The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-08-13 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS:

A WORD about the dresses of some of the fashion
leaders, who have been down atCowes. The Princess
of Wales spent most of her time in the Danish
Minister's beautiful yacht Chazalie. When yacht-
ing her Royal Highness dresses must simply, dis-
pensing with voluminous drapery, an,cl, having her
_-_-15kirts—nlade-lig_ht and close enough to _get about with
convenience and comfort. When on the Chazalie,
she wore a white foulard dress dotted over with
b!ack spots, a white sailor hat with a narrow brim
and wide white band, and as a brooch the flags of
the yacht squadron and of the Aline in enamel, the
latter having her name written across it in diamonds.
The Princess's gloves were a businesslike-looking
pair of tan dogskin, whilst her shoes, in common
with those worn by the whole yachting population of
the bay, were tan leather, so that the well-known
black as your shoe—would be altogether
inapt in yachting parlance.

MADAME DE FALBE's dress of white nun's veiling,
made up with black foulard, closely studded with
white spots, was really a revelation in neat millinery.
The bodice was Made like a Zouave coat, tightly
fitting at the back, but locse in frout, over a vest of
the spotted foulard, the spots converging towards the
waist. A iery lovely corsair sash of oxydised and
gold embroidery was worn tied carele=sly at one side,
the ends falling with a graceful absence of restraint.
A sailor hat of white straw, with a broad band of
black foulard, studded with white, like the vest, was
worn, the accompanying white sunshade being carried
with an enamelled wood hanctle, carved like a dragon.
Mrs. North Dalrymple wore a neat appropriate gown
of navy serge, with a navy straw sailor hat and a
wide red band. The young Princesses of Wales ap-
peared on one of the days in navy serge -skirts with
blouse bodice of narrow alternate navy and white
stripes caught under leather belts, with the yacht
squadron flag in enamel for buckles. They wore
sailor hats with blue bands.
* e

Tun Princess Louise, who drove the Marquis of
Lorne through Cowes in a pretty little brown trap
drawn by a smart brown cob in brown harness, Was
dressed in navy serge with one of the indispensable
coats opening in front and showing a red and blue
striped vest. Her Royal Highness wore a navy
straw bat with red and blue bows. The castle gardens
make tte favourite lounge, and were very full
between one and two in the afternoons, and six and
eight in the evenings. On the Town Cup Day the
castle lawn was .more thronged than ever. Many
people who were present at the great social events of
the Jubilee year in the most orthodox of town
clothing were at Cowes in very different attire. All
the men were in flannel pea-jackets and cloth caps, or
else in seamanlike suits of navy serge, and the ladies
were nothing if not nautical.
* •

THE Duchess of Abercorn, in pale terra-cotta and
white-lined cotton, contented herself with wearing a
boat-shaped hat Of straw to match, with loops of
white and terra-cotta ribbon; woilst Lady Spencer in
her attire gave no hint ot her marine predilections,
being dressed in fawn-coloured cashmere, the draperies
bordered with gold and fawn striped satin. Iler hat
was a high one of brown straw, with cocks 'feathers
waving gracefully back from the front. Lady Guin-
ness was in flannel, her coat being exceedingly smart
and pretty. It was of the coarsest description of twill,
called, indeed, "scouring flannel." Four gilt buttons
were placed close together in a short oblique row at
one side of the neck. The front was out heart-shaped,
and filled in with massive rich gold braiding. The
'braiding was again repeated as tightly-fitting vest,
from which the loose fronts of the coat fell gracefully,
She wore a boat-shaped hat of white straw.

LADY DORCHESTER was habited in a remarkably
good cream flannel dress, the folds radiating in a very
original way from a point in the front of the skirt.
She had on also a short fawn-coloured cloth mantle
jacket, and a cream-coloured straw sailor hat with a
white band. Lady Kihnorey looked charming in a
white flannel skirt, a pink and white closely-striped
blouse with a turn down collar, under which a pink
silk tie was neatly knotted sailor fashion. Over this
a pretty little blue coat was worn, fastening with one
brass button at the chest, then cut away to show the
well-fitting neat blouse and becoming tie. With this
gown a white sailor hat was worn.

LADY RATWOLPH CHURCIIILL looked to the manner
born in a skirt of narrow-striped clouded blue and
white flannel, a blouse of clouded blue silk, with a turn-
down collar, under which a blue and white pique tie
was knotted, and held with a diamond and cats-eye
pin. She wore a white sailor hat with a white baud,
and a little white flannel coat tightly fitting at the
back and cut away in front; indeed, Lady Randolph
wore it open, so that none of toe nautical niceties of
her attire were concealed. Lady Mandeville was
seated under the venerable tree which shades the
lawn, arrayed in cream-coloured Hindoo cloth, with
the inevitable cutaway coat in the Fame material.
Her bat was a broad-brimined one of yellow Leghorn,
with a group of soft yellow feathers, like a newly-
fledged duckling, at one side.
• • •

THE Marquise D'Ataray wore black and white
spotted foulard, with bands of beautiful Tuscan jem-
broidery croseing the bodice and placed obliquely on
the tabliar ; with a hat of Tuscan straw, turned up at
one tide, and trimmed with scarves of the foulard
like the gown. , Madame Murietta had on a delightful
French grey cashmere, with a vest of whit° moire and
a white sailor hat. She was chaperoning three pretty
daughters. Two were dressed alike in fawn-coloured
alpaca, with vests of white silk bordered with brown
moire, and each wearing neat, smart white pique
folded cravats, and white sailor hats trimmed with
Lops of white riobon. The third sister wore a cream-
coloured tweed dress with a large check outlined in
dark blue. The coat was made to fall back, showing
a pl4-ated vest of white satin. A cream-coloured sailor
hat with a band of blue ribbon was worn.
* •

THE Ladies Stanhope wore cream dresses of very
thin serge, with sailor hats to match, trimmed in a
most oriemal way with cambric hanokerchief,
interwoven with loops of ribb3n. Lady De La Warr
was in navy serge, with a vest ana panel of finely
pleated blue silk. Lady Galway looked well in her
gown of soft wbite cambric and lace, with a neat
little Iteifern-built coat of dark heliotrope cloth and
one or two cut steel buttons. Her sailor hat, made
of willow twigs, was trimmed with soft scarves of
silk a tone or two paler in colour than the coat, and
she carried a sunshade of exactly the same shade of
silk. Lady Alexander Kennedy's dress was of navy
serge, the skirt arranged in broad pleats, which were
braided in spiral form. The bodice was braided in
the same way, opening on a vest -of pleated silk.

AT nights the townspeople of Cowes and the in-
habitant.. of the floating village off shore spent their
time chiefly in walking, rowing about, or lounging in
the ca-tie lawn. Those following the last-naincd
occupation were enveloped in the latest things in
yachting wraps, some of them long coats of navy
serge, with falling folds of white serge in front,
strapped across with bands of blue fastened with
clasps in the shape of rope-coils in oxidised silver,
with gilded anchors laid over them. Others wore
Connemara cloaks of navy serge, lined with silk of the
colour best suited to the wearer's complexion. The
hoods were occasionally put up over pretty beads making
quaint frames for charming faces. The gowns showed
a distinct tendency toward; growing length of skirt,
some being an inch or so on the ground. As these
were frequently embellished near the hem with large
embroidered emblems of Hope, it gave the wearer an
appearance of performing that nautical process known
as "dragging her anchors," which in a yacht is ex-
ceedingly inconvenient behaviour.

*

• TnE greatest novelty in head gear was done in blue
straw or black to simulate an admiral's cocked hat.
Even the oblique piece of gold braid and buttons are
not wanting. It was trimmed with one long ostrich
plume, and a group of cocks' feathers. 0 er a fair,
laughing face, whose owner, in sailor-like • rim,
managed the tiller of a small white yacht, one would
have been hard to please to find faqlt with so fair a
representative of an "old salt:'

ANOTHER noticeable dress worn by the Princess of
Wales on one occasion during her stay at Cowes was
a skirt of navy serge, with a blue and white striped
serge blouse, having a deep sailor collar of navy
velvet. Her hat was sailor shape, of white straw,
with a deep blue and white striped band. She wore
also a little white flannel coat lined with dark red
silk and with white buttons, on which the cipher
"A " appeared in red enamel. Madame de Falbe,
who was ashore the same afternoon, was attired in
foulard of an ivory tint, on which were groups of
faint blue lines, like a stave of music. Between the
several groups was one of small blue dots, as though
the notes had left the lines and gone for a holiday all
by themselves. With this she wore a white straw
sailor hat, trimmed with loops of white ribbon. The
Water babies who came ashore in cotton frocks and
sun bonnets, and the sea urchins got up like miniature
man-of-wars-men, seemed as deeply smitten with sea
fever as their elders, and to enjoy the same quite as
thoroughly.
•