Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-06
SPRING FASHIONS.
DECORATING THE NEW SPRING
BONNETS

NE w
BONNETS.
The Woods and the Fields Rihed of
Their Treasures-A New Use for Mush-
rOOms-Dress Fabrics-Street and In
door Dress-The March Opening Days.
Correspondence Of he Morning Meas.
NEW YORK, April 4.-The March OPEN
ing days were this year mild as May.
After an exceptionally stormy winter and
torrents of rain in the early part of the
month, which removed the slush from the
streets, the sun shone on pavements as
nearly clean as it is the lot of the New
Yorker to see, and the spring exhibitions
of the large Fourteenth street and avenue
houses were attended by such crowds as
have been seldom seen of late years. To
say that fashions are now decided
in any direction would be to say
what is not true, for never were
styles of all kinds more undecided,
never was the dress of woman more made
UP of unrelated parts" than as displayed
at the recent openings. 1t is a mixed
season, say the dealers. One would
imagine that it must be a very gay one by
the jocund aspect of bonnets and para
soils, the mingling of every creature, if
not Of every creatures best, in design
and ornamentation. The woods, the
earth, the air, the sea. have all been
rltled OF their treasures even more
extensively than the gardens, and the
results are frequently grouped or mixed
IN fashion that would reduce a system
attic scientist to despair or insanity.
Unconscious innocence of this type for
merly contented itself with putting gera-
MUM leaves with rosebuds, and rose
leaves with stock gilli-f1Owers. Ivy would
form background for field daisies, and
the innocent pansy be lost in the embrace
Of stalwart begonia. But now we have
beds of mushrooms in close iuXtapositiOn
with wild roses and large English walnuts
tumbling over maiden hair ferns. Entire
fruit farms seem to have been denuded
OF their contents, and are grouped
in anything but natural clusters. for
no small twig could sustain dozen fmore
or less) Of large purple plums or russell
pears from one stem. Flowers are gen.
orally small and very delicate, mounted
with more precision, and are more ac-
ceptable to quiet tastes than these punches
OF large fruit which have no relation to
anything whatever except a curious nov
city in "basket" straw. This straw imi-
tates the braided twigs seen in Swiss bas-
kets, and appears in the same dull green
and reddish brown tints. Fruit hanging
over these fruit basket bonnets does not
seem out of place, only the whole thing
seems out Of place upon woman's head.
THE BISCUIT BONNET.
There is a fearful poverty of ideas with
all the garishness and glitter. The best
things are, as always, those that are most
quiet and harmonious in tone and STYLE
GOOD taste never eXaggerates, and always
tones down the pronounced into the re-
hned and gentle. The materials used in
millinery are so diversified and so snowy
that the greatest care is required in selec-
ton, and prices are paid not for what is
put on hat or bonnet, but for what is left
off-the more prOfuse the trimming the
least valuable as a rule and the cheaper
the bonnet. Biscuit tints are fashion
able this season, as they have been, more
or less, every spring for many years.
They always appear with the new
lmpOrtatlOnS because they are used as a
mark of distinction and in the making of
the most elegant fabrics abroad, and are
sent here with a natural idea that they
possess the same significance. But this
is not the case at all. In France, particu-
larly in Paris, and to less extent in
London, black is the badge of labor; it is
the uniform of the business and profess
sional woman, while the laboring popu-
lations are still more widely separated
from fashion and its votaries, more
the short stuff or cotton dress
and the clumsy ana time-honored
accessories of their class. Abroad, there
fore, these fine tints, even more than
white, are badge of distinction and the
evidence of belonging to a class. Hyde
Park and the Bots de BOulOgne are gay
with the most delicate tints-pale blue,
sea-shell pink, buff, ecru and cream white
while the streets Of the two great cities,
English and French, are black morning
and evening with the myriads of business
and professional workers, who form the
same sort of funeral procession from the
cradle to the grave.
. Tints are of course used here, but are
reserved mainly for evening wear, except
by those who are not fashionable, and
who, having bought dress for best, wear
il upon the street or elsewhere whenever
in their opinion the occasion seems to de-
mand it-whether the color be red, green,
blue, yellow or white. This mixes our
street fashions considerably and renders a
dark, simple dress for the street-one evil
IDENTIFY made and kept for the purpose
more elegant than a light one. At the
coaching parade of last year and the year
before for the first time very light colors
and tinted whites in silks and satins
were uISIJldA gu ny buG ldtAlGS W lO OCtulll
the seats; but the attempt to reproduce
the Longchamps was not a success, for
the cold grey of our uncertain skies made
light colors look colder still, and forced
their wearers to conceal them beneath
long coats or fur-lined cloaks. The use of
gold favOrs the biscuit tint which re-
quires something stronger than itself to
give it character. Nothing prettier in
bonnets is to be seen than the fine gold
lace over the crown, and small brim OF
biscuit satin, and the soft aigrette OF
marabout, biscuit colored, powdered with
fine gold.
STRAW AND LACE.
The straw bonnets are quite secondary
as yet to the bOnnets made up of gold OF
embroidered, or real lace over satin, and
trimmed with aigrettes and gold
ornaments, or with fine flow
ers. Gold lace over prim-
rose satin looks well, and fine, real lace
over pink with aigrette of white marabOut
powdered with silver. But it must always
be understood that gold lace in small de-
signs and of genuine untarnishable quail
ity is meant. The market is glutted with
coarse rubbish that it is an insult to the
intelligence Of the average woman to
make for her wearing.
The novelty in straw is hat with a
high crown and brim rolled upon the edge,
which is enlarged in a circular form upon
the front, so that upon the head it assumes
the appearance of a bonnet. The trim
ming consists of a scarf of lace or folds
of velvet placed round the crown, and of
a grouped or clustered ornament often
mounted as an aigrette, which is placed
high against the front of the crown. The
favorite colors in these straws is dull ecru
or light mulberry, the most fashionable
colors of the season. Upon the mulberry
tint a darker shade of mulberry would be
used for velvet folds and facing, and
group of mushrooms, natural color. with
upright wings. A dark ecru hat Of this
kind was trimmed with mulberry folds
and facing and groups Of three, it is to be
supposed, blind mice, above which a
cocks plume swept over the crown.
The straw curtain entOmbed for nearly
a quarter of a century reappears upon
bonnets-mainly for girls-Of double Eng
lish straw, and the Mother Hubbard, the
high peaked crown and poke brim over
shadow the small cottage, and capote
shapes, which, however, will doubtless
hold their own. To give an appearance
of novelty to the small bonnet square
crowns have been introduced; but they
will simply lead to its temporary eXter-
minatiOn, for as the innovation appears
in the majority of cases, its ugliness is
without motive and against that reason
able law which demands that change shall
show something in the way of improve
mont