FASHION EXPERT’S VIEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 419, 10 November 1930, Page 2

FASHION EXPERT’S VIEWS

ENGLISH WOMEN GOOD DRESSERS. Mrs A. Towers Settle, a fashion expert, speaking at the Summer School of the Drapers’ Chamber of Trade, Girton College, Cambridge, recently, said the English woman dressed better than the woman of any other nation. The English woman lived so much more at home than the French woman that there was not much chance of seeing smart English fashions. . There had never been such a diversity of opinion among the great fashion designers as this year. Ever fashion house was producing something different. One day a woman was going to look like the Empress Eugenie, and the next day like a pirate with a cocked hat. A day or two later she would be seen looking like a Sunday school girl, and tho next day like a highwayman. Women could not hope to wear all that was being offered to them this year. For every customer who came into a store knowing what she wanted and with tho taste and ability to pick it out, a dozen had to have their minds made up for them. Not even an attractive price could sell goods like real fashion news. The buying of fashions for a large store was essentially a woman’s job. With all his wit and work a man would never have that inborn understanding of what a woman wanted, and that quite unconscious understanding of the psychology of other women. THE ART OF MAKE-UP Modern make up, simple in its final effect, takes infinite time and patience in order to bring out one’s individual type of beauty to best advantage. While the majority of women are possessed of an intuitive knowledge of what best suits them, there are those who seek to apply to themselves what looks well on totally different types. This is especially noticeable in the matter of making up the lips, so many women marring otherwise tasteful effects through use of a wrong-coloured lipstick or a lack of skill in application. Marion Shilling is conceded to have one of the most beautiful complexions of the Hollywood movie colony. Miss Shilling frankly admits that an important share of this reputation is due to her knowledge of correct make up. “Making up the lips is the most important part of facial care,” Miss Shilling stated recently, “and one or tho things a woman who wants to appear smart should learn is the art of avoiding the highly visible break in colour that is sometimes seen when the mouth is opened. “By using an orange-wood stick and applying the lip rouge lirst on the inside of the lips and back of the corners of the mouth before forming the shape of tho lips this difficulty can be overcome. “Tho lips should then be drawn with the same* orange-wood stick, w and if care is taken'a too-thin mouth can be widened and a wide mouth narrowed by this method“Colour should be carefully selected, as an application of the wrong shade of lipstick is worse than-none at all. A pale blonde, with light skin and eyes, can use a light carmine shade, while the dark-haired girl should choose a medium colour. The olive-skinned brunette can be more daring in her make up than any other type, and a vivid red or raspberry toned lipstick will become her.”

WOMEN AS BANKERS Now that Germany has given tho world a woman plumber, there are few industrial fields left for women to conquer. Evon in that most difficult of all worlds, banking, for years only men were considered capable of putting two and two together, and Australia is still backward in recognising the talents of women in this respect, writes a correspondent in an exchangeA leading banker of New York, however, after a trial lasting five years, has found women tellers—paying and receiving—superior to men. “A Aliss Clare,” he says, “was employed as paying teller in the Alaiden Lane Savings Bank for years- Up to the time wo engaged her, wo had experienced a lot of trouble witn our men employees; so we decided to employ women. There has never been a shortage since. Every night the accounts are found to balance to a cent.” Aliss Alay Bateman, who organised a woman’s bank for women in London, testified to the same effect. “It was a bold project.” she admitted, “to launch a bank run by women for women but the experiment has been a huge success. At the outset we had to face a great amount of prejudice in every quarter, but that has now been overcome. ’ ’ It has been said that Aliss Bateman’s bank was the pioneer woman’s bank, but really, in a small way, it Was anticipated by Airs Priscilla Wakefield, aunt of the founder of South Australia. So far back as 1799, Airs Wakefield started in the English village of Tottenham a rudimentary savings bank for the benefit of women and children. It was arranged that members should pay every month a certain sum, graded according to age, which entitled them to a pension after they had reached sixty. ORIGIN OF FLOWERS Has it ever occurred to one to ask where some of the many beautiful flow-e-4 come from? We take it foj granted they are British, but it is not so in many cases, sdys a correspondent of a London newspaper. The writer states that it was Napoleon who introduced mignonette into Europe from Egypt. The jessamine came from India, and also tho gypsophilia, which is only a weed there. The Atichaclmas daisy comes from Not th America, and it was brought over by the son of a gardener to Charles I. and planted in Lambeth. The sweet pea came from Sicily, the phlox from Texas, the. tulip from Constanti iople, and the syringa from Persia. Pentstomons camo from California, tho salpiglossis from Chile, blue lobelia from the Cape of Good Hope, and the prir ula from China. On'y two rod flowers are indigenous to the British flora—they are the red poppy and shepherd’s clock or scarlet pimpernel.