WOMEN'S WORLD

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 59

WOMEN'S WORLD Australian lingerie designer Mrs Jean Griffin, has developed a ‘Maori Princess’ style for the coming season. Nightgowns will be calf-length and feature hundreds of tiny knife-edge pleats to give the swishing effect of a Maori skirt. Unusual colour combinations inspired by Maori art are used for scantics, slips and briefs. This is the first time, said Mrs Griffin, that the inspiration for a whole new trend comes from this side of the equator. * * * A Maori woman with an unusual job is Mrs M. Bowden, of Otaki, who is one of the train announcers at the Wellington Railway Station. She was chosen after being auditioned, and her voice was found very suitable for the job she has to do. In turn with another woman, she tells people who are using the trains (through the station's loud-speaker system) when the train is about to depart, and from which platform. Mrs Bowden is a first cousin of the late Kingi Tahiwi, a former radio announcer and winner of the Plunket Medal for oratory. She herself was a former singer on the stage and a member of the Otako Maori Choir. Mrs E. J. Magee, of Palmerston North, working on a portrait of Miss M. Hall. former principal of Hukarere College, Mrs Magee's painting of Sir Apirana Ngata hangs at Hukarere, her old college. (Manawatu Evening Standard Photo.)