National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-07-22
GOSSIP FOR LADIES.

Blue silk is faVorite dress at the seaside
resorts. It Is the most becoming Of all cOlors
to light eyes and hair, and is appropriated by
all who have them.
Psrlor skates are again the rage, and young
people at the Watering-places spend their time
between croquet on the lawn and skating on
the piazza or parlor carpet.
Ruffs for the neck are constantly being IN
creased in size. It is now the custom to run
wire in the ruffs for the neck and distend it far
back from the neck, but high up in the vicinity
Of the ears.
Passementere trimming is entirely super
seding every other ornamentRtion. It is even
more worn than feather trimming, which is
by all odds the handsomest ever introduced.
But passementerie answers q more general
want, and is cheaper comparatively, though it
Is very high.
Everybody wears q high comb this season,
and the higher the more fashionable. Black
jet combs are the latest offering on the altar of
style, and these are hardly as becoming as tor
toise shell and amber, though they are as ex-
pensiVe as the one and more costly than the
other.
Lace ought to be Of great service to ladies
at the summer hotels this season. It is all
the style, and is so airy and pretty that it in
creases the beauty Of every face. Husband
hunters should by all means buy up q guam
tity if they have It not with them.
Linen and batiste suits grow cheaper week
after week, and if the cool weather continues
we shall have not only wagon loads of them in
the market, but they viii be offered so low
that everybody will purchase, which will be
disgusting to those who paid high for theirs in
the early season, and considered it at the time
very stylish.
Large fans are still in great favor. There Is
L., kH.F- k,,k
painting is the fayorite mode Of decoration.
The usual style is group of flowers or leaves
at one side, which gradually decreases in size
as 1t stretches towards the opposite side. Lace
fans are generally mounted on mother-ofpearl
sticks and lined with pale satin, pink blue or
mauVe.
Toilets are too intricate nowadays to be de-
scribed. 1t was once possible to say a dress
was made after this or that pattern, and there
was limit, but now not even the dressmakeT
can tell you what to call the network of skirts,
tabliers and hounces she has adjusted together.
And as to describing it after it is finished is an
impossibility.
Bonnets are larger for summer wear than
was anticipated, and racing hats, Tustics and
the like are all considerably increased in size
over the spring styles. Valenciennes lace is
greatly used on all kinds of hats, and since
bonnets are hats and hats are bonnets it is
used on every kind of head ornament without
regard to trihing differences of shape.
White muslin dresses are universally worn,
and the agony of the laundry woman is anus
ing to witness. There are ruffies and puffs
and bows and knife pleats and sashes and
bands to iron and lace insertions not to lace,
and such bewildering mass of trimming to
adjust that it is an art to know how to iron
nowadays. The expense is great, too, and,
after all, muslins cost as much as silk.
Colors or pallid half tones most acceptable at
present are more faded than last season. Neu-
trail tints are exquisitely blended, and are be-
coming to delicate faces, but the fashion of
wearing two or more shades is only suited for
certain styles Of beauty, and being worn uni
yersally are scarcely as satisfactory as they
should be. Ladies should study what is be-
coming rather more than they do, and then
brunettes will not appropriate shades that be-
long to blondes, nor vice versa.
Velvet is worn this summer more generally
than il was last winter. The weather has per-
mitted, and even when il is very warm ladies
wear the skirts If the waists of dresses must
be of lighter material. Claret color and black
are the favorite shades, though blue and even
green are often seen. SILK is frequently intro
duced in the makeup Of velvet suits, and the
effect is very pleasing. The Princess Of Wales,
who really is the leading fashionable woman in
the world at present, gives in her adherence to
velvet, and for August many new dresses will
be seen of it.
There is generally fashion in most things,
and just now the particular fashion in wedding
presents leads towards fine old lace and Ores
den china. Among the latter are dainty can
delebra, vases, groups Of figures, mirrors set in
china frames, card dishes, candlesticks, flower
baskets, etc. In China, generally, there are
dinner, tea and dessert sets, harlequin cups and
treasures in majolica ware so very stylish now,
such as strawberry dishes, oyster dishes, cheese
dishes, beer jugs, surrounded by quaint old
notices; shells for flowers, card dishes, vases,
etc