SHE WORE A BLACK "THINGUMMY"

NZ Truth, Issue 1291, 4 September 1930, Page 10

SHE WORE A BLACK "THINGUMMY"

Why Shun Sheer Chiffon Hose ? Ask the man of the house what your best friend was wearing when he saw her an hour or two before. Unless he's a phenomenon, one of those men-who-notice-clothes, he'll ask plaintively how m the world was he to know what she had on.

PINNED down, and after considerable concentration, he THINKS she had a black "thingummy" on and some sort of a hat. Eventually you discover from; the lg.dy herself that she was airing her newest brown ensemble! So much for the man of the house. But,, he hasn't got that lack of dress sense all to himself; on the contrary, he shares it with every long-suffei*ing husband. Time does not improve ' him; a regiment of daughters fail to cultivate his descriptive powers, and the help he gets from the male novelists .of the day is negligible. There's John Galsworthy. Sheathed, Mark You! In the last of "The Forsyte Saga," "Swan Song," his Fleur invariably wears her "prettiest dress," but that garment is never described. Once she is "charming m her^ jade green wrapper," and another time she wears "sbft russet, the color of goneoff apples," but her creator stops at that. Not from him any false steps with "line" or material. Mr. Wallace (everybody's Edgar of that ilk) takes a chance with Lila of "The India Rubber Men." He sends the frightened lass .off to: a party, "dressed m white, over which was a coat of silver tissue with a deep ermine, collar." Her hair — "coiffured golden hair" — and her "silver slippers," rounded off the Wallace attempt at dressing a lady for a party. | "H. G. Wells m "Meanwhile" gets over the difficulty by. giving Lady Catherine "a lovely body, sheathed (SHEATHED? mark you ! ) m pale gold," and feminity can make what they like of that. Michael Arlen . ran away with the laurels m describing Iris Storm, her famous green hat, her leather coat, after that he. was content to cover his j susceptible sirens m. "this and that, and thus and thus:'' ':■• Connaught Dorm, /Byrnne's heroine of "Hangman's House," usually ran to "slim frocks," but on one page tlie author, probably feeling he had to

do something about this dress business, put her m a "thim black frock, slim satin shoes with garnet buckles and heavy silk stockings." None of your sheer chiffon hose fot Mr. Byrnne. Connaught wore them heavy! D. H. Lawrence's Hannele of "The Captain's Doll" went "walking under a chintz parasol, wearing a dress of blue cotton with little red roses and a red silk apron. "She had no hat, her arms were bare and soft, and she had white stockings under her short skirt." Hannele sounds like the village maiden of a heavy drama; she wasn't, she was a countess, but — those stock-e ings, apron and red roses — oh, well." E. C. Bentley m "Trent's Last Case" treated the idea heavily, very heavily. The lady, "a very modern figure," sat by the ; sea. "Her hat lay pinned on the grass . . . and the lively, breeze played with her thick black hair, blowing backwards the two broad bandeaux that should have covered much of her forehead!" Those bandeaux must have looked as smart as the day before yesterday! : Sinclair Lewis created Fran of "Dodsworth," and dressed her remarkably well m cool blues and whites, and clothes that any woman would- approve. Once, however, she sallied forth m her "shaggy old Burberry and an orange tam-o'-shanter." "Ladies In Hades" , Just like that; it sounds well enough, but Fran was only youthful, not young, she was 40 or more; and, anyhow] "tarns" are well out of date, even if the most youthful middle-aged woman might look well m one. F. A. Kummer, m "Ladies m Hades," hadn't much trouble m providing a wardrobe for his dozen famous women. Thais' appearance, however, must have been a riot even for Hades. "She wore a close-fitting Arabian dance girdle of matched pearls, to which a cabachon ruby, appropriately placed, gave just that touch of diablerie which is demanded by the welldressed woman of fashion!" Mr. Kummer' wins hands down!