1936 On the Continent

there.
    Also, lean purses are pleased with the dress and hatshops of Shaftesbury Avenue to the east, and
Russell’s
in Coventry Street and Leicester Square are extremely useful to the woman who knows what she wants but has not much money with which to procure it. The Shaftesbury Avenue shops, in the middle of theatre-land, naturally show a tendency towards what one may call histrionic clothing. Nevertheless, they do not cater only for people with what one may call the footlight complex in dress.
West End Shops
    When one comes back to Piccadilly Circus one enters on the famous West End.
Swan & Edgar’s
is the first stronghold of the industry, and is really the farthest east of the big drapery stores which have strong pretensions to belong to the fashionable dressmaking industry. In the space between straight Piccadilly and curving Regent Street the fanwise district of good dressing opens out to the woman shopper. The small woman is particularly considered by
Stiebel
in Bruton Street, and, incidentally, in those eighteenth-century rooms the business of clothing oneself is made beautiful by the flowers. These are done by
Flower Decorations
, and at his dress shows manage to fit with all his interesting, perky clothes.
    Those who want something so much the latest that it has hardly yet been born, and something so smart that it is almost eccentric, will be glad to find
Schiaparelli
.
Costumiers
    Molyneux
does not like exaggeration. He has refused to fall for the exaggerated hats of the autumn of 1936, though he made one or two to show that he had noticed that they were there. His new sports department on the ground floor is run by Madame Lombardi, who knows not only what is what, but who is who.
Nigel Ltd.
in Grafton Street uses colour particularly well. Without ever giving a studied look to a dress or a costume she manages to give it a glint of romance by the use of contained colour, showing as the wearer moves.
Marjorie Castle
in Berkeley Square has some remarkable specialities, such as the very latest and most wonderful American shoes;and her house-coats are lovely enough to make the average woman want to wear them morning, noon and night.
    An outpost to the west is
Bradley
, who makes very good, dignified and fashionable dresses, and has a special reputation for fur. Fur also is a speciality of
Reville
in Hanover Square,
Reville-Terry
in Grosvenor Street, and, of course, of
Revillon
in Regent Street, while the
National Fur Co.
in Brompton Road can be relied on in this very difficult matter.
Big Drapery Stores
    The big drapery and dressmaking stores tend to cluster together. In the Oxford Circus region there is
Marshall & Snelgrove’s
, which has managed to make discretion and smartness go together.
    Selfridge
is, of course, the big noise in the Oxford Street district. He represents the shortest cut the average woman has towards achieving what she wants in a very large number of departments. Shopping here is rather slow, but can be very satisfactory.
D. H. Evans
have a big postal and direct clientele for drapery of every sort.
    Behind Oxford Street it is well to note Wigmore Street. This is becoming more important, and more and more of the Oxford Street traffic is diverted along it. From the dress point of view it is important for two things. One is the presence of
Debenham & Freebody
, a firm in which good taste and good value go together. The other is
Pamela de Bayou’s
shop in Duke Street, two doors out of Wigmore Street. She is one of the most original, amusing, and decorative makers of dresses in the capital. She is not appalled by age or stoutness or plainness, though naturally she prefers beauty; she uses beautiful and unusual stuffs in beautiful and unusual ways, and yet never falls into the “art-y.”
Kensington Shops
    The Kensington colony is led by
Barker’s
, followed by
Derry & Toms, Pontings
and
Gooch’s
, of which the two last are the less expensive. It has been pointed out that these Kensington shops provide two spectacles. One consists in the wares exposed in their windows; the other consists in the wistful public which gazes through those windows,not with any idea of buying, but much as children look at the cakes in a confectioner’s shop. The busy buying within provides a third. The giant of the Knightsbridge district is
Harrods
. If there is anything that a well-to-do and well-bred person does not want, it may be said that it will not be found at
Harrods
; and certain it is that whatever