BRIDGERS’ SPRING FASHION SHOW WAS SENSATIONAL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 95, 15 September 1948, Page 5

BRIDGERS’ SPRING FASHION SHOW WAS SENSATIONAL

Up-To-The-Minute Style With, Eclat Bridgers’ spring fashion show at the Regent last night was sensational. We know that sounds all “puff-puff”, but it’s really the only word. Whakatane hasn’t been used tq, this sort of thing —and Whakatane lapped it up. By the way, i,t seemed all Whakatane and his wife was there. Some of him without his wife, too, —the gay old dog! All the seats were booked out days ago. And What did the unescorted male expect to see? Swimsuits? Well, he saw them. Whoever this Rose Marie Reid of California is, she certainly knows how to write between the lines. Those strapless two-piece things were masterpieces in restrained revealment (if one might coin a word for such an occasion). Mr J. Kneebone knows his window dressing. We all know that. But his stage setting was a revelation. With a coy blush he hands some of the kudos to Mr R. Chapman, who tossed in some subtle lighting effects, but the whole thing had just that tang of the dramatic, with a hint of romance that brought the gasp of sheer ecstatic appreciation from the crowd when the lights waxed bright as the last note of the overture died. Commentator was Mrs M. Warbrick—remember Lottie Hooper at Bridgers’? She still knows style, and_ how to talk it in the way that catches keenest interest. And this time, she had plenty to talk about. Here were styles really stylish without being outlandish. The look was new—but there was no exaggerated New Look, nothing garish, nothing flashy. Here were garments of taste, for women and girls of discrimination.

Suits and sportswear had that restraint of line and colour that are the marks of really good tailoring. Day frocks were alluringly feminine, without being unduly fussy. Coats were cosy, but expressive of a variety of personalities. Dinner gowns suggested old wines and family silver twinkling in romantic candelight .... And talking of romance. There was that wedding group—all white gowns of misty loveliness, a tableau to remember. “Isn’t she just too sweet,” "“they cooed. No, not the bride. The v little flower girl, Helen Henderson. Well, wasn’t she? And so fetching in that diminutive swimsuit. Other mannequins who walked the plank (pardon, we mean paced the walk) along the middle of the stalls were Misses Jean Armstrong, Margaret Donald, Jacqueline Hooper, Heather Bell, Betty Delahunty, and Mrs Grey, Mrs Polton. One regrets space does not permit a full description of the clothes they showed, complete with shoes in all the latest, sportiest, daintiest styles, with bags and hats where they were called for to complete the ensembles. In short, the spirit of. spring expressed in woman’s desire for fine adornment, from the teens to middle age,. paraded that floodlit carpet, for a thrill-filled hour and a half.