An evening gown in black clzzflorz by Lelrmg, inter-

/zreling [he new mouementfur back drapery.

mm Paris ce mois d’ao12!, 1929. ES CHERES CHATELAINES—

I am almost neglecting you, as I have missed three mails already, and this letter should be bobbing on the high seas en route for Canada. However, I've some excuse for my neglect, because for the past ten days I’ve been attending every winter dress opening that has been put on by the great Paris dressmakers. So I'm going to disclose one revelation after another.

For cloth coats, sport ensembles and walking suits, the favorite material seems to be a loose tweed. This appears in a number of various designs, one of the most favorite being an eight—sided diamond pattern, that is to say, a diamond within a diamond. Very effective it looks, too, as the inside diamond is usually in a contrasting shade to the outside one.

The general trend for this type of garment, such as a sport suit or walking dress. is to have much fullness in the skirt either by inverted box pleats. or the much-in-vogue godet of four seasons ago. Skirts are cut very tight across the hips, are all belted, and in many cases blouses or sweaters are all worn inside the skirt, a fashion that became suddenly dead during the early days of the war. They are at least four to five inches longer.

Walking dresses when they have an ensemble coat to match, will have the bodice of the one-piece dress made up in a much finer weave, but adhering to the same pattern as the coat and skirt.

.This is quite a triumph on the part of the weavers. as we all know how hot and uncomfortable one can get when wearing a heavy tweed ensemble which is all carried out in the same fabric. Both Jean Pat0U and Lelong have adopted this new idea, and when a coarse tweed is spun into a liner weave it gives the impression of a very fine-looking jersey.

Some of the leading modistes are using the finer tweed weaves to make up into small tight-fitting hats of the swathed variety. These look extremely attractive. and will be very snug and light to wear on really cold, nippy days.

Materials used for afternoon dresses are mostly heavy crepe satin, crépe de Chine and chiffon, and for the most part depend entirely on cut and not

LETTER from

PARIS

Our special corresponclent afiscloses t/re new tlremes in

autumn faslzions

AnolI1e1Lelong crealion, an afternoon can! in beige, with a novel skirt flare, collared and cuffed with lamb.

An aflernaon ensemble by Lelong in almond green,

will: coat of green (10111, slzowing the new high collar in fur.

trimming for distinction. Very few printed materials are being used. and colors are mostly navy blue or black, with here and there a brilliant scarlet. or a new shade of nigger brown. which is quite delightful to look at but extremely hard to wear, except for the most ravishing brunette.

In quite a number of the collections that I have seen, notably at Redfem’s and Lelong’s, many of these afternoon dresses in chiffon or satin had quaint little white fur collars and cuffs to them. Some were swathed fichu style, falling in ends down the back. Others were tight-fitting to the throat and then crossed over twice as our avocals wear their stiff, white linen collars when sitting in a court of law.

Before I go on to evening gowns, I want to say just one or two things about Redfem’s coats, as they struck me as being so ideally practical for your Canadian climate. when it's not quite cold enough to wear fur. He uses very heavy tweed lainage, in rich browns and earth color, but each individual coat has an amazing cape collar to it. Some fell very long behind, so much so, that they almost made a double back to the coat, while others followed the m0usque- taire type and had cuffs to match. Others were cut into four points, but one and all appeared from the shoulders only as a kind of decoration to the main part of the coat as a small but tight-fitting collar buttoned right up to the chin. This was about all the fur trimming used on this type of coat, and except for the evening wraps very little fur was shown by Redfem.

There really is a change in the general silhouette this season. Uneven hemlines, like irregular neck lines, are quite out. Clean cut V—necks seem to be popular in all the collections that I have seen. This can apply as aptly to sports costumes as to the most décolletée evening gown.

Let us get back to the collections so that I can describe one or two individual models to you. Out- standing in Redfem’s collection was an afternoon dress in a marron glace shade of chiffon. It was cut with a deep, square cape collar in the back, and square-cut tiers to the {ICant2'nued on page 55]}