Shop Talk

We set our compass doggedly for Fifth avenue and then found ourselves wandering all over town in our shopping exploration for September. We even strayed from our habitual placid course long enough for a flying trip to Sixth avenue and Lewis & Conger. It’s always fun for an inquiring temperament, this shop! You’ll find yourself on hands and knees dragging new sorts of fire-lighters out from under tables. Everything is gloriously higgledy-piggledy and no one bothers you when you go in to snoop for presents and bright little labor saving devices for your kitchen. What we were especially on the trail of was the new bridge table. It’s a table that deals cards. It does, too. The salesman will take the top off and let you watch the wheels go round. You put the pack of cards in a little container, shove it under the table, and in something less than the time it took to deal cards in the good old-fashioned way, they’re shuffled and in front of you. A little staggering to the sort of brain that’s never grasped why an automobile goes or a sewing machine sews. What a present to give to the people who have everything (if there are any of those left).

A one woman crusade to change the ideas of prominent French stylists who design clothes for American women, had a successful ending a few days ago, when Mrs. Lane Bryant returned from Europe with the first Paris creations styled for the larger woman. Size thirty-six and over constitutes a larger woman, and never before has she received recognition at the hands of Parisian couturiers. Mrs. Bryant selected eight models from the best French designers which are particularly suited to women who are not slender. For the first time, French styles, with added ingenious lines that do much to create the visual effect of slenderness, have been brought to America. Among the eight models are two street dresses, three afternoon dresses, one dinner gown, and two evening gowns. Drecoll, Maggy Rouff, Mainbocher, Pacquin and Mag-Helly created the gowns in this collection.

Bruck-Weiss, which has long been a tradition in lots of families, has gone through a series of cataclysmic upheavals. Now that the smoke has cleared away the field is found to be strewn with brightly entrancing clothes and the grand hats for which this house is famous. The collection of evening dresses is full of ideas. They’re very excited about a new blue which should be seen. For just the right complexion it’s a find. Most of the things are on the sophisticated side, which is pretty gratifying to any age. The stock of frocks is constantly changing, so any time you drop in you’ll be likely to find something to stir you out of your mid-season lethargy. Prices that even your husband can’t growl at.

To the harried hostess who cannot look her willow china in the face for one more meal without committing hari-kari or worse, the following message is solemnly addressed. Get glass-minded. It’s been said this is the age of steel. A palpable error. As far as the decoration goes, it’s the glass era. And here comes Carol Stuppel at 443 Madison avenue, with crystal to make your table so shining that all your difficulties will be smoothed over. All of her crystal-ware is chaste, aristocratic, and beautiful. All at once. Most of her glassware is made to be monogrammed.