Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1872-08-31


There is something more potent than fashion
after all, and that is the thermometer Above
hin ety, and below zero, people care for nothing
hut how TO exist. Fashion becomes a very
secondary Co, Sideration, and in many cases
attention to It's Dict ties an impossibilty. Much
mere or less valuable TIM has been devoted to
telling, in newspapers and ma Tazines, ali about
summer fashions" when preba "iy Tor nine
tenths OF the women at least, during tue past
two months, three words would have described
them" skirt and sock"
The crckets have come, howeyer-heralds o.
approaching fall-and their very chirp not only
tells of cool days and cooler evenings IN store,
but anticipates the announcement OF the pleasant
things when art, genius, and industry are pre-
pairing for their devotees.
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP.
We are sadly in want of social leadership; of
a "best society,"" which would be recognized,
its existence respected its claims acknowledged.
Where il is to come from is not so clear. Per-
haps Miss Emily Faithful, the editor of the
London gic'ori1 Magazine, who is to arrive in
New York in October, will be able to tell US,
she has a lecture, which is very highly spoken
of, upon the subject. The text, however, is
tain in advance who her "best society" will con-
sist of-Dickens, Carlyle, Ruskin, Proctor,
Browning, Lowell, George Eliot, Huxley, Her
very pleasant to be introduced, but who viii
hardly answer for our social figureheads.
Old habitues say the opera audiences of to-day
years ago, principally on account of the degen-
eracy OF men. While a gent eman could only
wear black and white, ali men at least looked
like gentlemen, but now they have taken ID
stripes and checks and mixed colors, all gentle
men LOOK like hotel clerks, runners, and ticket
takers, and with their style assume something
OF their conceit, insolence, and freedom OF man.
ner.
Instead of the courteous and deferential, vet
dignitied and perfectly dressed gentlemen of the
old school, the academy is filed with lounpers
hardly a n aan call. rb.
rush out between every act to take a drink"
and squirt tobacco juice all over the Hobbies.
This is the modern idea of " freedom" and one
OF the results Of the great "leveling'' process,
which would turn the court ct heaven into a
barrOom.
This is why, to come back to the subject, we
want social leadership. We want a social Or
der, if you please. that understands its duties
that would stimulate the practice of the vir-
tues and of politeness by example; whose posi-
ton would be so well understood that IL would
carry authority with 1t, and whose functions
would be recognized, because its obligations
would be measurably fulfilled.
At present our higher classes exist without
any sense of their responsibility. They run to
dressing and horse-racing, and hold or throw
away money without any apparent conscious
ness that it is power for good, for which they
are accountable
The press is acquiring a controlling influ-
ence in politics; perhaps 1t is destined to be the
social leader also, but If IL aspires to this posi-
ton it must get rid of the flippant personality
which now disgraces portions of (which is the
stOck-in-trade of both political parties, and
makes presidential campaign more like q quar-
rel between Sarah Camp and Betsy Harris than
a contest between two great parties, based on
principles, worthy such championship.
FALL FASHIONS.
1t lis as easy to predicate fashion as anything
else, when you know the source from which it
comes. \ stream cannot rise higher than its
fountain. SO there is not much TO be expected
of fashion proper, it is like love, the old, old,
story, never new, but always interesting, or
still more like the showman's dog, the same old
dog, but with some new tricks.
Dry goods houses beginning to display
their fall impOrtatiOns but not little perplexi
ty has been caused by the sudden stoppsge of
the Dolly Warden furore, and the consequent
di>cTedit thrown upon peculiar class Of mat
terials.
The s'Dolly Warden" season opened go well
that many chintz patterns we're sent back, to be
reproduced in delaints, cashneres and poplins
Tor fall wear but Dolly Warden collapsed, and
though some OF The orders were cOunterInanded
many of them were beyond recall, and there
fore the market is likely TO be stocked
with broad striped and figured fabrics,
which will be difficult to get rid of. De-
signs in fashions generally work up from the
point at which they start, to an eXaggeration,
which becomes intolerabIe, and then stop, but
Dolly Warden was cut OF in an untimely sort OF
way, before the chintz short gown had
achieved any great advance on Its original ugli-
ness.
The materials to be recommended for the
coming season are soft, twille l, all wool fabrics
self cOlOred, in preference to cotton and wool,
silk and wool mixtures, and especially in
preference to high striped and figured materials
of all kinds. Soft figured cashmeres and de-
LANES, with black OF wood cOlored grounds, are
very good wear for house dresses, but it is an
unpleasant mistake to buy such style for a po-
onaise to wear in the street, as the moment it is
put on IL is felt TO be out of place, and all
women have not the means to remedy blunders
when they have once made them.
POpliDs and corded materials are subordinated
to twills and smooth all wool delaines, which
have been doubled in width in all the higher
grades, and greatly improved in quality.
The rage for rough undressed goods has led to
the sending out from the French looms undressed
woolens, whose raw, unfinished surface, is con-
sidered distinguished" aud which have q use
in showing women how easy il is in fashion to
make thing common, or uncommon. All the
patterns in linen lace and linen fringe are re-
produced in WOODEN lace and WOODEN frin5es for
trimming wooden dresses, but velvet Will also be
very much employed with the laudable motive
OF assisting the poor operatives of st. Ettieune,
who suffered so much during the Franco PTus-
sian war. There is nothing new in silks. eXceDt
some slight advance in prices. Black silks
richly embroidered in black Will figure largely
among dresses Of ceremony during the coming
season, and new shade of stone color, which
carries ght wonderfully well, will be associ-
ated with delicate blue for dinner dresses.
For the rest last years tins and colors still
in vogue, bottle green, plum color, absnthe,
pc acock color and the light indefinite shades for
evening wear. The "blue green's and "srey
greens" have been so run into the ground, and
have now become so common that it Is safe to
predict much less demand for them than last
sSdSUu Idulce WIZ imam
low fashion.
THE LATEST DESIGNS FOR FALL WEAR.
The recent novelties in fashion consist princi-
pally OF see saw changes in the overskrt and
polonaise. 1t may be Of the highest importance
that we should make overskirts one month
short, the next month long, and the following
month te1raced up at the back in q way that
nothing short of special revelation would ever
enable the uninitiated to understand. 1t may be
necessary to refinement and a lady-ike appear
ance that the front patch or "apron" Of this
appendage should be now short and round, then
drawn tghtly-and, IL 1t were not fashion, we
should say inelegantly-over the back Of the
SKIRT or left out altogether; but there should at
least be sufficient interval between to give q
rest after the making Of q dress before it needs
altering. 1t is discouraging to women who can
only afford doZen-more or less-dresses OF a
season, to find that their efforts are, after all of
no avail; that they cannot keep up with the
fashion; that before they get q dress fairly
made, II the dressmaker Is dilatory-as all dress
makers are-the style will have changed, and
they will have the modification Of seeing some
one appear in a newer cut than themselves.
The latest designs for overskirts, round OFF
the apron and extend IL over the back breadths,
which are full and tied up to form panier
| which is surmounted by the basque of the waist,
or finished with a French" bow, which simply
means q very large bow. Some benighted per-
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