PROS AND CONS OF THE BUSTLE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21575, 10 February 1940, Page 12

PROS AND CONS OF THE BUSTLE

One or two definite problems await us in the autumn. After some years of hesitation we accepted the crinoline, and then fell headlong (if that is the right word) in love with it. Shall w? do as much for the bustle? (writes H. Pearl Adam, in the “Sunday Times"). There was nothing in the crinoline itself that was Inherently ludicrous—only its exaggerations and over-trim-mings were absurd, and its inconvenience was patent. So was its charm. But the bustle is another matter. This outcrop of material at the back was at first the aftermath of the crinoline, but later developed characteristics of its own. ending with that curtaln-draped-overrug idiom which disfigured the ’eighties. There is absolutely nothing to be said for the bustle as seen in family albums; but one must remember that movement and life can make a great difference. When Tree produced a version of “The Man Who Was,” with women improbably introduced, they moved about, as magnificently as battleships, in just the glut of textiles worn by people who nevertheless admired Ruskin. The dresses remained absurd, but the wearers, especially Constance Collier, achieved the superb

In settling whether we will, or will not acquire at the back of our skirts an ornament which Gargantua might have worn as a cravat, we have to remember that, so far. the dictators of fashion have suggested it as purely exterior. It does not involve to-day. as it did in the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, a peculiarly Inconvenient inner affair of wire or straw. It is a quite public arrangement of folds, obviously intended to be in the fashion, and not privily “to improve the figure," as one dictionary says.

It must be admitted that all the tact of a diplomatic corps is being used by the dressmaking trade in this matter of bustles. The extra yard or two of material is sometimes bunched at the waist, sometimes below It, sometimes sapiently suggested by fan-shaped pleats drawn into a long flat backline. This last represents a wish to conform to the mode, while rejecting its Jazzier lines. It is, as a matter of fact, a beautiful and almost sculptural version of a fashion which can elsewhere resemble a fungoid growth on a tree trunk. The folds are repeated In the heart-shaped puff sleeves. High Waists or Low? We can eschew the bustle entirely tf we like. The long line is still to be with us, and skirts so soft and wide that their fullness can be disposed at whatever point of the compass suits the figure best. The fullness, however, falls only from the hips. Here we come to the second problem of the autumn. Shall the waist be high or low, shall the hip be stressed or under-stated? A low waistline suits both over-slim and over-round figures, especially’ with a basque that covers the break. This leads directly to the tunic, with a Russian outline (and probably fur at the bottom). Hence one foresees a distinct lengthening of the all-use jacket with a different skirt. There will be fewer belts, and this will be a relief to those who have loyally worn them, although they felt a longer line more becoming. The jacket will outline a bay. but only in passing, and then skim outwards and roundwards and southwards, like the eastern outline of the American continents, diminished to taste. Tills, of course, represents an answer to the hour-glass waist. Such an outline does not suit everybody, but a low waistline, as long as it rounds the hips, is good for the rotund. It is rather reminiscent of the time of Edward VI., and the same clinging, but trailing, skirt suggests itself as an alternative to the heavy draperies of the bustled skirt.

The double-steepled hat is not impossible either. We already have the sloping cone hung with many yards of unexpected, unnecessary, and unlikely veiling. Double the point and we mav yet escape the bustle in favour of a more medieval costume.

Meanwhile we keep to wide skirts, and we are promised some amusement in their hems. Brussels is making herself felt in the competition for honours in dress, and she suggests hems turned up on the outside. (Here again we see the beginning of the double-draped skirt, which began last year with the petticoat edge.) A grape-red skirt turns up with stripes of red. yellow, green, and white, imitating embroidery. Collar, cuffs, and belt repeat the decoration. Wider Material Planned So much variation in skirts is likely that silk manufacturers are proposing to enlarge the usual yard-width to half as much again. With 54in. to play with the dressmakers can compose fantasias. Home dressmakers will be glad to be rid of one seam in three. So far the movement is confined to high-priced materials, but it may easily reach the counters where prices end in something-elevenpence.