The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-28 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

A WRITER on "New Materials for Spring Dresses
for the Daily News, gives some very interesting par-
ticulars. He says: Those Englishwomen who are
sufficiently patriotic to select the production of British
manufactures for the material of their dresses will
experience no difficulty this season in finding what will
suit the capacities of their purses and the exigencies
of their wardrobes. It is an odd thing that while
Frenchwomen insist on having fabrics of English
make, our own countrywomen will, as a rule, solrcely
look at anything.that has not a French name. It is
easy to accommiidate them by christening the goods
with some Gallic title, probably misspelt—but on that
point we are not too critical—and adding on some
pence per yard to the price they would have to pay
could they only be satisfied with our good English
homespuns, serges, cloths, and cashmeres. Nor are
our English factories open to the reproach of not
being early in the field. Already the samples of
materials for spring and summer dresses are abroad,
and some observations upon the novelties among them
may not prove amiss at this moment, when prudent
and foreseeing individuals are anticipating warmer
days, and are about to emulate the "livelier iris" of
the "burnished dove "in their attire.

Vznv sombre has been the walking dress of the
better classes during the winter. A tint of gold upon
the brown, or of silver in the grey, have been almost
the only relief to the deep tones of blue, green, prune,
and black that were almost universally adopted.
But there is abundance of provision made for
-sweetness and light in the pretty fresh cottons and
soft-hued woollen mixtures prepared for spring. The
zephyrs, which are actually the descendants of the
homely, useful, and extremely neat Gingham family,
re-appear with all their characteristics of lightness
and durability unimpaired, and reinforced by several
new departures, one of the chief of which is the new
feathered stripe, which we owe to a well-known manu-
facturer of Somerset.

THE stripe in question consists of a series of very
small loops woven into the zephyr and thrown up on
the right side. The colour of these loops is some-
times similar to that of the ground, and sometimes
contrasts with it, but in eitber case the effect is very
soft. In the fashionable " Guards " colours, cardinal
and navy blue, it is excellent, and also in cafe-au-kcit
and amber. It is intended to be used in com-
bination with the plain or self-coloured zephyrs, which
the manufacturers now produce in so fine a texture
that it resembles lawn.

IN point of colour, British producers have made
large strides during the last few years. They appear
to have begun to realise that the effectiveness of a
brilliant tint is in inverse ratio with its quantity. A
few poppies scattered through a field of growing corn
strike the eye and the imagination much more power-
fully than large masses of the high-toned blossoms
would do; and a whole field of poppies is scarcely
better, in the matter of colour, than a newly-erected
red-brick house. Small dots, squares, or triangles of
bright tint are strewn sparsely upon a ground of
greyish blue, dead grey, dark blue, or stone colour.
and the result leaves little to be desired.

SOME of the zephyrs which bear small flowerets in
black and white upon a ground of pale grey and are
intended for half-mourning are attractive enough to
tempt purchasers who have no need to restrict them-
selves to neutral tones. Some of the new washing
materials are embroidered in ingrain cotton, blue or
red, upon an ecru ground. Cotton crepe is a new
material, and is to be had in white or a large range
of colours.

THE soft tints of greyish green known as "migno-
nette" are to be in great favour this year, and some
of the Somersetshire woollen crepes are dyed in
excellent shades of this colour. The fabria is as light
as cotton, and the purity of the wool used in manu-
facturing it brings out the colour of the dyes to good
effect.

GIZENAT holds its own in the favour of the public;
and as to navy blue, one wonders what would happen
if there were not this durable, inoffensive and at all
times seasonable shade of blue for those persons to
fall back upon who regard the choice of a new dress
as a heavy responsibility—a task almost beyond weak
human nature. Such as these find their safety in
blues and browns, feeling secure that if they can
only get something dark enough they cannot go far
wrong. These are the negative women who go through
the world without being seen, and whose chief happi-
ness, like that of nations, lies in their immunity from
having any history.

BRowx is another colour that still holds the popular
favour, thoagh it has °held it so long. One of
Fashion's favourite ways of proving her fickleness is
by unexpected periods of constancy to some particular
shade or colour which might be held to have little to
recommend it to an erratic fancy. Brown came into
favour immediately after the freaks of the socalled
esthetic world had let loose upon us those agonies in
red, maladies in greeniAnd miseries in mauve which
made some of us imagifie our ocular organs to be out
of order. Brown was a delightful relief to all these
distracting tints, and fashion settled upon it as a
butterfly might fold its wings upon some
_wild flower
after its release from an over-heated conservatory
filled with tropical, strange blooms. In every shade
the once homely brown is produced, and in some of
the new beige the lighter t')nes are seen to much al-
vantage. Embroidered in biscuit-coloured silk, re-
lieved by a darker brown than that of the beige itself,
these English materials may challenge fearlessly any
production of foreign looms.

Wrrn the spring, the fancy for using skirtings for
the under part of walking dresses will probably be
revived, and these, too, are produced in great variety
in England, both in narrow stripes and wide, in silk,
or pure wool mixed with silk. This last once-valued
material is at the pr3sent moment cheaper than it
ever was before, woollen fabrics having been gene-
rally adopted in place of silk. Even woollen lace is
again revived, and its manufacture is being encou-
raged and improved upon.
ON the whole, the prospects of the sheep farmer
appear to be brightening, while those of the diligent
little silkworm are just now enfolded in a cloud of
gloom. This, however, may lift at any moment, and
the present demand for Irish poplin points to
reaction in favour of silk. Worth is using
poplin in quantities this season, but English readers I
may not always recognise it under its French title '
"bengaline." Princess Beatrice is having several
of her trousseau dresses made of it, and Princess
Colonna, the millionaire Mr. Mackay's daughter had
some of her countless gowns composed of the popular
bengaline.
THE account of this young lady's trousseau reads
like a page from Dumas' "Monte Christo." There
were-twenty-eight velvet dresses of every shade in-
cluded in it, each dress being made with two bodices.
Embroideries in beads were lavished on these gowns,
meandering over the skirts, edging the draperies, and
disposed in rivieres over the neck and sleeves. No
one tried to count the , walking costumes, morning
dresses, travelling or visiting toilets. They were too
'numerous, arranged "in heaps," says an eye-witness,
" each more coquettish, more typical of the mode,
than the other." Her robes de chambre and tea-
gowns are made in eighteenth century style, recall-
ing the millinery triumphs of the powder period.
One of the teagowns is made of tea-rose pink;
with suggestions of mother-o'-pearl and opal as
the folds shimmer in the light, the whole softened
by waves of old Valenciennes in the ruddy
known tint that it acquires by age. The
mantles of this well-dowered bride are of almost
unexampled richness. One is composed entirely of
sea-otter, which is perhaps the most costly fur in
existence. This is lined with gold-coloured satin, a
tint which goes beautifully with the pale brown tones
of the otter. Another i of beaver, lined with the fur
of the Thibet goat. Indian shawls and fur sets are
thrown into the trousseau in such abundance as might
befit the items of pockethandkerchiefs and fichus in
ordinary cases. A mantle of dark-green Genoa velvet
is brocaded with large, pale roses, raised in the softest
tints in relief upon the velvet ground. The exquisitely-
delicate tints of these are shown to perfection upon
the dark moss-green of the velvet.