SOCIAL NEWS AND FASHIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 October 1913, Page 2

SOCIAL NEWS AND FASHIONS.

(By "Marguerite.")

[Social Itemi for thii Page would be gladly received by "Marguerite," oar* of "Age" Office, but to ensura their publication, must be aoaoanpanied by the name and addreu of tha wnder.]

IN FASHION'S REALM. ; V I'-TO-DATE NOTES ON WHAT TO WEAR, Dress and the pulpit I Prelates have found it necessary to denounce certain styles.. At least two Archbishops in Southern Seas have delivered sermons on the question. One spoiie some time ago, the other, the other day. Well, as said before, extreme styles are not worn by the relined. Simply because a mode comes from Paris it i<s not necessarily hallmarked. This was tellingly explained in a New York paper some months back. Owing to the discovery that Paris was sending over types which were only designed in the gay city for a certain class a society formed to veto all importations unless they could be guaranteed. But to another phase! Not everyone who turns out in a dress which calls for unfavourable criticism is really responsible. What of the insistent dressmaker? Mrs Smith or Miss Jones goea to her dressmaker and tells her emphatically that she. wants her skirt cut with some fulness and not too short; also with not too low a decolletage. Talk as she may when the dress comes home it fairly shrieks defiance. Have 1 I not had experience myself; have you not hadit ? One of the reasons for the ready-made is that you can see what you are 'getting. It cannot be one tiling in- the trying on room and another when it is taken out of the parcel. Of late years very much has been done to perfect the readymade. There are the standard styles and many between them, and even so a smart dressmaker can always alter. When one gets a gown to order one has a right to insist on one's own predilections. Of course the dressmaker can advise, and should, but she has no right to force an extreme mode on a sedate customer. I have said—have I not had experience? There is mine and that of my friends. Why, only a day or two ago one of the latter, middle-aged, too, and weighted with a superfluity, was reduced to tears on putting on a .newdress. It seemed all right at the final trying on, but presto, when it was donned the skirt was just to her instep, and the figure had been "barrelised." Again, a bride with her trousseau. What think you of this, and of that? In two cases out of three the skirt was at least two inches too short, and, in nearly all, too narrow. What's tho use of complaining! You are met with/"the assurance that it is the style. Needless to. say this doesn't apply to all dressmakers. It would be a libel if it did. But it certainly does apply to some.

Take the caught-up dress. Caught up in some way or other the caught up has caught on everywhere. There is no need whatever for indulging the mode at the cost of personal satisfaction. Pleats or. gathers, folds and drapings, all the etceteras of the moment may be favoured and the hem still be right, and the contour such as is not likely to cause comment. As for transparencies, if the material is as filmy as cathedral glass you must wear petticoats of opaque character, and you should not allow yourself io be talked 1 out of them. One of the very prettiest of drapings is a fawn ninon tunic over a skirt of self-coloured satin charmeuse, the former being drawn uPi ,a>? it were, at girdle front, resulting in curtain-like festoons at side. The effect is. modish, in fact in the height of the mode, and yet one of the most desirable. An otherwise plain frock is given style by varying the lower half of corsage, collar and cult's. Thus, taking a plain delphinium blue foulard for the basis these ■sections will be in china-patterned foulard, which intermingles blue, pink and mauve. The collar will be a pointed one, and from the lower corsage the patterned material form sides. A late fashion is to wear a black skirt with a tunic of crepe de chine, the latter drawn from waist with a wide belt, arranged •with end falling in front. Another .coming vogue is the full short tunic the base of which is threaded with a wire to make it stand ouf over the skirt. They are calling this, in London, the "houp-la," and one writer, I notice, considers it the forerunner of the crinoline. I do not think that fliere is the remotest chance of

reviving this hideous dress accessory. The festooned tunic gown for evening wear should gain in favour. It is of chiffon, the tunio bordered, and the edge of this supports a series of festoons. (Respecting this feature, which some may think savours of the eccentric, I observe that a few

> French hats have a festoon of small roses on to the neck. Like many other things it is impossible to be quite lucid without the illustration. Advices state that tho small> hat will be the vogue, as much as possible, for some fime. All the same we must become summery, and I so I shall soon be illustrating hate for the advanced season. The present model is a dainty round crown of golden brown satin straw trimmed with a roll-of blue moire ribbon, with big bow at the back. The feather boa just indicated may be given a sympathetic note in a bow of same in the position shown. Hats of the character look jaunty worn the least bit to side, and indeed that is the right way to wear them. If the illustration were in colours you would be better able to appreciate its charm.