THE FASHION WORLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1938, Page 4

THE FASHION WORLD

THE LATEST IDEAS. A new English scent —bluebells— made originally for the American market, is becoming popular in London. It captures exactly the scent of wild hyacinths, not the famous bluebells of Scotland, which are really harebells, and have no scent.

From the Riviera comes news of an unusual material —woven raffia, which looks like satin from a distance. One 'Visitor wore a scarlet coat of this new raffia fabric with pocket flaps of white embroidered muslin. This was worn with a close-fitting black skirt and a black hat rather like that worn by a French lawyer. A hair-colouring crayon is proving popular among American women worried about the appearance of their first grey hairs. The pencil is simply moistened, like a nail-white pencil, and applied to the hair. The colouring is not a dye or a bleach, as it washes out easily. The pencils are made in black, dark brown, medium brown, light brown, ash blonde, golden blonde, and auburn. More and more American fashion experts come to London every year for new ideas, and one of the advance guard this year is proud of her ‘find’ —that some women are wearing the new twelve-sided threepenny-bits as earrings.

Gold-dust is being used extensively by American women in their makeup. They sprinkle it on their hair for parties, use gold-flecked nail varnish and gold eye-shadow, and the very newest metallic cosmetic in a luminous gold lipstick, which gives the mouth an unusual and fascinating glow. It was designed to be used over ordinary red lipstick, but women who want to look really striking or exotic now use it alone.

Stockings with “zip” fasteners up the back seam are being patented by an ingenious designer in Hollywood. A very fine slide of rubberised material is being perfected which gives the appearance of a rather thick seam, and the idea has two advantages—it makes stockings much easier to put on 'and saves ladders, and it also offers an opportunity of contrasting “zips” to tone with a costume or accessories.