Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-05-02
THE WORLD OF FASHION.

| THE WORLD OF FASHION.
| A sVe1vet''0S easOn-SprinG Abolished
Widows Outfit for a Second Mar
| riage-Girls Toilets.
From Our Own Correspondent
| NEW YORK, Mayi
There is no better evidence OF the confusion
and want Of sense that presides over the dress
affairs OF women than the growing failure to
differentiate the seasons and associate with
each one something of the special charm which
distinguishes it In nature. In the spring
delicacy of tint, soft gentle fabrics and early
flowers. For the summer, cool blues and white
or buff In diaphanous materials; straw bonnets
trimmed with lace or muslin and wild roses
Then, naturally, the fall would bring to US oul
darker woods and dahlia tints, and the winters
furs and velvets find their proper place.
But dress has now become like the bill OF fare
at big American hotel-all alike all the year
round; everything on the bill OF fare at the same
time, and at all times; no selection and no en-.
| loyment. This profusion without fitness or dis
| examination is what we have arrived at in dress
we nave tule In winter and velvet in summer
| we have big roses and tropical leaves and high
| coiors and thick brocades and heavy beaded
| trimmings and embroidered silks and satins fol
| oU'y' wv hofC HOW UOuiCcS anu DdTt dTluB WIFI
the thermometer at zero, and high bodices and
thick ruches with the temperature at ninety in
the shade.
| 1t does not meet the case to say that women
can make their own selection and that it is their
own fault If they chose for summer what they
have worn In winter. Then somewhere there
must be dreadful waste, a shameful expendi-
| ture OF time, capital. strength and labor which
might as well be put to better uses But, in
| fact when we say that everything is provided
| III n Qyfhp lnl,
| exact truth. just as we do not speak strictly &C
cording TO fact when we say that ''every thing
| IAN be found On bill OF fare. We think so be-
| cause OF the variety and profusion, but very
often II you want the simplest thing. such as
| bowl of good oatmeal Cruel, you could not
ma IL nor could money procure it for you. Pre-
| cisely so it is again with dress. You can get
every thing within the limits of what happens to
be the craze of the hour But little investigation
viii show how narrow these limits are, and no W
| barren OF ideas, one thing being merely an echo
| of another.
For example: A lady who does her own think
Ing decided that tor a spring dress she would
nave 1aWn-colOred satin surah, with interior
facing OF soft shade Of strawberry or apricot
FaWn is one Of those fine neutral tints that are
supposed to be always In stock, and strawberry
and apricot are the colors most fashionable this
season. She visited three Of tho largest dry
goods and silk houses (retaiD In the city of New
York. and could not succeed in getting plain
satin surah or surah silks Of any kind In these
shades. There were thousands Of black mon
grel silks-shot, figured. striped, checked spot
| ted. There were brOcades in suns. moons and
zOdiacal signs. There were pear-shaped heart
shaped and melon-shaped observation-disclosures beau
tifully wrought but bold, detached. and looking
more like the separate parts of dessert, cracked
walnuts and green figs included, than the orna-
mentation of a dress fabric. There is only one
consolation for the madness that seems to pos
sess the manufacturers and wearers of wOmen's
| clothing, and that Is this: it cannot last The
laws that govern supply and demand forbid it,
All thinking women are sickened Of the ir-
rational methods by which their dress il gov
erned, and though they have not arrived at q
point Of open rebellion, and do not even know
how far or In what way they would like to be
enanclpated from bondage that is not so
much one Of fashion az of trade, yet the time
VIII come when they will know what they
want, will demand it, and will have their re-
quirements met.
CIRCUS STYLES.
The styles for the present season may we'll be
denominated "circus" fashions. They make a
big show and they range from the sublime to
the grotesque. They revive the hump and
fasten it In the middle Of the back, with sleeves
to the outer garment that look like expanded
wings much-dressed woman used to be
ilkened to peacock, but a peacock ia a diyni-
ned and solemn bird nowadays beside the
gold or many-cOlored pumage cooked I'D there
and swollen out here, and with patches of bright
red and yellow all over. Bonnets and parasOls
are OF piece with the rest Of the outfit. The
coiors Wnicn were formerly put into the trim
mlngs OF the bonnets, and sparingly at that. are
now dyed IN the straw and laring moons OF in
verted scoops and the like crown the wonderful
superstructnres Of color and form.
few years ago the :'Gainsborough" reintro-
duced created new departure, and was Welcomed
To olo hoo
was followed by the Rembrandt and others not
wholly unworthy copies from famous historic
models; and II there was nothing original in
them there was something at least noble and
picturesque. But this season has contributed
SO far nothing that Ia worthy Of mention to
| either fabric or design. The hats and bonnets
are modified tribe, mostly shorn OF their best
features, and left In form that ia neither pro-
tectiVe nor picturesque, while the trimmings
are gilded thistles. gilded birds, stiff gilded
pompOns, gilded apples and grapes-in short. a
Barmecide feast, all show and glitter, but With
out 0ny sweetness satisfaction, or reality.
Trade In great cities Is fast becoming a demon
Juggernaut, that the public, and women espec-
ANY, are sacrificed to. Last year parssols ex-
hlbited monstrositesin the shape OF lunches and
cOrdons Of artificial flowers. Artificial flowers
have been declining for several years Is it an
evidence OF the growth of good tastes? Some
times one hopes that 1t is.) Anyhow, the fact
remains and, naturally. they have accumulated.
high price for parasols decorated in this tawdry
way, and were 30 struck by the bad taste and
folly of such an exhibition that they tore the
things of almost before they had been seen.
This season We have the highest and most prO-
nounced cOlors which have heretofore been used
singy put into alternate stripes blocked off into
large checks, or combined in huge figures These
are the novelties 1t is true, ladies are not
obliged to buy them. They can fall back on the
black surah trimmed with Spanish. lace, and,
by looking, they can find some pretty STYLES in
chene silk. in spOtted foulards, in pongee. lined
with shrimp PINK, or strawberry tints. and some
In small pin checked silks, which are intended
to match summer costumes
Taking general look over the whole ground.
one can find nothing good that ia new and
nothing new that is good. OF course there are
exceptions so far as technical qualities in the
color and designs Of fabrics are concerned: but
even in these cases they are rarely adapted as
well to form and the special purposes of dress
for women. They might as wen, or better be
models for wall paper, although even for these
purposes bold detached figures, which bear no
relationship to the material they decorate or the
object it covers, but simply pit it, as it were,
with small pox. cannot be considered desirable
or as possessed of artistic value The one GOOD
thing in this mass of incODeruitias and daforui