The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-07-18 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

A FASHION writer on dress, dating from Paris, says:
No fashionable lady who knows what she is about
cares to quarrel with her dressmaker—that is to say,
a dressmaker who has learnt all the peculiarities of
her figure, and what best suits her style and coin.
plexion. On the contrary, a vast amount of diplo-
maq sometimes seasons the necessary intercourse
between the dressmaker and client, and the wish to
propitiate is by no means all on one side. A woman
may buy extra attention to her needs and require-
ments by a few pretty speeches; this she knows right
well, and she is nt slow to make use of the know-
ledge. But her kindly feelings and good temper are
put just now to a severe test. The revelations of the
ex-Prefect of Police have their counterpart in the
publication in the Paris journals of the circular
printed by the Chambre Syndieale de Ccnfections et
de Coaure pour Dames, for circulation among mem-
bers only. Of course the Chamber never meant to
let the public into the secret of its private inquiry
office. It was never meant to get abroad that shaky
customers were classed under three heads, correspond-
ing to three first letters of the alphabet—the abso-
lutely dishonest, who obtain goods on false pretences;
the semi-honest, who mean tolpay, but don't; and
those who can pay and won't.

WOMEN who are in the habit of running up bills at
their couturier's are aghast to hear that they have
each their little dossier, that the trade has got up a
mutual protection league, and that the fact of an
account overdue will not remain a secret between
debtor and creditor, but will be handed round to the
entire "stitching" community as a warning. A good
deal of the odium falls on the unfortunate President
of the Chamber, whose name is at the foot of the
obnoxious circular. It is in vain to protest there is
nothing new in all this; ignorance was bliss while it
lasted, knowledge is very bitter. As usual in such
cases, women forget, so long as they settle their bills
regularly, they have nothing to fear. Their faith is
destroyed, their confidence chequered with the dread
of ultimate consequences. In future, customers will
suspect the smiles that are leading them on to de-
struction, and may not, perhaps, be so easily per-
suaded as formerly, or so prone to pile debt upon
debt by way of concealing past arrears. Their eyes
have been opened. lam inclined to believe that he
who betrayed the doings of the syndical chamber to
the enemy did not deserve so badly of his century,
whereas, so far as he and his compeers are concerned,
bettor far had it been for them to lose a few thousand
francs now and again than bring such a wasps' nest
as this about their ears. Moreover, they are playing
into the hands of the alien and doing away with one
of the reasons that sometimes deterred women, ac-
customed to get unlimited credit, from dealing at
other English tailors in Paris who do business on the
ready-money system.

Tins season has not only been prolific in novelties,
but the taste that has presided over their composition
is of a somewhat higher order than we have been
treated to of late. The prevalence of white and
cream-colour, black, and grey, reposes the eye from
the harsh contrasts and questionable harmonies of
last year, while, at the same time, they serve as a
good back-ground for a few exceptionally brilliant
toilettes here and there. It must not be imagined
that because fashion is slightly less eccentric than it
was that it is by any means dowdy; on the contrary,
it is peculiarly bright, becoming, and chic. Whereas,
in the past, too much brilliance had an opposite
effect. Masses of vivid colours neutralise each other,
and though, in the usual way the good or bad points
of a toilette are criticised without reference
to others, there is a broader side of the question
which deserves attention, especially on occasions
when a great gathering of well-dressed women is ex-
meted.

TAKING the exceptions first, the most stnking of
them are the crimson dresses. A good many of these
are made of foulard, with spots of white so small
that they go for little in the general effect. More-
over, the full chemisette or sailor collar with drapery
folded over the bosom is mostly of plain silk. For
country wear they are produced in Mulhouse cloth
(no bad substitute for silk) or in mousseline-de-laine
—better suited to seaside glare and seaside breezes.
These materials take the crimson dye well, but not so
well as a certain sort of unglazed Indian silk, not
much thicker than gauze, which might be woven of
poppy petals. With this vivid scarlet thin textured
silk most elegant gowns are composed. I have seen
them made entirely of it—pleated skirt and tunic
(both hemmed at the edges) and blouse jacket con-
fined at the waist and throat with bands of black
velvet, enhancing rather than taking away the poppy-
like effect, since the blossom contains sombre, almost
black, stamens, within its cup.

A SMAHTER arrangement consists of a plain skirt of
he red tissue, covered with a second one of black
net, embroidered with leaves or scrolls in crimson
silk, above which is draped a tunic hemmed up on its
inner side with black velvet. I particularly recom-
mend this way of trimming the nether edge of tunics,
half tunics, and aprons, the folds being so arranged
as to fall back and exhibit here and there a broken
bar of black. The full chemisette or embroidered
tulle, lined with silk, is completed by a corselet of
black velvet and a Figaro jacket hardly reaching to
the waist.

Cantsox is also combined with dark blue. Suppose
the skirt, mounted in pleats to the waist, to be in
dark blue cashmire or mousseline de laine, brocaded
with largo double poppies in red wool. The basqued-
bodice and full apron—turned up underneath and
secured .on the left hip—may be of the same; the
chemisette being formed of a wide, long scarf of red
Surah, doubled in two and gathered by the centre to
the necklet of b'ne velvet, drawn in at the waist by a
velvet belt, and dfaped to the left (along with folds
of the apron) and finally tied in a bow. The ends of
this scarf are drawn into points and finished off with
large floss-silk tassels.
* *

'VERY pretty decorations are made with silk scarfs
of this sort. Now they take the place of the wide,
watered ribbon sash which has been so fashionable Of
late. But they require to be tied at the side. More-
ever, la mode no longer patronises sashes knotted
behind, of any sort. Red and:white woollen scarfs,
completed by a trellised fringe, are prepared for
country gowns of cotton and wool, and loosely
knotted at the side over a blouse bodice and pleated
skirt they look very well.
* *

BLUE is much less worn than red, but it has its
rotaries also. There are the white-spotted blue
Foulards and Indiennes to begin with. These are
for the most part of a deep shade. A fancy for dark
blue Foulards and cottons figured with patterns more
or less bright in tone, more or leas fantastic in
design, is manifest. The most eccectric I have come
across was covered with Japanese vases, cups, tea-
pots, &c. Fortunately the colours were dull, and the
incongruity of the pattern was only visible on rather
close inspection. Japanese screens are preferable.
The fact remains, figured materials are coming in
again, though the teapots are an extreme case, I will
allow. The star-spangled banner gown is a pleasant
variety of white spots on blue; the stars are of
several magnitudes, but none measures more than a
third of an -inch in diameter, and they are strewn
closely and irregularly on thin silk or gauze of a
deep sky-blue. They are generally made entirely of
this fabric and somewhat simply, as behoves so
brilliant a tissue. A pleated chemisette of white
crape is a pretty addition to the tight-fitting bodice
confined by a zone of deeper blue velvet.

BLACK hats are held in particular favour. ,'EThey are
used as a contrast to white and light-coloured dresses.
A writer discussing on fashions, says: "A woman
may limit her dress hats to two—a black and a white
one; so that she wears her black hat with her light
dresses and her white bat with her dark gowns." If
it is necessary to limit the number to one, let the hat
be black trimmed with white, than which nothing is
more fashionable. A fearful amount of destruction
is done this season among the white doves and sea-
gulls for the purposes of female decoration. Grey,
trimmed with black and white, finds many partisans,
and very becoming and pretty are these toilettes. For
example: a silver-grey gown, worn with a tailor-made
jacket of black cashmire. open in front over a white
cambric or white crape chemisette, completed by a
straw hat with a grey crown and a black brim,
trimmed with black ribbons and a couple or trio of
white wings.