FRAGRANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19374, 24 December 1932, Page 11

FRAGRANCE

THE ROMANCE OF SCENTMAKING. White lilac, gay, flaunting tulips, colourful anemones, glorious, longstemmed roses, sheaves of carnations, violets in purple splendour, the scent of damp moss! Out from their long wicker baskets come the flowers of the south, breathing of sunshine, blue sea and sky, a world of colour. From the flame of the marigold to the ethereal beauty of the waxen white roses, those gardens of the south hold the colours of the rainbow and all the perfumes of the world. The flower fields behind Nice and Cannes are famous. They supply the towns with fragrant beauty at carnival time; more important, they supply the town of Grasse—a very metropolis of flowers—with millions oFTflooms to be used for perfume-making in the distilleries of the mountain town. Orange flowers, sweet jasmine, fragrant roses, the shy violet, the pungent lemon, the elusive heliotrope and wistful hyacinth, the odorous acacia, the sweet narcissus and jonquil—into the distilleries they come in loads of loveliness, to be turned into scent for my lady’s boudoir. According to the time of year, so to the odours. In February it is mimosa; in May it is roses; in August jasmine, and in October the yellow acacia. In between come scents too many to mention. Right through the year goes on this business of capturing perfumes. Quick fingers pick over the blooms, which stand in huge baskets or lie on large trays. From the rose, the violet and orange blossom they get their bases, and on these perfumes others are blended. But to see jonquils swimming in olive oil and violets having a bath in paraffin is something of a shock to the flower lover. Hot grease also plays its part in perfume making. In the distilleries one sees these means used to force the soul of the flower into those stoppered bottles which stand upon our dressing-tables, the perfume which lurks in our bathsalts, in our favoured soaps and powders, in our lip-sticks and shampoos.

Once a woman takes to the mystic scents of the East she rarely returns to garden flower perfumes. They are too delicate after the richer aromas.

The ingenue may favour the shy violet or an extract of wallflower, but does not associate such scents with the dark-eyed beauty of an Oriental type. For the latter there are haunting odours of the East, mysterious, elusive, breathing of passion, or suggesting spices and sandalwood. An out-of-doors woman could favour fougere, subtle and refreshing, suggesting the woods where bracken grows beneath the trees. The restful type

of woman, will favour a scent like jasmine, while her wistful sister, elfin, spirituelle, will prefer the odour of the hyacinth.

QUICK CHANGE MUFF A muff which cannot be lost has been invented by a London designer, and it is likely to appeal to women as a thoroughly practical proposition (states the “Daily Mail”). Actually it is a panel attached to the front of a short fur-trimmed costume jacket. When the wearer’s fingers feel chilly she will merely pick up the panel and button it into place at her waist. The result is a pouch muff. This was one of the many novel ideas shown in the new Brogue collection at New Bond Street., W„ recently. An innovation in bridal veils was in a net shade of golden brown, with a single golden sequin over the forehead. White glazed chintz of the kind used on dressing-tables was embroidered in black cotton and used as a petticoat beneath a luxurious black velvet evening gown. With this frock was worn what must be one of the smallest evening wraps in existence. It consisted merely of two sleeves trimmed with ermine. And if the wearer considered this too much she could remove one sleeve! Velvet bell-ropes in lovely shades of green or purple were a favourite trimming on some of the white evening dresses.

About 20 per cent, of the pupils who are now learning to fly—excluding the R.A.F. pupils—are women. Among them are a number of well-known and very busy people, states the “Daily Telegraph.” There are more than 200 women pilots in Great Britain; several have advanced to the B certificate stage, and a few have taken the navigator’s licence and the ground engineer’s ticket. Among their instructors it is held that there is very little difference in flying aptitude between the women and men. At Hanworth Club, however, it is a rule to give women pupils a little more dual-control instruction before letting them go on to solo flying. “This is really no more than a precaution,’’ stated the chief instructor, Flying Officer Maxwell Findlay. “We have had no accidents with women pupils, but for the present we consider it wise to err, if at all, on the safe side.” Another instructor stated that women are better at flying than they are as car drivers. Here and there in the flying schools are anonymous pupils. Both sexes are represented in tEis, the incognito class. They are learning to 'fly, and not telling their relations and friend*.