Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-10-01
FASHIONS FOR OCTOBER.
B0nnets-"P Pull Baeks''-NeW Combt.
nations In Velvet and Wool New
COstumes-New Dinner and Reeep-
ton Dresses-Chfidren's Fashions
lFrom Orr O1cn Correspondent. !

they want is a bonnet. No subject probably
has such absorbing and perennial interest
for the average female mind as this one of
bonnet. How does my bonnet look? or how
DO look In my bonnet? are questions which
even the most intelligent women ask every
Time they make change in their head gear
1t may be also because bOnnets are ALWAYS
an unknown quantity. No woman ever
Knows how much or how little a one she is
going 10 get for her money. They set all laws
OF proportion and value at defiance: saucer
or ooal-scuttle the price is always the same:
ihey are the subjects OF every caprlcious wind
, ,na. pi3Ws' aua economy is out OF the ques-
tloh when you once place yourself in the
hands OF milliner. In vain you say YOU do
not like much trimming, abhor trimming
ana nave got feather that will match 3
plandly she Ia kes your feather, declares She
Knows just what you want, and sends YOU
nome bonnet with four yards of ribbon
EWShslng at the back, and bin i'm proportion.
Nhen the felt hats were Introduced sensible
women smiled; they thought they mad GOT
the best of the milliners at last but the re-
sults snow that they were mistaken, and
thaL tne mllllners are equal to that and
every other emergency. An Anglican felt
nat (untrlmmed) can be bought for one doll ar
ana a hall, an imported felt hat (untrimmed)
| Tor about two dollars and a half. A lady
bought an American felt the other day
raw and took 1t to a milliner TO have IL
bound, trimmed and made ship shape. A
| Dill came home with the hat for twenty five
dollars. She went in haste and Indignation
10 the gentleman who presided over the
finances OF the concern and asked if there was
five dollars was correct "WbV'S s sa,d tSe
lady, 1.-The hat itself only cost me a dollar
and-a half, and to pay twenty-five dollars for
Trimming IL Is absurd" "Eut madame will
observe" remarked the polite man of BUSH
ness, THAT IL is nearly covered with velvet
at $40 per yard, that ii has upon il a wreath
OF velvet leaves which cost 50, that an ex-
penslTe wing has been added in the back
mat the labor of an artist has been expended
IN the endeavor To conceal the fact that the
hal cost originally so small sum-"
What could madame" say to that?
This is the reason why many millinery
houses have failed; they have not AM will
not adapt themselves to circumstances A
minority only are wise enough to see that
but few ladies now have from twenty TO fiftv
dollars TO spend upon a single bonnet, and
axe advantage of the opportunity which
ieIt aIords Tor useful and not inelegant WIN
Ter mats at very moderate price.
Shapes are in great variety, but a small.
rather oval crown and straight brim which
ADMITS OF all trimming beneath, is the favor
lie Ior married ladies' Young girls wear
pretty miniature edition OF the "Rubens;
trimmed with velvet and feathers. Bonnets
OF Telvet, very much trimmed with lace
VIII sppear as the season advances. Feathers
plrus and the wings and hearts of birds are
more used for felts. Russian lace, VaIlen-
clennes and real thread and chantilly are all
applleu 10 NelVet bOnnets in conjunction with
velvet flowers, the fine laces being sometimes
used TO cover or veil-as Ii is called-the vel
Vet Russian" laces are novelty expensive
vogue here as persons who could afford II
would probably prefer genuine ANTIQUE, OF
which 1t is only Ivan an imitation
The cheap wit which usually spreads
lIself upon some part of woman's dress has
found mine in the tied back skirt which
mas been most industriously worked. The
point with the critics is the indecency of a
style which indicates so much OF the outline
OF Woman's form; but from this point of view
there Is no reason whatever for the stric-
urI a0rnEC
deCorous than that of a man and WHY should
not dress outline the form IL covers? III il
does not what is the object of a form a all?
and which should beauty in design or ART
be cultivated. Twenty-Five years ago wo-
men wore an enormous mass OF skirts which
rendered them shapeless and occasioned them
great trouble and inconvenience To pre-
serve decency and barrel-like absence OF
FORM hoop skirts were invented, the first of
Whlch were from four to five wards round
ana WIN dresses over them, and a woman
INSIDE or Them occupying the width of a
broad city sidewalk, and six three on a
sldel street car. Dress then was
attacked atn and lampooned for concealing
pre- were recalled and the classic
taste OF the Empress Josephine. and the
ladies' OF the renowned French salon COM
mehted upon. Goldfish wanted display
wanted 10 spread" itself. and ought 10 have
been sent abroad to study painting and
sculpture, the works of the old masters and
the principles Of all modern art in order to
o
civilization. Well, Goldfish went abroad.
Whether that had anything to do with get
ting rid OF hoops and the more recent studies
oil oil, form, as applied to dress, matters not.
we nave at least got rid of hoops, and now
nave got dress that is not obtrusive that
is neither SO straight nor scant nor obiec-
nonable In those respects as the strict,
short-waisted, low necked, short sleeved
Dress OF the seventeenth century; that has,
on the contrary, possibilities of beauty,
grace and elegance, IL the wearer or her mo-
diSte is an artist and knows how TO take adj
vantage of them. We have dress whic CHI is
often stupidity covered with trimming and
ridiculously made up of parts which have no
relationship 10 each other.but that is inevi-
table-and, on the other side, we have grail
ually obtained public opinion which is
stronger and more permanent than fashion,
winch gives dark or neutral colors, and
almost uniformly solid fabrics for the street
which enforces the necessity of restricting
street costumes TO limits that will not OBJ
Irnde upon the rights OF others in the street
be invented that silly girls and silly women
would not eXaggerate-a fool always carries
with him his cap and bells-but why a dress
composed of several skirts, with skirts he
meath, should be considered Improper. even
though tied back, while the single trowser
passes for highly proper, IT would puzzle a
VELVET AND WOOL.
The handsome street costumes were last
winter composed of silk and velvet a very
expensive combination. In the spring there
mounting, and combinations of silk and
wool have been very general for .1stand-
oys' ever since. This season the preference
Is for wool combined with velvet, and sew
eral different and elegant, yet not extraya-
CANT, methods are shown among the designs
OF leading houses.
The newest form consists of skirt ana
coat sleeves OF plain, rich velvet, black or
seal Drown, worn In connection with BASQUE
or over-sktrt of fine, soft wool in a large plain
-check OF black ahd white, or brown and
whlte, or brown and gray. Some of the
tunics are bOrdered with fringe matching
the shades OF wool; but wooden fringe has
been used SO largely upon very common
wooden costumes that this seems to vulgar
lie them, and the more distinguished are alb
solutely plain and free from any trimming
whatever, the cost being put into the QUALITY
OF The velvet, the fneness OF the wool. and
apparently the size OF the check; for the
blocks largest In size and not cut up by the
narrow bars which form q mixed plaid are
considered the most desirable and bring the
highest price. There are accessories how
ever, in the way of velvet loops or sasbes.
at the back, and velvet bars on the sleeves
and double velvet collar, one turned down
and q narrow, faring one standing at the
neck, which completes the Costume and evo
phasizes its air OF Obstruction. The hasnnes
still letain the plain cuirasse FORM bur the
over-skfrts are most OF then made with a
back, not very full, and which Is gracefully
draped, instead OF being cut straight or as a
tablier only.
The regulation street costume. however. is
OF cashmere and velvet the valvof hofnO