FRILLS FADS & . OIBLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 20

FRILLS FADS & . OIBLES

Special Feature supplied excluisvely to THE SUN, Auckland, by The Central Press , Fleet Street , London.

VOGUES AND VAGARIES

By MADAME JEANNE VARREZ It is our luck t»o live in a time when the simplest of “tub” frocks are made of some kind of silk; or at least a silk and cotton mixture. Modern textile science has made them fadeless as well as washable; and the modern designer's, art has given us all manner of intriguing and beautiful patterns. Sports frocks come into the silken category, and are the epitome of simple charm and grace, the newest models showing the pouched bodice effect. This is quite simply attained by means of a lining cut a little’ shorter than the bodice itself. Tiny rucks on the shoulders at the back look smart and give the requisite fullness. With all such sports frocks, the accompanying masculine-looking cardigan appears to be a sine qua non; in fact, with all “little” frocks some sort of sacque coat is worn. * *. * The sleeveless cardigan is well liked with long-sleeved gowns, and the usual colour theme is a coat in a slightly deeper shade than the dress. Checked silks being immensely modish, a favourite sleeveless cardigan note is marocain in a hue several tones darker than the check. Blue and white, rose and white, yellow and white, and green and white, are all seen in the collections, with their en suite sacques of marocain. * * * Crepe de chine with a very tiny flowered pattern goes to the making of some of the daintiest afternoon toilettes. Such gowns need hold no terrors for the clever home dressmaker, for they are made very simply with a little of the übiquitous pleating on the skirt, and a slightly pouched bodice. Judging by the dress shows, these dainty robes are to have an enormous vogue, and one can scarcely “run up” too many to see one through the coming season.

Little coat novelties shown by some ©f the leading dressmakers are fashioned of coarse linen. They look most effective, being cut to a smart hiplength, and broidered in Russian peasant fashion. Those gloriously vivid Russian reds and blues and green look wonderful on unbleached linen, handwoven.

For travelling, the newest tweed wraps will be found an inestimable boon. The latest fabrics are very coarse and loosely woven, and illustrate both the speckled and the check vogue. Sometimes they seem to include practically every colour of the rainbow; and not their least fascinating feature is the woolliness and fluffiness of their texture. They are either quite untrimmed, or very simply finished off with inset bands of self material.

Specially lightweight waterproofs also come into the category of useful stand-bys. Weighing only a few ounces, such garments can be folded up and carried in one’s pochette. Hence the new notion of fitting the pochette with a special “mac” compartment.

Among the attractive dress accessories must be noted the huge ties of vividly spotted materials that are used as a finish to “tub” frocks. Large gauntlet cuffs of white organdi, with vandyke edges, are worn even with collarless dresses, the simple neck-line, being adorned in the centre front with a pin-on organdi jabot en suite.

,<! * * * As was the everlasting buttonhole is no longer worn by the ultra-smart. Something, nevertheless, must adorn the lapel of the coat, and there are some queer successors to the erstwhile übiquitous flower. Bows of various materials —tulle, velvet ribbon or galon—-are used for morning wear. Sometimes a long “dagger” brooch is pinned across the buttonhole. Specially designed for this purpose are initial brooches in gold or brilliants. On afternoon and evening frocks, ornamental tassels, pinned on to the shoulder, take the place of the shoulderposy.

Apropos of evening gowns, the serpentine train is a feature of some of the newest models. The serpent note is accentuated by coils of gold throat bangles, a snaky gold anklet, and a bracelet of similar inspiration.

SOME JAPANESE FESTIVALS It is said that the Japanese never grow up; certainly they spend their numerous festivals as only very happj children can. Three • of their most interesting feasts are:—The Girls’ Feast, the New Year, and the Feast of the Dead. The first is really dedicated to dolls, for dolls are tremendously popular in Japan. The baby-girls have dolls given to them at - their birth, and when they marry they take these dolls to their husbands’ homes. Long before the Doll Feast begins, the Japanese shops are choc-a-bloc with the toys. Some are made of mere clay; others are of wood; others again are of wax or silk. All are dressed in most exquisite clothes, and where historical garments are reproduced there is marvellous accuracy of detail. The one great feature of this feast is the banquet given to the dolls by their owners, who present real food and real drink in the tiniest of tiny bowls and cups. Dolls are seated in armchairs made of finest wood, covered with costliest silks and embroideries, and the girls and women of the household see that their needs are well supplied. Meanwhile the streets are illuminated with countless!, lanterns, and lucky is the foreigner wifo gets an invitation to the dolls’ banquet! The other notable feast is the Bon Matsuri, the Feast of the Dead. Then all the cemeteries are brightly lighted up, a brilliant lantern being put on every grave. Feople go to the river banks to launch tiny ships, cunningly made of plaited coloured straw, filled with various fruit and a few coins. It is believed that the dead board these vessels and are thus helped to get back to the land of the immortals till the following year. These baby ships have a lantern stuck in the middle of each; they usually catch fire on the way, and the sight of them, brilliantly floating down the river, is one of the most wonderful scenes to be witnessed in Japan. The Japanese celebrate their New Year at the same time as we do, though with them it lasts for several days. They give each other presents, especially dried salmon; they spend hours drinking tea and eating various cakes, and they take a keen interest in the exterior decorations of their tiny houses. Work is nothing short of a mortal sin during the New Y"ear Festival, and probably at no other period does Japanese life'present greater interest to a visitor. FLOWER ROOMS FOR LITTLE PEOPLE It is a great day for the small person when she is promoted to a bedroom of her very own! But modern parents, while realising the importance of suitable environment for their child, are often .rather puzzled as to the decoration of her first “own room.” One attractive way out of the difficutly is to evolve a scheme based on the child’s favourite flower. For example, one small girl who loved wild roses was delighted with the dainty arrangement her ingenious mother planned for her. It was quite inexpensive. She enamelled the plain little bed, wardrobe, dressing-chest, and chairs a soft pale grey; then she stencilled on each piece a delicate design of conventional wildroses and leaves, in tones of deep pink and soft green, using tubes of oil-paint for the purpose. Washable paper in palest pink covered the walls, and a frieze of green leaves arid buds made a charming finish. Cork linoleum in dark green was spread all over the floor, and little rugs of rose colour wool supplied the note of contrast by bedside and window-sill.

HYGIENIC LINEN HAMPERS The old-fashioned soiled-linen basket is now being replaced in all up-to-date liouses by hygienic receptacles of tough, liminated fibre, in various shapes. The baskets are beautifully enamelled in white, or in a finish to correspond with any colour scheme; they have tightly fitting lids, but no hinges, and they are pierced with ventilation holes.

A jumper noveuy is the one which is shaded to form a definite pattern. The main part of the model sketched is in cream crepe de chine, the design shading gradually from palest yellow to brown. With a cream pleated skirt, it is extremely effective.

Bathrooms are now fitted with a single useful piece of furniture consisting of a combined bath seat, with cork top, and soiled linen hamper. The finish is exactly the same as the hamper described above, and can be adapted to any colour scheme. As in the cast of the hamper, the body is made in one piece, and no nails or rivets are used, while the whole thing can be readily wiped over both inside and out with a damp cloth.

Owners of small flats, or even of single bed-sitting rooms, as well as dwellers in family houses, will welcome the various artistic schemes by means of which soiled linen hampers may be transformed into really beautiful pieces of furniture. Special artists are now designing panelled fronts, backs and sides in a variety of designs and colours, including exquisitely dainty decorations of hand-made, washable shell flowers and hand-made Barbola. Similar designs are applied to wastepaper baskets, umbrella and palmstands, dog baskets and children’s play-boxes.

A CHINESE DRESSMAKER Whenever I linger a length of Shantung silk, I remember Ching-Fu-Ling, his funny quilted coat of periwinkle silk, his square-toed slippers of red velvet, his dear pigtail, and his consummate art! He never told me where he lived and worked, and I never asked him. He brought materials for dresses, and pondered over the few fashion plates I possessed. Then he just grabbed the silk and the pattern and disappeared, having duly made his obeisance. I gathered that he understood I wanted a dress, and not a bathing robe, but still I was a little anxious. The first fitting was most amusing. He turned up an hour late, explaining that his “poor miserable watch was an insult to the sun.” What could I say alter that? He then proceeded to untie his orange silk parcel. His eye for line was unerring, but he had not taken my measurements. “Ching-Fu-Ling,” I spoke in a muffled voice, through the folds of silk, “This is all wrong.” “Me savee,” he replied, very politely—and began to cut the stuff, without divesting me of it. I shivered, but the Chinaman’s hand was marvellously steady, and the long sharp scissors clicked up and down without hint of danger. But he was slow. “I am getting tired, Ching-Fu-Ling, ’ I ventured after a fairly long interval. “Me savee,” and he deftly pulled the frock over my shoulders. He brought it back within two days, £.ll ready and neat in every detail, although when I had first asked him about the date of delivery he was most annoyingly indefinite. Ching-Fu-Ling would never commit himself to anything, but he never once kept me waiting for a dress. The gown arrived accompanied by a tidy little bundle of left-over pieces, even to the unfinished reel of silk. These he handed over, with a most solemn face, anxious to prove how honest he was. “And your bill, Ching-Fu-Ling?”-Came his answer: “If the gracious lady will deign to reward the miserable efforts of unworthy Ching-Fu-Ling, he will assuredly ask his ancestors to pour blessings on her honourable head.” The queerest bill I’d ever had *to meet! v.o.s. Crinoline and bangkok seem to be first favourites among the new millinery, and velvet ribbon binds the brim, encircles the crown, and makes the side bow that is the almost standardised trimming note. Many of the models have moderately high crowns and wide brims, cut right away, however, at -the back.

MEMS. FOR WOMEN MOTORISTS The possibility that one of your wheels is running out of truth should never be overlooked, and the woman driver should make periodical examination of the wheels. The front ones are easily tested. It is merely a case of jacking them up and spinning them round one at a time and observing how they run. She near wheels are not so easily tested, but it is a simple matter | to switch on the engine, put the gear ] in top., and then see how the wheel is : running. It is not necessary to apply these tests if you are certain that there is | no wear in t!he bearings. It is pos- j sible to ascertain such wear by jack- : ing up the wheel and jerking it about j with each hand. If the amount of | “play” is only negligible, it may be ; assumed that the bearings are as they j should be. Wheels that give evidence ! of considerable play should be at- j tended to without delay. Failure to { do so may lead to serious accident. When changing wheels after a puncture on the road, it is an excellent precaution to run only two or three miles and then stop to give the wheelholding nuts another tightening up. The nuts may have been screwed home, as it seemed, to their last thread, but it is surprising to find how much further they can be tightened after a mile or two has been covered since the wheel was changed. THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW The latest freak in furnishing fashions brings into the decorative scheme all the colours of the rainbow’. One of the most fascinating of the new artificial silk curtain materials is in stripes of almost every conceivable tint, melting imperceptibly into one another, j and shot so skilfully that there is no [ hard line of demarcation. These silks I I are produced in a variety of different ; shade-combinations, and I heard the other day of a woman who. was so | fascinated by them that she ordered 1 four lengths in different colour schemes for the hangings of the two windows in her drawing-room. She at least was not afraid of colour! But as she had parchment tinted walls to her room, she may have been perfectly justified. On a black couch or divan, nothing is more modish than a rainbow array of cushions. So long as all are pastel, or all are primary, you can rest assured that the result will be a success. But pastel and primary will not mix together! The new rainbow glass f6r the dinner-table is lovely. The rainbow really seems to radiate from it as the light catches it, and it does not matter a bit w’hether that light is artificial or not. On a hot day in the garden, too, what could be more delicious than drinks and ices served in rainbow glasses and plates. Rainbow rugs in the tiniest of stripes of different colours represent an economy, for they are made from the yard left over in the manufacture of other carpets, and are, consequently, priced very low’, the material being practically waste. They are charming with unpatterned walls in a self colour.