Dancers Enjoy Searching For Fancy Dresses

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 692, 18 June 1929, Page 11

Dancers Enjoy Searching For Fancy Dresses

Delighted to Change Identity for jFew Hours DRESSING FOR BALL Proprietors of those interesting establishments where, for a handful of silver, one may borrow clothing to make one what one decidedly is not, are happily surveying empty wardrobes and shelves today. MANY Aucklanders are engaged in that fascinating amusement of dressing-up in preparation for to-

night’s Arts Ball and the hirers of costumes are reaping the benefit. Ever since our remote ancestors drew wiggly lines on their faces with woad, people have cherished u secret longing to dress in clothes as far removed from their usual sober costumes as possible. Why else do elderly men who are ordinarily, “something in the city,” put on little short trousers and startling sweaters to roam the Waitemata in summer? Or why do they wear riding breeches when they cannot ride and swimming costumes when, in all probability, they cannot swim? A visit to a costume hiring company’s rooms on the eve of a big ball is an inspiring experience. The

woman in charge will tell yo.u. with elation, that you can be a green rajah or a parti - coloured toreador, but there are no other costumes unbooked. Over in front of a mirror, a stout man, who ought to know better but obviously does not. is complacently surveying t h e effect of Lis being clad in a full pirate’s costume as

Auckland dressmakers imagine it. He looks like a retired buccaneer who has been living perhaps a little too comfortably on Ids spoils. True, genial eyes beaming through gold-rimmed spectacles are hardly what one would expect to find with a swashbuckling raider of the Main, but that does not worry him and he is happy as a sand-boy. The emaciated youth in the corner, who is talking so earnestly to the proprietress, is anxious to know exactly how many pillows he will require before he can convince people that he really is Falstaff, and not Shakespeare after a long illness. The proprietress will tell you lio.w much functions like tonight’s ball are welcomed. “Cabarets have ruined our business,” she complains. . “There _ are only two or three affairs like this in a season, while I can remember when there used to be at least one a week. Our trade now is mainly country business and the costumes frequently come back very much the worse for wear.” , . , . .So for a few brief hours tonight, sober industrious souls will revel in being, as far as appearances are concerned, characters that they have always admired. Tomorrow it will be over and the woman in the costume hiring-room will be sadly examining garments that have lost their tinsel and brightness after succumbing to the struggles of people too big for them and others who are only careless.