Fashionland.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 15, 13 April 1910, Page 60

Fashionland.

(By Our Lady Correspondent.)

LONDON, February 25

To Gratify Vanity. Little or no notice has been taken by women who disregard everything in their desire to be in the forefront of fashion of the publication of statistics dealing with the wanton slaughter of birds to provide millinery trimming, and it is presumed that the information in an article in American and English papers dealing with yet another cruelty will have as little effect.

For many years past a million birds have been slaughtered in the Hawaiian Islands bird reservation by the Japanese, and the Midway Island, once teeming with a bird population, has now very few songsters left.

The poaching is handled directly, according to the “Pal! Mall Gazette,” by Japan, and the spoils are sold by Osaka merchants in London, Paris and NewYork.

Wanton cruelty is practised on almost tame birds, for, after cutting off their wings, the poachers leave the helpless little creatures to die a slow death.

The Chantecler Veil, From hideousness unto worse hideousness we seem to go in some directions, and a rather natural outcome of the Chantecler hat is a veil to match —a fabric which has woven into its mesh dozens of roosters and rising suns. The effect upon the wearer’s face is that she seems to an onlooker to be tattooed, and —if one be allowed the irreverence of seeming to query Fashion’s dictate—what is the value of blue eyes and a rosebud mouth that must be hidden by the gawky black legs of a farmyard deity ? Tailored Costumes.

Coats, at last, after many false prophesies, are to be much shorter, and the new models are very attractive. Checks and stripes, we are told, are to be favourite materials, and some entire costumes are made of stuff cut on the cross—others have panels cut on the cross as trimming on both coats and skirts. To Preserve Old Lace.

It is a well-known fact that the kindest way to treat valuable lace is to wear it fairly often. When putting it away, so that it may not crack or spoil, make a roll of heavy paper longer than the width of the laee, cover with white material, roll the lace round, and again cover with tissue paper. Exit Age.

The following appears under a couple of black headlines in one of the daily

papers, and I give it for what it is worth as showing the quick-change attitude that Fashion demands of those who would serve her. There is more than a little truth in the assertion that “The ‘little girl’ woman is to be one of the features of the present season. “She is the woman of forty who when attired in the present fashion really looks that twenty-five to which she modestly confesses, or the woman of thirty with the appearance of twenty-two. Mother and daughter, in fact, seem just girls together.

“The fashion of the little dress with its short skirts, displaying boots with coloured tops and even a hint of stocking, the little bunch of flowers under the chin, the bracelet with its tiny gollywogs and Teddy bears, and the bare throat with the turned-down collar or toby frill, all play a part in the production of the ‘little girl’ woman. “The simple little frock that a few years ago would have been considered the wear for the girl of eighteen is now quite right for the woman of mature years.” New Fashion Covers. A novel and pretty adjustment to drawingroom furniture is a stencilled chamois skin cushion cover, or one with a design burnt into it, or, again, with squares of embroidered linen fastened on. Veils. Long veils which fall from the hat to below the waistline have returned to favour, and are very graceful additions to picture hats. It is noticeable that, so far, even on coloured hats nearly all the veils are black.

Ko Collars. In my description of Lady Duff don’s dress exhibition this week at Hanover Square I forgot to mention one verjf important characteristic of every dress, whether eoat and skirt or silk—nowhere were collars to be seen, save Peter Pane of lace, embroidered lawn, or chiffon. Favourite Colours.

Violet in all its many variations is to be prime favourite of colours this season, and on choosing a violet frock the editoress of a weekly magazine gives a sensible piece of advice, which I quote. Never be persuaded to wear only one shade of violet at a time. Always, if at all possible, work in two or more. It is curiously true that this very softest of all colours is oddly hard if worn in only one shade—it must graduate its lights tn be becoming. That is why it is more flattering in velvets and silks or faced cloths, because then it takes on surface shadings of its own.”