WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 242, 12 April 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by " Eileen"). SPRING'S MAGIC IN SHOP WINDOWS TAFFETAS TO BE QUEEN OF MATERIALS. London, February 23. 'Lent, with, its solemn significance for church people, is upon us, and the weather is sombre enough to accompany the most rigid resolutions of self-denial —just as long as one could walk along West End with unseeing eyes! Otherwise, temptation lurks in every shop window passed, for, with a sudden assumption of power, the sales being now over, every dainty trifle calculated to torment the normal woman is set out in its most fascinating allure. It is just as if some fairy wand Iv/ul been waved over the realms of Oxford and Regent streets, and as if in each window the spirit of Spring, sulb'tly expressed as it can be in matters of dress, is coming to its own again. No season is fit to compare with .this in daintiness and charm, and none receives a more grateful welcome, even when rain, slush and general discomfort are the order of the day out of doors. Furs, though costly and rich in appearance of themselves, seem, at the advent of the saucy lightnesses of spring apparel, to assume a somewlhat proud and heavy demeanor that is their doom. A numlber j of changes are visible this week, and as '• Easter approaches more and more will I appear.

THE REIGN OF TAFFETA. 1 About "the" material of the season there is not the least doubt, though women of slender means will perhaps not be altogether glad of the information. Taf- I feta is to be queen of all—and not plain, but shot with one or all the colors of the rainbow. So exquisitely beautiful are some of the newest shades that the heart of the stoniest mocker of dress would fail her at sight of them. Moreover, it is to be a picturesque season. At least it is to start so; no fashion chronicler would be so bold as to prophesy, ever again, what freaks it may end in. But at present the richness of the material is to be displayed to its fullest advantage by being made up with a certain plainness, though with no assumption of severity. Ruched frills, held in top and bottom, j finish most of the skirts and many of the ■bodices. The gowns, being made all in

one, show 110 otter trimming than a jabot and sleeve ruffles of line cream

The first new color to be boomed i» called "Delphinium," though it bears no more resemblance to the depths of that wonderfuly brilliant flower than it does to a forget-me-not, being rather of a wedgwood tint. COATS A-vD S'imRTS. t On coats and skirts while revers are back in favor again, and very chic they look. Some have also three very long buttonholes strapped with white cloth, and others have rows of buttons on both coat and skirt, attached with white tafbs. Some taffefyi costumes are made with a shortish coat, either to match exactly or to harmonise in cloth. A couple of square revers, generally edged with fringe, finish a few models. LACE COLLARETTES. On nearly every coat and skirt and every gown, it is worth noting, lace collarettes of some description appear, in pure white, ivory or string color lace. On outdoor costumes this is generally coarse; on indoor gowns soft and delicate. Blouses and evening gowns show the same thing, so it is evidently to be a season of silk and lace. Here the home dressmaker may enjoy the glee she deserves, for she may, if she chooses, make her taffeffta gown herself, and, instead of coarse lace, -finish it with jabot, collar and sleeve ruffles of lawn and Valenciennes lace. A NOVEL BLOUSE.

A novel blouse seen this week wag of biscuit-colored ninon over white ninon, with a long round collar of coarse oream lace, lined with chiffon, apparently worn from back to front, so that it covered the corsage, hanging loosely down. Small steel 'buttons oil the pin tucks of the blouse completed the trimming.

PRETTY TRIFLES

for wearing over light blouses are narrow bands of black velvet ribbon, with, in front of the neck, tiny posies of several-colored silk flowers and French knots at each side of the flowers. MILLINERY. A piquant method of trimming some of the new toque models is to introduce Small and downy wings as if—absurd notion!—they were actually sprouting from the straw. Mainly those are set, Mercury fashion, on each side of the top of the crown; but freakish effects are produced with them in all sorts of odd places—some even apparently growing through the brims! Some new French hats in large-;brimmed. shapes have long, thin feathers standing straight up in front of the crown, the feather being turned round in what we have hitherto thought the wrong way, and showing the stem. Shaded plumes of greater length and richness (and price) than sver are appearing again. Swathed

suede toques, built up pleat upon pleat, and finished with a tassel of suede throngs over the left ear, are novelties of the hat world. "EVENING COATS.

Fringed lampshade frills and ruches ornament some of fhe new silk evening coa'ts, which are finished with the shawlpoint draping. BODICES. Odd bodices—that is to say, bodices made in a different color and probably diflerent material from the skirt—are still popular on evening gowns, and now are spreading to other than black and white effects. One very beautiful one this week had a skirt of very soft ivory satin with a loose draped bodice of electric blue silk embroidered in gold, with peacocks' feathers. Floral silk coatees, short-waistod, and reaching below the hips, will be pretty innovations of tlhe season. At present, of course, they could not possibly be worn out of doors. Gophered chiffon of a rather stiff description, but soft and delicate in appearance. is again, after many years, being used, in fan-shaped fashion, for spring hats. 'Magyar blouses, too, even after their long reign of. popularity, are returning again this season. Back ruffles for the neck follow, in net and lace, the fur neck ruffs found this season to be so becoming. The newest ideas are of cream net and lace, very thickly pleated, and they stand up, like a much modified Elizabethian ruff, at the back of the collar-band, graduating to a narrower width in front. Let she of the short neck or too full face beware of this style as of poison! It is preeminently for a swan neck. Mouse-skin, or peau de sonris, as it is technically called—a soft woollen fabric

with a velvety surface—will, it is predicted, be a- favorite material of the spring. Lace tunics appear oil some of the newest silk and cashmere afternoon gowns, ,so the style is evidently to emerge once more triumphant.