Dresses of the Week

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18466, 18 May 1928, Page 13

Dresses of the Week

Written I'si

"STELLA”

Of all the new things I must buy for the new season, that, which perplexes me most is my winter coat. You see, I had mean t (but did I really, I wonder ?) to make last year’s coat do for this year’s winter, but alas for my economic resolutions after seeing the new mod els! Nothing has changed more in line, materials and trimmings than -winter coats. So I mean to buy the very best, the very newest, that I can find, and leave my frocks and jumpers to look after themselves.

This is, I think, a sound policy. We really do get our money’s worth out of our winter coat. We are seen most in it. We cannot say, as in the case of some pretty summer frippery, “But shall I really have occasion to wear it?” We are sure of a good winter, at any rate. Now, what shall I. choose, I wonder ?

I love tweed. Also there are many charming accessories that go with tweed. Tweed coats are now being made in quite a number of new ways, and the material is as soft as stockinette. The coats are pleated, tucked and even draped. The homespun coats, too, attract me, and they are trimmed with a little rich fur, as though to make up for the homeliness of tfie material, though plain brown leather looks equally well on them. Ibis pink is a new colour for coats. There is brown in it, which means that a brown hat, shoes, gloves and handbag go beautifully with it. They are putting seal fur on it, and moleskin dyed to a fascinating shade of chestnut—then your accessories should match the fur.

Then there are the velvet coats, the pride of the autumn collections. Velvet coats are perfect for a smart afternoon engagement, and if you choose your coat carefully, it will do for evening as well, so that the feeling that you have been extravagant in having two coats need not hang over you like a pall. Velvet coats have fur and buttons put on as trimmings, and are very definite as to their linings. These are usually of quilted satin, and the black velvet coats have the brightest coloured linings. Other up-to-date touches consist of rounded corners, fur put on in scallops, fur collars tieing like handkerchiefs, shawl collars dipping low at the back, and deep, from wrist to elbow, fur cuffs. Many fur-trimmed coats now have only one fur rever, which is very sensible, for the other was always hidden and gave an undesirable bulk to the figure. Two shades of fur are often used on one coat, and fur incrustations appear on the very newest models. The very superior coats are trimmed with a smoky beige—grey fur of unknown origin, lynx and fox. Yokes are sometimes cut at an angle, and all the fastenings are cross-over, running from

one shoulder to the opposite knee. With the return of the tunic, the three-quarter-length coat is seen again, and many dressmakers say they are more slimming than the short or fulllength ones. The romantic shoulder cape derived from the enormous collars worn by the traditional highwayman has been seen on several of the new coats. When trimmed in this manner, they are cut so that the silhouette is broad on the shoulders, but slender around the hips and knees. One charming model X saw recently in navy blue velour de laine showed a short double cape- cut on the cross and a high, close-fitting brown fox collar. Another, carried out in black velvet, also had a double cape but was trimmed with a flat collar and narrow revers of black astrakan. A third coat, made of black cloth, had only one shoulder cape, but it was rather longer, reaching to the elbows, and its edge was cut into enormous scallops. All the very smartest cloth coats are made expressly to wear with frocks of the same colour exactly, thus carrying out the winter “three-piece-idea.'’ The majority of them are tucked at the back, and are otherwise quite straight in cut, finishing at the side with a smart buckle or button, or arc just held in place. Diagonal lines of machine stitching give the effect of intricate cut. and w’here deep V lines are introduced in the back, length is suggested. The frocks this year are more exciting than ever; heaps of quite new notes have been struck, and many of them so delightfully simple that they will interest you all. I have seen so many evening dresses that I am quite bewildered, and can’t decide which I like best, yet, from my mass of notes, I find that the general impression I received, that nine out of ten were of Period design, is amply justified. No matter whether the material was tissue, moire, georgette, chiffon, net taffeta, or velvet, the Robe de Style was ever present.

For afternoon wear, the prettiest frocks and some jumper suits were patterned velvet with tiny patterns stamped right into them; some are. like dominoes; others almost like shepherd's checks; while quite a number had spots of all different sizes.

You must make use of vour old or new sashes now, for they are one of the new notes of the autumn nad winter fashions —provided you do anything but tie them in the conventional ordinary way! They have many uses, the most important perhaps being that of decorating evening cloaks. For instance, that evening cloak of yours (or coat, rather—l hope you have a coat, for they are so much more useful!) would be made absolutely the last word in “chic” if you stitched a

straight gaily-coloured sash down the back of it, and made a bow at the back of the neck to finish it off. You must, of course, take off the fur of your collar—if it exists. But don't worry about that, for unless it is real, ribbon is very much smarter, and a great deal more picturesque, which is what we’re all aiming at these days, isn’t it? Wire the bow at the back, so that it stands out each side of your face like a Medici collar. A coat of black velvet was made quite startlingly effective by the stitching on of a gaily-striped Roman sash in this way. Remember that, in the present fashion, your back view is more important than your front view. That is, as regards your clothes. It is so amusing to see a brilliant back surmounted by a sleek head, and then turn round to view a serene “front” surmounted by a brilliant face! For, whatever our looks, we all accentuate and enhance them most skilfully these days.

Next, vour evening frock. Let vour sash make it the last word in smartness, too. Tie the sash in a small bow, letting one end be verv long, and the other hardly exist. Place the bow on the left-hand shoulder of your frock, so that the long end trails down the back. If this long end reaches below the edge of the frock—good; leave it there—and the longer thebetter. If it does not, make a tiny wristlet of a narrow strip of silk the same colour as the sash, attach it to one end, so that the sash droops from the shoulder and ends up by clasping the wrist. This is ver}*- smart. Your sash may also make your evenmg bag a thing of great fashion and effectiveness, if it clasps it gently and 1 lets its ends fall in two long streamers from it. But what has that got to do with dress? you may ask. Everything in the world, I answer, for many evening frocks are “made” by such et ceteras as bags. A short‘silver tissue frock I heard of recently was made distinctive by a green water-lily on the shoulder, and a bag that had a ] on S" green stalk-like sash attached to it, which was carried in the right hand and formed a sort of train. Uneven length is indicated by strange things these days.

And for afternoon or street wear please remember that your sash must be -worn round your neck. It doesn't matter how wide or long it is. for it is always knotted or passed through a buckle at the back, and the ends hang down the frock at the back—unevenly, one longer than the other. And lastlv \ our sash can simplv “make” an underslip. A cream net frock that was worn over a cream crepe de chine slip was made a model because stitched diagonally across the slip was a sash of lime-green silk. Veiled sashes are even smarter than those distinctlv seen 1 hke these ideas for sashes; don’t vou ?