The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-24 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

ALREADY, on bright days, the stormy and wintry
spells with which we have been visited notwith-
standing, have some of the shop windows begun to
blossom like the rose. The new greens (says a corres-
pondent of the London Daily News) are in themselves a
brightness, ranging as they do from a deep rich
emerald in the tint of the darkest leaves of the lovely
Killarney fern-moss up to the freshest of the tones of
young lilac leaves and the golden green of the newly
unfolded euonymus. Absinthe is to be largely seen,
and another name for a shade of green is supplied by
the liqueur Chartreuse. The latter is bright and pale,
with a tone of yellow in the high lights. The
crushed strawberry shades are coming in again, but
their name for this season is "dying rose." One of
the most successful of the new colours is likely to be
one which is almost impossible to describe, so rare is
its union of brilliancy of tint with absolute soft-
ness of tone. It is called copper colour, but has
a larger dash of pink than is often seen in copper, and
is, in fact, more suggestive of the small pink clouds
that float in the blue directly above the setting sun on
x summer evening than of anything so hard and
uncompromising as copper. There are nasturtium
blooms of precisely the shade, which might almost be
called a blushing orange. In velvet; plush, and the
soft silk known technically as " pertu-de-suede " the
colour is at its best. It is well suited to the wear of
brunettes with clear colouring and a touch of warm
pink underlying the olive tones of cheek and ear. For
blondes the pale greens are admirable, except when
sallowness invades the white and pink. Another
pretty colour with an ugly nams- is that called
"putty." It is really a very sweet tone of grey with
a touch of fawn in it, and agrees well with the new
warm browns, several of which are old acquaintances
under fresh names.

WE are to see new and venturoun combinations of
color this year. Brown and green we became well
accustomed to last year. Red snit mauve we also
saw with shrinking eyes, for the union is a very
terrible one, and as inharmonious as well could be.
Let us hope that no one will attempt to repeat the
expel iment of combining two such unfriendly colours.
Pale mauve and pink look lovely together if the
corre-^1 tone of each colour is chosen. This we shall
see later on, to be followed, probably, by the mala-
droit imitations of those ungifted with a true sense of
colour. Copper-colour and grey form another new
combination which needs skill to make it pleasing.
Grey is to be as much worn as ever, especially- in the
paler tones. Mauve and heliotrDpe will be largely
worn. Yellow is still popular, but red is fast dimi-
nishing !a favour.

As to form, the skirts are all straight in outline in
front and at the sides, and the hideous
cushion at the back is getting smaller and smaller.
The introduction of modified Empire styles is helping
it to d.isappeat completely. The drapery of the skirt
is still bunched immediately below the waist, but the
folds f:,.11 straight from thence to the ankles. Dresses
are still quite short for street wear, and clear the
ground by a good inch all round. The waistcoat and
plastron still prevail in every form of dress, from a
riding habit to a dinner gown or Court dress. Much
braiding and embroidery are used, and beadwork is
still to bo greatly worn. Frepchwomen make a great
feature of the frills inserted under the hem of walking
and visiting dresses, cal:ed balayeuscs and sometimes
frou-froitA, from the rustling sound they make. Those
made of checked black and white silk are most in
favour just now, except for black dresses, when frills
of pinked-out black silk are chiefly used. This is not
an extravagance, for the halayeuse serves to protect
the edge of the dress from the consequences of contact
with occasionally muddy boot-heels and the edges of
damp steps which the wearer may be descending.

CLOTH is the favourite fabric for dresses at this
transition period of spring weather. A fawn-coloured
cloth gown lately turned out by a Faris house may be
cited as an excellent example of a good spring gown
for ceremonious occasions, such as weddings, morn-
ing concerts, and the like. The folds of cloth are all
straight from waist to hem, save for the usual fulness
at the back. At the left side there is a panel of white
cloth, richly embroidered in fine gold of a light tone
of colour. Over this the adjacent fold of fawn-
coloured cloth falls in serrated, leaflike points, having
been pinked out in the fashion now so prevalent. Os
the bodice, similar gold-embroidered white cloth it
carried up from the left side, where it meets the
skirt panel, to the right shoulder. Across it, from
the left shoulder, is brought a folded drapery of tlvi
fawn cloth, pinked out at either edge and caught in
very narrow at the right side of the waist, under Ow
arms. From this point the folds spread out more
widely, forming a short panier, the ends of which,
meeting the fulness at the back of the skirt, fern
part of the large sash-like ends in which it VT-
minates. Striped silk is used in this way to brighten
up plain cloth dresses. This is an excellent plan, fcr
the silk can be renewed without difficulty, ad at
present prices costs less than cloth. Ottoman aillvt
are costly, but the inexpensive striped ones ir soft
silk or surah are by no means so. The balayri sr On
the dress just described is made of fawn strip,:,l
pinked out at the edges.

MANY of the Veen( h fashion journals insist on the
necessity of having a hat or bonnet to match each
walking costume; but there are means of cleverly
avoiding such a palpable extravagance as this.
English milliners understand how to make a hat or
bonnet of such materials as will permit of its being
worn with three or four different gowns. For
instance, a green dress seems to demand a green hat,
while a brown dress cries out for one of its own tint.
A brown hat with mingled green and brown
feathers and a garland of lovely little ivy
leaves in green and brown may well be worn tiqlt
both costumes, and look as though it had been de
vised as the special accompaniment of either. Some
of the prettiest new bonnets have the front filled it
with what used to be called a "cap " of soft lisse,
arranged in such miniature folds as to give the effect
of marabout feathers, than which nothing is more
becoming. Crinkled brims are again in vogue, and
look well with the fringes of hair which we are con-
stantly being told are "going out." They show na
signs of deserting the fair foreheads of English girls,
though some cf the latter turn up a portion of thea
fringe in the very middle, a style that suits a ft,/
faces very unmistakably.

COATS are short and smart, and invariably tight-
fitting at the back. They are often made with a
waistcoat, either wholly separate, or coming from the
side seams under the arms, in which case it is one
with the coat. The fronts do not fit closely, as a rule,
Mut sufficiently define the figure to be free of any
accusation of clumsiness. On the whole, the spring
fashions are smart and becoming, while the advocates
of rational dress can find little fault with them, if
only the skirts are kept well off the ground and the
waists not unduly tightened or squeezed in.

--
HERE are some American fashions: Shrimp pink
and tan-colour is a pretty combination for evening
toilettes. Pink tulle is a favourite shade for de-
butantes this season. Gold galloons are very effec-
tive on evening costumes. Corals should only be
worn by very young girls. The toque, composed
entirely of velvet, is very stylish, and for regular-
featured faces is most becoming. Aigrette 4 are worn
with high coiffures, and are dressy, simple, and effec-
tive. The most fashionable coiffures still demand
that filo hair should fall rather low on the forehead.
Large, screen-like shades for piano lamps are tnade of
rose petals of silk, sewed on a pink foundation
frame. Surplice waists,lapping over on one side, and
forming a V openinz at the neck, are in fav:Air for
house dresses of all kinds.

ROUND waists and shirred basques are the features
on new suits, made of embroidered muslins, for the
coining season. Canary-yellow point d'esprit, and
accessories of black velvet and jet, make very effec-
tive and becoming ball dresses for brunettes. Real
silver hooks and eyes are used on handsome evening
corsages, and serve the double purpose of ornt,ment
and use. Long gloves are so apt to slip off the arm
when dancing, that the pretty fashion of tying them
up with ribbons has been adopted. Floweis and
watered ribbons are the popular decorations for even-
ing costumes, while ostrich tips are more appropriate
to dinner toilets. Blue and green leather and morocco
e seen in seine imported, sandal-shaped shoes, with-
out heels, to be worn with testhetic tea-gowns. The
girdle should be of pliant silk or Lidian mull, and is
very graceful for slight figures.

No wedding trousseau is now considered complete
without a fan to correspond with each evening toilet.
Open-work stockings come in bright red and other
fashionable colours, to match evening costurnes,while
those of spun or raw silk are equally popular. Navel-
ties in lamp-shades are huge tulips, lilies, and callas
of satin, stiffened and Moulded in the petal and flower
forms, and exquisitely coloured. New ginghams,
sateens, percales, and,. printed cotton goods are being
made up for the next season in very pretty, simple
st)l,s, with full-plaited overskirts, th.,,,‘ drapery Corn-
moncing from the waist-line, and giTen easy sweep
by a slash in the overskirt on each side, thus display-
ing a panel in the underskirt. The latest importa-
tions of bengalines for spring are figured in set de-
signs, printed on grounds of the various new colours,
and the selvedges on one side are in block patterns, of
colours that repeat those of the fabric, these selvedges
being used to form the borders of skirts and dra-
peries.
NECKLACES are very fashionable, and these orna-
ments are no longer confined to the costly gems, but
are also stylish in gold, silver, and enamel. Some of
the newest bangles are formed of a single gold or
silver wire, ornamented with a pearl horseshoe, a
diamond fox-bead, or two little diamond birds. Ear-
rings and ear-knobs are made rather small, and often
they are merely a small stone set in a simple frame-
work of gold, while again they are a small cluster of
fine g, ms, and sometimes are only a little gold knot,
flower, fly,- or other diminutive object. The term
browli is applied not only to the round and oblong
pins, but to all pins the width of which is nearly or
quLe equal to the lenetli, such as a stag's head
diamond eyes, a cres, ,•nt and star, etc. Some of the
new styles are ina :le with small pendants attached,
and Are used for the three-fold rtrre_le cf neck-pin,
and hair
.cdnament,

with