COMING FASHIONS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

COMING FASHIONS

Many Novelties in Autumn Styles. NEW DESIGNS IN BLOUSES. (By A PARISIAN EXPERT.) The autumn collections are full of novelties this season, every dressmaker of note making full play with characteristic little touches. Each garment presented, from sports to evening clothes, has some fresh and interesting details, and even if these are not adopted by fashionable women, they still are good pointers as to the general trend which the mode is taking. The variety of this season’s fashions promises to be bewildering. Where there was one style two yeans ago, there are now half-a-dozen, and this applies to every type of clothes, although, naturally, there are certain definite trends. Let us take evening frocks for example. The line which closely hugged the body, from hips nearly to knee, has practically disappeared from the new collections. This is good news, for most women found this lino to be ageing, and it was certainly never comfortable. The designer’s main idea this season is to give women the maximum of comfort, and the minimum of trouble, by making fullness in the skirt start just above the hips. The Divided Skirt. An evening style which may be said to have made a definite impression in this season’s fashions is the divided skirt. Practically every house of note shows it in some form or another, usually in some soft flowing material. Beaded materials, which are still to be seen, or

any material which suggests stiffness, does not seem suitable for the new skirts, although I have seen one which was entirely beaded with an effect of chainmail, which was amusing. The idea of using material in triangular pieces, both for skirts and bodice, will solve a problem or two. A triangular yoke-piece cut, of course, in one with the bodice, is brought down onto the skirt, back and front; since it is cut oil the bias, it permits the wearer to sit down in comfort, while the gown does not lose its shape. The skirt itself falls in sculptural folds, but it is so arranged as to appear to fit the liipline fairly closely. The /ear that has obsessed every woman for the last season or two, of splitting the seams of her frock at the sides, every time she sits down, is now a thing of the past. The Over-Blouse. It is probable that the over-blouse will have as popular a reign as the jumper, of which, of course, it is a very near relation. With sleeves, short or long, or without them, belted or straight, in lace, tricot, or severe silk, to name but three of the materials used, the overblouse runs through the entire autumn collections. One of its smartest and most often met with forms, is the waistcoat which is often worn with a jacket-suit. Very few over-blouses show more than the merest hint of a flared basque, and nearly always, they fit over the hips with a precision which suggests the tailor-made. Neck-lines are varied. They are oval, pointed, round or draped, according the style. Cameos seem to have regained an important place in jewellery; the large oldfashioned sort in antique settings, are being worn —a jewelled brooch in the centre of a wide belt —but they are also seen as ornaments at the bottom of the back decolletage of evening gowns, when no necklace, or one of very delicate design is worn. They are especially effective on the black lace dresses, which are so fashionable just now.

FASHIONS OF THE DAY.—Left: A beautiful oyster stamped velvet evening cloak with fox trimmings. Right: No one could fail to appreciate this lovely boudoir wrap of Faconne velvet with design of tulips. An added attraction is the ruched edging of velvet to tone.

ssffisiiffissGia THE VOGUE FOR EVENING WEAR.-This gown in ivory ninon, with bands of satin, is a modified example of the return to the Victorian period w<hich is featured in evening frocks of the day. (Below.)