New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-06-27
Paris Fashions.

The lady correspondent of the New York
Tribune writes as follows in reference to the
fashions Of that city
But we must not wander into the inextricable
lahyrinths of why's, especially now, when l wish
to talk to you about the fashions. And first of
all, let me tell you how amiable you are, Mr..
Grundy; how well you always appear, and beg
you not to think it impairment if | ask you if
Mrs. Grundy has bought her summer hat and
dresses. presume she has, for your milliners
and dress makers arc quite as GO go ahead" as
any others of our Yankee nation. They are
sure to have the modes of tomorrow and that
they may be accommodated with something more
than simultaneous issue of American and
Partisan fashions, there are modes made here
expressly for expectation. If some Nisconti,
Watt, or ssPugin of Women - builds cathedrals
or lays out the lots of o wilderness on dress
pattern, the plan is at once sent to America
If hanging gardens are found on bonnets, or
4 all the Chinese and the Celestial Empire on
q shawl, we are considered young and strong
enough to bear them. If exclaim at a man
tie trimmed with green and yellow, or a bon
net looking as if it had the variooid, covered
with sky blue and scarlet, sprinkled with grapes,
| peoples and green pea pods, | am assured it is
just the thing for the Americans. | am never
| prepared to believe it. | think our ladies have
almost the best taste in the world, but in their
energy to be fashionable they often lose their
| eye for colors, and walk the clouds Of smoke by
day or pillars Of fire by night, in the midst of
a wilderness of more chastened hues.
Bright plaids and richly figured founces are
| much Worn by Partisan ladies, yet always re-
lieved by dark mantle and harmonious bonnet.
do not recollect ever to have seen Yariously
| colored dedine worn in the streets of Paris by
native Black mantles are almost universal for
| the street but for visits or carriage PRONE
nades one often sees those of white silk or lace
| They are like short narrow scarfs, fitted low
in the neck to the shoulders, where they need
! to be attached They are trimmed with fiounces
| and ruches of the same, or embroidered and
| hung with lace, or made graceful in any man
| ner that taste and expense can dictate
| At Delisle's last exposition we saw muslns
| and bareges in dress patterns for two deep
hounces, covered with fields of grass and flowers,
or dotted here and there with sprig or nose
| gay. There were pretty ones with founces
edged with stripes, but this disposition of decora-
| ton is more paSS6e than the lowered ones. We
saw elegant white brocades shot with gold and
silver. One was lovely as pyramid of white
| roses glistening with dew. | heightened its
| beauty by imagining it olinging to the magnifi
| cent shoulders of my dear Mrs. B.. She is
fair as the roses, with neck and arms to match,
and hair and eyes in glorious contrast, and she
| walks every inch queen.
| For dem- toilette, black is worn as much by
| ladies as it is in full dress by gentlemen The
black English alpaca, though considered COM
mon in England and America, is eagerly sought
| for by French ladies. | attended an uncere.
monious reception late in the winter, where
every lady was in black silk, though only one in
mourning, But what will surprise you more,
one lady there, born in 1881, danced several
| polkas with her brothers great grandson; and
| she did it gayly, not to show us that she could
| still waltz gracefully. but because she did it
habitually, and is as fond OF it now as sixty
| years ago.
| White bonnets are fully in season; they are
like bubbles bursting into spray From the
front it is difficult to decide, except from her
rank, whether your friend wears o cap or a
bonnet. Full ruches, mingled with flowers, en-
circle the face, broad lace lies over the top of
| the bonnet, fans out from the face, and fall
gracefully below the chin. The lace is rather
Tor married ladies than for MISSES and forbids a
vail, Young ladies here are not allowed to
wear shawls, founces, laces or feathers Maid
ems unadorned adorned the most, is the maxim
of their minors. Marriage, ofcourse, is great
event for pretty girl, when, even with
wrinkled husband, it brings its corbeille dia-
monds, velVets, China grapes, and all the ele-
gancies forbidden to youthful virginity.
French toilettes for home consumption are of
subdued tones, whose colors are blended and re-
lisved with as much artistic taste and care to
combine depth of shade with vaporness and
briliancy of effect, as the painters of the Vene-
tian school showed in the unrivaled richness Of
their productions.
The Imperial Court has brought in its train
the richest materials for robes, with garnitures
OF lace, feathers, embroidery and artistic COM
binations of whatever may add richness and
grace to the whole, Nothing is more striking
than comparison of the present fashion plates
with those of five years ago. Then the toilette
was of extreme simplicity. Now the Pompadour
skirts-the tight pulled or founced flowing
sleeves-the long basques--the rich Eandyke
take us back to the times of Louis XIV.
The fashions of that time, like those of the
present, contrast most favorably with those of
the first Empire. The beautiful Josephine is
seen in portraits in tight skirt, with short
waist, cutting her figure close under the arms,
and with her hair twisted into scanty curls
about her temples. This costume came after
the revolution, when men wore Phrygian caps
and women attempted to accustom themselves
to the half covering mantle and negligent folds
of Aspasia. 1t is certainly costume more
classic than the voluptuous ones of the renais-
sance--yet, lacking grace in the eyes Of the
present Even in the furniture of the first En-
pire the legs were straight up and down like
pegs, while Louis XIII, Louis XIV, or Louis
XIV, has become a synonyme of the line of
beauty and general title of whatever is grace
full in furniture or dress.