Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-03-19
Fashions of the Period.
SPRING COIORS.

Spring in winter Is not unfrequently
succeeded by winter in the spring, and
it is not at all unlikely to prove so this
season. At any rate, nOjn outstanding
tue generally mil. Ac.., or of Febrp
ary, spring styles ana spring business
are little slow in coming, though il is
quite believed that the latter will make
up for its taI'iineSs, when it does come.
by being unusually active.
Spring coiOrs are foresh&doWed in
gloves, which the lest authority has
had prepared in pure Quaker grayS and
brown.
a study of these coiorS in dozen
different degrees of each shade is les
sen for lifetime, and would prove a
revelation to many who think they
know all about color. Commence with
the silver gray remember we are talk
ing about gloves and 90 through from
the pure drap gray to blue gray iron
gray which is almost black, and bronze
gray which is almost brown.
Ofall these, the pure drab is the finest
the clearest, the choicest-one envies
the Quaker ladies who have had it
and the rarest shades Of brown to them
selves SO long.
Drab gray, or Quaker gray, IS the
most durable and economical OF all
colors in gloves. It looks exactly the
same by gaslight, is delicate enough
for evening, or reception wear. and can
be use;i as a hack glove afterwards.
Next to these pure grays comes the
wood and nut browns, and these i'll all
their varieties are to be the livery OF
the spring, relieved with dash OF
color OF lean of white in the trim
ming OF the bonnet or the square silk
handkerchief which is now the fashion
20 wear about the neck.
The most elegant costumes C0mplet
will consist of two or more shades oi
these coiors bleDded together in what
may be called Il minor symphony.
SPRING FABRIC.
The fineness and d2intiness of the
new spring materials harmOnize well
with the purity and deiicacy of cOior
Chene silks have reappeared, the small
irregular vine or leaf shaded lii wood
color upon pale gray OR other neutral
tinted ground.
Hair-3tfiped summer silk also sh6W
only line Of coior-broWn, violet, OF
purpIe-upon an ash or creamy surface,
and the old time lustreS or new twilfed
chailieS, fine as the finest tamise cloth,
though varied with blue and huff and
nauVe, and ainiost prettier than gren-
adine in black, still exhibit AN enor-
nous preponderance of the soberer tints
OF The season.
The only new fabric which the sea-
son has developed SO far is all gray and
brown, in all the different shades of
these colors. 1t is a lovely, soft mate
rial, very fine, and all wool. 1t is
in what are known
among tailors as fancy diagonal pat
terms, but is called "basket serge" 1t
for spring suits, or for serviceable wear
during the spring and cool days in
summer.
The price is one dollar per yard.
In silks there is a decided effort to re-
turn TO lighter, smoother, purer styles
than have been fashionable during the
past few years. Heavy gros grains,
and other thick and apparently mas
sive silks nave been discovered to be
charged not unfTequently with sugar
or some other starchy substance to in
crease their bulk and weight, and the
fact has discredited all silks of that
description.
Pure black silks, so smooth as to ap-
proach taffetas in quality; jaspers. which
are in dark colorS what chenes are in
light; leaf-tinted chenes hair stripes,
delecate and fine, added to the mix
lures in silk and wool, which seem as
ii they had been made to test the de-
gree of rarity which dress fabrics could
attain and live, present striking con-
trast to the thick cords and rougil-and-
ready wool and cotton textures which
have been considered "style" for the
past two years.
JET.