Woman's World

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17761, 7 December 1929, Page 2

Woman's World

" VANITY STREET. First of all we must consider this printed chiffon frocuc wh.c.i T had sketched for eou at cue cf la-.t week s Autumn “collections”—as we have been taught to oil them. Nothing 1 can say, and at the same time ma.nta.il iu. r-Lu.t.ti-iii Lr comparative

sanity, would give you any idea cf how beautiful the material was. The * background was beige, while the printed part was ' aTI the lovely colourings

of nasturtiums, and there w.s a lun ii of nasturtiums >.t the waist. You will j note the three-ticred skirt with its back-dipping hem and the shoulder flare which curries on the “line”; and there is nothing else for me to say —except that the mmnequin wore ear-rings and bracelets of red coral which reflected the n sturcium shades, also a necklace on suite. She had dark hair which was “done” in the popular compromise for liali-Jo: 1 * hail- — two knots unuer the ears, and, with j this Victorian frock, w.s som.hcwj most suitable. Flesh-coloured stockings and beige satin shoes conl_ leted I the toilette; and, I might add, beige I satin are reg vrded as very suitable j shoes for the majority cf frocks, un-| less metal or blank are worn. This was suggested to me by one of cur most prominent modistes, whose name is only mentioned with b .ted breath ! | And nc/w we come to Madeleine’s con-1

tribution. She is in a particularly helpful 1 ! 1 frame of" mind this week—probably by way of re action** after an enforced round of seeing so many gorgeous toilettes. She' says that if you want to make an ordinary coat-frock look Mjust like a model,” you cannot dp better than procure a nice, soft,, flat piece of fur—the kind you can 1 buy by the yard—and make a very j smart bow-, as portrayed herewith, leaving one long end w r hich can be tucked_th rough the belt. As you will. sees, it, is ridiculously simple; and yet,: after all, it is just such little touches ■ as these which make a model out of next to nothing! (In fact I think Madeleine must have been not only in

This is a wrinkle on how, by the addition of a piece of flat fur, procurable by the yard, an ordinary frock can be given the “touch” of a model.

a reactionary, but a revolutionary ’uooil to give the idea away. The jazz band and the weak tea must have "affected. her as it di<l me on the last occasion we attended a dress' show .ogether !j

CUL DE SAG! One night this week I went to a ver*7 smart newly-opened restaurant, and was told before I had been there ** min' tes tbi t th?re was an actress (off duty) wearing evening dress without st jckings. Something prompted me to stir: “Neither have I any stockings!” and my partner, looking down at me quickly, said “By George, neither you hive!” A s a matter of laot, I was wearing a perfectly good ° r o' rh. ffo l-hose, flesh-coloured, and I knew that the effect was practically

I stcokingless. although, technically beI yond r_-;roavh, or discussion—which I just shows, what long way fancy will | c :rrv one! The actress whose bare j legs were the object of so much dis- | i u.'.sion, looked quite as fully dressed | as the majority of us,. but somehow 1 it had got abroad that she had introduced a daring- mode, and there was in stemming the flood of controversy. As you know, very few dancers on the stage war “fleshings’’ thise dvys, and the cult of the hare leg is growing. Then, of course, there was the discussion amongst the tennis “stars,” which did not 'interest me half as much as the present one, because tennis* champions can go bare-legged until the er):ick of doom without in the ; least affecting me; but if we are gou/r. to h ive the 'option of being barelegged for the" evening, I shall'be one of the first to join the ranks and s~ave the price of stockings which cannot be detected! The glory—imagine it of not having to bother about wrinkles and “ladders,” and whether the seam is in the middle of the back of the leg. An ther member of my fraternity* must have taken the actress’s hare legs very much to heart, because the next daw, in the paper which he honours with his representation, there appeared a list of the pros and cons in connection with the new vogue. It came tq the conclusion—the paper, I mean—that “for” bare legs one cpuld say that they made a pleasing atto harmonise with the bare j shoulders, arms, and back of a wo- i man in evening dress; balanced things, as it were; also it adopted my point | iv out the absence of worry over stock- ( iugs. Then “against” came the at- £ traction of the “smooth sinuosity of j silk,” which the hare leg lacks, and c Dm fr.ct that the new evening gowns, < with more gadgets, under-wear, et-

I cetera, afford no excuse for our saying | that we wear nothing to keen o.ur 1 stockings up with in the evening! Anyhow, although, as I said, I am I much in favour of the vogue itself, j so many women have unsightly legs { that I am perfectly certain the majorit of them will “scotch” the fashion before it gets its first wind! TRY THIS! My remark in the previous section that “fancy goes a long way” also extends to cold mutton; In fact it is in connection with such things acold mutton that one particularly requires to introduce an element of imagination! For instance, you will agree that “Pot de feu piquant?” sounds even better than hpshed mutton; so let us proceed with the justification for the change cf title. You put a.’:out two ounces of butter into a stew-pan; peel and slice two onions and fry in the butter until they are brown. To these you will add half a pint of good stock, a dessert-spoonful of Worcester sauce and two of tarragon vinegar, also one table-spoonful of curry paste or powder, and pepper and salt to taste. Just a pinch of sugar can be added if you like. Allow this sauce to- come to the boil, then s miner for half aiv hour, stirring occasionally. Thicken it with -a tablesp:onful of flour, mixed smoothly in a little can use cornflour for this, if you wish, and substitute thin gravy for the water in either c ue. Having thickened the mixture, let it foil well. Have your cold mutton—about a pound-an* a-lr lf, in this case—cut in neat slices and free from skin and fat; put it into the sauce; hep.t it gently through ! but dec not boil, or it will be hard. > Serve round a. heap of mashed potatoes and snippets of toast.

IS THAT SO ? We are all very pleased that that distinguished and popular actress,, ’Miss Iren© Vanburgh—whos© picture is herewith—is coming back to drama after quite a long retirement, during wliidh she suffered the loss of her husband, Dion Boucicault. Her return to the stag© will be in a play specially written for her by cle er Mr. Bonn Levy,, who jumped into fame at the Hjaymarket with “This Woman Business” a year or so ago. The Vanbrugh sisters—lren© and Violet—like Marie Tempest, do not so much “get away” on beauty, as by an extraordinary talent for investing everything they touch with a certain delicate air of completeness; and they have that personality and verve which matter much moire than actual beauty on’ the stp.ige. I remember Irene Vanbrugh telling me, when I talked to her upon her return from Australia two or three years ago, that a Dominion tour Wjas by no means a holiday. 1 “Only the best will do for them,” she said, “the know what they want, and are keen critics.”

THE STREET OF ADVENTURE

• Apart from recommending _ for your list “Shinju”—a romance of Japan, bv H. B. Drake (Bodley Head) —being the love "story of a Japanese girl, written with extraordinary understanding of the country, I want to telf you to add to your Christmas list for juvenile relations another book from the same publishing home. The latter is “Nigtlights,” by Dorothy Una Ratcliffe, and it hjas an. unusually refreshing atmosphere about it. It is, for instance, an attractive idea that waves are so big “because beyond the sands where you dig, a Sea,-King’s tearing bis sea,-weed wig and throw-