Half-Steam A. head

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 589, 15 February 1929, Page 5

Half-Steam A. head

There are Subtle Differences Between Different Generations Which Fashion Herself Must Note

All present-day periodicals that have anything to do with, fashions—fashions in clothes, conduct or sur-

roundings within and without the houses of society—are obliged to make use of tha word “smart.” It has succeeded such words as “elegant” and “distinguished,” and means, indeed, a different thing. For people are not particularly elegant or distinguished in the present era. Eleg-

ance was the fine flower of a very leisurely and beflounced mode of living. and distinction, though less languid, showed marked discrepancies of dress and demeanour between the hurrying crowd and persons of aloof established position. No one could be elegant or distinguished in a hurry,' but people may be smart at the highest speed. May be, and are, since smartness is especially designed to meet the needs cf rapid action. On% hardly needs to consider the daily round to admit this.

Do we spend hours in dressing, as we used We do not. No matter how beautiful the fabric, how decorated, how intricate the garment, we get into it with the leap of a clown through a paper loop! Hats are crushed upon the head; gloves pulled on; wraps merely clutched about us. If shoes cairy more than a strap or button, we consider them rather encumbering. As for underclothes, they somehow seem to waft themselves upon us, or away from us, with hardly conscious effort on our parts. True, short hair does require a little attention; but compared with that once bestowed upon the elaborately built-up piles of curls and braids in old fashion-plates our care must be regarded as smartly simplified. And'the dash, and daring of our complexion make-up.—could anything be more confidently offhand? Quicker or more casual? Imagine being “elegant” with a lipstick in a restaurant, or “distinguished” when jotting about in knee-high skirts on a windy day! And yet, we can (perhaps reluctantly) imagine “smartness” in connection with both. -Smartness, with the snug hat now obscuring the ear and cheek, with the clinging fur, the crossed coat, the short, close skirt, the long, neat leg (and heaven grant it is!), the well-cut shoe, trig, tjdy. intriguing, ready for a race against time to the furthest pleasure at the fastest pace.

The very essence of smartness is its capacity for speed, and clothes, conduct and service are keyed to this.

Haste, as we have said, never belonged to elegance distinction, nor to good-breeding, culture, artistic taste, or even just pleasant living. But. it does belong to smartness, which believes it can gather in a; least the last three items mentioned, and not infrequently succeeds even while keeping up with the gait it prefers. It’s astonishing to find how much it can acquire as it rushes from place to place, and no mean testimonial to its powers of co-ordination that it can retain such varied impressions accurately, and adequately enjoy such restless experiences. No matter where we find smart people to-day, we find them able to cope with an existence as pitilessly swift, highly geared, and brightly coloured as one of their own racing motors, and admirably equipped, mentally and bodily, for any emergency. * » 9 But —and what a “but” this is going to be —how much will-power it

takes for smart veterans to hold their own with smart juveniles. How gaily some make this effort, how doggedly others! We haiie known men and women of various middle ages who were .generally better at games and sports than their young competitors —only they couldn’t stick things out so long. We have known some real elders who looked less than half their years when all went well with them, who could almost challenge comparison with their own children in appearance, yet there was, as there always is, something in what the French so politely call “un age mur” that looked out through their astoundingly preserved youthful masks, and indicated a life's knowledge of life, though the webbing of the faces betrayed no lines of feeling.

One of the great obstacles to the conservation of unstirred face muscles is the difficulty of keeping feelings and nerves equally unstirred. Hardening the heart may help, to a certain extent, as far as feelings for others are concerned. But even this process does not always have the beneficial, contrary effect upon arteries, nor fn the whisk of to-day’s whirligig is it at all likely to relax strained nerves. Hostesses of, let us say, the day before yesterday may have learned to look calmly upon their grandsons’ departure by air for either of the Poles, but can not keep their healths or their households if their granddaughters never follow any habits at home, or anywhere at the same time and place, and if they demand movable-hour dinners arranged for plus twenty-four or minus everybody at the last moment. Yet, no one can deny that this is) part of smart life and that the only way for those who can’t stand the wear and tear of it to retain command of their sanity is to stop—if they can—-racing on with the young. Only youth can attain the inconsequent helter-skelter of modern movement, keep the strange hours it does, regardless of light and darkness, eat between swallows of smoke without consciousness of taste, drive like the devil to the devil and never get there. Its elderlings can’t do all it does with impunity. They may exercise vigorously, order (or disorder) their lives modishly, open their minds to new view-points and close 1 them to old prejudices, diet and dress in contemporary fashion, but there is—and there should be—a slight difference in methed. No man should try to appear like Iris son’s junior; no woman dress exactly like her daughter. The covering that fits a pencil-shape does not fit anything more bulbous. Seventeen and seventy, even when equally thin and tall, have not a like straightness of leg; that aged bow, from the knee to the ankle, ought to be concealed when occasion permits. To those who can still hold their own in sports, the suitable costume for such sports is always befitting; but,, in the midst of the ’£tode, the smart mature should differ just a trifle from the smart immature and, for their own welfare, make haste with moderation.

Clothes-buying difficulties are being experienced by the few English and European society women who do not run hat and dress shops. When at least half one’s friends are successful dressmakers or milliners complications are bound to arise, and friendships become strained.

Nowadays it is the height of indiscretion to ask: “Who made that?” or “Whose hat is that?” in .a roomful of friends —and rivals.

MONEY FROM RUG-MAKING I was talking the other day to a woman who makes quite a nice little amount of money each year by fashioning rugs for use in country cottages, town bathrooms, halls, bedrooms, etc. These are hand-made from things most people would throw away. ' She does all her work with a large wooden crochet-hook which a local carpenter made for her. Her ma- I terials are strips of cloth cut from old J clothes that are useful for nothing else, or else cotton fabrics, that can be washed and dyed, if necessary. The material must be clean before it is made into rugs. After the material Is sorted it is cut —lengthwise of the cloth, not crosswise—into inch-wide strips. The | strips, after being sewn together and l dyed, are wound into big balls, each | ball a different colour. Cloth and cotton must not be mixed, by the way, and while white is to be avoided, black is extremely useful. Browns in various shades, used with orange and lemon, make delightful rugs. Greens also work up well together, and so do old-rose, mulberry and crimson. Patent dyes, used strictly according to directions, are best for the purpose of colouring the strips, j and the arrangement of the colours j must, of course, be dictated by good taste. Alternate rows of dark brown, light, brown, orange and lemon, with a border of the darkest colour, make a pretty and serviceable vug. For a rug of ordinary size a chain of 24ins. suffices, “single” or “short” stitch being the best to employ afterwards; but any will do, provided the crochet is tightly done. Shaping the Rug A long rug is commenced at the end; never at the sides. For a round rug, a good thing to use for a start is a brass curtain ring. Crochet round this to begin with, widening the rug so that it does not pucker, as the work continues. Round rugs are most attractive; black makes the best border, and a touch of very bright colour here and there is very effective. My informant lives in a country beauty spot which many folks visit. She shows specimen rugs in her window, invites inspection—and never lacks orders! —C.R.

VOGUES AND VAGARIES (By Madame Jeanne Varrez.) Once again the prevalence of black and -white on the Riviera reveals the taste of the Parisienne. All black and all white, and an alliance of the twain, are the chic wear for sporting and semi-sporting occasions. The “collections” show white wool skirts and jumpers with black cardigans flecked with white. With such ensembles black hats are worn, and scarves in black and white stripes. * * # Patterned satin and foulard make some of the most charming cardigan coats that are intended for smart occasions as well as for “le sport.” Notable among a number of attractive examples is a small-patterned beige and red foulard cardigan over

an all-beige crepella jumper frock. The millinery note is expressed in the ultra-modish red; matching, of course, the red in the cardigan. Belt and pochette are in beige leather. * * * As a change from the cardiganinspired ensemble, frocks of white wool are worn with black and white tweed coats. White and red, with an alternative choice of two shades of green, seems to be the favoured Biarritz colour theme. But the all-white note is the most predominant, despite the colour competition. All white, in short, is always modish for the South. There are some wonderfully smart ensembles in white flannel, with chic sweaters in black and white stripes. Particularly interesting and “amusing” is the curiops prevalence of black for sports clothes. Yet something

not so curious, where Parisiennes anj concerned. Their love of the sable hue is traditional; and though sporty are a new tradition, the old still prevails. The daughters of Old Gaul long since discovered the myriad enchanting attributes of black in an atmosphere irradicated by King Sol. As they have likewise discovered that a wardrobe mainly composed of alt black and all white frocks is the one that most surely makes for elegance. This inherent “feeling” for black is similarly demonstrated in the eveninggown collections, though here it is very frequently allied t.o gold or silver. As, for example, a black chiffon model, with a handkerchief skirt brush in £ the ground in four points, made over a gold tissue foundation. Or a black taffeta design, with superbly fitted tight bodice, and a skirt showering forth, as it were, in petal-shape! panels, each one finished with a rout of shaded roses.