Paris in the Mirror

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 90, 13 October 1934, Page 19

Paris in the Mirror

Written for "The Post" by Germalne.

PARIS, August 22,

The autumn fashion bubble has now burst in Paris, and a very lovely bubble it is. The new clothes are beautiful and irresponsible enough to be very refreshing. We must congratulate the dressmakers for this —no depression ideas lurking in their dark corners, pray it be. It is really much more effective to look at life from a rose-coloured dress (figuratively speaking) than to try and look at it through the wellknown, but elusive, rose-coloured glasses. Parisians are buying again, and a good business season in Paris is predicted. There is a bottom to everything, and it seems to me that French business reached the bottom some time ago, and has now started up the scale again. There has been a general approvement in business conditions, and there is a noticeable rise in the dress world. The Parisienne has created a definite demand for chic new clothes. So wo all go on living and dressing and making the best of things. There is always the hope of making a sensation at a luncheon party over one's latest, or of seeing a gleam of green envy in the eye of one's dearest friend. This is one N of the times when women are thankful-.for other women. THE IDEAL OF 1934. Dresses are still cast, in the long slim mould that" is the ideal of 1934, but somehow they seem better fitted than formerly. "Women get a round outline by the thousand and one devices of the great Paris dressmakers. Peplums on sheer frocks give a billowing line to the once flat hip-line. Frills travel round skirts and bodices and bows, revers, jabots and collars, get away from the erstwhile hollow-chested appearance. Handwork complications are coming back into all smart dresses in Paris, defying the inroads of the machine age, which of late seasons has made it easy for the creator of clothes to stay on the right side-of the ledger. The plain dress, cut on the cross, that had only the smallest of variable details, has given way to dresses which have pleats, ruffles, floating panels, big sashes, wings, and many different kinds of individual departures from the straight and narrow line. In short, fashions are trying to make women look sweet and appealing, with just a dash of wickedness. And the way colours are put together is a striking illustration of this particular character. THE NEW TAILLETJR IS PRACTICAL AND SLIM. One way to start the day right is to start~ it with a little tailleur, one of these simple, finely-tailored, unassuming suits, that blossom along the Paris boulevards these fine days and do their bit to enlarge the power of the new fashions. There is nothing that makes you feel more in harmony with a fine day than a simple tailleur such as forms the solid foundation of the new fashions and of the practical wardrobe. The severely classic genre of the smart tailleur does not in any way.put it in the uniform class, for Paris couturiers exercise their ingenuity by placing those inimitable little touches their genius clevises upon the plain tailleur, thus lifting it out of the standard costume class. For example, let. us consider a smart tailleur which speaks eloquently of these things. This modoj is a straight suit of beige "kasha," without another touch of colour. There is a double bolt arrangement, buttoning into the two-button fastening of the coat and the two-button ornamentation on the other side that forms that little touch we all long for. Four half-moon pockets also do their part to remove the stigma of monotony. The ensemble is smartness itself, and trimly inconspicuous, as the well-tailored suit must always be. The aim of a good designer should bo, above all .things, to dress a woman to suit her colour and figure. T would like always to hear people say, "How beautifully that woman is dressed!" rather than, "What a beautiful dress that woman is wearing!" THE NEW SHOES. The new shoes are especially thrilling, because they are quite different. The

new practical slippers button up or buckle over the instep, are made of kid, and fit like a glove. The new low-heeled slippers that are open at the sides are what they wear in Paris with afternoon clothes, and the evening sandals that are skeleton Oxfords, made of narrow straps of kid or silk laced up the ankle, and looking something like Greek sandals, are just too delightful to resist.

Smart-looking feet are essential to chic in any season, and offer one a sure way of smartening up your last year's clothes.. COLOUR SENSE. Why is it that people with no colour sense s at all will mix the most awful shades together when they get the opportunity? Black and white ought to be made a uniform for a great many women who know about as much as a cat does what colours blend with pink or blue or anything else. • Colour-blending is an art that only a few people have really mastered. A few lucky people are born with a rare colour sense that years of study will not give to anyone else. Unless you have a cplour sense or have the time to cultivate one, really make a study of it—you will find, reader, that you can dress much more successfully and artistically in one-colour schemes. Even then you must be sure to wear the colour that suits you. AT NIGHT A WOMAN WISHES TO , SHINE. At* night a woman wishes to shine. She wants to talk brilliantly, at dinner. She hopes she will dance with the ease and grace and lightness of a butterfly. Above all, she desires to please. In a dancing frock it is essential that there should be sufficient fullness to give grace of movement, and that the dress itself gives life, vitality, and motion. If the colour has been well chosen, after a careful study of the effect on skin, hair, and eyes, what is to prevent the average woman from having what she looked out for —a perfectly good time?