PARIS SKIRTS A GOOD INCH LONGER

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 September 1950, Page 2

PARIS SKIRTS A GOOD INCH LONGER

Contrast With Fashions In London (From DOROTHY WADDINGTON, Reuters Correspondent in Paris). Skirts, stars of the current Paris collections, are a good inch longer than last season. All the interest is focussed on them for street wear. The longer skirt is in contrast to the lengths range in the majority of London Houses which are around the 14 to 15 inch mark. Paris couturiers 1951 dream girl is all girl with bosoms and bustles. She is tall and willowy with a graceful neck topped by a neat tiny head and longer hair. Her shoulders are widened through cut, rather than padding. A well-rounded bust line leads into a nipped-in waist. The curves continue to a naturally rounded hip that still remains slender in contrast to the shoulder line. SHORT EVENING DRESS RELEGATED

The short evening dress has been relagated to the little cabaret dress. There is new excitement for dinner hour in pencel slim ankle length gowns. Full gala is as ever ground length and room filling. Balenciaga takes top honours, creating with fabrics and colours, artistic achievements worthy of the great Spanish masters. His suits are Paris classics. This season, news is found in exciting peplums which give the effect of dipping-in the back while in front interest is sustained by stiffened basques that curve gently from a snug waist. The type of dresses “Mrs. Everybody” longs for was shown at Jacques Fath’s. Skirts bell gracefully from the knee. Soft draped necklines allow one to look wonderful at the bridge table. These necklines are named

“Magnetic;” they are deep and edged with a draped band in self fabric. Jacques Fath does a similar collar in fur; typical of this is a pillar lined sombre jersey entirely pleated to shoulder yoke. The oflicer collar is mink banded. The collars set off his mannequins’ new hair style “Canasta.” One immediately thinks of the Queen of a pack of playing cards. Long hair is worn with no parting, ending in a flat roll over the ears. Mr. Fath favvours brunettes and proposes pale make-up with dark lips and nails to complement his ballet look. Dior’s evening dresses were news at dawn, with tired mannequins still showing them to equally tired buyers. The oblique line was the signature of this collection. This in mortal language means a fastening from left shoulder to right hem. A variation ol this is to scallop the line, placing but-ton-holes in the loops of the scallops. For end of the day, dresses are interpreted by means of interlaced pleats. Christian Dior renews the new-look in his suits the nipped-in waistline with fully padded peplums, but brought up to-date with a slim skirt. An interesting treatment was to face the peplum and revers in a contrasting colour. Full skirted dresses are one of the outstanding characteristics of this daring designer’s line. Mr. Dior, in a year consecrated to the slim sheath, reaffirms his belief in the more feminine look of the full skirt. He tops this with tunic coats; these coats are cut on redingote lines with flaring threequarter or seven-eight length flaring skirts.

Jean Desses promotes tunics for around the clock. Simulated tunic dresses are interpreted in several ways. The most interesting is in a pin point green and black baby check; a shirtwaist top goes into a sheath skirt complemented by a three side tunic. Another variation on the tunic is done in his favourite off-black. This one has a suit handkerchief-pointed jacket over a slim skirt repeating the tunic look. The draped point was removable, leaving a classic suit. The Schiaparelli silhouette is called “the front line”—Madame Schiaparelli encourages a line that is straight and flat .where it should be, rounding and curving elsewhere. She likes feminine curves, legs that are long and coltish, but insists on a flat stomach. Madame Schiaparelli reveals her secret to achieve this line. A simple losange of plywood is inserted inside the girdle to give a flat abdomen. The flattened look is further stressed with stiffened side peplums. In the evening picture, Madame Schiaparelli’s side fullness moves to the back in a bustle line.