Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-10-05
FASHIONS FOR OCTOBER.
THE NEW BONNET AND THE
COMING CLOAK.


Plain Cloth Tailor Made Dresses
The Latest Novelties In Trimmings and
Accessories.
C0rresDondeace oftle NorHiaG Neaos.
NEW YORK. Oct. Questionable wo-
men ought certainly to be credited with
courage if they dare to exhibit the styles
which have appeared at the Openings"
and now ill the shop windows in all the
great business thoroughfares. We have
gotten little used to pigs and pUgs, but
now we have frogs and other reptiles in
close communion with the daintiest fab
RIGS. We have drum-major hats mounted
with birds and aigrettes until a steeple
seems modest by comparison. Beside
these we have more spangle and tinsel
than would set up generation Of ballet
girls; and effects in combination that
would be startling in raree show, and
would surprise any one capable of that
very ancient and almost extinct sensa-
tiOn.
With all this, however, it is a dis
cOuTaging task to go through the fashion
able shops and see the waste of material
the actual dearth of ideas, and the despe-
rate attempts TO supply their place with
succession of mOuntebank tricks and
shams which have neither dignity nor per-
manency, but simply puzzle women into
paying high price for being lay figures
and wearing the tTappings in this COM
mercIal procession Of the ages. There is
no serious attempt to invest the dress of
woman with any purpose or meaning; to
classify or characterize it according TO its
function. 1t is all, as yet, a muddle, not
outstanding the efforts now and again
10 adapt styles and materials to natural
them hni
junction shall be understood and appre-
clated. The bOldness of design, the
gorgeous masses Of color, eXcites a sort
OF passion in crude and not well dis
ciplined minds which they cannot resist.
They must have this wild and odd and
beautiful thing which stimulates their
fancy, but which is wholly out of place
in their lives and surroundings. Thus
the most extraordinary exhibitions are
made upon the street because there is no
where else TO display the acquisition, and
the exhibitor is not in the least aware
that the incOngruity renders her pitiable
instead Of an object Of admiration in the
eyes Of all intelligent people. i
In the forms of the present season, the
making up" OF materials, there is not
much to complain OF. About many of the
designs there is a simplicity and grace
which is delightful, and recalls the best
eras through which the clOthin of women
sims, tne gingnams and the cotton satines
of the past season brought back simpler |
styles OF making as necessity of their |
washable character, and they have been |
boon in this respect as well as from a sani-
IaTy p9int Of view, Clothes that can be |
washed are a necessity of this climate |
during the summer months both for men 1
and women, and many of the former re- |
gret the loss of the linen and white duck" !
suits that came fresh from the laundress |
every week and made life endurable, ii 4
not enjoyable. The prettiest dresses that |
have been worn during the past season |
have been the straight skirted linens and |
lawns and muslins, with the single ruttie |
and the Old-fashiOned gathered waist or 1
yoke and belt and little kerchief or fichn. |
They are rot the styles for the drawing |
room, but why not put some character |
Even into drawIng-roOm etyles-sOme in-
diyiduality? Why follow copy with such
helpless rigidity as If it were destruction
to 90 outside certain prescribed lines and
forms. Materials are abundant and di- ]
versihed, at least they seem 10 be so until !
you try to get something different from |
those which form the current styles Of the |
season; and at any rate there is sufficient |
variety for every woman to more or less /
correctly express her own taste. The |
difficulty is in the women themselves. !
They do not know what they like. They |
do not cultivate a conscience in regard to /
their clothes, and do not refuse to accept |
what they consider Of doubtful utility, |
taste or morality.
VELVET PRISE.
Three years and half ago in Antwerp /
L found a costume trimmed with broad /
band OF uncut velvet upon satin, in lace /
pattern. Ii was the first time had seen /
this effect produced in a fabric, and few /
weeks later, in a conversation with Nj. /
Worth, at little watering place in the |
Black Forest ( Wildback) L described it; |
and though he criticized the Lace elect |
which was not lace-he said he had begun /
to use it and would show me some sam |
pies. which he afterwards did, and which |
were duly reported in these letters. The |
velvet frise, the novelty Of the season, in /
rich fabrics is the uncut velvet figure |
upOn satin without the lace effect ;that Is TO |
saw i'm mixed sail over" patterns, and |
with a curl in the loop which aids its ex- |
preston. Exquisite shaded effects are /
introduced into the large disc flower pat !
terms, into tulips and begOnia leaves, but |
the small, delicate, bOrder-like and rec |
tangular designs have wholly disap- |
peaIsd, and the patterns are those OF /
rich velvet and satin brOcades, the /
admirable softness and delicacy in tlnts |
aud finish of the silk looping upon richest /
SATIN grounds, giving TO the fabric its dis !
tnctiOn. A novel feature in uncut velvet /
consists of the Ottoman grounds, in which |
real gold threads are introduced. These |
effects are employed in cut as we'll as un- |
cut velvet, the gold Teappearingl In twisted |
silk in the outlining OF the velvet design. |
Ottoman Nelvets, with gold effects, are /
only suitable for the trains of very rich |
evening dresses, or for evening or recep- |
tiOn clOaks or dOlmans. They are too |
pronounced for day wear, unless as part |
of a strictly carriage toilet.
Last season, and indeed for two years |
past, tie figured materials have been |
used in small quantities for the front, and |
panels OF handsome dresses such as re- /
ceptiOn and dinner toilets; but this season |
they are employed with more distinction |
for princesse trains, the entire front OF
the dress being composed OF lace over
satin with con very dressy occasions lace |
sleeves. Ii should be remembered, how |
ever, that lace sleeves are never suitable
for day wear, and when they are men,
toned in connection with dinner and at
ternOon reception costumes it is because /
they take place at late hour, by gas
light, and admit, if they do not require,
semi-evening dress.
A very stylish-lOOking dress is by no
means an annihilating affair since we
have very striking looking plain (nOt
uncut) velvet brOcades for 81 80 per
vsrd-seve1 Yards only required for
a moderate train; satin surah
for 81 per yard, nNe yards, IOr
the foundation Of the front, and lace (ef-
fective if not real) anywhere from 75c. per
yard to any price the purchaser is willing
to pay: two and One-hah yards of piece
lace at 81 per yard will make the full vest
front, the short draped apron, and the
sleeves; and five yards of bouncing, the
scant ruflies over the soft puffs of satin
surah upon. the front; and jabOt for one
side, the drapery and clustered ribbons or
other ornaments forming the finish upon
the other.
WOODEN COSTUMES.
All the new wooden materials are in
combinations Of figured with plain stuffs.
The coarse bison cloths reappear, plain
and embroidered, as last year, only SEEM
ing rOugher, and with more, or rather
cTuder, color In the figures. The soft
Oriental touch and feeling in the larger
impOrtations was in fact too artistic for
popular appreciation, which even vet.
in spite Of our improved interiors" re-
jOices in pronounced cOlOrs and fiavOrs.
New designs, which look like printers
x are executed in gray leather outlined
with silver upon gray camel's hair, and
there are others in which the figures are
r,fy~trr~o If chenille an1 ffuEoIcI thread