TONE HARMONIES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 344, 27 January 1937, Page 8

TONE HARMONIES.

Colour Contrasts For The Dinner Table. Dinner Table Schemes. Tone harmonies in which tableware appointments with a gentle colour contrast are chosen to go with the polished surface of the wood of the dinner table are among the new arrangements of meal tables that will appeal to the hostess this autumn (writes a London correspondent). These formal dinner table schemes strike a novel note in table decoration. The simplicity of treatment is dignified and effective. Cream-coloured dinner-ware with a restrained border patterns in fine blue and silver lines used on a cream birch table, so highly polished that it has the appearance of lacquer, is one of the new ideas on these lines, Where the creamy colouring of the oval table is carried out in the dinner set of cream tableware.

Embroidered linen in natural tint is used for table mats, hand-stitched in palest blue, the matt surface of the linen being a pleasant contrast to the polished table. Fine clear white glassware with a hint of pale blue in the base and stem give another note of contrast. Golden-brown walnut and weathered oak tables are treated in the same modern manner. Dinner-ware in a decorative “all-over” pattern in lustre brown and silver enhances the beauty of surface of the polished walnut with its beautiful graining. Here, too, a delicate colour contrast can be introduced to harmonise with the furnishing colour scheme, and used as the basic motive in the colour chosen for the glass and table decorations in these table harmony schemes. The idea of matching the ware to the talble top is seen in many phases. There are the soft-coloured pottery and plain ware sets in various tones of grey, buff, and light brown that are designed to tone with the different ‘light toned wood used for furniture to-day. Charming honey-coloured and pale blue and pale green plain tablewarefi in which the glazes give an opalescent hue, is attractive for impromptu meals in the sun parlour when used with painted and polished wood tables in the same colour. The service is simple, plates, fruit and salad bowls are provided. Plain linen mats embroidered in self colour, or with the chosen colour note emphasised in th© border stitchery are suitable. Checks and striped designs look well with these plain surfaced sets.

New Shoe Styles. British women have never been noted as the possessors of beautiful feet, generally speaking, and it has required their American cousins to bring home to them the fact that their feet are by no means ugly. Englishwomen who have been wearing shoes based on American designs have discovered that the long-cherish-ed idea that their feet were much too large is a myth, and British shoe manufacturers, who formerly did not trouble to uail the libel —are now speeding up production in models based on American lines.

Another amusing sidelight o£ the shoe business is the fact that Italian women are buying the American opentoed sandals for outdoor and indoor wear. Viennese wonmen are wearing shoes based on peasant designs, and heavy leathers for active sports wear. In Paris, an attempt was made recently to introduce square heels, extremely high heels, and extremely low ones. A girl who advertised for a billet as lady-help in an Auckland paper the other day mentioned that she didn’t smoke. Does that make her more efficient? But non-smokers are not always preferred by employers. A certain Wellington warehouseman invariably gives the preference when engaging a salesman or traveller to .a smoker. He says smokers usually get on better with customers than nonsmokers, and are more likely to book orders. Perhaps he’s right. There is certainly a sort of freemasonry amongst lovers of the weed. This may possibly facilitate business. “Commercials,’ by the way, are usually keen judges of what’s what, and that no doubt is why “toasted” is so highly appreciated by the fraternity). But it’s a universal favourite, for that matter, and whether you select Cut Plug No. 10 (Bullshead), Cavendish, Navy Cut No. 3 (Bulldog), Riverhead Gold or Desert Gold, you get a thoroughly enjoyable smoke—sweet, cool, mellow, fragrant and delicious, and, thanks to toasting, which eliminates the nicotine, you can indulge even to excess with impunity! But beware of imitations!