Morning journal and courier., 1888-05-22

mer Resorts-W White Frocks, Gowns Of Gauge, SILK and Wool Yelling BIg Hats and Bonnets-GoId and TinseI Braids-FashIon Notes.
 NEW YORK, May 19. ! To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Spring is here. Touch her gently, handle her daintily, for soon she will be gone. We have no spring to speak of in this isotherm
 of New York, and it is rapidly fixing the fact that we have no actual spring fashions. On all the cool days of May we wear our winter wraps if not our sealskins. If We put on light shoulder cape, which we call 1 spring wrap (but it is really dress decora- tion), we wait until the day is as hot as June or we wear chamois jacket under our cor sage. Spring jackets proper are rarely worn, nor are they wearable until after the middle of May or the first of June. Some pretty cheviot and light weight cloth and flannel suits are made up into tailor gowns and tray cling dresses. But in the spring we are most ly occupied in preparation for our rapidly ad- vancing, quick coming summer.
 The tailor gown has become a necessity, a | matter of course, in every woman's wardrobe effects nowadays. It is made in severely sim pie style for early morning and travelling wear, but for dressy, outdoor occasions it is 8 metal-braided, gold and silver tinseled, military-buttoned wonder of gown this year. On the hunting field, on the tennis ground (but not for the players to wear, only the spectators), on the lawn, in the city for early afternoon and shopping, it is still the favorite gown of the American girl. doubt that English girls are half so fonF of it. l am sure they do not press it into such uni versal service as the American girl does. One thing is certain. It is a much more or nate. dressy gown on this side of the Allan ! tic than on the other. For the American girl always likes 8 French rendering of an | English style; and no one planes her for it. | But it is of the summer festival gown that | I will discourse at present for the lady read CTS of the JOURNAL AND COURIER. White dresses will be the rage this season, white 1 nainsook, white challie (the fabric we called yelling last season), white flannel and white | albatross cloth, white Chudda, white plain l and broche China silk, white bengaline white India and Algerine gauges, (they are | both French fabrics really) white brocaded l and moire, and peau de soie and surah, and { striped satin and faille silks, and nainsook, Swiss and embroidered null muslins-a per- | feet twist of white fabrics-are being made | up for wear at the watering places and lake | side and mountain resorts this summer. Lace, gold and silver braid, ribbon-any | quantity of it-and buttons of gold and sil- yer flagree and of tinted and pure white mother of pearl in those iridescent effects | that have given them the name of cat's-eye buttons, no matter what the color may be I trim these wondrous white dresses.
 They are made up in every imaginable l style from the Josephine gown to the Marie Antoinette, but the skirts hang in more clas- I sic lines from waist to hem, and the hustle will be smaller and grow less and less over which they will be worn.
 While white will be the favorite festival | dress of the season, it will not be worn to the exclusion of color. Never was the sub- l ject of color in dress so well understood and so admirably applied as at present. All col ors are worn, but there is tendency to tlnge them all, no matter what the shade of green, l blue, rose, yellow, brown or purple may be, with a hint of dusky gray. There are gauges tulles, faces, silks; brooches and yeilings of green gray, blue gray, rose gray, brown gray, purple and yellow gray. when made up with ribbons and buttons to match. with tinted gold and silver tinsel braids and span gies, with laees and embroideries, the "ef- feetsn may be imagined. Then how beauti- full a few such gowns look at 8 summer nights festival among the hundreds of dres- sy, gauzy, pearl and crystal beaded, gold and silver braided white gowns. We are prom ised a summer of wondrously magnificent and artistic "effects" in dress this year.
 Lawn and garden party dresses for after noon wear are made of figured bengalines and China silks combined with plain mateIi- al of the same sort; of plain and figured challies. veilings and sateens. These are ex- quisitely trimmed with white, cream, coffee nd gold and silver buttons and metal brsids, and with fiots, bows and knots of ribbon. Some are made in the outgoing, long, waisted, peaked bodice, looped drapery, Louis XVI styles, others in the incoming, | short-waisted. puffed sleeved, surplice or l Josephine bodice, or directory styles, with | full but undraped skirts and no bustles to speak of. No matter what the kind of | dress worn this summer, the hustle will not be large, and the knowing ones say 1 that it will grow beautifully less and less as the summer advances. We shall see.
 1 Hats for midsummer wear will be very l large, very picturesque and trimmed to ex- cess with ribbon, flowers, feathers and metal | ornaments, with tinsel braid and with lace l and embroidery on silk.
 I Bonnets grow larger, but small bonnets
 | remain the favorites of American women.
 l Still it is anticipated that with the revived ! directory and first French empire gowns
 1 that are growing in fashionable favor, we
 l will have the big empire bonnet worn by the
 | Empress Josephine for the preferred wear oi
 l fashionable women next fall.
 The gloves of the season are of undressed
 kid or suede, of silk and lisle thread. The
 colors run through the gamut of grays
 l browns, tans, green grays and blue grays
 with endless variations in shadings and me,
 dium tones. The girls who affect the highest
 style ask for gloves in shades of eucalyptus
 brown and tan. It is quite the 'sfad" of tht
 moment to match the gloves and shoes witt
 the prevailing tint of the gown