Dame Fashion Reverts to Femininity

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 340, 28 April 1928, Page 17

Dame Fashion Reverts to Femininity

Paris Sets Her Seal Upon the Winter Mode

Written for THE SUN by

HUIA MASE

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HE formal entrance of winter fashions will be made this year with a pageant as colourful as those of surpassing loveliness planned for the edification of brave knights and fair ladies at the courts of great kings in bygone days. It will be inspired by youth and exalted by refreshingly new details. With it will come lovely things for milady, rich in colour and design; coats and suits, wraps and frocks for every smart occasion; seductive undies with the cachet of Paris sewn in their delicate folds; fabrics of exceeding beauty; millinery more becoming than ever; laces, frills and flounces, and a thousand other intriguing trifles, shimmering with riotous jewel-like colour or possessing the dim, alluring hues of remote ages. This winter, Dame Fashion says, is to be marked with great variety and diversity. In the same breath she tells us that all the charming clothes she will sponsor will not be entirely new, but rather the result of slow and steady evolution, instead of the mere caprices that our fashions used to be. After all, however much Dame Fashion tries to disguise the fact, she is really a most conservative old lady,

id should really be represented with vo faces, like the statues of Janus, le looking back to the past, and the her ahead to the future. The

clothes to be worn when winter comes, especially during the dinner-to-bed-time hours, will bear a closer relation than any of recent seasons to those that our maternal ancestors wore. They will be more feminine, more formal, fuller, more flared and more fitted than the things that we have been wearing for many months. Mannish modes have entirely left our present horizon, except in the case of certain sports clothes of well-de-fined use. Our street coats this season will bear no more their stern resemblance to men’s overcoats —even our beloved tailleurs will be less strict *n their lines, and the blouses that accompany them will frequently be niade of such frivolous and ultrafeminine stuffs as satin, crepes and me tal brocade. One intrepid innovation brought out by a French fush*°h house for winter wear is the white satin blouse with the tweed cardigan B uit, and one cannot imagine anything more feminine in its contrariness than that. The return to femininity of evening fashions, infinitely welcome after the long-sustained vogue of the boyish mood, brings in its charming train the fluttering softness of draperies, Bcarves, cape effects, shirring and bows, skirts lengthening with the shadows, moulded hips, the beauty of * ace » the grace of chiffons, the coquetry of taffeta.

A Favourite Mode

So many modes come with dramatic acclaim —hold the fashion stage for their little hour —and then are gone. But when smart women throughout the world continue to accord favour to one mode above ail others for season after season, we are forced to realise that that mode must be chic and of a universal charm. And the sports mode undoubtedly is all that.

This season, the designers have accorded it the privilege of presenting many new features, and they have produced a collection of garments grouped under the elastic “sports clothes” heading of a sophisticated simplicity, a studied chasteness of design, and a tense richness of line that outlaws every sensational detail contravening good taste. They are fashions this year that in their lines know all the influence of subtlety, all the power of discretion. These, in their wonderful colourings, recall the vivid glories of the fall of the year. Our dress will be, as it always has been, when! looked at in historical perspective, an expression of our lives. The serviceable sports mode must therefore hold pride of place for our active, workaday lives, while the fact that we are inclined

to frivol more at night-time than we used to, finds expression in the increased importance of our ! evening modes. So great an authority on manners and customs as Anatole France is said to have declared that, could he return to earth 100 years from now, a glance at a book of woman’s fashions would enable him to recognise the reigning philosophy, as well as the material state of that century.

Charm of Colour

The colours for this winter, reported from Paris, include the tones of modern art —the off-shades with a silver cast —seen, as it were, through a sheen of moon-mist. Browns with a delicate frosted charm, grey-beiges, Sierra green, lake blue, Castilian red, and a host of others, breathing the magic note of a new season. Singly or blended into prints they are triumphs of modern design. Of all the colours, brown, perhaps, will hold first place. But it will he far from a drab shade. Rather will it be a gorgeous, rich, true brown, a brown, that glows, brown of an exquisite wood, the brown of the highlights in Russian sable. A brown that was just horn to most charmingly contrast with the greens and the blues and the beiges that will vie with it for popularity. In the evening hours colours will express woman’s every vagrant whim. Shimmering, jewel-like tones will appear in sheer ring velvet, that most regal of winter’s new fabrics that possesses such a wondrous flowing | grace that it may appear with equal success in gowns of classic simplicity [or in youth’s own bouffant picture frocks. Black will hold its proud place with women who can wear it well, and white will be much more popular than it has been for a long time, and all the pale nuances that display the soft petal-like bloom of sunkissed flowers will express the delicate charm of naive simplicity.

At right.—Cleverly-placed tucking gives a distinctive line to this coat of grey toning , and the lavish use of fur emphasises its fashionable popularity. An original note is seen in the deeper fur collar at the back. A posy of violets, shoes and handbag of glossy black patent , and hat and hose that exactly match the coat are smart accessories .

The New Fabrics

Fabrics in general are of marvellous diversity, and provide most of the high-lights for all the winter clothes. Velvets are the basis of the new modes, and they appear in all types, Corduroy, straight pile, panne, chiffon, pi'inted, raised, checked and shaded, and in their most charming “ring” forms. They make clothes of every type, from rubberised velvet waterproofs to wedding gowns.

Next after velvets come satins, used chiefly in afternoon and evening frocks. A heavy stiff satin has reappeared for evening wear in-modified picture gowns and in coats. Crepe satins, used with incrustations and appliques, are featured everywhere. The new lames and metal fabrics will he seen in garments for all occasions. With the softness of silk, the clinging beauty of chiffon, the liquid, easy-draping quality of satin, they fall graciously into the lines of the accepted slim silhouette. There are to be light, diaphanous metal-run fabrics of fairy-like charm for dance

frocks, heavily embossed, supple j cloths for more, formal evening -wear; plaint, delicately mixed woollens and metals and silks for ensembles and frocks and coats and sheer softlycoloured lames for the smartest of bridge frocks. For sports wear, wool jersey, new tricots, friscas, repps, tweeds often of quite large design and mixed colourings, cheviots, diagonals, Kashas and velourettes will all be popular. Lace and chiffon and tulle and all the other blithesome fabrics will retain their night-time chic, appearing in a multitude of new disguises. The feminine note is being struck in the interesting field of millinery as strongly as in other directions. The cloche in felt can never be ousted, but new little toques, with' dotted eye-veils, challenge its supremacy, and felt caps draped symetrically with stiff satin ribbon have appeared. One French designer has produced a quaint cap of knitted chenille and

other startling innovations are looming up on the hat horizon. One amusing hat pictured in a recent French paper is called “Mise en plis,” and is a supple felt, moulded to look like the hair after a water wave. Another that claimed attention, if not universal admiration, was a felt with a cut-out “V” over one eye, leaving a large piece of forehead exposed and trimmed with a small felt bow.

Feather toques, too, have kept their popularity, both for day and evening wear, but for the woman who seeks something becoming and not at all outre there is still the authentic charm of the close, round crown, the off-the-face brim, flower trimmings, and enchanting new hints of veils.

For Dancing Hours

Dancing fashions come, stay awhile and go. They start gradually or they burst upon the mode.

They grow furiously popular . . . then they drop out. Later they may be revived, changed in some detail and sent round the circle again, but none of them lasts for seasons or for years ... as does the picturesque “robe de style.” It is a portrait mode and it brings to this sophisticated age a little of that “once upon a time” charm which we only know from old paintings or century old romances.

Rustling taffeta that whispers in each silken fold the fragrant dreams that are like shining threads of beauty in the pattern of a woman's life, will fashion the most piquant evening frocks of picture style, to be worn when friendly lights are beckoning from a thousand -windows.

With graciously full skirts and hem lines dipping now to the back and now to sides, these gowns will seek no embellishment other than their own delightful fullness and perhaps a hem of lace, their close-fitting bodices, and an occasional bow of huge proportions attached to the back of the skirt. Ruffles and folds will add to the demureness of these intriguing gowns, whose charm is only a ruse to attract attention to their wearers. Then, for those whom the picture style of frock does not suit, there will be fascinating new draped evening

I frocks of chiffons and georgettes and tulle, with scintillating beaded designs to give them added beauty. A new thought is the addition of cut steel beads to an unevenly draped gown of black net. Made with three tiers on the skirt, a closely-mouded hipline and an engaging scarf, one that we saw pictured in a new French fashion book, was of sheer black, sparkling with starlight.

The most conspicuous feature of the winter evening mode, the uneven hemline, has been widely accepted by the Parisian. True, its pristine madness is somewhat curbed; it no longer reveals the right knee and covers the

left ankle. That is what always hap- j pens to exaggeration. The “dip in the i back” silhouette is possibly less often chosen by the really smart woman than the side slant, or side drapery, though, contrariwise, the double flat panel, at the back, giving a “fishtail” hem, is a new version, at once long and short, which is quite often seen on gowns of the utmost chic. |

In their suave, slender contours, furs this season are more flatteringly feminine than they have ever been. Against the dark beauty of versatile fabrics they display their smooth softness in lavish ways, being used with reckless abundance in deep cuffs, collars that start at the neckline and reach right down to the hem. and then perhaps frivolously encircle even that. In coats and w r raps they are in-

dispensable for really cold days, and here they are met in more infinite variety than ever. The time has passed when it was enough to possess a coat of fur, and value it for its fur alone. Now that coat must be flat-

teringly fashioned and must combine an unusual amount of chic in its lines with the loveliness of its surface. To the street dress and the ensemble of this brilliant season fur scarfs and stoles and trimmings will give added luxuriousness, and they will be colourful in the extreme, appearing in dyed-to-match-the-cloth

shades as nude, pausv, parchment, c: .namon. beige, ashes of roses, as well as in all the rich natural blues, greys, goldens, browns, reds, smokytints, white, black and silver.

A Study in Unity

The importance of unity, of harmony in every detail, from the bag. the hosiery, the gloves, the shoes, the jewels, the posy, to the tiniest spot of perfume that adds the final touch of perfection to Madame’s toilette, cannot be over-estimated. All these things must blend in the perfect ense; *>le. each chiming in harmony with the mood of the costume-motif of to-day. A new detail that demands attention is the scarf designed in Paris and worn diagonally with a long section hanging down in the front. A stocking shade advocated by fashion advisers is in a deep tan tone that has neither flesh, pink or rose cast, and mist o' blue is the very newest winter hosiery shade ... a tone as lovely as the night that blends blue and black in a much more intriguing nuance than ever gunmetal could aspire to. Gloves still match the hose whenever possible, and the plainer they are the more they acquire in chic. Charming examples of the modern necklaces and bracelets, fashioned of overlapping planes of golcl metal, will be seen in great variety, and crystal necklets will retain their bright

vogue, banishing pearls to a great extent. Coloured semi-precious stone necklets w-ill be worn when they can be made to tone with the leit-motif of the ensemble they accompany. The tendency is for flowers for day wear to be rather smaller and more compact. These rather tight little boutonnieres are particularly smart for the sports costume and the classic tailleur. The newest colours for them will be orchid, in a deep pinky tone, blue, green and beige, and also the Russian violet shades.

Figuratively Speaking

The more closely-adjusted body lines of most of. our new clothes demand that we wear some kind of corset, but there is nothing reminiscent of the heavily-boned abomination of crinoline days about the modern girdles and corselettes, which allow the woman of to-day the unrestricted comfort she demands, while at the same time gently persuading her figure to follow curves of natural loveliness, so that every posture may be a thing of beauty and every line a lovely rhythm. Dainty trifles of elastic and brocade are worn, giving complete unbroken lines that flow delicately over the curve of the bust, into the waistline, indicating it as our frockß demand, but not emphasising It, then continue down over the hips and the thigh line, in perfect symmetry. Undies, too, have come in for their share of Dame Fashion’s attention, and fit smoothly into the sartorial scheme of things. For dance wear they are frilled and dainty trifles of satin or silk and lace. With the tailored modes they appear in harmony, perhaps of glove silk or Milanese or a heavy washing silk, but always they are so skilfully designed that they cannot, by even so much as a misplaced fold, spoil the line of the charming gowns and suits which hide them.

To be smart this new season we must forget the boyish severity and monontony of last year, and, instead, assume an alluring, feminine sophistication which expresses individuality along with good taste, and charm along with chic.