Some Novel Coats and Skirts.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 13, 29 March 1911, Page 69

Some Novel Coats and Skirts.

THERE is much that is very attractive and charming about the new coats and skirts for the early winter. Their shapes are not nearly so exaggerated as they were last year, and although some of the skirts still show an undesirable tendency to curve inwards round the ankles, the greater number of them are fully pleated Sometimes these pleats are continued all the way round, but in other instances they appear on either side, while the skirts are finished back and front, with broad, plain panels of material. All the new coats are very much shorter than they were last season, a rule which they will follow without exception when they are intended to make part of coat and skirt costumes.

Certain travelling wraps, however, intended to be worn with skirts in different materials, will be long enough to reach almost to the feet, and will be fastened low down, and with very large buttons. The eoats for ordinary, everyday wear, on the other hand, will certainly stop short, halfway between the waist and the knees. That they gain immensely in smartness by so doing, the new costumes most conclusively prove. To nine women out of ten, also, a comparatively short coat is infinitely more becoming than a very long one. Fine navy serge is one of the favourite fabrics for the new coats and skirts, and it is being trimmed once again with black silk braid in various widths, and with large braided buttons. A neat little gown on these lines has a fullypleated skirt, and a very becoming coat, arranged in a semi-fitting Russian shape, with long basques cut up into a number of panels, each panel being braided in a very elaborate design. The slight fullness at the waist is held in by a patent leather belt, fastened with a dull gold buekle, while a very effective touch of colour is given to the costume by a collar of emerald green velvet, adorned with small gold buttons. On other coats in navy serge, soft shantung silks are being used for collars, revers and cuffs, patterned with quaint oriental signs in Paisley colourings. The delicate shades shown in these shantung silks harmonise wonderfully well with the blue of the navy serge, and, in some instances, “three-piece” costumes, as they are called, are being prepared, arranged with pleated skirts, either trimmed with black silk braid or hemmed with black satin; very pretty close-fitting bodices, braided also, and arranged with chemisettes of the printed Shantung silk; and neat coats, to com-' plete the picture, finished with printed silk revers and small turn over collars of embroidered lawn, edged with lace. Costumes of natural Shantung in coat and skirt style will also be useful, with the skirts a short walking length and the coats turned back with black satin revers. Afternoon frocks are being made in soft satin, and with perfectly plain skirts, trimmed only on the side seams, with rows of small round buttons. The seamless bodices are fastened on each shoulder with similar buttons, and finished at the waist with the usual girdle of silk cord. Small round turn-down collars made in fine white muslin, daintily embroidered and edged with lace, look well with these plain satin bodices, while the sleeves, which are long and close-fitting are turned back at the wrists with tiny cuffs in lace-trimmed muslin to match the collars. These satin gowns are particularly pretty in pale shades of chestnut brown or willow-green unrelieved by any touch of contrasting colour.

In the accompanying illustration a very pretty suggestion is given for a white chiffon ball-dress, designed on lines that are entirely new and exceedingly graceful, since they emphasise pleasantly the slim, straight silhouette still demanded by Madame I.a Mode, but without giving way to anything foolish in the way of exaggeration. The three flounces of fully pleated chiffon, which finish the lower part of the skirt show the revival of a very pretty old-world fashion, and one which will probably assert itself

later on, in the case of afternoon frocks also, especially when they are carried out in soft satin and in crepe de chine. The topmost flounce of the three is bordered with a garland of silver tissue roses, the centre of each flower being made in satin, chosen in a very pale shade of pink. The waist is outlined with the same decorative blossoms, arranged above a little frill of chiffon. The short sleeves are trimmed in a similar way with roses, while the whole of the under bodice is made in silver lace, veiled lightly with chiffon and finished in a most becoming fashion with a trelliswork of silver ribbon, held in place by single pearls. Other dainty dance-frocks in soft bright satin are worn w'ith long tunics of transparent net, bordered with pearl and crystal bugle embroidery, and sometimes arranged with sash-like draperies, brought round from the baek and loosely knotted together in front, where they are finished with pearl and crystal tassels. The bodices of these gowns have very often a draped fichu effect of net and embroidery on one side only, weighted with a diamond tassel, while on the opposite side there are some severely simple folds of satin swathed closely to the figure and drawn down at the waist, under one of those girdles of silver cord, which, with their long tasselled ends, give so quaint a finish to many of the smartest of the new evening gowns.