VOGUES AND VAGARIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 69, 13 June 1927, Page 5

VOGUES AND VAGARIES

By MADAME JEANNE VARREZ In arranging their mid-season collections, the designers appear to have concentrated chiefly on the skirts of the new models. A gasp of sheer amazement greeted one creation, which was cut with an ankle-length skirt! Above this revival of modes of the eighties was a bodice which looked for all the world like an old-fashioned jacket, with a waist, rather full sleeves, and buttons down the front. The fact that the model was presented in an extremely up-to-date material — crepella, to wit!—made it the more “amusing.” For “amusing” is the word to use when something almost indescribable has to ba described. Came another model with the skirt raised to the knees in front and drooping to the ankles at the back; this was in printed crepe de chine showing a tiny sprigged design on a string-col-oured ground. Gauging at the hips, round the wrists, and at the shoulder line was regarded by the designer as the only possible trimming for a frock of this persuasion. Then we saw a dress with a skirt sloping up at one side and down at the other, so that a diagonal line seemed to have been drawn from the left knee to the right ankle —quite effective! Corselet skirts, so admirable for wear with the modish boleros, were there also. Some were turned under at the hem; others were perfectly straight, with their corselet tops, lightly boned, reaching well above the normal waistline. Dainty blouses of lawn, georgette, or crepe, were worn beneath very short, sleeveless boleros in the same material as the skirts. Pannier effects were seen; these took the form of shaded ostrich feathers attached at the hip-line at either side and drooping several inches below the hem of the skirt. Alternatively a double frill on the fabric lent the desired effect, or a few loops of broad satin ribbon filled the role. Apart from these diversions, the models emphasised the slim hip vogue. The broad sash, drawn tightly round the figure and tied in a huge bow either at the side or in front, appeared on many evening gowns as well as afternoon ones. * * * Beige has now developed into a putty or string colour, and, although grey is sponsored by several famous houses, the new beige is “the” shade of the moment. Numerous green tones also are used for “little frocks,” and occasionally the two colours are combined. Thus a model in printed georgette shows a design in various green shades on a string coloured ground; it has a transparent hem of plain green georgette, with turnover collar and cuffs en suite.

Applique trimmings are “in” again, and are specially attractive in their lates guise. The most ethereal fabrics, like chiffon, georgette and net, are adorned with floral or conventional applique motifs in various colours. A much-admired black-and-white model has trails of black chiffon flowers appliqued on to the white chiffon foundation, the half-tone thus achieved being extraordinarily arresting.

A robe de style for the debutante created quite a little stir at one dress show. Materialised in lavender moire, it was cut with a fitting bodice and a sloping shoulder line; the waist was normal, and the skirt was very full and fairly long. A wonderful berthe fell over the shoulders; it was bead embroidered in a lacey design on net, and actually looked like scintillating lace! A tiny frill of similar bead lace was placed round the waist —a charming little frock, but only for the charming young girl.

Coloured tussore silk is as popular as it deserves to be. One lovely model, in a soft peach shade, is tucked horizontally all the way up the skirt and half-way up the bodice, the tucks being graduated from quite wide ones to very narrow ones. A little self-collar and rather deep cuffs, covered with tiny pin tucks, provide the finishing touches.

ON EQUABILITY A TALK TO BUSINESS GIRI.S One of the all-essential things that the business girl must school herself to remember is that business men in the main make little or no allowance for feminine disabilities, physical or temperamental. She must learn to drill herself to accept the hard fact that one contrary “mood” may sweep away the impression of weeks and months of-willing service. Put down in cold black and white, that sounds almost inhuman! Yet the business girl may be assured that even the most humane of employers can be “all het up,” as the Americans say, by some unaccountable temperamental vagary on the part of a girl they had deemed to be superior to such feminine lapses. In business, as in life in general, the feminine equation must learn to adapt itself to masculine algebra. In the masculine mind, A plus B always equals C. Only in the most complicated problem is the unknown quantity of “X” introduced. Whereas “X,” of course, enters into the very simplest of feminine mathematics, and upsets all the accepted rules. Men admit this when they are trying to be clever at our expense, but for the purpose of everyday living and everyday relationships they forget all about it. In the office, as in the home, they have no use for the unknown quantity represented by varying moods, no matter how much these may amuse them in their leisure hours. Over a dinner a deux in a propitious atmosphere you may analyse your motives and your emotions to your heart’s content, and win a facile after-dinner response from your masculine vis-a-vis; but at the domestic breakfast table or at the office desk you must forget that you have any feminine privileges. You must present an unvaryingly equable demeanour, no matter how clouded your private horizon, no matter what secret griefs may obsess your soul. Only by such Herculean self-discip-line will you persude the Business Man that you are fit to have the smallest finger in the business pie. All of which may savour of feminine cynicism, but in reality is purely and simply an acceptance of elementary facts. And it behoves the business girl to face them. If she is clever enough to pull her business weight, she should be clever enough to conceal her feminine moods! —S.H.