Frills, Fads and Foibles

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 158, 24 September 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

Frills, Fads and Foibles

FASHION NOTES FROM PARIS Empty Paris is very full of busy ■ people Looking at expensive new clothes. They are not the people who wear them; they are people ! who sell them in other countries and write about them in foreign papers. ! By day and by night these longingf or-a-holiday people attend openings and sit in hot rooms watching beauti- I ful girls parade in dresses and coats ! made of the most wonderful and ex- i pensive tissues. In speaking of fashion, materials ' must come first. They are the basis of all the new ideas. They are remarkable in colour, in design, in texture. They inspire the dressmakers and, alas! keep up the prices, since j they are so rich, so rare, so beautiful j —and so dear. Light woollen cloth, jersey, kasha, 1 buranic, crepe and fine silk of every sort and colour, plain and figured, is used. One of the newest materials is a Rodier kasha, which has a metal thread closely interwoven, silver, gold or copper. It is being used by every dressmaker. The new tricots, used for jumpers, are coarse in mesh and have cubist patterns in two or more colours interwoven. They are very effective. FAVOURED SHADES No patterns are uniform. Wide plain spaces are left between bold geometrical figures. Natural kasha colour, all the browns from light to dark, many greens, a fair amount of blue in different shades, and lots of black and white, apart and together, are favoured. Velvet is much used, both cotton and silk, plain, figured and ribbed. For long coats, trimmed lavishly with fur, cotton velvet is used, and a kasha or silken dress may be worn with it. Great attention is paid to linings, which are either in the colour of the coat itself or like the dress worn under the coat. Many linings have decorative fronts to show when the coat is thrown open. Embroideries, incrustations and applications are used as decorative mediums;. Skirts are still short, with the exception of those seen in evening dresses which are Spanish in design. These skirts will be greatly worn this summer, and the material used for them will be flowered georgette or chiffon They dip widely at the back and rise in front to the bodice. Such dresses for evening wear may be made in taffeta. velvet, crepe satin and lace. The waist line is higher. It is i usually set on the hips. There is no tight lacing, even when bodices fit the figure. Everything is supple. No bones, no hard corsets. BUCKLES AS TRIMMINGS Afternoon dresses usually have long 1 sleeves, but the fashion of having little 1 bolero or sac coats to sleeveless dinner j dresses may confuse the mind and make one think that the ensemble is meant for afternoon. Bright buckles, buttons and clasps are used to trim simple everyday frocks. They may be of steel or gilded metal. For the evening there are many paste buckles, buttons and embroideries. Ribbing, incrusting, applying: are decorative; methods practised on plain materials. Stripes are set round the figure, not down it. Satin braid a quarter of an inch wide is closely stitched Dn plain materials in patterns and to form broad bands. Curved lines are very much in vogue. Scalloped hems are seen both on skirts and coats. There Is some flare in many of the long coats, but straight coats are just as right. The front openings are rounded at the hem. The dressmakers have tried to please all tastes, a.nd they should succeed. Dress for women in 1927 is as graceful and comfortable as it well can be.