FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18834, 24 March 1931, Page 3

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES. Noble Noses Are in Fashion: With the vogue of still longer skirts, the aquiline nose has returned in great triumph as the hall-mark of fashionable beauty. That the amusing, peit little retrousse nose seems to have gone temporarily out of favour is apparent. Perhaps it had its day with the short skirt. Yet there are those of us who persistently admire the gay expression it gives to the face of its owner. So writes the Hon. Mrs James Rodney, in “The Daily Mail.” It always seems to go with a round face and wide, credulous blue eyes. Of course, that is the face that appeals to the male —so trusting and yet full of fun. Possibly it does suit the longer dress to have an oval face, deep-set oval eyes, a larger mouth, and the Roman nose which goes with these features. One certainly didn’t realise, until this new fashion arrived, that there were so many people with the real Roman noses in the whole of the British Isles!

Students of anatomy and psychology tell us that the “noble” nose is a sign of great strength of character, and that the brow that so frequently surmounts it would indicate a deeper intelligence than the low forehead, with its flippant curls, above the short nose. How true this may be is open to debate, for many a clever woman I know is possessed of a small upturned nose. Yet if we run through history, the famous beauties who influenced the great men of their times or who became famous on their own account nearly all had straight or Roman noses Cleopatra’s reputed “snub” was an exception. And on a stroll through the National Portrait Gallery you have to search for a retrousse beauty among an imposing array of more haughty features. You And Margaret Beaufort, Queen Elizabeth, and all the 18th century celebrities, and later George Eliot, Christina Rossetti, and Mrs Gaskell. The list of Roman-nosed celebrities could be continued indefinitely. Look around among those wellknown in modern social circles and see which type of beauty prevails. First comes Lady Furness. She is lovely, pale, subtle in her essentially feminine charm—and yet has anyone a nose more indicative of character? The answer is—yes, perhaps her twin sister, Mrs “Reggie” Vanderbilt. The sisters have noses of the aquiline type, but slightly upturned, which gives them the qualities associated with both features. Princess Ilinsky, the beautiful wife of the Grand Duke Dmitri, is ohe of those handsome women, who have the aquiline nosw, and yet attractive Mrs Charles Baillie Hamilton makes one wonder why one even considers the distingue of Roman when retrousse is such a charming feature of her exquisite face. Only an arbitrary fashion could decide, too, which is more chic—the Spanish Dolores del Rio, with her perfect, slightly aquiline nose, fine intelligent brow, and perfect eyes, or Marion Davies, the glorious blonde with short, tip-tilted nose and round low brow, framed by curly hair.

Then there is the “high-bred” type of Roman nose—it is very rarely seen and most attractive. Miss Diana Fellowes has it in her lovely face Usually gay spirits combined with a verv sympathetic disposition are the accompanying characteristics. But if depressed this type is in the depths of despair—she will never know a smooth route through life. Fortune-tellers say they can read lives from one look at the nose—perhaps it is true. At any rate, this feature seems to give more indication of the character than all the others.

Cabaret in a Castle: Men and women famous in the hunting field danced to cabaret music In one of England’s .most ancient and best preserved baronial halls. If ever an ancestral home deserved the dignity of a ghost it is surely Rockingham Castle, which has stood on a hilltop overlooking a forest for eight hundred years. The castle suggested to Dickens the “Ghost Walk” in “Bleak House." Mr Victor Emanuel, a rich American and the present tenant, who spends every winter at the castle and every summer in the United States, gave a Hunt Ball and variety entertainment to fiv*- hundred guests. Men in pink coats and women in evening dress trooped under an awning between the twin Norman towers. The countryside was lit up by motor headlights searching for the famous yews and elms which encircle the castle. The hilltop was covered with motor cars.

Through a low doorway, one stepped back centuries in this baronial home, where kings and princes have lived, and where William the Conquercu built a residence, and his son Rufus went hunting in the forest. It was the most brilliant ball scene of the season. The dance music was provided by the Embassy Band from LcJndon, and the variety entertainment was given by well-known artists. Mr Emanuel, who loves the English countryside more and more every year, has during the short time he has been tenant linked the old world and the new together very cleverly The invited guests to the ball included the Marchioness of Cambridge, Earl and Countses Beatty, Lord Burghley, Lord Lanesborough, Lord and Lady Allendale, Lord and Lady Braye, Prince Dimitri, Lady Kesteven, and the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry and their two daughters.

Short Coats with New Gowns: We are in for an attack of the jacket complex. At the first of the Paris shows of spring and summer models, ninety-nine out of a hundred day dresses are accompanied by a short coat, usually with a slightly flared basque and deep revers that develop into fichus. Some of these jackets are sleeveless, and, worn over a tight-sleeved dress, they give an almost incredibly slim and neat appearance to the arms. Far less pleasing is the elbow-sleeved jacket which is making its appearance both for da> and evening wear, accompanied by three-quarter length gloves. Dresses with elbow-sleeves—another unwelcome “come-back” of an old fashion — are made in printed crepe de chene and have long-sleeved matching jackets.

Amazing materials are used for evening dresses. One was in sky-blue cashmere—an unreasonable whim for a warm summer evening. This had the inevitable jacket (dressmakers are not yet tired of evening jackets) of the same material with a big roll collar faced with black. Silk-and-wool jersey is another queer choice for evening frocks.

Printed chiffons of ctwnplete contrast are in again, particularly in pink and green, rather large floral patterns. Jade and coral jewellery strikes the same colour note. There was also deep-blue floral-patterned lace. Skyblue, jade-green (this is seen to adi vantage in faille), and violet are favourite evening colours. One striking model was in daffodil yellow and jadegreen. Evening dresses have tremendously wide hems. Several thicknesses of silk net; spotted with cherry-red chenille froth round the ankl r in one case. Mr Cochran dared n suggest frilled petticoats for the daytime, but a Paris house is showing a model having the hem-line with little lace frills that show when the wearer walks. Princes’ Dancing Partner: The most envied girl in the Panama Canal Zone to-day is Miss Eleanor Nichols, who was the dancing partner of the Prince of Wales and of Prince George before their departure in the Pacific Steam Navigation Co.’s liner Oropesa. She is blue-eyed, chestnut-i*4r*d, (

fi"d r.t'.iie'.ic, with ■». complexion becomingly tanned oy several years in the tropics, and her picture occupied a place of honour in New York's daily newspapers as that of the girl “who captivated the Prince of Wales.” She is a daughter of Commander Nichols, of the United States Navy, whose home is at Newport, Rhode Island, but who for some years past has been stationed at Balboa.

She was. seated with her parents in the Union Club at Panama City when ere of the royal equerries came over ana requested the honour of a dance. The scene was most romantic, for the ' ballroom” of the club is built out into the bay and is wide open to the stars and the moon. The equerry presented Miss Nichols to Prince George, who danced with her. Hardly had she sat down, when the Prince of Wales, as the delighted girl afterwards said, “without sending a messenger walked over and asked for the next dance.” As the occasion wa* an informal one the Prince danced with her repeatedly until the hour came for his departure. Miss Nichols, when the Princes had gone, deprecated "all this fuss,” observing. “It’s so silly.” but she satisfied questioners by saying:

He isn’t a bit offish. One would never think, just by meeting and talking with him, that he was anything but just one of the nicest young men imaginable. She added: “He is an awfully nice dancer too, but I believe Prince George is the better dancer, but he does not have so much to say.” Miss Nichols said that the Prince of Wales practised Spanish with her, and she understood his Spanish far better than that of the Spanish people, who talked so rapidly. After her parents had been presented to the Prince her father remarked: “He is just like a boy at Annapolis.” (Annapolis is the site of the United States Naval Academy.) Prince George also danced with Miss Cecilia Alfra, the very attractive niece of the new President cf Panama, who until the recent “four-hour” revolution was Minister at Washington.

An Amusing Occupation: The other day I went down into Surrey says a London writer, to see a woman artist who has done most of the recent interior reconstruction of Tudor houses in England. Few people who see “amshackle cowsheds, condemned as unfit for cattle to live in, know that by the work of this artist some of the wood will be transformed into reproductions of antique furniture.

"Hunting for the wood for making reproductions of 17th century furniture and wall decorations is the most amusing part of my work,” my friend told me. “Someone hears I am looking for a piece of oak and writes to tell me that there is a likely looking cowshed or public-house coming down, and I rush to the spot and buy a beam or two.”

These “antiques’ ’are put to very modern uses. One hutch, carved from 300-year-old oak, is fitted with cocktail .shaker and glasses, with a section for whisky and liqueurs, while underneath there is a slide-out compartment for sandwiches. .

No staining is used on these reproductions. Instead a secret process is used to give the right antique tone to the oak, whicn never has to be polished and improves the more it is knocked about.