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dear annie

Saturday 09 September 1995 23:02 BST
Comments

I have a linen jacket which creases very easily and I find it really difficult to iron flat, especially around the shoulders. I end up with a crease along the shoulder pads and down the arms. Where can I buy a steamer so that I could use it while the jacket is on the hanger?

William Peters, Aberdeen

5 Good industrial steamers are expensive, and anyway linen benefits more from ironing as it needs the "pressure" of an iron to give it that nice crisp look. What you could do is this: roll up a towel so that it fits into the length of the sleeve, then iron around the sleeves (rolling the sleeve as you go along). This doesn't give you creases down the arms because the towel provides a soft base (I find this easier than a sleeve board, because they never seem long or thin enough so you still end up with the creases). Then wrap the towel around your hand and iron the shoulders against your hand, effectively ironing in "3D".

Is it okay to wear a G-string with a short skirt??

Sally Tyvek, Sidcup

5 There was once a girl of my acquaintance who wore thong panties constantly. She also had a penchant for mini skirts, and usually combined the two very well. She was careful, you know, bending over and climbing up stairs (maintaining a straight back, she informed me, was the key to a successfully discreet ascent). Then one horrible day, she brought a rucksack to work with her, when rucksacks were just becoming fashionable (this girl was at the cutting edge of fashion). She hitched it on to her back, not noticing, dear reader, that the rucksack had hitched up her short skirt. She happily walked to work thinking she must look very good indeed today as she could hear wolf whistles behind her and builders swung off scaffolding shouting urgent things at her. It was only when she got to work and stood in the mirrored-wall lift that she realised that her bottom was on regional display. She was never the same after that.

Other than avoiding rucksacks, I can't see why you shouldn't wear anything you want under a short skirt, including nothing at all if the fancy takes you (providing you are careful, so as not to be arrested for indecency). And be extra careful going up escalators. If you see a gaggle of men loitering at the bottom of the escalator with a zoom lens, you can bet it's not the painted ceiling they're snapping.

Where can I buy a really nice purple tie? I like "labels" but find Versace way too vulgar.

Mr N. Timmy, Clacton-on-Sea

5 Prada have done some wonderful ties this season. They are very simple and the colours are quite beautiful and would go very well with the Mod- inspired men's suits that will be around this winter. They come in grey, purple, pink and blue and cost pounds 55 which isn't that bad for a designer tie. Available from Browns in London's South Molton Street; but for the price of postage they will do mail order Telephone them on 0171 493 1716.

I've read lots about the Sixties being very in this winter. What will be the required head-wear? Scarves worn a la Grace Kelly?

Bibi Boursin, Bournemouth

5 Scarves worn like Grace Kelly (over the head then wound around the neck and knotted, very chic and absolutely essential for keeping one's hair-do from becoming a hair-don't while travelling in a convertible Aston Martin DB-6) are simply always fashionable.

But something very different indeed will be a la mode this winter. Chanel had woven scarves tied peasant style (under the hair) all over the place at their ready-to-wear show, and it looked rather good. Not at all ruddy- faced, country bumpkinish as you would imagine. They cost pounds 160 and come in a whole range of colours and textures to match your Chanel outfit, from Chanel boutiques (tel 0171 493 3836). Of course they are easy to make yourself with a remnant of fabric, but there will be no Chanel label inside.

As the transparent bag was all the rage this summer, what will replace it for autumn?

Antonia Wycott-Smythe, Hampstead

5 Transparent bags were one of those fashion things that were fabulous for five minutes but are now glaringly dated. Little bags continue to be "in" as they go rather well with all that dressing-up tailoring that will be around this autumn.

But what will be really in is snakeskin, or fake snakeskin, especially python. I'm not going to get into the whole PC issues of this, but like any animal skin product, the imitation ones are really good and you know some poor serpent hasn't died just so you have somewhere to stick your lippy. Ravel have excelled themselves by producing some of the best around: envelope clutch bag in faux snake, pounds 17.99; framed clutch bag in snake print, pounds 27.99; Kelly-inspired framed bag in faux snake, pounds 24.99, from Ravel 184/188 Oxford Street, London W1, inquiries and mail order on 0171 631 0224. Dollargrand also do some splendiferous bags in fakey snakey from pounds 25-pounds 80 and are they are available in Selfridges, Liberty, Dickens and Jones and Fenwicks of Bond Street (telephone 0171 431 2756 for other stockists).

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