1936 On the Continent

weavers’ looms were set up in the top storeys of rows of houses built for them by Sir George Wheler early in the seventeenth century. Divided below, the floor space of two or three houses was thrown into one large communal room above, entered by trap-doors. As it was 300 years ago so it is to-day, though the houses have been rebuilt, and are still being rebuilt as occasion demands. The visitor to London should make a point of seeing this work. Exquisite mediaeval shades in rich terra-cottas, greens and blues are woven in fine silks to be sold for scarves and ties. Piccadilly and Bond Street are gay with these emblems of the time of James I.
Hats
    In the matter of hats the market is very wide. Most of the first-class dressmakers now make their own hats, and some have reversed the process.
Derek Skeffington
in Berkeley Square started with hats and now makes dresses as well.
Jeff
, in that same lovely spot of London, is thoroughly original. It was he who invented the Dolly Varden hat which set every woman pushing masses of curls up the back of her head. But he won’t let you wear a Dolly Varden hat if you haven’t a Dolly Varden face. He prefers to invent something especially for you.
    In mass-production hats you get good ideas, and a wide range of sizes, at
Parnell’s
opposite Victoria Station, and
Bourne & Hollingsworth
does remarkably well in this department. Indeed, it is a very good store all round.
    For quiet hats of impeccable taste, smartness, and relation with the latest ideas,
Christine Lynne
should be noted, in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. She has very good sports clothes too.
    Underclothing has reached a point in London which, as in other cases, enables the city of old Thames to rival the city of the Seine. With great good sense the main firms specialising in fine linen have adapted themselves to changing fashion. While still selling webs of lawn as fine as gossamer, they are also offering silk garments, real or artificial, inset with lace (also real or artificial) and made with due regard to the latest alteration in the fashions for dresses.
Robinson & Cleaver
and
Walpole’s
are notable examples of this kind of intelligent adaptation. Individual garments specially made are specialties of
Lydia Moss
, in Bond Street.
    On the mass-production side for underclothing and stockings,
Etams
fills the bill for a large proportion of women.
Stockings
    Speaking of stockings, one should not forget to find the stocking which suits the foot, and ask for it in the drapery store. Nowadays the branded article is well understood there. The adherents of
Aristoc, Bear
, and
Ballito
stockings are very numerous. Many visitors from overseas will have already met with
Aristoc
, through their enterprise in making little cartons in which a present of a pair of stockings can be easily put into an envelope and posted.
Footwear
    Englishwomen are paying more attention than ever before to their footwear. American shoes have been recently very popular, and are to be had in most of the good shops.
Fortnum & Mason’s
shoe department has a remarkable range of lasts; and
Pinet’s
in Bond Street satisfies those who want the very latest French fashions.
    Ready-made shoes are good at
Randall’s
, and the
Dolcis
chain-shops provide a cut which suits most people.
    The difficult question of a woman’s head is treated in most of the big drapery stores by special salons. For the rest, there are multitudes of hair-dressing shops, of whichperhaps
Antoine’s
in Dover Street has a claim to call himself the leader;
Truefitt
in Old Bond Street sustains a reputation now two generations old, and
Rex-Perm
, at the corner of Portman Street and Oxford Street, represents the claim of the modern generation to wear its hair as smartly done as it possibly can for the least possible money.
    Perfumes are not lacking in Bond Street. There live such flagons of beauty as are associated with the name of
Yardley’s
and
Atkinson’s;
and
Morny
carries the scent eastwards into Regent Street.
Beauty Salons
    As for beauty, that is the commodity which everybody in the world would like to purchase. There has been in the last few years a reaction against too much perfume, and a distinct wish to replace heavy creams by pleasant lotions.
Cyclax
, in South Molton Street, restores to woman the delightful sensation of washing in soap and water, and saves her from too many heavy applications of cream to her face.
Helena Rubinstein
owns some of the best-arranged salons in