DUAL PURPOSE CLOTHES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21554, 17 January 1940, Page 10

DUAL PURPOSE CLOTHES

SOME LONDON SUGGESTIONS Some of the designers are being very kind in suggesting that we should buy clothes which serve a double purpose. Previously most of us chose suits for town and different ones for the country, it not having struck us, I suppose, that we might make one costume do the duty of two, says a London correspondent. Now that the dressmakers have given the hint and bestowed their blessing on a certain dress economy, though it can’t pay them to do so, everybody is searching for outfits that look “right” anywhere. If they find them, and there is no reason why they should not. there will be the more money left to spend on those irresistible bits of airiness dubbed “robes du soir” which are important when festivities are afoot. “Home entertaining” gowns—the long, full, picturesque frocks you put on at tea-time and keep on, if you wish, until bedtime. They are perfectly suitable, in their Quakerish quaintness, to take out in the evening to any kind of not too “grand” party. They are item one in the economy list. You can have the dress made of any material you fancy, except a very fragile one, and superfine wool is, perhaps, the best of all. Tweed suits, perfectly at home in the country, and yet neat and attractive enough to appear in the city. If you like patterns try a suit in a small check design of red and black or green and black. Have the skirt quite straight and fairly short, and you might, if slim enough, experiment with a jacket with a pouched back drawn in at the waist with a black inset belt. Busvine does these suits very well, and gives them jumpers, some gay, some quiet. Gold tinsel thread can be knitted up for the “top” to wear with a plain costume, but this would have to be reserved for town wear, while coloured ones could be sported in the country. These can be as vivid as you like. If you have a black and red suit, let the jumper take up the

red theme. If the suit is black and green, repeat the green in the pullover.

Reverse effects can be obtained, as for example, with a black jumper as the complement to a cerise and black checked suit, which has black revers and black binding on the pockets. With this ensemble you wear short gloves made of the same material, stitched with black. Perhaps you would care for a little amusement on a dual-purpose outfit? If so. why not an unusual applique motif? The only trouble is that you might get tired of it, but the venture may be worth while for the sake of variety. It is part of the fun dressmakers are having in putting appliques and embroideries and scrolls where, normally, you would expect to find pockets, pockets having staged a come-back. Busvine does a plain black skirt, an emerald green jacket, and a jumper with a green front, a black back, and short sleeves which also mix green and black in the fronts and backs. Where two pockets might have been expected on the jacket there are black Welsh harp appliques edges with black leather, and on the green front of the jumper is a third Welsh harp. I like a jacket blouse in vivid green, red, yellow and black tartans, fastened in front with small black buttons, and completed by a black Peter Pan collar and black pockets. The colours are toned down, you see, by the discreet application of black, and the blouse is another item for the economy list because it can go in the dual-purpose I wardrobe. It is worn with a black ' skirt and a hip-length cape, the cape taking up the story by having one row of tartan diamonds as a narrow front facing. The outfit is completed by a black felt hat, from the back of which fall yellow and green ribbons. On a town dress proper you get another tartan idea. The model is in

a lovely deep night blue shade and, instead of a collar, a length of gay tartan taffetas is folded round the back of the neck, the long ends brought down either side of the front, slotted twice through slits in the bodice, kept in place at the waist by a belt, and then left to fall loosely to the hem of the skirt. The idea is bright, because the slotted scarf-like arrangement is easily detachable and so plenty of variety is possible. For young folk there are also some rather nice crinoline frocks made of various materials in tartan patterns. Taffeta is, perhaps, the most satisfactory, because the little waistcoats which accompany some of the dresses demand a fairly firm material. Although I believe the vogue for hooped evening skirts is definitely on the wane, I must admit that crinolines of the right kind look adorable on youthful figures.