The Frankness of Modern Clothes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 370, 2 June 1928, Page 20

The Frankness of Modern Clothes

Frocks for the Too Plump

IT'S a characteristic of modern fashions that there is, as the conjurers say, “absolutely no deception” about them. Or, anyway, very little. Such as we are, we present ourselves to the world.

Compare our appearances with those of women even one generation ago. Doesn’t it strike you how easy, i comparatively speaking, it must have been to be a beauty of that day? There 1 was almost no defect you couldn’t ! camouflage (funny that that word was bestowed on us by the war, while the thing it stands for, as far as our looks are concerned, was annihilated by it!) BYGONE SUPPLEMENTS If you hadn’t enough hair, you bought some and pinned it on. If you hadn’t enough “figure,” you did likewise! If you had ugly legs or feet, you trailed your sweeping skirts more carefully round them. If your curves were too much on the generous side, you laced the wholebone a bit tighter. You can’t do any of that to-day! All you can do is to help out your complexion a little, and, after all, I don’t think that deceives anybody very much. Not by daylight, anyway, and with tiny hats and cropped hair and small brims and no veils or sunshades worth mentioning, we have to look a lot of daylight in the face. We have had a period of obvious make-up, but even there a reaction is setting in, and we are beginning to think that the most expensive cosmetics ever bought can’t compare with a clear, smooth, well-cared-for, but natural-looking skin. All this frankness and clear-cut outline are specially hard on the rather plump women. There has never been such a period of fashions designed for the ultra-slim, and the more they change the more they emphasise this particular point. We are always hearing that “curves are coming back,” and VJFwhat happens? When the new frocks appear, they, and the mannequins showing them, seem to be trying to prove that they measure an inch or two less than last season. There are many women who aren’t intended by Nature to be very slim,

and can’t diet or exercise enough to become so, without weakening and exhausting themselves. They are the ones who have to choose their clothes really carefully. If they do, they can look as well in them as anybody. But the wrong line is fatal to them. GRADUATED TUCKS In many charming dresses for the not-so-slim, tiny tucks are graduated to give a slim effect at the hips, while a slightly bloused effect takes away any appearance of tightness. Even more “slimming” is a black coat-frock of the new wool georgette, with front of black crepe de chine printed in light colours. Always concentrate the lighter colour in the centre of your frock, if you want to look slimmer than you are. Light jumpers or blouses, however, are another matter, as in their case the upper part of the body is covered in the light colour, and many women find they make them look large. They should adopt the new and very smart fashion of wearing a moderately light coat and skirt and a blouse or jumper very dark in colour. Try this idea, and you will be surprised how much smaller it will make you look. The diagonal line, too, is very helpful and very fashionable now—try and get the cross-over bodice, continuing in side-drapery of the skirt, into one of your new frocks. You can wear the tiny spot-patterns, but I should avoid the large ones and those of different colours. Other things to beware of are bunchy fur collars, sleeveless frocks, small pleats, frills, horizontal lines, and the lighter shades of beige and grey. In fact, black and all the dark colours make one look slim, and as they are coming more and more into fashion, that is at least one way in j which, in “this year of grace,” the plump ones do score for once!