The World of Fashion

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 19, 12 May 1909, Page 68

The World of Fashion

(By

MARGUERITE.

i Styles for Evening Gowns. THE latest arrangement of the evening corsage is very charming, the folds of the satin overdress being drawn over the filmy underdrcss from one shoulder to the waist, and secured at each point with a huge buckle or a clump of satin blossoms, so that the greater part of the underdress is seen. Lovely materials are used for this underdress, the most effective being lace tinted by artificial means to a delicate old ivory and picked out ■with dull gold and aluminum thread or tiny crystal and gold beads, which give to the flowers and picots the effect of being gemmed with dewdrops.

Corsage flowers are not so much worn as was the case a little while ago, but embroideries of satin blossoms, which trail up either side of the jupe and are worked again on the corsage, have never been so much in request. Faded colours, such as bleu ancien, old rose, and primevere fanee, are more to bite fore than distinct shades. An absolute riot of filmy materials will be found in the salons of the dressmakers for the materialisation of tho winter dance toilette, with tulle in the foremost rank. But such fabrics, suitable as they are for the purpose and for the girlish figure of the debutante, will be deemed less modish for the more mature wearer than satin and crepe de Chine.

The reason of this preference is that materials that can be relied upon to silhouette the form are to be more fashionable this winter than the more gauzelike fabrics, the leading merit of which is that they drape successfully.

Fro mthis fact it may be inferred that Classi al line is to govern the evening

modes of the coming season, as well as that of the day dress. The fourreau gown is to be the modish one, falling from the decolletage in straight, and graceful lines, broken in the majority of cases by the clever introduction of a sash. di Sash of Paramount Significance The sash is to be of paramount assistance in the designing of the evening toilette during the coining months of festival, though it will only infrequently be seen in its usual form clasping the waist and ending in a bow and terminals at the back. In its new position it is in some instances a decolletage drapery. Starting from the left side, where the dress is cut low in front, beneath a large chou, or a single huge andl very beautiful blossom, it is carried to the back, draped round the right shoulder and allowed to droop to the waist line, where a second end which has formed the drapery on the left shoulder is met. Thence the two ends are carried, one at the front and one at the back to the side of the dress, far beneath the natural waist line, where they are gracefully knotted and left to hang to the foot of the skirt. Another plan causes the long ends to hang from the decolletage line in front oi- at the back. The sash is restrained by no rules this autumn : individual taste and the requirements of the toilette alone dictate its comings and goings. Although the peplum and the tunic are very fashionable, and despite the fact that a veiling of net over a satin dress has its allurements, it is as well not to attempt to reconcile the require-

ments of the moaern ball-room too punctiliously with the classical draperies of old times. They look well on the figure that is at rest, or that is moving in the

stately measures of an ancient but the mazy waltz disarranges their symmetry, and does not add to their beauty.

Per Laps because long sleeves appertain to the smartest of day dresses, those for evening wear are deprived of all but the merest semblance of sleeves. A very large amount of skill is necessary if the draperies that take the place of sleeves are to be a success; they are mere handkerchief wisps of tulle caught through a jewelled slide and made all in one with the deeolletage modestie. Very pretty arms are needed when sleeves so scanty as these are worn, and the beauty doctors are busy improving the shoulders aud arms of their clients at this juncture. Girls who are their own specialists in comeliness take pains before going to a ball to massage their arms with face cream, after having washed them with finest oatmeal powder dissolved to a paste with rose water. Liquid powder is useful as a final resource, but it must be put on with special care in order that it may not look streaky, and should be polished off with a chamois leather. It is also very necessary that every atom of the pow’der should be washed away after the ball or the state of the arms will be worse afterwards than it was before. Correctly speaking the hair should be worn dressed very broad across the head if the clinging Direetoire toilette is to be properly coiffee, for though each woman should be a law unto herself in this respect, it is as well to be in the fashion, if possible, and most decidedly is it now modish to dress the hair with a centre parting falling away in soft folds that half hide the ears.

This plan greatly enlarges the head at each side, and to these who admire novelty for novelty’s sake there is distinct fascination in the vogue. Moreover, it suits’ many faces exceedingly well, and in numbers of eases they are just those styles of beauty that no one would have thought would have benefited by a change from the high and narrow dressing to the broad one. Irregular undulations are the rule, broad over the brow and growing smaller towards the back, where the hair is gathered in the chignon fashion into a big bunch of curls, worn much nearer the neck than has been the case for years. Supposing height is wanted, it can be added by means of the feathers worn, though the low, drooping plume is most fashionable, falling softly, like a fountain, over the shoulders. Half wreaths of Howers and bunches of blossom placed at the back of the ears are modish, and simple twists of gold and silver ribbon, with wheatears falling from the bows, prove most fascinating additions to many coiffures.

JUVENILE) FASHIONS, ‘

Hat for a young girl—-Pale pink felt with pink embroidered quills thrust through a crown of squirrel fur which matches the necklet.