LATEST FASHIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 March 1940, Page 5

LATEST FASHIONS

WAR CREATIONS IN PARIS GALLANT GESTURE MADE. NEW LAPEL ORNAMENTS POPULAR. The Paris openings are on and Paris is carrying on as usual. AVith the exception of a few houses—among them Mainboeher, Chanel, and Marcel Rochas —all the couturiers have united in a gallant gesture to pfove that they can keep their important place in the dress world even if there is a war on. It hasn’t been easy. “You should say that it is heroic,” one of the Paquin vendeuses said. On every side you hear stories which make yon realise just how heroic this gesture is—oven though you couldn’t guess it from the glitter of these first opening days'.

The flowers which Molyneux •fucks into hells and pins on jacket lapels, for instance —quite Ihe loveliest ones I’ve ever seen — were made by people working day and night for three weeks, and were just finished on the eve of the collection. Mobilisation had so affected them that they were pot able to take any orders until three months after war was declared.

The cocktail party which Maggy Rouff gave to launch her new collection —contrary to her usual rule—was a gesture, too. So were the glamorous evening dresses which Paris will probably never see but which are going to America to help keep up France’s export trade. The New Silhouette.

But the greatest gesture of all is the miraculous way in which these houses have had the courage to evolve a completely new silhonet to.

Shorter skirts, a lower waistline, and bloused bodices combine to make a new line which is at once practical, flattering, and feminine. For the first war collections, Paris has rediscovered the curves and billows which used to be called the “female form divine.” Adjectives, like “frail” and “feminine” and “soft” are all being used to describe this new Venns de Milo angle.

The new trend goes hand-in-hand with an elimination of superfluous detail. Unlike the summer collections, there are far fewer gadgets this season. Far fewer bits of nonsense.

We see exquisite detail applied with great restraint. Molyneux’s skirt seaming is something to dream about. So is Schiaparelli’s pearl embroidery.

Soft Blurred Prints, We see everyone soft pedalling on the once-beloved black, and French silk manufacturers producing soft blurred prints in delicate pastel tones. We see a playing down of the war motif. A strong feeling for really good,

wearable clothes, which, instead of looking as if they would bo oid of dale in three months’ time, look as if I hey would be. just as good three years from now. They are a passionate denial of last season’s fancy dress get-ups. The blouse and skirt, line goes for morning, noon and night ; for little wool frock's in one of the now maize colours—pale and lovely—or in a soft heather or lilac; for the elaborately draped afternoon frocks which carry Parisians on from lunch to dinner, ami for the dinner froeks-eum-matehing jackets which have replaced hillowing evening gowns.

Evon Tailleurs have softly bloused backs gathered into a narrow belt in a now version of the Norfolk jacket. The now blouse lino lifts the yoke to a place of paramount importance. Quite a number of JToeks have the brief sleeves ent in one with (he yoke. Often it will bo plain, with the rest of the blouse lop pleated or lucked. Or a tucked or pleated yoke will contrast with a plain bloused lop. Bloused Dinner Frocks. Molyneux gives most of his dinner frock's Illis new blousing. Their round necks and general simplicity are reminiscent of