Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-24
Seeing London
Cocktails Replace Music As
Dresses Are Shown in
Mannequin Parades.
BY JOAN LITTLEFIELD.
stan Correspondent of The Star and Mort
American Newspaper Alliance.


American Newspaper Alliance.
LONDON, March 23.-There is no
surer sign Spring is here than the Lon
don dress shows, which are now keep
ing every woman in society as busy as
the day is long.
Royalty Is frequently to be seen at
exclusive mannequin parades. Princess
Helena Victoria and Princess Marie
Louise are regular attendants at
Grosvenor street salon, and Princess
Mary has attended a show given by
the dressmaker to the Queen of Spain.
This season women are taking the
business of choosing new clothes so
seriously that the musical accompani-
nlent at manneuuin parade has gone
quite out of fashion. Instead. guests
are RECALLED with cocktails, served with
cheese straws, sailed nuts, potato chips
and olives.
A novel idea of dressmakers is to send
on four mannequins at once to give IN
ioea how four persons with different
temperaments would wear the same
suit. This is described in the program
as simple" original" medium" and
eccentric incidentally, the audience
receives a valuable lesson in clothes
psychology.
Twins are fashionable these days, so
the dressmakers have begun to cater to
them specially. The star turn at
recent parade was a twins ensemble
In green chiffon. One dress was light
green and the other dark. and the
twins waited or each other and then
ran up the stairs and disappeared be-
hind the curtains hand in hand.
It is not only women who visit eX-
elusive dress shows Often the most
interested spectators ire men. Lord
Beauchamp is frequ mt visitor to the
salon of Norman Hartnell. a Cambridge
undergraduate, who became a dress
maker. Lord Beauchamp buys gowns
for his pretty daughters. He knows the
colorings that suit them. chooses the
styles himself and invariably gives salts
faction to his family.
First Edition Exhibit.
The First Edition Club. which CO.
operates with the Grolier Club in New
York, is holding an exhibition of AS
ISOLATION" books. valuable because of
their associations or the inscriptions
in them
One of the most interesting exhibits
is a copy of H. G. Wells Love and Mr..
Lewisham" On the title page of this
book, dated 1900. there is sketch of
q little man In bowler hat. A kind
Of X-ray effect shows his large heart
transfixed by an arrow. Presumably
this is Mr.. Lewisham himself in the
pangs of his love for Ethel. Beneath, in
Mr.. Wells writing, is a quotation from
Bacon about this passion which 'can
find entrance not only into an open
heart. but also into heart well forth
fed If watch be not well kept"
A copy of Conrao's "Nostromo,'
serialiZed in weekly paper in 1904,
bears a note in the authors handwrit-
i1aep
per's readers, who wrote many letters
complaining OF so much space being
taken up by utterly unreliable stuff"
Brides in Crinolines.
The craze for things Victorian is
daughters are christened Caroline or
Jane, while luxuriant side whiskers are
much favored by young men.
Lady oxford has been seen wearing
long gray veil, embroidered and spot
ted, and Victorian beauty aids have
become the fashion. Yes, they did use
them, even in grandma's day, and Lady
Standing Is busy undermining the To-
tons, creams and face tonics that
helped to increase the charms of Lily
Langtry. Adelina Patti and other beau
ties of last century.
Under the circumstances it was not
ular events of recent weeks was the
Dickens ball, at which skinny frocks
and baggy trousers gave way to frills
and founceS and curls and cravats, and
simpering maidens and gallant youths
disported themselves
One of the daintiest girls present was
the Duchess of York's niece, Miss
Nancy Bowes-Lyon. who will be one of
this years most important debutantes.
Miss Bowes-Lyon is a charming girl,
with lovely skin and that quiet yet ami
mated manner characteristic of her
family. She has the same pretty level
brow as the Duchess of York and a
queenly way of holding her head.
On this occasion she wore lemon
colored taffeta, with forget-me- nots
peeping from her bonnet and scattered
about her dress. A cameo swung from
velvet ribbon at her neck and she
wore the prettiest little pair of white
nnittens.
Urchins Invent Game.
The London street urchin is insen-
ious, and he has just invented a game
which has spread like wildfire through
the streets which are his playground
This Is called the "Week-ending" game.
The rules are simple-given a more or
less deserted street and as many play
ers as can raise an odd roller skate or
a scooter.
The whole street is covered with a
network of lanes road and by-passes
all drawn in chalk. Here or there a
town or village is indicated Then the
fun begins. The players start from diff
ferent ends of the street and 60 as fast
as they can. Every few seconds there
are appalling smashes at crossroads.
II your cart that is yourself on rollers)
goes outside the chalk line it is ditched,
but in practice no one worries about
this. The game has infinite variety.
and no one seems to get hurt very much
In spite of continuous collisions No
doubt the children have observed the
state OF our crowded arterial roads.
Hires Taxi for Coat.
London still has its picturesque fig
lIres. though they are rarer than they
we're, and because of that they are bet
ter known.
saw one Of them the other day
walking down Regent street; a fine
figure of man known to thousands OF
L0ndon's audiences. He knew that this
was so and sauntered along with the
air of one out to impress city. They
tell this story of him.
He was wearing fur-lined coat and
when the sun came out he got warm
So ne called taxi, gave the driver his
coat, and said in his lordly way, Nov
follow me while / promenade"
The taximan, with coat for fare,
incurred the wrath of bus drivers and
others by the slowness with which he
followed a figure in the crowd up Re-
gent street, along oxford street anC
down Bond street to Piccadilly. Some
times his quarry paused and the driver
had to stop, too, and then crawl on
again. The great man didn't care. The
sun shone, and he knew that ne was
being recognized.
Old Plays Revived.
Despite the many interesting ne"
-~4S,,nad in london this veal