Mrs. Brandon with a charming and quite illusory air of fragility wafted herself into the drawing-room in a chiffon cloud of every soft colour of sweet pea.... 'This dress fluffles our very nicely and if I sit on the little green settee, there won't be room for anyone unless I choose to make it.'
I don't know what part of this is the most fun. A silk chiffon evening dress of every color of sweet pea flowers? That fluffles is a verb? Or that Mrs. Brandon could use her dress as a tool during a party to facilitate or prevent intimate conversations?
This is from Cheerfulness Breaks In by Angela Thirkell published in 1940, set in the English countryside, so right on the eve of war. Mrs. Branson was a recurring character in a series of novels with many recurring characters and they grow up and grow old across the books. Although we tend to think of 1940 as a time when stricter, tailored looks for women were both fashionable and required--some of the women don trousers for their war work--evening dresses offered a range of styles. So something in chiffon, a sheer, delicate fabric would have been stylish for a grown woman like Mrs. Brandon who had the sophistication to carry if off.