WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 364, 15 April 1910, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

FASHIONLAND. The effect of Lent is nil—l might go on (says a London correspondent). Time was when all good churchwomen robed themselves in violets, mauves, soft, subdued greys, or blacks during Lent, and appeared in all the fascination of new spring glories at Easter, but very few care so much for outward signs nowadays, and the progress of fashion is delayed not at all by the solemn "close season" now upon us. The weather is mild and muggy once more, crocuses are showing above the ground, and though the feminine world should know its London better, thoughts readity turn to spring modes directly winter chooses to be deceitful. SPRING FASHION HINTS.

'•Absinthe green will be trimmed with white and not black, as is the case with cafe ttu lait!" There is only one admirable feature about the present reign of silliness in christening colors that I can see, and that is from an editor's point of view—absinthe, cafe au lait, sage, parsley, apple, cherry, raspberry, apricot, peach, nectarine, coffee, lettuce, pea, ns colors will render it possible for him to make two positions into one, and expect the cooking editress to turn her pen to fashion notes, and vice versa. How idiotic it would look and read: "Mrs. X. looked just like a .well-dressed cauliflower as she wore a stylish white turban and bright green frock"; or "Mrs. Z. wore a charming leek-colored gown, appropriaely trimmed with the new spring onion buttons!" Yet, indeed, would it be any more nonsensical than what my sex is asked to read and mark? Five huge headings in one of the most up-to-date dailies capped tie statement that provoked my scorn. TO DRY-CLEAN LIGHT GLOVES. A useful hint for cleaning white and light-tinted kid and suede gloves is the following:—Rub well all over with cream of tartar; leave for an hour; then rub over with a preparation of powdered alum and Fuller's .earth in equal proportions. Go over with a clean cloth, and then, when all the powder is removed, rub fine oatmeal over and dust of! with soft linen. "CHANTICLER" MILLINERY.

It is less than a week since Rostand's long-talked of play was produced, .yet already, strange as the announcement may seem, fashion in millinery is decidedly a la Chantecler, Bright plumage of all kinds is appearing on hats—yellow toques with dark crests, pheasant plumage, etc. Alas, for the resolutions as to cruelty to birds! STRANGE HEAD-DRESS. A green and gold shot handkerchief—or head-kerchief!—was worn at a theatre last week, and so draped that nothing of the coiffure except a few front curls was visible. Another cap worn the same night was of gold net with dependent tassels. AX EXPERT'S PROPHECIES. Madame Lucille is the • professional name of a dressmaker whose reputation stands for all that is smartest and most artistic in the realm of dress, and of the coming spring fashions she says:— <: The latest coats are cut just to the hipsometimes a little beyond it—but the 'line' of thd coat must be at the hips. You know the blouses children wear, .with a belt below the waist—a hip belt, in fact? Well, the smartest coats all have this belt, and are, in fact, exactly like the little blouse coat one sees 011 children. To give this peculiar effeci the waists themselves must look large; in fact, there will be no real waist line at all. A new note in these coats is struck by the introduction of a basque, which is-really only a revival of a previous fashion, below the hip-line." TRIMMINGS. Fringes, which are still well to the fore among fashionable trimmings, got longer and longer, and now some of them reach from the d'ecolletage to the hem of the skirt. ' They are of stiver ui crystal beads, black beads, black bugles, or long strings of pearls, and well become tali, slender figures. Passementerie and jewelled onions are widely u.-ed, and greatlv enrich the appearance of a dress. Stones of every shade emerald, amethyst, topaz, pearl, and "smoked"—are now introduced into embroideries with a beautiful effect. ' PETTY ECONOMIES.

j The following is from a woman's ar- | i tide on "The Homo" in tlie Pall Mail j Caxotte:—The best corsets should not : be used for anything; but the best i dresses, and never for work entailing stooping. The woman who gardens ■should have a short, serviceable gardening skirt for the purpose, and make a ; habit of slipping it on for any real.work ! outdoors, as also a pair of overshoes ! placed handy near the garden door, to '•sove lier shoe?,. She should never nm ! out and garden-at odd. intervals during | the morning in clothes she expect? to ]j? I smart for luncheon or a morning call. ! . ' . . . Tf it is- not convenient io change her blouse, an overblouse should 1 be kept in a cover in her garden basket. 1 An odd indoor skirt should always lie I kept for wearing when doiiicr odd jobs. ' . . . . Tt is an economy to have this , of some "mixture" tweed, as an accidental spot or the ravage made by rouch wear will not be apparent so quickly as in plain material. . A HIDEOUS FASHION. A particularly unbecoming stylo that some French dressmakers are trying to introduce converts its wearer into a kind of human egg-cosy. It is full at the hips, and the fulness is actually eon- : fined at the foot of the short skirt into . a plain band of material. CHINESE INFLUENCES. "And now there's not'a doubt of it That China will be out of it" is 110 longer true as regards the fashion world, for, among the Spring millinery this year there is a charming new fabric employed in unblushing imitation of

Chinese methods of coloring. One hat already advertised has "coarse, loose straw, with a patterned surface in shading of orange and yellow and the cool blue that the Chinese love/' which "forms a .broad edging for a model developed in the blue broiderie Auglaise linen, upon the crown of which cluster nasfhivtium,s. in tawny orange and delicate yellow." PRINCESS WHO GOES SLUMMING Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Hol-stein, whose water-color sketches of Scottish scenery were recently sold in aid of King Edward VII. Hospital at Windsor, has over and over again demonstrated her practical sympathies with the poor. Her Royal Highness is no mere theorist, but devotes much time and money to slumming. In Berdmondsey, a district with which she is especially familiar, she is excedingly popular, although few of the good people whom she visits are aware that she is a member of our own Royal Family. But perhaps the quality in their visitor that appeals above all to the mean street dwellers of Bermondsey is the complete absence of "side." As a fact, no one, however humble, can fail to be at esse in the presence of Princess Victoria. Like all of King Edward's kin, she has learnt the great art of pleasing. Of her work in slum districts, Princess Victoria tells many a good story. Once, visiting a poor home, she found a palefaced young mother vainly endeavoring to soothe her crying baby to sleep. Princess Victoria suggested milk. "No," said: the mother, " 'e's 'ad enough. There's only one thing that will do it—and I can't do it, because I've got a sore throat." "Perhaps I could?" suggested the visitor. "I should be glad if you could," came the reply. "If you made a noise like a milk bottle, 'e'll be off in a jiffy l " ' " PRIMA DONNA AND COOK A salary of £2OOO a week sounds colossal- to the average person, but Madame Tetrazzini has been earning it quite long enough now to have become accustomed to the figure, for it is nearly two years since Mr. Hammerstem, :!ie well-known New York opera manager, signed her six years' contract for this amount. Most of us, if we had £2OOO a year, to say nothing of a week, would probably take very little personal part in matters domestic. But there is nothing Madame likes better, even now, than to don a cook's apron and cook the family dinner. She did this when in New York, renting an apartment instead of staying in one of the many palatial .hotels with which New York abounds.

Madame, however, has always been an independent sort of a person, with sufficient courage in her own wishes and opinions to enable her to follow them if she wants to, without troubling about what other people say or think. She won't, for instance, be bound down uy the hard-and-fast rules by .which most other great singers are forced to regulate their lives. Some of them must have rather a hard time of it, she thinks.

For most singers each day is most carefully planned out—so much time for practice, so much for exercise, so much for rest; while as for food —well, they eat what their doctors allow them and no more. That kind of life wouldn't suit Tetraazini at all. "I suppose you take all sorts of precautions to preserve your voice?" someone said to her the other day. "No, I do nothing," she said, "except keep happy." She believes that to give way to temper is fatal as far as the quality of one's voice is concerned. "Let yourself get really cross." she says, "and all the velvet wiil go out of your voice, and it may be days before it comes back again." ' So Tetrazzini won't allow herself to get cross. If things go wrong she makes the best of them; and as she always has a cheerful word and smile for even the most unimportant member of whatever company she may I>e playing with, it is no wonder that she is a prime favorite.

It is very seldom that she refuses to give her autograph to anyone who personally asks for it; "but." says Miss Marge! Gluek, writing of her in Pearson's Magazine, "it is characteristic or her that if this happens to be at the opera house, she insists that any other artists present shall sign theirs ton, and whenever she receives a bouquet she divides it with the other contributors to the programme, herself pinning the flowers into their gowns, after carefully .selecting them so that the colors 'go' well with whatever they mav be wearing." Unlike most concert singers, she is a regular open-air sort of person, and doesn't believe in wrapping up her ( throat at all. thinking that to do so is the way to make it more sensitive to changes of temperature than it otherwise would be. But she admits that a singer must: never be reckless, and thinks that the most unwise thing to do if one wants to get on is to overtire oneself. Nothing should be overdone bv a girl who wants to be a singer, in her opinion:! and though, of course, sufficient exercise must be tal<e» ; it sllOUm never be violent. Games such as tennis, or hockey are, she thinks, quite out of the question for singers, since violent exercise puts too nuich strain upon the lungs. Madame Tetrazzini thinks English audiences delightful. "They are so appreciative." Certainly there was no lack of appreciation when she was singing at Covent Garden last year. People almost fell over one another to get to the box office, and the seats could often have been sold over and over again. Madame Patti is one of the diva's warmest admirers, and 'ocforc any big event never fails to send a wire wishing her all success. Madame Tetrazzini's mother strongly objected to her goiiMT on the stage. Her eldest daughter Eva was already there, but when Louise suggested that she, too. would \like to be trained she was told that one singer in the family was quite enough. Finally, however, the mother agreed to little Louisa going to see how the directorate reported on her voice. The members of the directorate were so impressed, and thought so highly of the child's

abilities, that the mother had no choice but to give her unwilling consent, and luckily she lived long enough to see her daugther's success, and to realise that she had a great gift for the work she had chosen.

"But all Italians sing," Madame Tetrazzini will tell you. They sing in the streets, in their homes, and at their work. Iler first big success was made ill the United States, at Sail Francisco. Since then she has sung in almost every (Civilised country. Last time she went to New York she had a decidedly unpleasant experience, for the Customs officers refused to release her stage costumes, maintaining that they were dutiable, and for several days she had to get along as best she could with a coat

and skirt costume and a blouse. It was rather upsetting, for Madame had invitations for all sorts of gaieties, for some of which smart costumes were absolutely indispensable. But she "kept -smiling" all the same; and though she missed one or two things, the officers finally relented and all was sunshine again.