ENGLISH ECONOMY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 87, 3 December 1931, Page 7

ENGLISH ECONOMY

LONDON MODISTES PROFIT WHILE PARISIANS LANGUISH ♦ MISS LEROY 1N LONDON LONDON, Saturday. Well, keeping my promises, I am writing to you from London. This is not my first visit to the heart of the Empire, and I find that in my absence it has greatly changed. There is a great wave of economy in the gay world just now;, people are not entertaining as much as they did, and every woman is trying to buy home products, particularly in fashion goods. The big drapery houses which cater for the luxury side of life are all featuring British goods, and have rows of British windows with lovely displays of things that most people imagined hitherto came from the Continental fashion centres. The Freneh dressmakers are very much upset by.the dimunition in their private elienteles, for though the big shops have bought models to copy, most of the best-dressed women who used to go over periodieally to Paris to buy direct from the model houses are now seeing what they can buy I at home, and are having estimates from establishments that they rarely entered in the past. The Freneh dressmakers do not like to see this valuable part of their business disappearing, and are now coming over to London and taking rooms at the big hotels to show their models, quoting cut prices which, with the import duty added, are far lower than they have ever asked. Some of the most fashionable actresses have in the past bought their dresses for society plays from Paris, but even they are now having to yield to the popular demand for British goods, incidentally encouraging the home designer. Yvonne Arnaud, who has been having a big success in the "Improper Duchess," has worn out one set of dresses, and has had another group designed by Norman Hartnell, the young ex-army officer, whose success with his wonderful froeks is such that he has started a branch business in Paris. He has designed a lovely ensemble for her in dragon's wing green velvet, consisting of a long fitting dress, with a very short coat with an enormous collar in ginger-coloured kolinsky, with which she carries a little barrel muif to match. She has a gorgeous white evening dress embroidered in crystal beads, made closely-fitting and high-waisted. With this she has a long coat trimmed with ermine tails. Yet another ensemble has a coat in lime green georgette lined with blaek velvet and trimmed with black fox. This is worn over a lime green dress made with a high waist.

Empire Gowns High-waisted Empire fashions are being shown in two other new productions this week, and crepe romaine, the heaviest of the. crepe family, is used for some of these. The new vogue for face-cloth long coats and coat frocks for out-of-doors is seen in the play at the Ambassadors. The queen in the play, "The Queen's Husband," has a lovely long coat-frock in pastel grey face-cloth, which is unbuttoned from neck to hem in front over an underskirt of i the same cloth, with a crepe georgette | bodice with collar and jabot in a 1 paler grey shade ; this is trimmed | with grey fox collar and bands of the I fur at the elbow. All sleeves of coats, where there is fur trimming on the collar, have bands or strappings of fur.

Miscellaneous Two-toned evening and sports gowns are the last word in elegance, especially when carried out in leafgreen and a deeper ice-cream shade. Plum, fuchsia and violet tones have been noticed as outstanding favourites for evening wear in dress parades overseas. Commanding attention was a plum-toned silk crepe supper dress, which had a narrow girdle of robin's egg blue, and the contrasting- colour also appeared in the flowers which fromed the short sleeves. Low-heeled shoes have definitely come to stay, and frivolous vamps and slender Freneh heels have gone the way of short skirts and sheer silk stockings. Already narrow capelets are attached to the shoulders of new frocks following in line with the vogue abroad, where narrow hips and nipped waistlines widen upward to a breadth of shoulder accentuated by anything that will give the impression of extreme width. Gay wooden watches, dyed to match your sports clothes, and worn on matching- cords, are the latest jewellery novelty from London. The Jack of Spades hat is the newest of those fascinating little toques which rapidly are superseding the wide-brimmed variety. They are brimless-and worn jauntily over one ear, with a wicked little feather sticking up at the side or back. One of the smartest arrivals on the Strathnaver included a collection of them in her wardrobe. Gloves that button in front of the wrist, with gay glass buttons to match the frock, are a chic novelty that the smartest arrivals on the Stfathen'semble. Backless gowns featuring the

bustle of 1830 are an interesting ! development in the ballroom. I Brief jackets and capes of heavy i lace or light fur are considered the last word with the moulded silhouette I of the new evening gowns. Ermine ! tails take the place. of flowers on the ; shoulder of a blaek velvet evening ! gown. Lace yolces are a fashionable feature for the all-blaek or all-white dinner frock. Plaited shoulder straps and long rucked gloves strike an elegant note I for formal evening wear. [ And to be fashionable this season j one must be romantic, whether in the ; street or- ballroom; skirts and coifj fure must be longer; hats must be tilted and feathered; and gowns : must be different. I Growing in popularity is the wide ; girdle on evening frocks. Chanel f has used them, and they are said to 1 be flattering to the figure. Wide at | the front and narrowing at the- sides . and back, the girdles are in the same fabric as the dress, with either a curved or pointed line at the uppey | edge. They give an uplift movement | to the bodice, and are especially effective when trimmed with beads. A new sheer fabric for evening wear is called "Malgache." Possessing a shimmery quality that is effective in formal fashions, it can be substituted for such materials as organdie, starched chiffon and georgette. Another material, "Mouchete," is a novelty for sports wear, and is described as a combination of wool, silk and rayon. Made in colours and natural tones, it is used for dresses and beach pyjamas. Also for sports frocks is "Poehavette," a smooth material that suggests kid, and is useful for gilets. Angel-skin, which has made its appearanee in Sydney, and has been larg-aiy used for ribbon trimmings, is the fashionable material for wedding gowns overseas. Its softness lends itself delightfully to the flares which are so much in vogue, but it is a fabric easily spotted, so would not be serviceable for every occasion.