The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-18 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

SOME of the most fashionable dressmakers have
ordered brocaded silks in exact reproductions of very
old patterns. There is a probability, therefore, of
their being made in the plainest of styles, so as to set
off the richness of the material. Certainly nothing
looks more dignified or becoming on a graceful figure
than the simplicity of good silk.

TIIE most picturesque garment in London is worn
by a young gentleman famed for his musical parties.
The cloak came direct from Madrid, is black as the
shades of night, long, and full enough to throw one end
dramatically over the shoulder. It has a shorter cape
and a velvet collar, and is lined with red. It suggests
Hamlet, the toreador, moonlight serenades, bull-
fighters, and the guitar.

GARTERS with diamond buckles are reported as the
newest thing in Paris fashions. Queen Isabella of
Spain—a lady whose romantic tendencies are of
European notoriety—has made them the vogue; and a
Boulevard jeweller lately displayed a couple of pairs
in his window, bearing her ex-Majesty's initials.

FRENCH fashion journals predict a lengthened reign
of grey, and in the early part of the London season
the Princess of Wales will be likely (remarks a writer
on February fashions in the London Daily News) to
adopt this colour largely in its paler tones, as suitable
to the celebration of her silver wedding day. Tier
example always influences those who follow the lead
of good taste rather than that of eccentricity and
conspicuous loudness. Consequently, we may safely
prophesy that this pleasant colour will come very
much to the front during the next few months. About
the beginning of April there will be the usual epidemic
of green seen yearly, keeping time with the date of
Nature's fresh livery of budding leaf.

YELLOW Will come to the front later on, and helio-
trope is likely again to be very largely worn. Should
the season be a fine one, with sunshine and hot days,
white will be as popular as it was last year, relieved,
in the case of young girls, with soft sashes of yellow
silk, or other colours. "I always make for a bundle
of yellow when I see it," says an amusing character
in a new play. "It means art. You may be quite
certain that a yellow woman who tones the yellow of
her dress to her hair is worth cultivating." From a
social point of view, this may be true. Yellow has
enlivening qualities that other colours possess only in
combination.

BLUE has been strangely neglected of late years,
but it promises to be fashionable again before long.
All-blue evening dresses used to be in the majority,
some years ago, but now they are seldom seen.
Novelists, even, do not dress their heroines to any
great extent in blue, as they once did. White is the
favourite garb for the female lay figures of the
romance-writer. Among deeper tones the tints of
the various furs are at present the best liked. The
deep brown of sealskin, with its golden lights, and
the brown-yellow of this fur in its natural state; the
soft greyish-brown of beaver and otter; the rich
tones of Russian sable, are all copied in the dyes of
cloth, velvet, and homespuns, and it would be diffi-
cult to find any tints more refined in effect or more
generally becoming.

ONE of the notable features of fashion this year will
be the gradual disappearance of bridesmaids from
weddings. Nothing can be prettier, in theory always
and occasionally in reality, than a group of white-
clad maidens attending their friend to the altar and
illuminating the scene with their decorative presence.
But, under existing arrangements, bridesmaids are a
very expensive luxury. The bridegroom has not only
to give each one of them a daintily-costly present,
but he is expected to furnish them with bouquets as
well. There has, of late, been a tendency towards
very tiny bridesmaids, whose tender age would
naturally reduce the expense of the presents in pro-
portion to their years.

FRENCHMEN still dress t l'Anglaise, and Englishmen
will be interested in the following minute particulars
given in a Paris joarnal as to the orthodox watch-
chain worn by well-dressed men in London—" A long
silver chain is worn, and suspended from it is quite
an arsenal of small objects, including a latchkey
washed over with a layer of nickel silver, a silver
telescope-pencil, a box of lights in the same metal, a
penknife shutting into a silver case, a cigar-cutter, a
round sovereign box, Sze., &c. All these articles re-
pose in the trousers pocket, where the revolver is
usually carried." This surprising little detail on
minor points of English habits is but a further proof
of how little M. Taine and Mr. Max O'Rell have suc-
ceeded in enlightening their countrymen upon the
manners and customs of a neighbouring country.

DIE orthodox evening dress of well-dressed
Parisians at the present moment is a frock-coat bound
with a scarcely perceptible silk braid, with white
pique waistcoat fastened by buttons covered in the
same material. This, it is explained, is for dinners or
balls, but the black waistcoat will do for friendly
reunions or the theatre. The serious question of the
white tie versus a black one is discussed with the
gravity suited to the theme. Studs are worn very
small and very simple by persons of taste; exhibitions
of precious stones being left entirely to newly-arrived
Americans and the type of Parisian now known as
rastaquouere.

No LONGER is a pin worn in the sailor's knot, which
prohibition proves that it has till lately been at home
in this unsuitable and unnecessary position. In fine
summer weather the evening coat is made out of some
fancy material. Those who dress in the fashion of the
day after to-morrow are renouncing the fur-trimmed
pelisse as pretentious and rather cumbersome. Its
place is filled by an overcoat reaching a little below
the
.knee and lined throughout with beaver, the same
luxurious fur being used to trim the collar and cuffs,
and revealing its presence as a lining by show-
ing itself at the button-holes. It will be seen that
the endeavour to dress A l'Anglaise is not always
successful.

Fun and thick plush are the proper outdoor wear
during the wintry weather we are now experiencing.
The mantles of this winter are sensible enough, being
just sufficiently long to afford warmth and protection
where they are needed, and yet not so long as to en-
cumber the limbs or interfere with the rapid locomo-
tion so necessary when the temperature is low. Fur
is worn very high in the neck, and opinion is divided,
and always will be, on the question as to whether a
throat wrap really deserves its nickname of throat
trap. It probably depends entirely on the constitu-
tion whether the neck needs extra protection. Many
men and some few women look appallingly unclad
about the throat, and almost strike a chill to the be-
holder in very cold weather. Perhaps silk is safer
than fur. Physiologists have many quections to settle
even in this nineteenth century, and among them not
the least important will be those involving the hygienic
treatment of the throat, that source of so many
maladies in our island atmosphere.