IN FASHION'S REALM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 23 February 1914, Page 2

IN FASHION'S REALM.

UP-TO-DATE NOTES ON WHAT TO WEAR. .1 went to some trouble to get the folds of this correctly. It alluatrates tbo ytandard blouse, separate or of costume. If the figure were turned full on you would bo able to follow

that yoke line with a compass, governed, as to fixed point, at top of girdle. The sleeve is exactly the thing, betting into tho bodice well down, or as the drawing reveals resolving with the sifle, the yoke, for want of a better expression, lifting it. The cross-over effct is very .much in keeping with this negligee style, and so is the flat collar pointing] on the shoulder. For a separate, suppose we have a figured material with black satin for collar, the bands along front*, the lower cuff, and the girdle.

1 must look abend a bit. Heneo some mention of velvets and soft hairy-surfaced cloths—easily the destined first IV.r late autumn, and then through winter. London, speaking at that time, lays it down that the model?; for day wear are innumerable in woollen velvet, nearly all of the dresses opening to show the lace vest, while the coats and skirts have more fully draped skirty, a loom' sac coat, with ii collar close round the throat, and cuffs. A rather novel waist-belt to some is a very broad band of silk braid plaited in v some, vivid silks, and hanging down in long, flat ends in front. This waistbelt is never drawn tightly round the waist, but hangs straight round the folds of the*ooat, not drawing it in in any way; and a novel way of wearing it is to open the coat and push it. back a little, leaving the belt still fastened. All the short walking skirts have pockets, and the up-to-date elegante will thrust the skirts of her coat back and use them. lam sorely tempted to refer to fur-trimmings, but I feel it ia a little too early. I should like to say that a style which lias had an enormous vogue in Paris consists of little coats and skirts - of satin eharmeuse and silk to wear under heavier coats. They are nearly always in black, ancf show some very briyjit and vivid touches of colour, generally in tho sash, Some-' times these sa-shes are in moiro ribbon, as often they are in the new coloured silk braid, in emerald and white, geranium and white, lobelia blue, purple, yellow, any really pure and vivid colouring. The braid is made from 3in to 4in wide, and haa its ends finished as a knotted fringe, or finishing as a huge tassel. The slit in the skirt has this colouring introduced as a border, or carried out in loops and buttons, or is simply bound with it.

Go back to the blouse just Riven, unci then to this again—a dominant blouse note in tho full costume. I have shown everything very clearly' and so there is little to amplify. All the same the waistcoat points are a feature —width, depth, and shape, the

break in the belt serving to link them with both vesit and bodice. It is a becoming style, and . will be mneli adopted in modish dresses. Hie frill, V neck, and deep sleeve simply conform. Is the modern beauty, svelte and graceful, with her slender line, to make way this season for the more

robust «iii(l bloomiup, :H-yle of beauty r i The; courturiers have endeavoured to I encourage this change several times, i but fto far, without success. In any J case, the word of command this season is to appear to be without a- coryjst. All the new models are planned to give this effect and so makers are offering corsets which nienco at the waist and finish almost at the knees. it is in France that the cult of the svelte and slender wo.man has been of late years carried to itn .highest degree, bringing in its train the regime of fasting and all that makes for the reduction of flesh. The doctor- protest against the thinning regime. They have denounced it in a sitting of the Academy of Medicine, declaring that the best hygiene was to eat as much as one uanted and drink to the satisfaction of one's tliirat. Artists also are in ;e----volt against the extreme slininess to which fashion has led women. -Will our courturiers oblige women to renounce her slonder outline r" It is a question. The famous Paul"Poiret. designer of tho harem about a year ago, was recently in America. Making a tour he exhibited and discoursed, and having returned to Paris lie .summarises. This is through "Harper's," and with the declared object of pi'eventing misrepresentation. lam only concerned in what he says on current .styles: "All aro advisable, provided they unit those who wear them.' The watchword is Eclectisme. 1 see no , harm in the trouserette, but I would j not advise anyone to adopt such a [ thing unless her -position is assured. As to the slit skirt, I. have this to say: It ist the only form in which the extremely tight skirt can be worn. I Many like the extremely ti<:ht skirt. I can understand this. If a woman has a beautiful figure, the tight skirt gives her a graceful line. 1 would not advise ,»'iiers to wear the tight skirt. If it is brought mo tightly, around the lower part of the limbs as almost to reveal them, the skirt must be slit to permit the wearer to move about. But I should not dream of asking all to adopt this style. For the majority, I advocate a skirt of medium width wide enough to walk in. I think, however, that it is not necessary to take lonj;; strides. They are ungraceful. I consider a skirt about a yard and a-half to two yards wide suitable, to the majority, and in skirts of tint width a woman can learn to walk gi-ac fully. If the two yard skirt hamper', the feet to the degree of awkwardness, a wider one -ihoukl be worn. It is my theory that there should he as many styles of dress as there are women. Although 1 am considered the liigh-priest of fashion, its system of rules has no more bitter Poi ret- next say;« that he i« doing .something to direct attention to the Venetian, styles; "Those worn by the grandes dames in I the days of its splendour."