LAVENDER DAYS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19344, 19 November 1932, Page 11

LAVENDER DAYS

A GIFT TO DELIGHT. There are other things you can do with lavender blossoms besides putting them into tiny muslin bags and storing them with linen in the cupboards. One of the prettiest presents the writer has seen was a clothes cover. This is intended to throw over your clothes when they are neatly folded after being taken off at night and laid in order on a chair. It was made of two squares of muslin, quilted in diamonds in a running stitch. The interior was a thin sheet of cotton-wool divided, between which the lavender flowers were sprinkled quite thickly. It would be easy enough to make this sort of thing into quite a delightful piece of work with handsewing. There could be a panel of embroidery in the centre, with some fine white or coloured silk embroidery on it and the prospective owner’s initials, monogram or name embroidered in the centre of the panel. I can imagine even the untidiest school-girl being coaxed or shamed into neatness if one of these were given her for a birthday or Christmas gift.

TRAINS FROM THE WAIST Brides at Home are having trains that spring from the waist instead of the shoulder, and these are usually attached to a lovely waistband. Later on the trains will do duty as capeshawls; perhaps later still as christening robes as the mode is to-day.

WHAT NEXT? We are going to wear beads of fur and beads of feathers very soon. Oh, and slippers covered with tiny flat feathers! writes a Londoner.

GLADYS COOPER’S FROCKS In “Firebird,” which is now running in London, Miss Gladys Cooper wears some advance autumn fashions which are not shown in the salons of Molyneux, of Grosvenor street, who designed them, for two or three weeks after the opening night. In the first act her ensemble is entirely of black velvet. She wears the new velvet gloves, a trim little beret, and a simply cut frock and short coat, the only trimming on which is a silver fox fur collar, which can be tied at the side or left hanging loosely down. Her next suit is a bright green tailor-made, with chromium buttons, and a little green befeathered hat to match. After this she wears a brown ensemble made of the new crossing sable collar, and a very simple frock, which set her brown, sable-trimmed hat admirably. The frock of black woollen material belted with scarlet beige and black python-skin, in which she finally appears, intrigues the feminine spectators intensely, for it is worn with one of the new fur shoulder-capes, which had not before been seen in London.

RETURN OF THE BOW Fashion has it that the bow is to queen it amongst the coming modes. It is to perch coquettishly upon our shoulders, crown our heads, adorn our elbows, and, indeed, to make its decorative appearance at all points of the sartorial compass. We have the authority of Art for the revival of the bow. Valazquez has demonstrated conclusively in his portraits of Spanish Infantas how delightfully right an array of stiff little bows can be, when they extend right away from the decolletage of a bodice to the hem of a gown of stiff coral and silver brocade. They may be uniform in size, these bows, or they may gradually grow larger with a beautiful precision, as they range from north to south of the costume, and it will be difficult to decide under which system they appear more attractive. The eighteenth century loved its bows, too. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted bows con amore, sometimes enriched with embroideries and galons, as in the case of the bow sewn to the elbow sleeve of the elaborate dress worn in his portrait of Lady North in the collection of Sir Phillip Sassoon, sometimes just knotted from a soft ribbon, as in the case of his pictures of less sophisticated sitters. Morland dearly loved a bow, preferably tying up the waist of a country maiden and of sky-like blue. The mob caps of the period made excellent backgrounds for the bow at its most provocative, and the lace head-dresses of the grande dame, after passing their tapering ends round the throat and back again, finally ended up a becoming career in a most flattering bow either under or at the side of the chin, according to the views of their wearer. Can it be that in time we may come to tie up our shingled heads in something of the same manner?