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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIII, Issue 13, 29 September 1909, Page 69

By

MARGUERITE.

faY PRING is not only working wjiL miracles in the wood and the garden. She has induced the blackbird and the thrush to sing their few questioning fluty notes, strung together like a scanty row of pearls, every evening when the biggest pert of their day’s labours is over. She has taught the birds to gossip among the apple-trees in the still bare orchards, and she has done wonders in the hedgerows as well. But not the least of her miracles has been wrought in town. Everyone is infected by her spirit, and new hats are' the order of the day, the prettiest which have been prepared for the debutante being likewise the simplest. CREAM STRAW AND FADED BLUE VELVET. A large, high, and very broad-crowned model, of the softest and finest cream Straw, with a downward brim, bent very low over the hair and narrower in front, so as not to eclipse the wearer, is trimmed with a wide band of faded blue velvet with a large, flat bow laid right across the front. Sometimes there are strings of the same faded tint of velvet crossed behind on the hair, with a single rose or a little loose cluster of buds clinging to them, and very rarely there is a softening of lace underneath. A young, fresh face, with a clear complexion and a well-dressed coiffure, needs little or nothing to set it off, and almost any type of headgear can be worn with

impunity provided sufficient care is taken in the adjustment of the coiffure.

A CURIOUS EXPEDIENT. Black hats have never been so high in favour, and crinoline has literally risen to the apex of its popularity. Wide black velvet ribbon is the trimming used for two-thirds of these models, the band of velvet which encircles the crown being not infrequently headed with a fold of tarnished gold braid and the bow caught with a buckle of the same. The prettiest expedient of all is, however, the novel scheme of allying large oval-shaped painted medallions to the hat in lieu of the cabochon ornament. This is quite an innovation, a little seeno being painted on parchment-coloured silk in dull, soft shades, which give it the appearance of an old eolour-print, while it is attached to a padded foundation

and ringed round with tiny satin roses, or with a narrow plait of picot ribbon. MULTI-COLOURED SILK ROSES. Another expedient adopted is that of massing together a number of silk roses in a variety of soft, faded tints, such as rose, marron, blue, green, and saffron, or of piling them in the form of one of the fashionable rosettes encircled with

leaves. Instead of being dome-shaped, as was formerly the case, these rosettes are as flat as though they had been pressed down ruthlessly with a hot iron or crushed under a steam roller.

The Period Frock. Paris, and London, too, is pinning its faith to the period frock. The period toilette, reminiscent in all its details of some earlier phase of fashion, appeals very strongly to women in these days of individuality and originality of dress, and fashionable women of artistic tastes are making pictures of themselves according to the modes of Louis XVI. or of our own eighteenth century belles. The long sharp point of bodice front, the full skirt, the fichu, and the elbow sleeves are conquering the Directoire attenuation of outline. No stiff petti-

coats or hooped underskirts loom upon fashion’s horizon as yet, but the skirts fall in soft full folds. A Paquin model of glacier blue chiffon and satin had a very full skirt of chiffon under a clinging overskirt of satin turned up from the knee in washerwoman fashion. The satin runs on up to the bust-line and the shoulders, being beautifully embroidered to tone. A few of the draperies recall panier days, and several of these panier models

have the panier display as part of a Princesse overdress. That is, the bodice front falling in the familiar straight line below the bust maintains this loose straight line to a point well below! the natural waistline, but there divides into two parts, which are draped softly at either side into the panier effect. So long as the skirt is up to date almost any kind of sleeves, long or short, may be chosen provided alwayi ft is not full.