Jottings on ladies’ fashion

Latest American modes (from left): brown plush hat with satin brim and cravat of partly natural...
Latest American modes (from left): brown plush hat with satin brim and cravat of partly natural ostrich; autumn-brown velvet hat with brown and tan ostrich; silk gloves with ten rows of small tucks; Normandie hat of black Lyons velvet with a brim faced in embroidered Rodea cloth. — Otago Witness, 23.9.1924
Several models of tailored dresses lately have shown a desire for more fullness of line, cleverly contrived by wide godots, often of two different materials fitted into the dress very like the sections of an umbrella.

Not only strings of pearls are being worn back to front with the long loops dangling down the back, but pendants also. An English lady was seen recently wearing a large emerald and diamond pendant slung on a rope of pearls and swinging at her back.

A very novel notion hailing from Paris, that home of delicious lingerie, is to have a triple collar of organdie, each edge bound with a different-coloured ribbon. The collar is then finished with a bow and long ends of all three ribbons.

When the lid has been inadvertently left off a tin of blacking and the contents have got hard and useless try this: put the lumps of blacking into a vaseline pot that still holds a small amount of vaseline. Pour over a little water, screw down the top. After a few days stir well and an excellent boot polish will be found to result.

One of the most amusing scenes in the revue "Cartoons" at the Criterion (London) is the fashion parade showing the modes of the Stone Age, carried out with extraordinary ingenuity. Only pebbles, furs and feathers are used, and yet an exact travesty of modern fashions is obtained. Perhaps we have not progressed so very far after all.

When you powder your neck for evening dress you should leave out just the curve of the shoulder. It is considered beautiful to have a satiny shine just there; in fact, some women rub their shoulders lightly over with a piece of chamois leather. You will often see this highlight, if you look for it, in figure paintings and portraits.

It is quite an easy matter to wash ostrich feathers. First prepare a warm lather and then shake the feathers about in it. Any squeezing that is necessary must be very gentle. Rinse the feathers well in plain warm water and then dip them in rather thick cold-water starch. Now shake the feathers a short distance from a fire, or in the sun, and the starch will come away as a fine powder. The feathers may be curled either outwards or inwards with the blunt edge of a knife that has been warmed. To get the proper effect each strand of the feather should be curled separately.

Concern for children

Several remits dealing with the rights of women and the welfare of children were discussed at the annual conference of the National Council of Women yesterday, and a number of remits bearing on different subjects were adopted. Christchurch branch moved that any infant or child under the age of 16 should be debarred from entering the bar of an hotel even if it be in the care of its parent or guardian; that children under 15 years be debarred from selling sweets and papers etc in theatres and places of amusement and that a married mother should have equal rights with the father as a guardian of her child.

Any colour you like

Detroit, June 4: An official announcement from the Ford Company says Ford motor No 10,000,000 was completed at the Ford Motor Company this morning, and the ten-millionth model "T" Ford car will leave the assembly line this afternoon. The first model "T" car was completed on October 1, 1908. The last million cars were turned out complete in 132 working days. — ODT, 5.9.1924

Compiled by Peter Dowden