Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18
FAEt0 hARBINGERs.
Wealthy Women Who Order Their
Costumes Six Months Ahead
ARTISTIC STYLES IN DRAPERIES.
Mary Anderson in Directoire Dress and
Plumed Hat.
hARBINGERS.
ARTISTIC STYLES IN DRAPERIES.
EARLY FASHIONS FOR THE COMING FALL
WRITTEN FOR THE DIspATCH.l

tokens that the season is in its last waning
quarter. The town modistes are at work
languidly on dresses for their regular Gus
toners who leave orders six months ahead.
and are content to have their elegant con-
servative materials, Henrietta cloths at So
a yard, and grapes at Sc, wait II months or
so before they see them home. Life is a
routine of ease and provision for such peo-
pie, who lay out plans three and five years
ahead, and have such a contract with fate
that things fall out much as they have or
dered. One lady of family and fortune in
New York, who went into society seldom,
kept 80 black dresses of sober, good ma
terial, hanging in her wardrobe, only six of
which, perhaps, were ever put on in the
year. Nevertheless, each season, she had
them vigorously altered to suit the mode and
put them by, TO be saving of them, as her
ancestresses were when brocades or stufs
were bought for a lifetime.
What comfort we might have now ifclothes
and house linen were made up to last for ten
years. There are fine old chintzes and
India silks up in the attic of this house
which were made when the Recamier style
was originally in vogue, with full short
waists cut on the bias, and slender gigot
sleeves, and there is as much wear in the
fabric now as in half on the counters to-day.
Isn't it better to pay a dollar yard for
print as women did so years ago and have
some good of it, than to make up six cheap
dresses for the wear of one? know an ar
tistic ladv given to studious pursuits who
seriously plans for herself, TO have fine,
firm unbleached cottons ard linens dyed art
colors, indigo blues, light and dark, old reds
and pinks and logwood dahlia shades and
make them up in pretty and becoming styles
not to be altered until the gowns wear out.
For woman no longer young the idea is
not unsuitable, and inspired by thorough
taste, her toilet would always wear a dis
tinction, only it takes @ woman of figure
and breeding to carry out individuality like
this.
STYLES FOR DRAPERIEs.
Speaking of special styles, the artistic
thing now is to design your own patterns for
draperies or dress and have them printed as
well as embroidered for you A very pref
ty set of curtains for a country house where
something was desired that would wash and
wear, was of the best unbleached sheeting,
q yard and a half wide, at % cents or less,
which went to an artist furnishers to be
stamped in various floral patterns, in wild
clematis, in greenish white blossoms and
dull leaves, in old pink single roses or blue
succory stars of that soft lovely hue which
makes beautiful the waysides now in all
New England. The blocks are cut by hand
and dyed in fast colors without finish, and
on the mellow ground the quaint pleasing
designs have an excellent air of use and
charm. The French houses choose the I'm
est quality of cotton sailcloth for printing
in hydrangea and hawthorn patterns for
chateaus in cretonne.
Some artist writer tells of castles above
the Tweed where boudoirs are furnished in
white brocade satin and velvet, renewed
each year to suit some grand dame, but
equal refinement and more is conveyed by
the linen coverings kept fresh by constant
washings. The sofa cushions in linen
damask are so delicously cool on a not day,
soft linen curtains smelling of dried roses,
have an elegance the white velvets never
know. You can't get it with the pounds of
potpourri you buy, which has a culinary
smell like mince pie, it is so strong of
spices. No one out Of five hundred has the
gift of making potpourri as it should be,
with the scent of flowers rather than the
pantry spice box.
THE LATEST ENGLISH PERFUME
The new English perfume is white clover,
the breath OF meads and honey scent;
summer room furnished in white mating
and bamboo with turquoise linen curtains
and cushions it harmcnlzes benignly. Such
a room TO be in keeping requires the fashion
able cut crystal globes ior roses, the clear
glass lily vases and tall silver lamps, with
primrose, saffron or turquoise silk shades.
The most elegant suites Tor country houses
are white mahogany, cleaT wood-like
hickory with a rich creamy tint, made in
A.. Al Y. IL
polish or a bead of carving in slight relief
and the finest effect There is reaction
from the bold renaissance carving which
educated modern eyes grow very tired OF in
few seasons, and the richest suites are in
studied plainness and perfect finish.
l really think Boston is the place to buy
artistic furniture at reasonable cost. One of
the artistic shops, whose name is a guaran-
tee OF fine workmanship and absolute taste
will sell you beautifully finished suits in
choice woods, something out of the common
in material and design, from S44 to $50,
which my dear New York-dear sometimes
in a double sense, / regret to say-would not
sell for less than $75 to S125, machine-made |
at that. A very pretty style for ornamental
pieces, upright pianos, for instance, has in
cised or sunk carving in dull wood in a pol
ished panel, with the effect of rich engray-
ing. Cherry wood in its light natural color,
highly polished, is quite as admired as
mahogany, and it is our Northern mahogany
for all intents and purposes.
PHOTOGRAPHIC FURNISHINGS.
Some pretty individual conceits in furn-
ishings are noted. What to do with photo |
graphs is often question, and the last way |
OF disposal is mounting them in the upper |
panels of folding screen, where they are fit |
ted in silk, plush or cretonne fat borders, |
with isinglass slipped over the picture in |
lieu of glass. Below is a ten-inch space of |
polished wood with shallow rallied shelf to |
hold china, and drawn silk of cretonne be- |
low. An octagon tea table has large cab |
met photos arranged below the border with |
wood frames and isinglass face, which is |
lighter and less likely to break than glass. |
Or row may be set on the wall like tiles |
with fiat wood framing, and beveled glass |
over each which helps the tile effect. |
Choice views or fancy pictures are set in |
long plain frames, a wide view, for instance, |
ir the middle and panels of cabinet size at |
each end. The fancy for grouping small |
pictures in one francis old-fasihoned and in |
good effect, for related scenes or portraits |
have an intelligent interest which adds to
their sentiment and value.
A frame full of Mary Anderson's pictures
is very ornamental, for she is better in pho
tographs than in anything else. In her
dashing directory dress and plumed hat,
voluminous muslin and lace cravat and
cane, she looked feminine love-lace, or a
beauty of tine last century just ready to
elope if you gave her the chance, and her
various pictures in park dress were perfect
studies of costume. Her last pictures awak-