CAVALCADE OF FASHION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1940, Page 6

CAVALCADE OF FASHION

OPERA HOUSE TONIGHT. Tonight at the Opera House at 8 o'clock will be held the Cavalcade ot Fashion in connection with Masterton’s Centennial Celebrations is to be presented. As the haunting strains of the music of “Long Long Ago” die away, the curtain will lift to reveal the graceful crinolines of 1840. Then will follow a display of the fashions of one hundred years. Unsuitable as the old time frocks may appear to be for modern working and sporting conditions their beauty and grace are undeniable. "I would like to wear frocks like these now,” one of the mannequins remarked. The committee has worked hard to collect in a brief period a comprehensive and interesting display of period frocks. While beauty, grace and historical interest predominate much humour also will be found in the contrasts offorded by the old time bathing costume and its modern counterpart, the evolution of the hunting kit, with top hat and veil and. long skirts, to the trim and effective dress of 1940; the sporting turn-outs of yesterday and today; and in the old-fashioned baby with its cumbersome robes and close-fitting frilled bonnet with its jaunty ostrich feather, and the present day Plunket baby with its warm yet hygienic outfit.

The audience will find it difficult to believe that in the ’nineties and as late as the first decade of the present century—till just before the last war in fact —maids and matrons walked and visited in some of the outfits displayed. The songs sung between curtains under the direction of Mrs Miller Hope are as follow: “Long Long Ago”, "Drink to me only With Thine Eyes”, “To A Miniature”, “Lackaday”, “John Peel”, “Bridal Chorus”, and "The Bells of St Mary’s.”

The audience are asked to join in the singing of “The Bells of St Marys” after which the curtain will rise upon one of the final scenes when the wearers of bridal gowns dating from 1940 back for many decades will be seen grouped upon the stage. -A magnificient effect is also seen in the final tableau in which appear the whole company of mannequins.

Patrons are asked to note that doors ttpeii at 7.30 p.m. (not 7 p.m.). Judging from the interest aroused in every section of the community it will be necessary to go early to secure a seat. The proceeds are in aid of the Patriotic Funds.