Shop Talk

If you walk east on the south side of Fifty-third street, just past Fifth avenue, and keep your eyes to the right, you’ll see an imposing building with a gold canopy and gold letters that spell Lombardo, Ltd. It is this city’s newest and most challenging home for smart clothes. Mrs. Lombardo is a gentlewoman who is daring about styles. She loves clothes, she likes people, and she knows what people like. Two greige masterpieces that they harbor stole our peace of mind completely. Both are evening gowns. One looked like one of the pure Doric columns on the Temple of Aphaea, but unlike a marble column, it was not in classic white, but in imported blue, satin-back metallic cloth. The other was a tomato-colored lame, with a mandarin jacket, tunic length, and the straight little collar had two tabs that looped gracefully when hooked around your collar bone. You can take our word for it, their collection of evening, afternoon and sports clothes are the acme of perfection and the prices are right, too!

How do you look in the clear, cold daylight? That question gives you pause, as it should. Nine times out of ten, you have made up under the deceiving light of one of Mr. Edison’s Mazdas. If you could see yourself as others see you when you step forth on Park avenue, you would not hide your head in shame—you would just swoon. Pre-Vue is a new mirror that puts all of this into discard. It’s a two-faced affair showing you your face as it appears in daylight and the way it looks under the electrics. You’ll be surprised. When I saw myself made up under electric light for daylight consumption, I screamed for an ambulance to take me to the nearest hospital. It comes in a leather case to tuck away in your bag and you really can’t afford to be without one. Write me for the address of where it can be obtained.

You may not have known it, but very probably the most prized and highly styled dresses you’ve owned in your life were styles that fascinated your grandmother and her mother’s mother, and have just been adapted to modern lines. This doesn’t mean that you can race right up to the attic and resurrect their old clothes and find them allright. But it was a pleasant shock to view the clothes and hair styles at Altman’s on Tuesday and see how styles just live on and on. Included in the showing was a costume for the sportswoman of 1835, a Russian costume of 1860, an afternoon dress of 1910, and a 1900 dinner gown, all with matching wigs to show the hairdress of the period. With these costumes was shown the 1934-35 gown counterparts by Altman and the modern hair styles by Charles-of-the-Ritz. They were the same styles but with a stream-line finish.

According to a recent article in one of our better metropolitan dailies, “Men differ greatly from Women.” A woman from one season to the next wants something entirely different. But a man is frightened by too much change. He wants to think that from one year to the next he is getting the same thing, but not quite. All this was in relation to hats. Men’s hats! You can’t get ### revolutionary with men’s hats.

Men are evolutionists. Women, revolutionists. Long ago Young’s realized this and their styles change just the right amount from year to year. Their hats are designed to conform to faces, whether they be long, lean or rounded and their color combinations areskillfully worked out by master designers. They have long set the pace for quality and style as Men’s Hatters.