Housekeeper.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 445, 27 October 1904, Page 7

Housekeeper.

SUMMEJ? JKATS. THE leading colours in summer hats are various shades of ' burnt' straw and navy blue. There is quito a run on blue this season, and the prevailing shape is the modified Napoleon, turned up vory high at the back and trimmed in front with a cockade-rosette or a ring of small flowers. The term ' burnt' includes a range of colours from cream and champagne to deep golden and pale rusk. The champagnecoloured satin straw or ' brilliant' hats are very pretty novelties that we see sometimes trimmed with the new tangerine roses and with tulle or satin ribbon to match. The single, shaded feather, laid straight across the wide crown of a hat, is a fashion that milliners are adopting very much, and the indented, extended crown is another important feature of summer millinery. The saucer-shaped brim of chip, with flowers or knots of ribbon nestling against it at the left side where it rises from the hair, is, again, an accepted fashion of the moment; and the picture hat.with dipped-down brim at the back and arched sides, with beneath them boquots of forget-me-nots, Banksia roses or other small flowers, is a favourite mode. Failing a dipped-down brim, we have the brim, already alluded to, that is upward turned and very deep, and it is often encrusted with flowers or trimmed with pendant loops of narrow velvet ribbon that fall on to the hair.

RETAINING YOUTH. Some one once asked a woman now it was she kept her youth so wonderfu%. Her hair was snowy white, she was 80 years old, and her energy was waning ; but she never impressed one with the idea of age, for her heart was still young in sympathy and interests. And this was her answer : ' I knew how to forget disagreeable things. I tried to master the art of saying pleasant things, I did not expect too much of my friends. I kept my nerves well in hand, and did not allow them to bore other people. I tried to find any work that came to hand congenial. I retained the illusions

of my youth, and did not believe ' every man a liar' and every woman spiteful. I did my best to relieve the misery I came in contact with, and sympathised with the suffering. In fact I tried to do to others as I would be done by, and you see me, in consequence, reaping: the fruits of happiness, and a peaceful old age.'

T)<E NEW CASQUE COIFFURE. We are tolerably faithful to modes in coiffure, which shows no very marked changes for about a year or so at a time. The high-dressed head and the low coiffure are both with us, but the high dressing appears to be the more popular of the two vogues. In any case a good deal of breadth is necessary to the well-dressed head, though in this matter fashion shows indications of lessening her demands, and the hair is not dressed quite so ' full ; as formerly. The latest coiffure is known as the casque. It is very simple and easily manipulated. The hair, after being combed back is caught together in the usual way in the middle of the head, and is then twisted so that it forms a rouleau up the back of the head, from the lower part to the top, the ends of hair being arranged in any fanciful way at the top of the head. The chief feature of the coiffure is the long tortoiseshell comb that decorates the back of the head and holds the rouleau of hair firmly. This comb may be as ornamental as you please. The Duchess of Marlborough, who dresses her hair a la casque, wears a comb encrusted with diamonds. The two side combs take their usual places, and keep the hair puffed put to the usual degree at the sides of the head. Our illustration on another column shows the new casque head-dress which is sometimes ' achieved in a slightly different manner to the way described. Thus the front hair should be coiffe with one of the fashionable, light Pompadour frames, in order to give it the required height, the hair then being caught back independently of the back hair, which is afterwards drawn up in the manner described. The habit is still to push the hair well forward over the brow—in fact this tendency increases. The new torpedo frame encourages the hair to assume somewhat of a broad point on the forehead, ahi another new frame, known as $% Marie Stuart, cultivates a similar idea.' Undulations are a necessary detail of coiffures, be they low or high.