The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-23 00:00:00

GOSSIP ON DRESS.

Vira are just beginning, says the Queen, to have an
idea of what the leading types in the season'sfashions
are likely to be, and as women, as a rule, desire to be
beforehand with the world, this is of special interest
and value just now, especially as the winter sales are
going on. Many excellent things are to be bought at
them for half price, which many people would be glad
to obtain if they were sure that the style of fabric
would not be out of date a few months hence. The
linendrapers, of course, know what they have ordered
in for the spring; but leading firms are obliged to
have large stocks, taking up room and needing atten-
tion, and it answers their purpose better to dispose.at
a reduced price of goods that may still be in fashion
than to keep them with the new importations.

THE colourings of the new materials to the unprac-
tised eye look much the same as last year; it is only
in case of matching that you become aware that there
is a difference—a mere shade in the tint. The mix-
ture of colours is a more marked and decided feature,
and stone, beige, biscuit, or whatever you are pleased
to call it, is a dominant tone; also a light green
between rezeda, peacock, and tilleul.

Tux pentes which erwhile have only appeared in
silk, velvet, and costly fat,rics, have now been
adapted to every kind of woollen canvas, and will
flood the market, but with many variations in the
original stuff. The newest kinds have pentes inter-
woven in plush to a depth of half a yard, the stuff 48
inches wide. These pentes are of vivid colouring on
a ground of neutral tint, the drab or biscuit tone
being in the ascendant; on this the pentes are mostly
a mixture of brown, blue, red, and green, or another
combination—blue, brown, and the new reseda pea-
cock. Some of the canvases are woven in an open-
work pattern; indeed, there appears to be no end to
the variety of the weaving in this popular fabric.
Besides the chenille pentes, others are formed of a
sort of twisted cord stripe (" rope," as it is called),
each row of a iifferent colour, or a mixture of white
and a colour on a contrasting ground; for example, a
navy blue canvas would have the pentes formed of
alternate rows of red and white twisted cord, while
others show a mixture of green, brown, and gold on
beige. Some of the prettiest certainly are the
biscuit-coloured canvases with graduated stripes of
nut-brown plush.

DIAGONAL canvas is a good innovation, and shows
up the clusters of half-inch stripes woven in squares,
alternately cut and uncut, giving the now favourite
frig appearance. Broad and graduated stripes of
velvet form some of the other new pentes, which
being literally translated mean the sides of a de-
clivity, and are, in fact, when applied to dress, a col-
lection of horizontal stripes intended to start from the
hem of the skirt either on the front or sides; many
new ones go all round the skirt. Some have the
pPntes and the ground all of one tone, being simply
distinguished by the difference of fabric.
• •

BEQIDES the canvases, tweeds have been manufac-
tured much thinner, with some varieties of weaving,
having rough white knots at regular intervals.
" Knickerbocker " used to be the term for them, now
it is "bouclé," only that this latter also means a curled
ring lying on the surface. Many of the new tweeds
show a happy combination of colour—mousse, salmon,
and brown, for example, mousse and string and other
combinations. The mixed colourings in all these stuffs
are different in conception to the • modes of recent
seasons, and will, it is hoped, banish the universal
adaptation of black by Englishwomen which our con-
tinental neighbours gave up some years since. Twenty-
four inches is the usual width of these materials. The
twisted cord appears in them also, and stripes in a
chintz mixture. In others these cords form small
checks all over the stuff.

MANY of the early spring gowns will be made of
striped diagonal Cheviots, which have a certain com-
fortable amount of warmth. The stripes in many of
them are a combination of red, brown, and dark and
light blue on a speckled ground. Some of the pentes
in all and any of these fabrics are woven in open work
in a style of weaving only confined hitherto to muslin,
and edged with chenille. It is difficult, by any word-
painting, to convey the novel appearance of some of
the new woollens, which are speckled all over
("marbled" would perhaps convey the effect better)
in mixed colours. There is very little distinctly new
in stuffs; only the old materials have been brought
out under different aspects. A capital fabric is the
tennis serge, thin in make and generally of neutral
tones. The, useful beige cloths are once more
fashionable—the best materials for summer travelling
dresses, as they neither crease nor catch nor show the
dirt. They have been brought out in neutral tints.

THE names the manufacturers and the drapers give
to the new things each year, as a rule, convey so little
to the purchaser, that it is seldom an advantage to
use them when descriptions are given; but it may be
as well to say that "velours cotbeille " means velvet
pentes of mixed colouring; " pente de velours," can-
vas when it is of one solid colour; and " pente de
peluche," with the plush stripes. Drap de Saxe is
the newest stuff mado iu wool, but so smooth that it
looks like coarse linen, and generally has a contrast-
ing stripe, rather broad, either in plush, in open work,
or in velvet. Cream is the more general grour d,
with brown as the happiest combination. Then there
is " mouline raye " and " mouline knappe," the names
applied to the cord stripes with white flecks. A few
of the fabrics have horizontal stripes of the same
novel characters as the pentes ; but newer are the very
wide cashmerienne stripes in the mixed colours and
designs of Cashmere shawls. These are very notable
on cream grounds. Many of the gowns have striped
borderings, intended to be used as trimming—a return
to the fashions of years ago. They look perhaps best
when they are of this cashmerienne mixture. Plain
vigognes are to be worn, also the soft, graceful
casimir.
• • •

THE washing dresses are made to look as unlike
the old-fashioned gowns which, once a week or fort-
night, found their way to the washtub, as they well
can be. At a little distance they might be taken for
silk or fine wool. The Japanese patterns are the
leading idea in the printed designs, which are small
and thrown on a plain ground of full colour. Some
have stripes printed horizontally on half the material
and perpendicularly on the other, intended to be made
up together. Quite new are the piccotines, which
have the Japanese patterns printed on a brilliantine
ground, with a small damask design interwoven.
Mousselines crepelaine have an annum ground with
floral chintz patterns; these are wonderfully pretty
for fete dresses. Voile laine shows geometric patterns
and borderings.
THERE will, there is no doubt, be a great deal of the
new cotton crêpe worn, which has a puckered stripe
of a contrasting colour or colours, such as blue and
red on cream. These, well draped, make stylish and
cheap gowns. Others show a sort of darned pattern
in eashmerienne tones, like an Axminster carpet.
Plain zephyrs are ready in new tones, and some with
the corded stripes, for all the world like the muslin
hitherto used for petticoats. New are the cotton rope
stripes, checks, and plaids, which look well, and give
a durability to the fabric. The combination of
colours to be found in these are biscuit, brown, and
white; drab, red, and gold; mousse, pint, and cream.
Some of the crêpes have lace-like open-work stripes,
with plush spots in colour ; others fris6 striped.
Plush stripes on cotton goods are a great feature, nd
some of the bouclé canvases are of washing stuffs.a