VICTORIAN INFLUENCE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 127, 21 January 1932, Page 7

VICTORIAN INFLUENCE

PARIS HA"S" DISCARDED TRAILING DAY FROCKS. NOT SLAVES OF FASHION. PARIS, Dec. 30. • Nothing will induce Parisiennes to wear long skirts during the daytime. This is a decision that every woman has reached. We have looked at the old-fashioned pictures of women in long skirts, and we have been asked: "Is the practical woman of to-day going back to that?" This has caused us to protest that we modern women are not slaves of fashion, and we refuse point-blank to be forced by the Paris dress designers into wearing long day skirts . We admit, however, that we are quite willing to wear long evening dresses. Now, let us face this fashion problem sensibly for once. Why are we making all this fuss? Who has asked us to wear long skirts during. the day? At the Paris dress showings I have seen more than three thousand of the 1931 models, and I have already seen enough of the advance 1932 fashions to know what the general .outlines are likely to he. And I have not seen one single long and trailing day dress. Day skirts, as a matter of fact, are slightly shorter than they were last season; this means that your skirt should reach to about seven or eight inches below your knees. The new daytime, and evening skirts as w*ell, are often gored, and have a bell-like flare, either from the hip-line or at the knees. There are

also many narrow pencil line daytime , skirts worn with hlouses or jackets that have full sleeves, cap-top straight sleeves, or dolman sleeves, to give bulk at the shoulders. Waistlines are tightly fifcted above such skirts, and hip-lines are sometimes given flared poplums . Concerning Pleats. Pleats this season seem to be playing a more important role than ever, and are being treated in all kinds of ways. They appear not only in the clothes for morning wear, but in the lighter materials, such as georgette , and satin; they are used for afternoon or evening models. In the first place, they usually take the f 01*111 of inverted or box pleats starting from a yoked movement of incrustation, while in the latter they are given all sorts of fancy treatments. Very shallow inverted pleats may account for the fullness on .the top of a straight frill, in the place of gathers. ! The pleats are tapered to nothing, | leaving the edge plain. Or the pleats I may be mounted with fine gauging, | 01* set at the top only, so that in their : fall they give the impression of exj ceptionally evenly-set gatherings. The Yictorian Influence. j The Yictorian influence seems to | hang around during this season, no I matter what the silhouette is named. The small fur wrap is one detail that is taking hold, and this wrap will be capelet, little dolman, or jacket, made of the fur of grandma's day — curly astrakhan, sealskin,. etc. These small wraps are shown with frocks made of quaiht woollens, like cashmere, wool surah, and tweed, 01* they are worn over tailored suits that are slim, and fitted from shoulders to hem. Muffs to match such wraps are also shown. j And these muffs can be in cloth also. : For the Riviera season, which will i soon be » beginning, the dressmakers are making tailored suits in black 01* coloured crepe de chines with muffs to match. - » ' * Other Yictorian Details. A second Yictorian detail which is coming back with a big splash is the 1 taffetas blouse, which is shown with tailored suits, and which is often trimmed with lace or velvet ribbon, just like the old-fashioned blouses of the mauve and pre-mauve decade, but with the slim 1932 boneless line. Fitted waistcoat blouses that button up the front are also in the picture, and these eome from Early Victorian styles. They are made also of brocade, just like their ancestors. Lace trimmings from the modes of Victoria's day are shown by most Paris dressmakers. There are heavy satin dinner and afternoon dresses, trimmed with lace, and there are heaps of velvet frocks with lace trimmings. Buttons and pockets are universal trimmings for clothes of quaint inspiration. and Paris couturieres are putting pockets in a good number of their evening frocks. They are not the old-fashioned placket pockets, but little patches 01* inset pockets on one hip. —