The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-02-07
PARIS GOSSIP.
Dresses and Their Makers - Worth and
Felix and Thoir Tribe.

In these days, when the Paris sea-
son is at its height, new fashions and
new gowns are much talked of. The
red dress which Nine. Adam wore at
the dinner of the Santley club was the
theme of dozens of clever articles in
the daily press, and each time that she
wore it afterward-twice only, think,
at her own receptions-the fact was
noted with as much care and precision
as the local scnbes would have en-
ployed in stating that Gambetta had
been seen on the boulevard, or that
the King of Bavaria had been to
Pas de loup concert incognito. Dress
is an all-important topic in this capital,
where everybody is SO fond of trihes,
yet where all in reality, beneath their
apparent frivolity, take serious views
of life. An anonymous fashionable
writer has been giving us the status of
the various purveyors of the mode in
Paris, and some of the details furnish
ed are very curious. We learn, for
instance, that Worth, the English man.
milliner of the Rue de la Paix, has
very important relations with all the
European courts. He is criticised as
being both too pompous and expen-
sive in his style, too luxurious, too
fond of fabricating toilets which re-
mind one of the old luxurious days of
the Second Empire. Worth does not
believe in the fantastic, although the
wicked French say that he has an up!
per story in his establishment where
he keeps corps of workers and
stock of stuffs expressly for the graft
fication of the somewhat expensive
tastes of North and South American
ladies. This is doubtless a SANDER, for
the time has passed when American
women could be accused of dressing
in "too loud colors." What does
great authority on dress say about
Worth's costumes! He says: "Worth
sends them to the United States, and
in year the style comes back to him
from that country, modified and
added to in charming fashion,"
Then he takes the mode thus
changed, and offers it with
success to Paris and st. Petersburg.
Worth still keeps on the roll of his
clients the ex-Empress Eugene, the
Princess of Wales (for whom he makes
all her robes de ceremonie, despite the
howl of rage which this raises among
the London modistes), the Duchess of
Edinburg the Princess Metternich and
Liset Troubetzkal, both of whom have
an odd talent of taking the most cor
rect costume and giving it peculiar
and original chic by the manner in
which they wear it. Worth will not
work for people who do not please
him, and if he finds lady, on her first
interview, domineering and capricious,
he is apt to say that he cannot under
take to dress her. Felix, in the Eau
bourg St. Honore, comes next in i'm
portance; indeed, some might put him
at the head of the dressmakers, for he
dresses the actresses. Sara Bern
hardt, Samary, Baretta, Broisat, Reich
emberg, Arnould Slessy, Pileson, Leo
hide Leblanc and host of other his
tronic celebrities get their robes of
Felix. Some of them unquestionably
owe their success to him, for without
his combinations in tulle, his dreams
in silk, his reveries in satin, his noe
turnes in pale gold, his symphonies in
spangled silver, his sonatas in lace
where would they be! If he were to
frown upon them they would tremble
in every limb; they fear his anger more
than that of critics or audiences. And
Felix has two strings to his bow. He
dresses the Countess of Paris, certainly
one Of the greatest ladies in France;
the Orleans Processes, the Countesse
d'Eu, the Countess de Rainneville, the
Vicomtesse Grefulhes, the Comtesse
de Grammount. all go to him for their
toilets. The clever man tells the great
ladies that the actresses COPY from
them-and he says to the actresses
that they set the fashion for the great
ladies. So both classes are pleased,
and no one is any the worse. There
is popular impression that it is the
leading comedy actresses who do set
the fashion in Paris, butt am inclined