Good Housekeeping - 1934 - Hats Turn To Oddly Shaped Brims, And Jackets Go To Any Length

"SPRING has come and almost gone, Spring fashions are now familiar to us all: the smart navy-blue frocks with touches of white or gay color; and jacket of the same or a contrasting, checked material. The plain tailored suit with a tailored blouse is a different and favorite type. Hats are of infinite variety and shapes, the sailor meeting high favor, through tending to be flat as a pancake, as are the many irregularly shaped berets.

But it is to summer and hot-weather fashions we now turn. Here they are: gay, wearable, and attractive-silk suits, print dresses, large hats, trailing evening dresses of organza, and satin cape jackets, and feminine little capes of sheer fabrics.

The month of May is important with its weddings, graduations very near, Decoration Day, often attended by sports and all sorts of gayety. For street wear choose the silk suit or print dress, to be cool and smart-looking. Get yourself one or two ribbed cotton sports dresses , with a separate short swagger coat, also of cotton. It can be white over coral, yellow, or blue, and just right for sports and the country club. You will almost surely need and want one new soft afternoon dress of chiffon for those "don't dress" occasions. Get a trailing organza, net, or lace evening dress, with a transparent, high neck in the front, low cut in the back, and with a long scarf worn across the front of the neck with fluttering ends hanging at the back. Choose satin for the evening cape, which may be long or three-quarters length. Pay real attention to such important details as the new, warm beige shade of stockings; white or beige gloves to suit your costume; bags; sports shoes and sports jewelry with sports clothes; the more important pin, bag, and pumps for afternoon wear; the pale shades for evening clothes (there is less white and less black); and last but not least, and at all times of the day - morning, noon, and night -see that your hair has the new look, but adjust the stye to your face.

Some day I'm going to write a whole article entitled, "No Style Without Fit." Some women spend much money on clothes, and neglect to have them properly fitted, and then they wonder why they do not look stylish or smart. So remember, it's the cut of clothes, fitted to you, which gives smartness.

And now a word of caution regarding the type of clothes you choose. Unless you are very sure of yourself, do not go to extremes; but, on the other hand, buy the dress of the season - the dress with the new features. Be with the new style instead of lingering with the old, Here are points to look for in buying.

Our Paris Editor, who has been seeing everything new as it arrives, and has watched both the American buyers who have selected the models imported to America and the French women buying for themselves, has seen definite indications of what is being chosen and, therefore, accepted as the Style of the Spring and Summer of 1934. One interesting comment she sends me is that the American buyer and the french woman are choosing more nearly the same things nowadays than they have in the past.

The soft silk suit, either printed or plain, will be popular. Here we find much fine workmanship and feminine details, such as cascade revers instead of stiff ones, or pleating in frills or on edges, or puffed sleeves, or skirts with pleated sections, or capes and capelets instead of jackets.

This year there is a fight between back interest and front interest which is amusing to watch. Many designers have concentrated on back interest. Perhaps, on the whole, the "backs" have it. For the majority of evening skirts that are not the same on all sides have their movement concentrated in the back. The top of the body, however, tells another tale. Here we find many creators concentrating interest at the back of the neck-the hood, which is applied to coats, sults. and capes, But also, in quite a number of houses, there is some touch of interest just below the belt in front. There may be a bow or a basque or godets or a frill or even a panel of pleating up the front of the skirt.

Schiaparelli keeps all her width across the top of the body in the majority of her models, though some of her evening ones have eccentric movement in the backs of the skirts; even her plain suit skirts have little drapes, knots, folds, or circles of shirring at the bustle point in some cases. In a number of coats and suits she still uses the "Stormv Weather" line, in new interpretations. Prints of all varieties are in for a definite revival, for both day and evening clothes, as you see."

"Black paper panama is the Bourbon hat at top, trimmed with twisted black satin ribbon. Thin navy wool makes the coat; a multi-colored printed crepe, the dress of the ensemble, at left, from Schiaparelli. Checked black-and-white taffeta is the jacket; black satin, the skirt, of the Patou suit next. Jackets unlike in fabric and in color are new. "