Evening star., 1877-10-06
ACTTMy STTL ES.
Fashions In Costumes and Cut Door
Garments-Ihe New Hat and the
New Bonnet
From Our Specfol Correspondent

To tnat tlme must oe regarded a the prelimt-
nary skirmish lng of an advance guard before
the real army approaches.
This Is The reason why styles a. seen at
the fall "Openings" In millinery ore roo n,
and on the occasion Of early puehc gstner-
ings called fashionable" ;" are SO m xed so
Infinitely varied, as TO De problem TO the
Cnintiated. who wish TO get at precise facts.
The fashions OF themselves are the work OF
many minds, few OF which act upon q "
known principles of arts or taste. cultivate d
people sift from the mass of rubbish, the
grains OF gold, and out OF the mnltifaIious
and incongruOus collection OF design and
fabric continue always to present themselves
decently a. d fttingly, and sometimes bea l.
tifully clothed. Without guide In ones own
knowledge and consciousness however, the
chances are very much against thoroughly
satisfactory results, for TO render fashion
altogether sensible, altogether tasteful, and
altogether practical, IL is necessary that every
woman should be so sensible, so tast ful q, q
80 practical, as to choose only these ele nenIs,
from the diversity that are offered her.
What will, or what will not be high
fashion, IL is somewhat difficult to tell. The
patchy, inartisuc character which distin-
guisbed the designs a few years ago, has
been transferred to com bi atiOns in material,
and the long, elegant, simply cut. graceful
coats and Princess dresses are arranged llke
an old fashioned cOunterpane in alternate
stripes OF different fabrics, as for example,
velvet and silk, armure silk and plain faille.
Gamers hair cloth and silk, or the new "knap-
ped cloth and velvet. About these styles
there Is want of lOhOieness which seem. also
Ike want of newness, for they look more
like garment made up out of two old ones,
than new one composed of rich materi Il,
win appropriate aud costly trim ming.
A relief to the confusion created by cl aks
and costumes composed OF two fsprIcs
Trimmed with a third and ornamented with
bewildering mixture of frfnges, gimps and
paSsmenterle ornaments, is found In some
really elegant dresses and garments for the
street, composed of heavy all silk, tuftei
cloth OF silk and wool or armure silk, with
innings To the trimmings of these last of some
contrasting color. Tne most elegant i'm
ported costumes are cut In the PrinceSse
style, or composed of trimmed skirt and
basque. Upon the Princesse dresses the ar
rangement of trimming frequently deScr bes
basque or coat shapes, and the drapery is
lost in fiat Kilt plating which forms the
train, and is attached to the skirt several
inches below the line of the lOng waist.
Very graceful aud varied models OF this de-
scrlptlon are made not only in rich armure
and damaSkel silk, but in knapped cloth a
fabric of silk and wool, which has "A dam
asked effect, or rather looks like chenille
honey combed upon damasked silk sround,
Such dresses are trimmed with daiSev pl tit
1ngs OF plain fallle in the ground color, or
faIlle alternating and pipei with satin, AMI
arranged in such way thai while the fl =
ured fabric forms the body part Of the
design, the trimmi ing seems to complete IL
and not be merely eXtraneOus Or attached to
II as parasite with no use or purpose of Its
own. When self Trimmings We're irst intro
duced they were their own raisDa detree
They finished the costume more perfectly
than any other; being of the mat arial, they
lasted as long as the material, and were
necessarily in harmony with it, hut the
manufactures OF lress trimmings became
alarme1, their occupation was gole, they
bestirred themselves, they introduced novel
ties, and now we have dresses which are SO
varied mixture of fabric and trim ming
that 1t Is not Only impossible to tell where
one begins and the other ends, but dignity
and distinction are lost, and the expensive
structure resolves itself into mere thing Of
sbreds and patches.
AUTUMN DESIGNS.
A fall style not very new, but one of the
s1LIplest and prettiest, consists of q demi-
trained skirt and paletOt in a modified Bre-
ton style of plain dark, rich faille, trimmed
with broad India galOOn and shell buttons.
but enough silk accompanies IL to complete
the dress in any style preferrei; so that il is
really more advantageous than If flushed i'm
some arbitrary fashion. The costumes are
made in seal brown, the new shades of dark
green and Russian gray. Navy blue has
been SO well worn that IL Is rather avoided In
tune, intended for fall wear, consists of a
long paletot, reaching nearly to the bottom
OF an ordinary walking skirt of rich black
Breton STYLE but instead Of small botrnns IN de
1s outlined with broad bands of velvet which
are carried round the bottom and form straps
across the 'front.' as far as the knee. H.li-
some shoulder knots ornament the top of the
sleeves and psssmenterie ornaments of the
same description are repeated upon the
ca cnI1s, ,he pockets and the upper front OF the
the trimming OF daisy plaitings at the back,
and narrow upright ruffles, divided with
bipinss In front. These two parts constitute
the costume, no bodice being required, ex-
cep;ing q close vest, which sho lid be At
tached TO the skirt
DRESS TRIMNINGS.
The new trimhings are varied AMI very
costly. In addition to the heavy braii Is and
embroidered galloons, which have now taSen
. secondary place, we have rich gimps a1d
Passmen;eries, arranged as plagnes military
shoulder knots, guile and 8 word knots, or
namental fastentngs and the like.
IT, Ihe passmenterie headings are, many of
them, three and four inches in depth, and
are studded with drop buttons, like acorns,
the manner OF making perfectly repro
duclng the natural fruit, or with little tassels
knotted and crimped. so as TO impart a pecu-
llarly feathery and graceful appearance to
the garment, which Is enriched by them.
French Jet trimmings, composed of silk,
crimIet, and mixed with small "cldir de
ttne," amber, bronze and blue jet beads, in
deep fringes and round tassels, held by a sort
OF gimp cord, have made their app earance In
large quantities, and are used in prOfusiOn
upon dinner dresses OF black pile aud black
Slcflian and black Antwerp silk cloaks.
Feather trimmings are much less Observa-
pie IMAM for the two past years, but the
crimped silk ruching is very graceful and
wonderfully effective substitute for feather
trimmings, and enjoys greater prestige-is
made more full, and is in some instances
site embroidery, hand made, a nd run through
the middle upon the upper surface OF the
Six, so that IL Is inwrOught with the fabric
OF which the ruching is composed.
The soft, ri n ruching OF this description,
embroidered and mounted, forms the most
beautiful and effective OF trimmings for a
dinner or evening d ress of self cOlOred failie
and already number of orders have been
received for Inner and reception costumes,
OF ivory, pale amber and other delicate
cOlOrs, to be trimmed with silk ruching and
jardinier embroidery, executed uoon the
labr1c. For design IN embroidery, small
leaves, hbrOus patterns, berries and acOrns
are preferred to flowers. SILK, as q trim
ming, is largely used, but a strong effort has
been made 10 reiptroduce velvet. and we find
1t in wide bands and borders upon cloaks OF
cOlOred CLOTH and as length wise stripes, al
ternatiDg with silk iu the composition of
clOaks and tesses; also velvet collars and
cuffs are largely employed upon light coats
and almond tinted paletOts, and is used both
as trimming and IN the cOmpositi IN OF COS
tune In the making up OF handsome black
suits.
A new kind of plush, thiuner than the or
dinary plush, with q dark ground, which
closely initiates fur, but into the surface of
which white hairs are thickly introduced, is
used as a trimming for fine, soft Gamers
hair, with which 1t harmOnizes admirably.
The material and trimming as combined in
this way makes very stylish indoor dresses,
as well as light, warm AMI graceful Co.'S
Times. QxQctlV ada MED later fall woar