Key to Dressirig

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 41, 4 March 1937, Page 12

Key to Dressirig

An Expert Tells Her Story

fA"1 well-known fashion wrlfcer once ■"> talked for five minutes with Madame Lyolene at her Paris atelier and emerged to tell me exultantly that she had not one story but six (writes Majorie Shuler in the Christian Science Monitor). I think that it must always be so with this vivid Russian woman, who began to deslgn 11 years ago and now can see her name in bright lights above the fashion with all the other stars — that is, can see it if she takes the time and stops to look, which I very much doubt. There is the story, of course, of her own success, how she came into business by the backdoor, so to speak, by means of selling her own jewels and furs to obtain money on which to live until the Soviet regime should be ended, a matter of a short tirae so §he and the other Russian emjgres believed, Variety. rpHERE is the story of how she works "*■ with the fabrlcs talking to her and of how she savours her favourites, wools, by running up a few silk gowns, or of how when she is making a collection of sports elothes she must vary her work by letting a few cotfcons go through her nimble fingers to come out, not sports wear, but evening frocks. There is the story oi her firsts. She is said to be the first to use qlips, hunting all over Paris for an old snowboofc to get the design, the first to use two bracelets on one arm, the first to make sports dresses of lame, the first to make evening gowns of wool, and the first Paris designer to come to the United States •and spend 4i months in the Middle West to learn about the Ameriean woman. And, perhaps, the last is the best story of all and the reason why to-day in her Paris shop with Helm and her New York headquarters with John-Prederick, the famous hat designers, she can speak with authority about the good points of Ameriean women and the way in which the mass can improve in costuming. Amerfcans Dress Well, / A MERICAN women dress well, in , Madame Lyolene's opinion, but she has a word of advice, and that i.v- take off, rather than put on, trimming, The weil-dreSsed Prenchwoman, she tells me, wiE say, "I like that dress, but c-ouidn't j yott take off this, and this, aiKi ;)(.-! i p« j this&"- When she finishes, she has "V

simpHfied rather than elaborated the costume, for the French know that It is the woman who makes the elothes, not the elothes make the woman. Avoid sfcriklng buttons which catch the eye, is Madame Lyolene's advice. All such trimming makes a woman look fatter, while her objective should be shinness. Have the eourage to be individual, not queer, but wear elothes which emphasize the individuality. Every woman, no matter how poor or restricted her background, has a personality and the thing to do is to learn what it is and show it. Wonld Avoid Repitition. A GAIN, referring to the Erenchwoman, Madame Lyolene, said to me, "If we tell her a dress is a success, she is apt to reply that is the reason why she does not want it. If a Frenchwoman entered a room and found someone else wearing a costume like her own she would have the right to leave. The Ameriean woman, on the other hand, is prone to buy because a thing is the style, and you see a fciresome repitition everywhere." The Ameriean woman should seek her own Colour. Black is Madame Lyolene's favourite and again she was among the first to urge it for wear in the United States. But she believes that the individual woman should seek the colour and the combination of colours which mean something to her. These colours, however, should be borrowed from nature. "Look out of the window," said Madame Lyolene. "Look at God's creation. When you try to adorn a room take one single blossom that is real, not a mass of artificial ones. And when you wear colours take anything which nature combines, but don't try to put false colours together." Urges Slmplieity. A BOVE all, be simple, is her advice. ^ This word "different" is the most terrible one in the English language, in her opinion. Things should ba normal to be right, Under this heading Madame Lyolene has a word of condemnatiou for too many diamond rings and brooches. A few interesting pieces of antique jewelry, she thinks, wouid improve the effect of the costume, About the fit, she cautions a woman to buy a dress which is a little larger across l the bust than she thinks she needs, ancl I then to have the waist and hips mad- | smaller, i