One hundred years ago this week, "Clio" of Melbourne's Punch wrote scathingly about some of those not showing wartime restraint.

"It is an awful thing to have a fur coat and have to wear it to the races, even if you perish of heat apoplexy.

"Three women at the Caulfield Guineas on Saturday were evidently so situated they simply had to show they had fur coats. The one in the squirrel got redder, and redder, and redder, but still she suffered bravely."

"Clio" observed that lots of "the best people" were too worried about their serving menfolk to go to the races at all, let alone to go there dolled up.

"Clio" was an aesthete and in this same column she wrote scathingly of a famous actress then appearing in Melbourne.

"Miss Muriel Starr's fondness for brilliant emerald green has made her guilty of a very inartistic colour combination [while appearing in the play] Nobody's Widow.

"The last scene is laid in her own bedroom, which shows the very sweetest effect in soft-toned blues. When the popular actress enters her room wearing a startling emerald green dress, the clash is very painful to the onlookers.

"In real life, I know one cannot always wear frocks that tone in with the surroundings, but on the stage, actresses can and should see that the dress worn does not shriek at the other colourings."