Fashion Notes from London.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 21, 22 May 1912, Page 69

Fashion Notes from London.

(From Our lardy Correspondent.) LONDON, March 29. A week end spent in Brussels gave the writer an opportunity of criticising the shops of that capita! noted, among those interested, as showing the finest win-dow-dressing in the world. If faint praise damns, then what appears over praise sickens before the subject of discussion is even viewed, and it was with anything but an impartial eye that your correspondent confesses she set out on a pilgrimage of the main

A CHARMING lAi.MNG DRESS. Ju soft Dresden blue satin, ninon tunic an I tichu, bor tiered with dewdrop net heided by wrenth >»f pink chiffon rosebuds ami leaves. The bodice is most becomingly arranged with crossed hands of the net and rosebud trimming. shopping streets of the capital of Belgium. It, is with humility she now acknowledges that public opinion—a collection of many voices -m pretty generally right in the main essential. Window-dressing in Brussels is an art that puts even Parisian effects in the. background. Those New Zealanders who visited the Eair of Eash ions at the Festival of‘Empire in the summer, may remember how extraordinary life-life were the waxen ladies on whom Continental couturieres displayed their confections — such appear- in all the leading Brussels windows, and set so naturally that one seems to be gazing on to an interesting stage scene all the time. There is littb* ■ doubt that such a method of displaying goods must he very much more expensive than the old expressionless -dolly ladies and tailors’ block men, but there’s no doubt whatever as to the difference of effect. One scene shown was a drawing room, •charmingly decorated, and a children’s party in progress. Eight little girls, all exquisitely dressed even to shoes and stockings and with wreatln* of roses in •their hair, danced round in a ring, while a lady in evening dress played the harp and another looked on. Another showed—it being night—a decorated bakony overlooking a lake (very realistic looking in the moonlight) with a group of people in dainty gowns drinking coffee ami a little girl ascending the balcony steps to join them. An! there were numbers of other pictures — the getting of each chosen to display the dresses. A favourite method of exhibiting goods is novel and is seen in many win low.;, the floor of which is always brightly polished parquetry, on which giant vases, in In'autiful designs, are laid down on their sides, evening an 1 reception gowns in beautiful silks being thrown lightly

over, these, not mqije than two perhaps in each window. The colour schemes, too, are remarkably effective. One window full of goods all navy, silks, velvets and cloths, was set off by huge vases of tlaming poppies placed among the otherwise sombre materials. Another window at night was embellished with great golden chrysanthemums, each lit inside with electricity. The fashion so popular in London of hanging great festoons of ribbon, flowers, etc., across window panes, was nowhere seen in any of the good shops. In the background given precious stones, tiaras, etc. —generally a square of real lace laid on dark velvet —Ixandon can hold her own. Even fruit shops in Brussels are worth staring into, and a new manner of win slow dressing is seen there. This is a sort of long mirror glass box attached, like a ledge, to the bottom of the window outside, in which bunches of grapes, single choice oranges, peaches, pines, ete., are displayed with genuine elegance. Grocers decorate their little cream cheeses —surely not very poetic goods—with vine and shiny laurel leaves till each is a study. In short, window adorning is a real profession. Dressing in the street is not widely different from that in England an I not, it seemed to a casual onlooker, as distinctive and daring as tbit, often seen in the Gay City. As here in London, shot silk dominates all else for cloaks, coats, and skirts, and as trimming. The children one passes in rhe parks are rather more elaborately dressed than English ones. One cloak —in dark blue cloth and with a hood, often worn over the head, by both grown-ups and little ones —is a universal adornment of the poorer classes, and is at once a sensible and becoming garment. • DRAT D'EPONGE. Here, in London, everything is. In the spring weather, very bright and pretty. Drap d’eponge—the towel-like doth of ■which I wrote last week—goes forward by leaps and bounds in popularity, whole coats and skirts now being made of it. with revers and buttons of a contrasting colour. AN INNOVATION of the week is a large rosette which has suddenly sprung into fashion, shaped like a loose dahlia, and of the silk the garment it finishes is trimmed with. Costumes show it at the junction of the revets, whether these be long or short, on evening coats it appears at one side of the long hood at the back, and on hats in all manner of strange ways. One toque this week in navy tagel and bunched up toward a sugar-loaf crown, had two rosettes, one of bright navy and the other of mustard coloured silk, standing back to back, right on the roof of the crown. POCKETS, though not apparently always for use, appear on blouses and many eoats and skirts, and on a few indoor gowns, the latter always having a tiny frill of gobi or silver lace springing from the pocket, which is set on the left breast.