Prince and Mannequins

Southland Times, Issue 20081, 19 January 1927, Page 11

Prince and Mannequins

(From Our Correspondent.)

London

The Prince of Wales, who does not mind doing unconventional things, went to Harrods big stores to see the Empire food display, and, when there, thought he would like to see the fashion departments too. He caused a mild sensation and a great fluttering of mannequins’ hearts when he appeared and insisted on inspecting the stock and asking all kinds of questions about fringes and embroideries and colours, and showed a preference for a lovely rose-pink embroidered frock with one of the short trains that can be folded over the arm for dancing.

He was chiefly interested in the dance frocks, and expressed amusing views on the suitability and otherwise of various styles for work on crowded floors. He is now danc.ng the flat Charleston at his favourite clubs and friends’ houses, and has had some experience of the discomforts of too many sequins and beads, which are, from a partner s point of view, often very difficult to clutch.

This is a season of much hospitality, many weddings, and great magnificence, in which the festivities for the Imperial Conference are playing a big part. At the State banquet for the Imperial Conference delegates the Queen wore a magnificent gown of silver opalescent paillettes, which gleamed in various tints as they reflected the myriad lights of the banqueting hall at Buckingham Palace. -

The decorations in the dining-room had been arranged to compliment the representatives of the dominions and colonies, and

were supplemented by masses of autumn foliage and golden chrysanthemums. .The Queen of Spain, who is in town, has been busy buying clothes, and she too, has

chosen robes de style—some decorated with paillettes, and others in the new “ring velvet,” which is as supple as silk. At the Mansion House one festivity follows swiftly on another. The late Lady Mayoress has just married from the great civic house, and the function at St. Paul’s Cathedral, where her lovely ivory tinted velvet gown looked beautiful against the dull background of Wren’s masterpiece in architecture, was the most crowded of any

for years. She was a popular and kindly figure during her father’s mayoralty, and her mother's sudden death early in the year made all the citizens of this old town feel for her, a very shy woman thrust for a busy year into an arduous position. Her wedding cake was rich with Australian fruit, and Sir Joseph Cook gave her a silver bushman’s axe to chop it into the traditional chunks. The new Lady Mayoress, Lady Blades, is a cheery family woman with a pair of handsome twin daughters, and they all dress beautifully. For her first public appearance, at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, Lady Blades wore one of the loveliest gowns 1 have ever seen. It. was made of soft peacock pink and silver panne powdered with crystal beads delicately embroidered. Her train was of pink and silver shot lame, lined with panne and hemmed with it. The lame was veiled with pink tulle niched delicately, and a drapery, “V” shaped, of cobweb Irish lace was slung from the shoulders. Cords of silver studded with crystal held the train from the shoulders, and knots of silver and crystal gave weight to the corners of its lightsome length.