Royal Styles for South Africa

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5323, 8 February 1947, Page 3

Royal Styles for South Africa

On the eve of the Royal Family's departure for South Africa, Prineess Elizabeth went to her first fashion parade. Appropriately it was a display of hats, for'in the last year the Prineess' hats have become precursors of fashion in Britain. The show, held in a famous London hotel, included nearly 100 new spring hats, and the Prineess herself wore a new one — an off-theMaee design in hyacinth blue felt. The names given to the colours of the new styles^ refleeted interest in the South Afriean tour. Among them were Limpopo green, Rhodesian gold, Cape mist and Afriean dawn. More than 30 leading London ' milliners exhibited at the parade. The styles the Queen and Princesss will introduce to South Africa— which will be noted in fashion eentresthroughout the world — are still secret. They were shown privately to fashion writers in London, but Queen Elizabeth has asked, in courtesy to the South Afriean people, that details of the Royal wardrobe shali not be revealed until the Royal Family arrives in Qape Town n February 17. There were three .private shows, one of the dresses and coats designed for Prineess Elizabeth by Captain Molyneux, another of clothes idesigned for -Queen Elizabeth and the Princesses by Mr. Norman Hartnell, and a third df dresses designed for the Princesses by Miss Ford. The complete wardrobe is aybrilliant illustration of how "Britain can make it," no less in the world of fashion than in the world of industry.