Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1939)

Best-Filled Stockings (Continued from page 43) "Stocking heels are particularly deceptive. Low heels give the impression of height and width, while pointed ones detract from an ankle that is too chunky. A perpendicular-line stocking should be adopted by the short, stout woman. Fat legs also benefit by wide clocks which carry the eye to the slender tip and thus break the actual width. Long thin legs need stockings with circular weaves and horizontal treatments." Willys counsels against buying cheap hosiery, declaring there are bound to be imperfections in cut-rate stockings that result in false economy. A dollar a pair is the lowest you can pay with safety for stockings, he argues. Surprisingly enough, for a man who turns out stockings as high as $2500 a pair, Willys believes the average girl can keep her legs trim looking for twenty-five dollars a year and recommends the selection of nine pairs of three-thread stockings, nine pairs of four-thread and three pairs of twothread for the wardrobe that must be purchased on a modest budget. To prolong stocking wear, Willys advises: never wash them in hot water; use as little soap as possible; rinse with water to which vinegar has been added in a proportion of a teaspoon to a quart; never hang up stockings to dry, spread them flat on a towel; never dry them in the sun or too near a radiator; and, in donning a stocking, turn it inside out and roll it over the foot and up the leg without pulling. Short stockings are even more harmful than tight shoes, declares Willys, who says a stocking should be at least half an inch longer than the foot. In this connection, he scouts a myth of long standing in Hollywood, namely, that Greta Garbo has big feet. The Swedish star, says the man who supplies her stockings, takes only a nine and one-half size and, incidentally, wears only sheer black chiffon. Fashion Letter (Continued from page 76) else a girl thinks she can't have a good time without. The jacket hangs loose at the back with two side seam vents, and its fairly full sleeves are gathered in at the wrist by a two-inch cuff. The front fullness is held in place with a tie belt of the same fabric, which comes from the side seams. The whole business has definitely been thought out with the dual purpose of making a lovely girl lovelier and comfortable at the same time. ANY vacation which doesn't take water sports into account wouldn't be much of a treat for Deanna. She loves to be in the water, as well as on ■ it. For chug-chugging along on blue waters in a motorboat she has a three-piece shorts outfit (page 76, top, center) of blue denim, a fabric which entered the fashion picture by way of the railroad locomotive engineer. The blouse is the middy style with open neck and two breast pockets. Both collar and pockets are trimmed with narrow parallel strips of white leather. The shorts fasten at the center panel with two rows of white buttons and white leather stripes the side seams. A below-the-hip-length jacket with short sleeves and matching leather trim completes this charming boating costume. Just as capes have invaded the fashion scene for street wear once again, so have their graceful lines made a like appearance on beaches and at swimming pools at California resorts. Deanna's cape (page 76, upper right) is of white chenille, knee-length. The chenille stripes run horizontally and there is nothing haphazard about the cape's design. The shoulder line has been manipulated into a series of seamings to give it the squared effect so desirable this year and the snowy whiteness of the fabric is offset with a blue chenille banding. The same blue has been used in the large sailboat pattern which decorates the back. All the sails have been outlined in a contrasting shade of blue. White satin beach sandals with platform soles complete this attractive picture. On any holiday there are times when one just sits and watches the others in action. And it is important that a girl look just as charming in that phase of having fun. For spectator sports wear, when others are exerting themselves at tennis, golf or darts and Deanna is just an interested and lovely onlooker, Vera West selected a charming two-piece frock (page 76, far left) in the new and exciting color combination of clay beige and strawberry red. The simply styled dress with six-gore skirt, short sleeves and high neckline is worn beneath what one might term a ladylike version of the lumber jacket, Mousing full over asnugly buttoned waistband. The jacket boasts a squared neckline cut low enough to reveal the high neckline of the frock, a large, square patch pocket and composition buttons in the shade of the frock. A pillbox hat of suede in strawberry red — and this shape of hat for sportswear is finding increasing favor this season — is worn with this costume. Several petal-shaped ends forming a perky ornament and set smack on top add to the chic of the hat. The accompanying reticule, carelessly slung over one shoulder by its long strap, is of natural monk's cloth, is canteen-shaped and the famous "sleepy Mexican" scene is painted on its side in the soft colors of the natural landscape. IHESE costumes from Deanna's play wardrobe represent the chic individuality, gay color and dressed-up casualness so important this season. The same originality should be shown in the bathing suits you select for your j warm weather wardrobe and in the little occasional cotton frocks that are a "must" for summer playtime. As final wardrobe prescription, complete each costume with the many gadgets that the opposite sex adore, but would proclaim nonsensical — such as string hair snoods, seashell jewelry, lapel pins in animal, bird, floral or comedy motifs, yard square chiffon kerchiefs that introduce still another note of color, fantastic shoes, enormous cartwheel straws presumably fashioned to hide the sun from your brow but really to flatter your beauty, enormous goggle glasses to defeat the glare — all these and many more little giddy accessory tricks that will add a final fillip to a play and vacation wardrobe. National Silver Company. 61 W. 23rd St.. New York, N. Y. Enclosed is 20c for genuine King Lduard Xut and Bonbon Server (list price, T5() MME ADLRESS. JULY, 1939 79