FASHION DECREES BLACK SUMMER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17831, 27 April 1926, Page 4

FASHION DECREES BLACK SUMMER.

DOCTOR REGRETS NEW COLOUR SCHEME; “LIFE NOT A FUNERAL.” LONDON. March 10. Black is to be the fashionable colour this summer. At a dress parade yesterday nearly all the dresses and coats shown for wear in the daytime were of black satin, poplin, taffeta or reps. Many hats are to be black, and the general note will be colour only in hat trimjnings, bags, jewellery and parasols. A Harley Street physician fears the depressing effect of wearing black clothes on other people. “After all. life isn’t one. long funeral,” he commented to the “Westminster Gazette.” "Women wear so little nowadays that I don’t think wearing black would have any appreciable effect on them, although, of course, black is much hotter to wear than any other colour.” At yesterday’s parade dresses of black were relieved with long collars and falling jabots of lace or white linen lawn, thus striking a more feminine note. Raspberry red strasse (a sort of waxed straw) was made into rosettes for a trimming on one black frock, while gold leaves were painted on the skirt of another model. Long tight sleeves characterised these frocks, some of which were full Velasquez shapes, taking many yards of taffeta, which stood out crisply from the figure. This model necessitated an underskirt of the same material. and the length was considerably increased.