Fashion Hints for Islands Women
pp. 60-61 · Read in the full issue
By Therese
Accessories are the high lights of fashion and it is impossible to over estimate their importance. Not extrava gances but necessities, their careful and discriminate choosing reduces one’s dress expenditure amazingly and makes the wardrobe versatile beyond belief.
A change of accessories, and hi, presto! you and your frock take on different characters as if by magic.
Hats, gloves, bags, scarves, etc., should be chosen with infinite thought and due regard to one’s entire wardrobe. And then follows careful attention to those gifts of the gods—shoes to be treed, gloves care fully tended, hats brushed, bags tissue stuffed to retain their shape, and so on.
All this attention shares equal importance with discriminate choice, since accessory pack-drill prolongs its life and gives to lovely women a well groomed soignee ap pearance.
Delightful bags of linen come to us in a variety of shapes and colours, and are the ideal accompaniment to a linen frock
or suit. Glass rings singly or in pairs are their only trimming note.
Pig-skin gloves, belts and bags are charming, and there is an imitation pec cary equally effective at only half the price. Knitted belts of wool or string, with patent leather bits and buckles have the quaintest of patent leather posies to add a matching note.
Straw pochettes and belts and gaily striped canvas ones with matching san dals are ideal beach accessories. Scarves are all the colours of the rainbow, blended with indescribable artistry, gay and romantic as a gipsy’s song.
Collars take many shapes—turreted like old battlement towers; peaked and round; sailor shapes, cool and breezy, with all the tang of the sea in their jaunty freshness; the Eton collar, stiffly starched, in bright colours on a light or dark frock, its loose bow falling in soft contradiction from beneath its primness; and so on.
A bib and tucker, pintucked down the centre front, which is about six inches wide with tiny box pleats on either side, pops over the head and ties at the waist, gallantly lifting a last year’s frock out of the gloom.
Down in the pages of history goes 1935as a “blouse and skirt” year. Such de lightful blouses and well tailored skirts — and of what economy! Blouses gay and vivid, sports shirts, formal blouses or frivolous little things that defy their practical tailored skirts with wicked glee; and for evening, too, in the brightest pos sible colours. Several of them to suit one’s every whim, all to one well cut skirt, and offering full scope for ingenuity.
There is a crisp quality about summer materials that makes them refreshing to look upon. Imitation linens, with all the virtues of linen, at half its cost, are much in favour with those facing the prob lem of getting much out of little. It comes in slub, floral, check, and spotted effects, and all are charming. Colour combina tions holding as they do, an exalted place in the scheme of things are used for every possible occasion. . . .
A rough linen suit, with plaid jacket in lovely soft shades of oatmeal, pink and brown, sports a pink blouse and the palest pink panama hat, dipped down over the nose in a provoking manner. Brown ac cessories complete a most attractive en semble.
A pin-striped silk frock, shirt-maker style, in brown and white, with an accom panying coat, adds an unusually dashing note with its royal blue patent belt and posy, A blue handkerchief floats gaily from the pocket and either blue or brown and white shoes may be worn.
A charming three-piece of floral crepe de chene has Mikado sleeves on its three quarter length jacket. It trims them with bands of white silk pique and quaint little motifs of the same material adorn the dress, , , , White linen suits have backless and sleeveless dresses. A long sailor collar which buttons to the low back is a de lightful innovation, and makes it possible to dispense with the coat for less formal occasions. . . ...
Trim little capes swing jauntily rrom shoulders, turning the sunbathing frock into more formal wear.
A navy and white spotted afternoon gown trims its “high to the throat” line, with two little envelope peaks front and back, and treats its pockets in the same amusing way. Navy shoes and bag, white
doe-skin gloves and a pancake chapeau with navy crown and white brim complete a picture of charm and chic.
Pastel shades are well in fashion’s colour scheme—heavenly blues, misty pinks like the first pale flush of dawn, dawn, and lovely amethysts. An evening gown of pink surprisingly tucks in its low decolletage clusters of cornflowers and flaunts a cape of blue feathers or tulle in the same shade.
The picture frock, one of the shining successes of the season, shares its popu larity with the classical and mermaid silhouettes. Wisps of tulle float vapor ously into the most celestial sort of wraps and give to clothes the poetry of motion.
While brilliant reds, golds, and greens flaunt themselves boldly for evening, white satin remains the most completely satisfying for classical draperies.
Lovely lames, soft and supple as silk lend themselves to svelte, sophisticated gowns with regal condescension.
A dull red shot taffeta embroidered with gold moons, treats its skirt with panniers, falling to the floor. Huge ruffles of net from the shoulders to the back decolletage add further irresistible glamour.
A peppermint candy striped frock ties its simple cross-over bodice in one enor mous bow on the hip. So attractive is it with its slim hips revealed despite its voluminous skirts, that one is consumed with envy of the wearer.
Slim and lovely is the princess gown of satin. Guiltless of back, two halter straps slip through slits at the shoulders and tie in a bow at the waist.
A wide, almost sailor collar of pique with deep decolletage back and front is indeed striking on a black evening gown which sweeps slimly down to a low cir cular flare.
A chiffon gown, crystal bead embroid ered, with lovely floating skirt is an ab solute triumph of simplicity and sophis tication. A slightly stiffened lace frock —cotton lace—swathes its waist with a twisted sash of two colours, and offers much scope for colour combinations. This delightful material is one of the most ideal for tropical climes. It is cool and looks it, wears well and launders to per fection, and is of infinitesimal cost —truly a thing of many virtues. What more could one ask?
Dr. lan Hogbin, who joined the Ascanius in Sydney this month for Cape town, en route to London, is lecturer in anthropology at Sydney University, and has carried out important field work in New Guinea and in the Solomons. The reason for his visit to London is to carry out research work in the University of London in connection with a book he is writing on administration in the Western Pacific. Dr. Hogbin is the author of “Law and Order in Polynesia.”