

The Queen’s Visits: It seems that other arts, besides that of the kitchen, are being revived for the “newest” thing in needlecraft is patchwork. You may still see occasionally in English cottages a patchwork quilt made of bits of print and gingham that decked the village belle of seventy years ago. In more prosperous houses the quilt was made of silk —and how lovely those old silks were, only those who have cherished ancient pieces of patchwork know —delicate lavender, soft grey, rich purple or puce or royal blue, white sprigged with exquisite small flowers, or striped ribbon-like with colour. These, if any remain, are the stuffs of modern patchwork. Quilting, too, has returned to favour. It has never died out in certain districts—notably among the miners’ wives of Durham and Northumberland and South Wales—but now the leisured are taking it up and studying the centuries-old designs. Lady Diana Cooper is an accomplished exponent of it. We do not know how much this interest in ojd household arts owes to the Queen, whose knowledge of them is considerable. Old furniture, old china, and needlework find an appreciative and very wellinformed critic in Queen Mary, who may be seen sometimes going quietly about a gallery where such things are shown. There is a tiny little shop in Kensington, aptly called The Doll’s House, where, in a strange, low loft with an old hearth fire and windows that must have looked out upon sedan chairs and rattling coaches, you may find furniture and china and knickknaks of ancient days. This little shop has been visited by the Queen, and the proprietor tells admiringly of her unerring eye for “period.” She herself is a collector—among other things of Tunbridge ware, which is made of bits of different-colouered woods set dicewise and highly polished. Even as a child she must have loved quaint things and kept them carefully. In a museum there are some of her childhood’s toys—little simple things that all children love —and they are whole and sound as if they were gently handled.

Youth and Dancing;

“A woman with children hßs more to keep her young than many a wife who will not have children.” said Dr. Marion Whyte in the course of her Inaugural address to home science students in Dunedin. The speaker made this statement when she was referring to woman’s place in the home, and to the efforts of women to retain tht bloom of youth. They had to prepare for age, she said, because it was itself a preparation for another stage. “You must die,” she concluded, “You must be willing to die —that you may live.” • Applause). Later Dr. Whyte commended dancing as an important feature in the lives of young people, and stated that it was a useful means of bringing young men and women together. However, she expressed grave concern at what she described the subtle and insistent urge of jazz music, and stated that music appeared to be the factor that njade modern dancing something of a problem. “I see no fun in hurling food across the supper-room, and I see no fun in cocktail parties.” said the speaker. "Nobody can listen to the insistent urge of jazz—barbaric music gathered from African tribes in rites we blush to see—without doing something, and there is no doubt that from this springs the impulse to hurl food across the supper-room.” She added that she could not help thinking that their music was going to change for the better. In facing the problem they would find strength of character for themselves. Their love of rhythm, which should be a very fine thing, came into dancing, and it was desirable that it should be made the finest thing possible.

£l5O For One Day’s Food: On a strip of parchment dated 21st. January, 1552 (now on view at the exhibition of manuscripts in London), is preserved one day’s household account of the Chateau of Amboise. where Mary Queen of Scots lodged when betrothed to the Dauphin (states a Londoner). No milk is mentioned in

' day’s dietary, but the six Royal children (including three future Kings of France) had 25 pints of red wine, 25 pints of white wine; a further 25 pints of a cheaper red wine for their attendants of gentle birth: and 35 pints of cheap claret for their staff. The day’s account shows also that no fewer than 75 dozen loaves were paid for. The day was one of abstinence. Meat was banned, but there were pike, roach, carp, gudgeon, crayfish, a sea turtle, ovsters, soles, cod, white and red herrings. and strangely enough four vipers. The total bill for this was £149 Is sd.

Jobs Women Cannot Do: Although women have invaded almost every trade and profession in Britain in the past few years there are still some jobs which are absolutely closed to them. Because of a law which prohibits them from working during the night, they cannot be railway en-gine-drivers, construction engineers, power station engineers, or printers. “We are doing what wr. can to get the law changed,” an official of one of the advancement of women’s interests said lately. “In nearly every big building job the work goes on day and night, and women are ousted at the beginning. No matter what her qualifications may be, a woman hasn’t a chance. The law won’t let her compete with men. In the engineering classes in our universities women have been well represented for many years. So far, they arc lacking in the years of experience that men have had.”

The foreman of a big building job in London, when asked what he thought of the possible entry of women into building construction, said: “Why shouldn’t they? As long as a woman has the nerve to walk along girders a hundred feet in the air to see that the men are doing the job properlv. and as long as she knows what is required, why not?”