Topics and Trifles

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 20 (Supplement)

Topics and Trifles

Bathing Suits. . Bags. . Berets and Some Notions for Housewives

WHO wears the wonderful bathing suits you see in shops, I wonder? The smart people don’t patronise them, that’s certain; The swimmer in its newest manifestation—with white top and blue shorts, belted at the waist—held its own very successfully at Deauville last year among all but the plumpest of women, and I hear that this year the same simplicity will survive although coloured tox>s may appear. The really important bathing purchase—and the most expensive—is the eombinaire that any but a really slim girl wears under her bathing gown to give her a firm and graceful outline. These may cost anything up to five guineas, since the elastic and broche, of which they are made, have to he specially prepared to stand repeated immersion in salt water, and of course, they have to fit without a wrinkle to betray the fact that that wonderful figure is not entirely Nature’s gift!

TENNIS BERETS The beret is still fashionable on occasions, and the occasion is a windy or damp day on the tennis court. Specially fitted berets are, so a famous outfitter says, being: packed in all the holiday trunks and bought in hundreds. Miss Margaret Bannerman, whom we in Australia and New Zealand are to have the joy of seeing soon, is one if the well-known women who patronises these when playing tennis. They ire absolutely plain, without a sign of i tassel. FEATHERS There is a revulsion among some people against flowers; feathers are reappearing. So far they are inconspicuous additions to hats, although a certain well-known woman, at her daughter’s wedding, had a hat made entirely of pale pink and beige feathers with a brush osprey to trim it. Another charming hat recently seen was of grey and had some soft swan’s tip feathers at the side in palest pink and blue. Many of the airman helmet hats have their ear-flaps of feathers carefully dyed to match the felt of which they are made. BAGS AND CLASSES How do you carry your bag? I heard the other day that it has become very bad form to clasp it tightly to what, in polite circles, is called your chest, as if your clothes would all fail off if you let go! You must hold it ty your side, either by its handle or, if it is a pochette, by slipping your fingers under it and do so as if it really were part of you and your costume. Only thus will you avoid the stigma of being “not quite out of the top drawer!” IF YOU WEAR A SCARF If you are one of those people who,

on a day too hot for a coat, feel unfinished without a scarf, you must also have a scarf ring. These are made of rough-hewn amber, either clear or clouded, and quite half an inch thick. They are delightful to look upon, and will help you to get five or six different effects with one scarf. What is more, although they are very light, as well as practically unbreakable, they do keep a scarf end from fluttering too much in the wind. A NIGHTMARE OR ART? There is a new London dance club in Soho with decorations that outBoulestin Boulestin with his Marie Laurencin and other mural paintings! On one floor exaggerated tropical foliage covers every scrap of wall space, with occasional pools of gold out of which dripping nymphs are climbing or, sometimes, two menalcholy monkeys sitting on a log. Down stairs, in on underground “cave,” the decorations are based on the Chauve Souris backgrounds. You either like it very much or you want to run away! The club is called “The Persian Garden.” PERSONAL DINNER SERVICES If you’d be one of those hostesses who are much discussed, you should indulge in the newest hand-painted dinner services, or you may just have a dessert service for economy’s sake. Every plate is hand-painted by a process which makes the paints washable without firing first. An artist has recently done one for an Australian woman who chose to have a representation of each room in her house in the centre of the plate. You can have your garden, or yourself, or your crest, or the pattern of your wallpaper or brocade hangings reproduced—or you may learn to do quite creditable conventional designs yourself.