A well-known artist in dress relates a story of a Frenchwoman who was buying a new hat. Her saleswoman assured her that, the {ttle toque was wonderfully becoming and that she was looking her est. '"Pecoming!' she retorted with some vigour; "what do I want with a becoming Hat? I am Icoking for one that is chic."
The little incident illustrates, roughly, the difference between the French and! the English point of view on dress. It is not enough to be beautiful; it is necessary to be smart, Those Englishwomen who shop in Paris often find their fats somewhat unsuited to English faces and to the English ensemble when they return to London.
But London hats this autumn are likely to be extremely smart. og well as becoming, and they are rade on most practical lines. The plain, almost. untrimmed felt is the necessity of the moment to bridge the gap before new clothes} can be ordered for the winter and new hats chosen-to go with them. The wearing of a very plain hat is a great test of a woman's "elegance," to use a word that rings with an old-fashioned timbre but cannot be otherwise expressed. The hat must be perfectly designed in colour and line. must fit the head and reveal the face as carefully as a glove, smoothly fitting, betrays the beauty of the hand beneath it.
Most. of the autumn felts are of a small round shape that comes} down on to the head and no hair on the forehead, only a soft sweep over the ears and cheeks. The brim is often a double one, rolled back to the crown, and the trimming consists generally of a simple quill curling round the hat, dropping down to one shoulder, or, starting from the! centre of the back, curving forwards and upwards.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.