The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-26 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

THE State has the following, under the head of
" Featnres of Fashion": It does not need Mr. Cham-
berlain's great taste for orchids to create a general
interest in that flower. Invidious as it is to compare
flowers, the beauty and interest of the orchid is as
the higher and more refined knowledge and love of
classical music when contrasted with the lighter and
commoner kinds. A visit to excellent orchid-houses at
Hammersmith is, therefore, a feast of vision, and a
botanical lesson. But without giving a string of
Latin names understood only by the initiatett the fair
flowers may be described in plain Queen's English.
Amongst the first was a lovely blossom of flat-faced
form, the upper two petals sometimes white, with the
lower ones of palest mauve, or of two shades of deli-
cate mauve, or the pink shade of that colour known
as " Ophelia." Then came a spray of several snowy
flowers on one stem, with little touches of mauve and
yellow on their curling petals. These latter began
to have ragged serrated edges, though in their
apparent irregularity there was, on close ex-
amination, a most faithful correspondence of
form. Here and there would appear a quaint yellow
star-shaped orchid, with a strange brown mark on its
pointed face as if an accidental stain had come upon
it. There were also some of a gorgeous deep orange
that nearly approached a real scarlet, and others of a
brilliant magenta shade. From these it was a short
step to the curiosities known as "ladies' slippers," the
tiny straps of which sometimes grow to an immense
length, and to the brilliant scarlet flower that has a
yellow pistil, and that might be an orchid translation
of a small white arum lily. The last was the beauti-
ful variety that reminds one of the pale kinds of iris,
or, as the gardener expressed it, "This is like an aris-
tocratic iris ! " which it certainly was, with its trans-
parent wax-like petals and deep-tinted recesses, a very
throne for a fay of the flowers. It was impossible to
avoid the thought of how Mendelssohn, Weber, or
Chopin would have been inspired for endless fairy
music had orchids been the fashion in their day, and
could they have seen these superb blossoms. -
*

VERY, very slowly comes the summer, and some
doubting spirits begin to ask whether we are to have
any at all. Anyway, it does not do to be unprepared,
and there is always plenty of artificial heat at the
balls, dinners, and evening parties to make ices in any
shape acceptable. Some of the newest modes of
serving them are singularly pretty and effective,
especially the little cases for ices which are made of
cardboard, covered with flowers, each receiving some
special name. Then all kinds of ruses are adopted
for containing and disguising them. For instance, a,
champagne cork, or a not of strawberries, the earthen-
ware being made of pastry, so that the whole is
edible; again, for a souffle iced, one receives a large
slice of gruyere cheese. The shapes also into which
ice puddings are made are as pretty as their substance
is delicious ; but it would be superfluous to praise
the tasteful designs of clever Mademoiselle de Wit's
prolific brain, or the variety and art displayed in their
composition.

ALREADY yatching occupies the minds of many fair
residents of Cowes and other favourite centres of
marine amusement. For very hot weather
light flannels will, according to custom, be
worn, and dresses of the white material called flinnel-
serge, striped with bands of navy blue. There is a
great deal of science in the make of both the body and
skirt of this costume. The stripes are so beautifully
arranged and matched as to reach from the shoulders
and meet in a point at the waist both back and front.
The skirt, or underskirt, has the stripes running
horizontally, and over it hangs in front a draped
tablier, with the stripes falling di9.gonally, whilst in
the straight full back the blue lines are perpendicular.
A darker toilette is composed of navy blve serge, the
skirt having a side panel of white cloth embroidered
deeply on the hem with gold, and fastened in with
gold navy buttons down either side. The jacket
bodice has a gold embroidered white waistcoat, sailor
collar, and loose tie. Another deep blue costume is
made up over a blue-and-white flannel underskirt,
from which it turns back with white revers, in the
corner of which are worked blue anchors. The top of
the skirt has a narrow scarf-like drapery across the
front. The jacket is of serge, with a skirt of the
striped blue-and-white flannel, and is further
_turned
back with white revers worked with the blue anchors.
Anchor buttons complete this very elegant dress.

IN a special article on the "Dress of Wc men" the
Evening Standard had the following comments:
Dress is a subject which possesses absorbing interest
for most women and not a few men. The shape of a
bonnet or the cut of a mantle will do more to set
talking a roomful of ladies who are strangers to each
other than even the domestic servant grievance or
the last bit of gossip in the society journals. Art,
music, literature, politics—if such subjects are
broached, conversation is seldom general ; the
majority simply listen or affect a listless indifference,
whilst the bold or the brilliant bare it all their own
way. But a magic transforma:ion passes over the
scene when some one begins to speak of the latest
change in the fashions. The transformation is, in-
deed, so great that it is like passing at a stride from
the Arctic Ciicle to the Torrid Zone. The frigid
dulness which reigned supreme a moment before is
instantly exchanged for delighted animation, anl even
grey-haired dowagers forget they are no longer
young. The reason why the conversation has
ceased to flag is obvious. Common ground has
been touched, and sympathetic relationships
have, therefore, been established. The circle is
complete; for if all hands are not joined, all
hearts are; and social intercourse, like the
electric current, is at length unchecked. When Dr.
Johnson was once asked to otplain the reason why a
not very sapient friend of his own had remained
silent in company throughout the whole of an even-
ing, the frank old moralist replied that the conversa-
tion had risen above his level, and, in fact, had
"drowned him." The ladies, as a rule, feel as much
at home in discussing the freaks of the fashions as
their husbands do in debating the rise and fall of the
stocks. Finance acid fashion, as topics of conversation,
are as important to men and women respectively, as
the weather is to both; and if all three subjects were
tabooed, it is to be feared that a great many people
would find themselves in the predicament of Dr.
Johnson's friend. An average woman is as anxious
to look captivating as an average man is to drive a
bargain. Fashion stands, therefore, pretty much in
the same relation to one sex as finance does to the
other. The ;nterest in each-case may be said to arise
from the desire to do business. The man whose
enthusiasm is lavished on dress is as odious a spectacle
as the woman who, having caught the last of gold,
gambles on the Stock Exchange. The extravagant
folly of either sex is to be condemned, but it becomes
doubly worthy of rebuke when it breaks through its
ordinary course and runs in unnatural channels.

THE mischief is that so many women habitually
appear to imagine that clothing which plainly inti-
mates that expense is no object to the wearer, covers
all sins against propriety and good taste. Barbaric
splendour ceases to be imposing when we encounter
it in cockney society. People who load themselves
with ornaments, and strut about like peacocks, with
an evident wish to be seen and admired, generally
defeat their own purpose, and instead of awakening
admiration kindle only laughter and contempt.
There are, of course, cynics who assert that the self-
confidence of men and women turns very largely on
the success or failure of the tailor or dressmaker to
whom they entrust the settlement of the momen-
tous question involved in the cut of their
clothes. As a sober matter of fact, musicians
like Haydn, and soldiers like Skobeloff, fur-
nish conspicuous examples of men who oddly
enough felt that they must be arrayed,
metaphorically speaking, in purple and fine linen
before they could do full justice to their powers. The
subject of clothing as an indication of character
opens up a field of inquiry which will amply reward
the investigations of the curious; and the ethics of
dress, in particular, may be commended to those in
search of a fascinating holiday task. Those who "set
the fashions" are benefactors to all beneath them—
when they set them in the direction of a refined
simplicity. Fashions always begin with the upper
classes, and if they hold their own in the struggle for
existence in a quarter where caprice usually reigns,
they quickly assert their supremacy over all grades of
society, and as they filter downwards the tendency
seems to be for them to grow still more extravagant
and absurd. People in apeing their betters are apt to
outrun their means until, in Cowper's words—
"They sacrifice to dress, till household joys
And comforts cease."