Fashions and Furbelows

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17348, 13 May 1924, Page 9

Fashions and Furbelows

Notes 4y Special Contributors

A RESUME OF FASHIONS.

(By PAULINE COUIILANDERA The “ eighties ” have been called upon to give inspiration for some of slid newest fashions—not so much in shape as in colouring and materials. BYGONE FASHIONS. During those last ten or fifteen years vee have reorganised our corsets to such a sensible extent that it will never bd possible to reproduce the figure of former epochs. Consequently revivals of bygone fashions are never, fortunately for our comfort, revivals of bygone shapes. The mixture of grey and scarlet, tho associations of silk or woollen plaids with plain materials; the embroidcrei flowers in bright colours; the mixture

>f black and vivid green, and the coloured piping on dark materials—all these can be found in the inhuman 'coking fashion plates of the eighties is well as in the great houses of th? Rue de la Pais.

Our modern eyes can only be gratified by the modern use made of all these materials. Scarlet, when used with grey or black, is used very spar ingly* for large surfaces this rather trying colour would be unbecoming Plaids are of more subdued colours, and. incidentally, of quite un-Scottish exactitude. Pleated plaid skirts are

worn with plain coats lined with plail silk, light crepe de chine blouses and black coloured ties. THE WAY OF THE TIE. A great many ties are worn: nairow black ribbon ones with long en hr,, o'* wide bow ties like those we ise 1 to consider the exclusive property of the Latin Quarter students. Narrowblack velvet, streamers down tho backs of muslin and georgette frocks are a feature of these engaging garments, and wide-brimmed hats are trimmed simply with a velvet or silk ribbon, one end of which is wound round tho neck like a cravaite. SINGLE FLOWER EMBROIDERIES A small flower embroidered in brigjit silk is sometimes the only decorat ; on cn a black or navy blue gown. You may have a rose or a carnation, or a dahlia-something large and rather conventional is gtnerally chosen -ana the flower is placed either o»i the shoulder or the hips—most o'tcr, on the shoulder. SLEEVES AND COLLARS, sleeves have no fixed rules or shapes. The long, tight-fitting one is, perhaps, the favourite: but there is m. reason why you should not choose a bishop’s sleeve, a wide bell sleeve, a quite shortone. or none at, all! The musim or georgette frocks for the nj-j.-.g have only the merest a oologies t>-r sleeves sometimes only a frill or ruche or just the continuation of the-shoal Jer line. There arc numerous lingerie collar? and cuffs of plain or embroidered organdi. “ cambric ’ or fine linen lawn These may’ be white pale pink, blu». yellow or mauve, apd they may be just narrow strips or quite important affairs of Puritan dimensions. MAN HAS SPOKEN. (By STELLA HARLEY ) A gay, somersaulting casuist who occasionally hazards guesses at the trutii about the fair sex has told us ir, * burst of frankness the truth about his own. He confesses that men detest frank ness in women. He weeps salt tearbecause Woman has become so frank in her relationships with Man that she up her fare in his presence. I o this now universal procedure he makes no ethical objections; or aesthetic. But he objects profoundly that we should have ceased to make a de c ?~% our uee ®it- He cannot endure that we apply the pencil and the lip stick in his presence. Behold, Man has spoken. In tbcj privaev of our boudoir we may pve mask that is to thrall him He knows it is a mask; but he has been spared the ‘ mechanics” of the make-up. They have been performed in secret. 71 is symbolical.

In like fashion, in the privaev of our inner consciousness. we may

“make-up” with artifice and sham our minds and hearts. Man will accept joyfully any mental or emotional mask wiTh whiqh we essav to intrigue him. Spare him any frank avowal, please. Deceive him, wrap him in countless subterfuge. Use the lip stick of lies, the rouge of ruse, the powder of pretence—in secret—and he will love you through it all.

Let us be marionettes. So lons as we co.*sea! the wires, man will applau 1 the performance —and pay fpr it.