THIS MOUNT COOK VOGUE

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 13

THIS MOUNT COOK VOGUE

FASHIONS FOR NEW ZEALAND’S PLAYGROUND By MISS NELLIE BRAMLEY

HTHERE must be something magnetic 1 about that cloud-piercing mountain down in the sunny heart of your South Island. One hears “winter holidays at the Hermitage” or “down at Mount Cook for winter sports” wherever Madame and Mademoiselle La Mode foregather to talk leisured nothings. By the time I come back to Maoriland a knowledge of ski-ing will be as much a. social sine qua non as a mastery of the “blues,” if present indications count for anything. And since such a holiday is now the vogue, it is only natural that Dame Fashion should be invoked to produce “clothes and things” which shall give the finishing touch to these Southward-ho occasions. The subject cropped up after dinner a few nights ago. Someone mentioned the Vice-Regal party which had just returned from a week or two of joy-making at the Hermitage. Someone else made the inevitable remark, “This winter sports jaunt to the Southern Alps is the correct thing these —have you been?” 1 had to make the shameful admission that I hadn’t; hut hastily added that we were taking the show to South Island shortly, and then —well, who could tell? “Well, suppose you were leaving for Mount Cook at the beginning of next week, as 1 am” (interruptive cries of “Lucky girl!” etc., etc.) —“what clothes would you choose to make the holiday perfect?” The male element of the party sighed deeply and turned up its eyes, hut we heeded it not. I was half-way through my views on the subject when I noticed a busy little lady taking notes. “That’s the Ladies’ Mirror/' whispered Mr. Man-on-my-right. Straightway

my How of ideas dried up at the source. I had to change the subject. The busy little lady looked disappointed, but not a bit confused. Just before 1 left for the theatre she came up to me. “Will you write what you left unsaid?” she asked. And that is how Nellie Bramley broke into literature. Clothes for a holiday at Mount Cook! Listen . . . the other day I saw the most stunning Bolivia cloth coat trimmed with heaver coney; and its natural complement

Miss N E L L I E B E A M LEY is the talented Australian actress who has made such a successful New Zealand tour with ‘‘ F a i r a n d Warmer,” ‘‘lt Bays to Advertise,” and other popular plays. (On Left) This is the Bolivia Cloth Coat trimmed with Beaver Coney, described in this article. in the centre is a beautiful Evening Gown of Black and Gold Lace, The Spray of Gold Flowers,” while on the right is seen a really luxurious Musquash Coat.

was a chapeau of plush with an ostrich feather mount. Look at the photograph —wouldn't a coat like that add a thrill to the trip Someone murmurs, "But what about the car run from Timaru to the Hermitage?" I haven't overlooked the matter of fur. I experienced a thrill of envy when I saw a, veritable dream in musquash—a wrap coat in natural musquash with a deep cape collar, obviously designed by an artist who was not too aesthetic to realise what a mountainous car drive can mean. And whilst actually at the Hermitage riding strides, of

course, puttees, one Or two of the sweaters which make the rainbow jealous, and a close-fitting woollen cap." One can't lay down a law on the details, but my own experience of winter sports resorts is that most-anything looks becoming through the

metaphorical rose-tinted spectacles which everyone wears at such times! For the more romantic end of the day, for the dancethe graceful frock in black and gold lace which Jauncey has reproduced so admirably on this page. “The spray of gold flowers” is the name of this frock —do you like it“? From the look of things—this Mount Cook vogue isn’t just a flash in the pan there’d be a definite Alpine note in New Zealand winter fashionsa note which will sooner or later be echoed in Australia, because I see your Tourist Department is at last beginning to see that “it pays to advertise.”

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