Evening Gowns Make a Point of Their New Length

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 20

Evening Gowns Make a Point of Their New Length

The most notable feature of the newevening mode is the straight body feeling, the length of line, and the accentuated slimness down to and about the thighs. Let it branch out to the long slope of the peacock tail. > let it drag low from a deep decolletage into the flat side or back train, let it be shaded by the peplum, or half obscured by a minaret feeling, this basic silhouette of the modern princesse line yet emerges triumphant as the keystone of the good new evening dress. The only outstanding exceptions are those dresses with the wide flare. | starting diagonally at the natural waist, and the puffs and bows at the back, silhouetting the slender body—which are, in both cases, so consummately well done that one is j obliged to accept the general axiom which has it that if it comes off, It’s good. Otherwise, there are no excep- | tions. THE NEW SILHOUETTE Now, in building up and building on j this slender, elongated silhouette,! much that was charming and success- j ful in the previous mode has been j pushed into the background. That’s where you find the puffs and loops. Most drapery, for example, adds inevitably to bulk, and drapery (save where it results, horizontally, from front shirring at the base of the bodice) has been suppressed in favour of cut, piecings, and incrustations, which seem, as it were, to bo copied from the lines drapery achieves, but remain flat. 'Jflius, also, with the new overlapping panels, which no longer emerge ebulliently from draped material, but hang flat with paddle or square ends dowii the side or side back of the new dress. The diagonally cut and wrapped overlapping panels shown by Vionnet. actually contribute to this increased length and slightness. Irregularity, the line. free, careless irregularity of a season ago. has been replaced by I controlled and calculated unevennesses,, which add not a millimeter to j the circumference and detract not a millimeter from the stature. But the I course of true chic never did run smooth. Noticeable movement and [ fulness does not occur until below the thighs, and one may well say. "the | higher, the fewer; the lower, the | better.” Evening dresses are made on slim j women and shown on slim women, with the hope that slim women will i wear them or grow slim enough to do 1 ! so. That is not to say that the ‘‘help- [ ful line” has disappeared from modI era evening clothes, nor that dresses are mean and skimpy nor yet that women above a certain hip measure- | ment and below a certain height ! should hereupon retire to a convent | or a sanitarium for life. But it does ‘ mean that the fit and the young and . the well-cared-for and well-preserved . j are at the fore to-day. and that one can no longer muddle through with a , careless slack life, no exercise, aud i unintelligent feeding, and then have j 1 1 only to order an expensive evening j t I gown to emerge triumphantly into so-! t ciety and stun it. a The Trains of the Moderns The evening dress with the real i trailing train teaches us a number of i important lessons, for it shows us iu i a particularly clear light how com- i pletely the world of fashion depends t upon, and then dictates to, society and o

.its activities. Dresses with trains are shown by Chanel, Vionnet, Paquin, Lanvin, Louiseboulanger, Molyneux, Cheruit, and Callot. That is enough. The train means something. And it means that if you have a home, a pocket book, and your wits about you in this modern life, you will know with these great dressmakers, the time and the place for these dresses with trains. They are suitable. They are part of the return to elegance, and, though nobody suggests that you should leap from taxi to taxi, from party to party, and from dancing ptrftner to dancing partner in them, these dressmakers do very forcibly suggest that there Is mote to modern life than that. And they are right. No less in the mode are the ‘’little” chic evening dresses, and Chanel creates such dresses in white satin, which do not look in the least like amputated wedding dresses and which have less hem irregularity than we are accustomed to, amply compensated for by the broken line and broken surface of tiers and circular feeling.

THE PEPEVM.—This wary-printed taffeta evening dress has ■many charming Qualities; firstly, -the beauty of the pink-and-black taffeta; secondly, the chic of the short peplum tied about the high waist; and finally, the bold flaring line of the skirt. This dress is an excellent example of -important evening dresses with great allure, ichich have none of the romantic Quality of the iiiclure dress. The shoes are of the samefabric. Molyneux, Lelong and Patou have all been busy with the scissors, cutting pieces up, joining them together, emphasising the seams, making panels of them, and letting them flounce off. Lace in the New Mode Lace is worthy of attention in the ; new mode. In the first place, it is of j thread, silk or chenille, light, medium [and heavy; in the very pale, the very vivid, and the very dark shades it is best. It is too much to say that if your lace dress is not starched, better not have it, but it is not too much to insist that if your lace dress is not as interesting when standing as when in movement, it is wrong. This means that many a good lace dress is starched at the bottom of the skirt, and that

'f no good lace dress ever permits itself ’ that soft, bedraggled look in repose. ’ Chanel is the great prophet in the land ; of lace and combines it even with ' lame. 1 A practical dinner-dress of chenille 1 lace with long sleeves is also shown by Chanel in bright, oh, but the ! brightest red. Tile practical dinnerdress, the theatre-going and “small” ! evening occasion dress, is as great a necessity as the train dress of full regalia, nor is it less well represented at the important houses. Beads are used by Vionnet to em- ! phasise the diagonal lines of the dresses—bugle beads or occasionally strass or straight lines of embroidery. Wraps for Night Time Evening coats show enormous variety. There are serviceable ones in velours de laine, with classic fur collars and cuffs; untrimmed silk velvet ones, with tiers or flounces; velvet ones trimmed wfEh fur; heavy lame moire coats fur-trimmed; those of rigid fabrics such as lames and stiff satins, luxuriously trimmed; and, of course, the solid fur coat or wrap, which is the most chic and everbeautiful of them all. There are, also, little velvet wraps and capes completely untrimmed, with a small-shouldered feeling even when they have deep flounce-like collars, and here the flare seems chiefly to serve as accent to the one point of contact with the body at the hips. These evening coats are cut to ac.I cord with and to follow the line of the dress below. Evening Jewels Pearls, both real aud artificial, are worn as much as ever, and there is a new and interesting diamond necklace that may be shortened by detaching two lengths, which form bracelets, and the pendant, which forms, a brooch. Crystal beads are among the best artificial jewels for evening, and Chanel twists more and more strings of coloured stones together in gipsy fashion, with v' predominating. ■While rubies are ..jo rare and expensive to be seen in great numbers, small ones are used in the multicoloured jewellery that retains an enormous chic. Such combinations as rubies, jade and black enamel make striking pieces that accent a costume with great effect. Hats, brooches and earrings are made in combinations of stones In various colours, and the brooches include bouquet, fruit-trees, flower-pot and pagoda designs. Flowers are best when they are of the same colour as the dress. There are carnations, so used by' both Molyneux and Cheruit, and three naturalistic red roses appear on a Chanel red dress. Louiseboulanger uses silk crochet flowers, but what is really very right are flowers that become part of the dress.