Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-04
From Our Own Correspondent.


Mr.. Edmund P. Russell, the rising young
artist who has excited much interest of late
by his lectures on art as it relates to dress and
every day life, says that the dress of women is
controlled by the word stylish, which means
one thing to-day and another tomorrow,
whereas 1t ought to be governed by expression,
which is the outward evidence of interior taste
and character. He declares that art is not draw
ing, but that it underlies all of life and brings
us into harmonious relations with all the forces
about us. He deprecated the wearing of tight
fitting dresses by large women, declaring that
while 1t deprived them of majesty 1t vulgar
lied them and gave them an appearance of
bulk, of meat" bullying out in every direction
He thought large women should be proud of
their size, and rather increase than diminish
the grandeur of the effect. There is no reason
why all women should be reduced to the pain
full degree of slenderness.
He thought the figure should not be revealed,
but suggested by the motion of graceful cloth
ing; that 1t should not be fitted like a ballet
dancer with tights, but draped for warmth and
for harmonious relationship with itself and with
Its environment. He deprecated the use of de-
tached figures in stuffs such designs as said.
at me am a water lily, or a rose, or a tulip.
or strawberry, or bunch of grapes. l am
prettier-at least more showy-than the real
thing ITSELF" Designs of a distinctive character
may be used where the object is large enough,
and the folds of a size to conceal and suggest
should ''sing,'' not talk. Its lines should yield
to every motion of the plant figure and Should
suggest every possibility of beauty and grace
without saying, by destinations display. II am
beautiful am graceful"
He cited Ellen Terry example of grace
fulness and perfect harmony of color and design
in dress, but said that generally the dress of
women was like the furniture in our houses-a
mere collection of unrelated parts.
ILLUSTRATING BY EXAMPLE.
Some of the stuffs designed and manufactured
by the associated artists Mrs. Wheelers) were
exhibited as models of beauty and of skill in
manufacture. The majority are designed for
upholstery purposes, but after much close ex-
animation he had found nothing so suitable for
artistic dressing. The reverse side of the rich
est stuffs were best suited for dress purposes
because on these the colors were blended in
shimmering beauty through which the designs
were outlined and suggested like the Landscape
I'm a lake. Some looked like cloth of gold ON
the under side, and in all it was quite subject
fol. discussion as to which was the prettier
The soft silk and silk of lighter texture he re-
commended for the slender and willowy
women-the more massive textures for larger
women, who should wear vatican, princesse,
dresses from the shoulder, but no tiny lace
Tutiies, or small ribbon bows, or coquettish
little frippery of that sort.
He was very severe upon corsets and bustles,
upon whatever tended to check the natural
growth and developme Mt of the body to prevent
full and deep breathing, or to alter the pure
outline of the human form. An error of this
kind he considered more serious than we could
imagine, because the mischief did not end with
the displacement-the loss of vital powers of
any one organ. 1t changed the relation of the
made him discord instead of note of har-
mony.
But he had nothing to say to those who
wanted direct instruction as to how they
should dress-what cOlOrs and textures they
should employ. The only suggestion he had to
make was that the hair furnished key note to
becoming color, ard that no dress could posi-
bly, be devised that would suit ALL ought to
suit all, dress-reformers to the contrary not
outstanding. The ultimate dress would be
partly the result of the general intelligence of
the race, partly OF the taste and cultivation of
q V limo n: r,sr
that does not belong where it is placed-a sin
and an afhiction. though often We not con-
sc1Ous or 1t; and he said the world had suffered,
or rather had not begun to feel the Joy it would
experience in a knowledge and adaptation to
harmony to activity and growth. 1t had been.
ne thought an infinite pity that religions had
olscouraged art, because true art holds all good
itself
THE NEW HATS AND BoNNETs.
There is little that is new in shape in bonnets,
but much that is new in trimming The small
capote still fingers, but shows many varieties of
brim. Some are curved in at the top and flare
like little outspread wings. Others copy the
Marie front of the Marie Stuart head dress Still
others show modified poke. All have brim
OF some kind, and are not mere crowns fitted to
the head The hats are the more aggressive in
appearance. The majority are unlike what
one would naturally select for q modest girl to
wear that 1t is surprising how they could have
been manufactured for such use. The crowns
are enormously high, and are still more exag-
gerated by the arrangement of the trimming
The whole effect is bold and very pronounced
ana Tor such customers will not tolerate
styles OF this description the millners are using
ali their ingenuity to tone down and modify by
SIMPLE arrangement of quiet materials and
softly blended tints and colors. The general i'm
preston OF the bonnets for spring and 'between''
the autumn. Indeed, the styles might yery
well be interchangeable; the same Melted gold
ana ana emp embroidered crowns the same gold wheat
same gold lace, and the same dark Shades of
color There Is an entire absence as whole of
the freshness that one welcomes and Graves in
the spring, and ii is only critical examination
In detail that reveals here and there q Quaint
little bonnet of pale ecru straw or transparent
lace, the former trimmed with the new wide
ribbons In soft cOlors and medieval designs set
up on the top OF the crown in loops after the Al
satan fashion, the folds pinned down with
small gold pins, with tiny hammered heads or
acorn tops in miniature. The interior of the
silk, the tint of the ribbon ground but there is
no other trimming except the strings, which
may De OF velvet and tie at the side.
CHANCES FOR ORIGINALITY
There are possibilities in the materials pro
vided this season for lovely compositions in
millinery; but they are expensive, and the pop
ular method Is to pile up quantity of cheap
and snowy bits of ma terial and tinselled orna
ment and call it fashionable or ..stylish and
then 1t is swallowed without question like q
pill in capsule ~
In the way of original combinations nothing is
prettler than pale shades of ecru and fine gold
n, III
Is much associated with high color: but il is
much more delicate and artistic in a combjna-
lion OF soft tints without any effect of contrast
The gold, too, that is used for the finer kinds of
!aoric is very different from the ordinary mt
INTO cheaper manufactures. The first is real
japanese gold thread twisted round a base of
SILK, cotton or linen; the others are mere threads
OF Daser metal, which tarniSh immediately and
sPoll the articles TO which they are applied
novelty introduced last season. but widely
PopuiariZed this spring, consists of an open
mesh material in pale ecru tints upon which
designs are printed in soft old colors-ouaint
heraldlc devices 1t is fine canvas grenadine
known as etamine, and appears largely in
nandkerchlefs aad scarfS the shields borders
ana lines, does or stripes Hat and Representing
tapestry or cross-stltch. These are used for the
trimming OF hats and bonnets-the scarfs for
the former, the handkerchiefs for the latter
the prettlest simply pinned and LETT i'm soft
folds and bows without any addition of Ir,n 81.
or aigrettes or pompons or hideous lunches Of
mixed flowers with gold or green metallic
grass. ~
Transparent bonnets are light LOOKING and
very pretty. The black are jetted: the ivory or
cream lace, embroidered in pearls yeinad
sometimes with gold. A very costly imported
bonnet for evening wear is of fine lace embroi-
Qered with mixture of pearls and opaIescent
BEADS, with veining of pale gold. The feature
OF the trimming Is an aigrette of exouisitely
United marabout feathers tipped with gold
Grape In rose color. gray and white is revived
Us material for bonnets, and etamine ribbons
when are considered elegant are embroidered
win triple dots OF chenille in two neutral tints
or colors. ~
FEATURES IN DESIGN AND DECORATION.