PARIS FASHION EXPERTS SAY COLOUR IS EVERYTHING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 20, 8 February 1937, Page 4

PARIS FASHION EXPERTS SAY COLOUR IS EVERYTHING

The silhouette is delightfully youth,ful. Skirts are straight and shorter, hips are slim, "with jackets that fit. The waistlinet.^ is slightly pinched by darts, and belts are not inevitable. Shoulders are straight and what fullness there is in the sleeves is set high. Collars are neat and all sorts of soft foollens are used to make them in colours and in black. Slate grey, brown, wine reds, and that old blue which used to be called electric for some unkhown reason are among them. Purple, yellow, green, are used with black and brown. Long coats are slim, too, and Bimply fitted. Jaekets have pockets above the waist, a set of four, two .by two, one over tho other. Long coats have hip pockets. Fur revers are worn, and fitted fur collars. Buttons trim jackets, coats, and dresses. AU the clothes are so cut as to make for height and shinness. Colour comes into everything, but.not in any commonplace way. Over a slim .dark dress may go a long scarlet coat, and the hat may match the coat. Very daring. Again, the whol© ensemble may be Black and the only colour be a brilliant scarf, a gorgeous Persian bow scarf, or some bright metal buttons. And, however restrained and well behaved the dress andqjacket or long coat and dress, the hat, you may be sure, will give the whole thing away by its audacity, its odd behaviour. Schiaparelli has. introduced Napoleonic hats j Lucien Lelong puts bright coloured felt caps embroidered in still brighter colours wjth all sorts of dresses, and all the milliners are making feathered hats of o»e sort or another for day and evening wear, which need some coufage and immense sophistication to wear. Unusual combinations of materials sirike'the mind.- Lace with jersey, for afternoon and evening, is one of them. Heavy-looking ' woollens for 4ong coats to he worn over fragile evening dresses. Nothing could look heavier, duller, or more imhecoming than many of these. Again, you.see homely woolleh coats for the afternoon put over dresses of silver lame and white satin brocade. Shoffc dresses for dancing and informal dinner parties are welcome. The dresses with trains are kept for formal occasions. Most of the new evening dreSses have some fullness below the knees and there is less exaggeration of the" slim line, even in evening .tailored skirts jbo be worn with bolero, jacket, or tunic, The tunic is hoiding its own and is taking on "new lines, as when Lucien Lelong gives it something of a bustle formation. The decollete is a vexed question. It may he "little, or nothing, or much" and will still be right. Square, pointed, round, high, or low to the waist behind, and wide or narrow. All these lines are right. Little sleeves are worn in some evening dresses. But the last thing is the cresent-shaped epaulette, which just eovers .the turn of the arm.