The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-27
STYLES In NIGHT-DRESSES.
DAINTY SILK AND LACE CREATIONS.
Mrs. #. w. vauderbilt's Beautiful Night
gowns-Mrs Paran stevens Devot on
10 Black Un6erraime nt-Purple and
Fine Linen of the aIarquise Lama.

Three hundred dollars seems prepos-
ferrous price to pay for one petticoat and
underskirt, and when you think of any
ones buying adozen such 'trifies' at once,
you must own it's enough to make the
average woman gasp with envy and amaze
ment and the average man quake with an
awe that will penetrate even the fibers OF
his pocketbook
And vet this is what Mrs. Langtry has
done, says the New York World. Felix
has lust made for her twelve suits of silk
undergarments costing 500 francs a suit.
They are two separate pieces, and are of
exquisite shades of rose. lemon, blue, lilac,
scarlet, mauve, pale green, as well as black,
white and cream color. There is the little
affair that is neither a chemise nor an
undervest, but which goes on first. Over
this is worn the corset, and then comes a
garment which is the French conception
of the divided skirt A yoke is fitted
smoothly over the hips, and to this is
sewed the divided skirt, each half OF
which measures four yards in width and
is made in almost infnitesimal accordion
plaits Over this, also sewed to the lower
edge OF the yoke, falls another skirt OF
tiny accordion plaits, and this is ten yards
yards wide.
Each of these skirts is edged with the
finest of real lace, yards upon yards OF 1t
being used, and each suit contains 100
yards of silk. The material is exquisite In
texture, and yet is at once very light and
very firm.
The Baroness Plano, who wouldn't let
the queen OF Sheba herself Guido her in
fnerv if she could find out just what her
majesty had worn, has similar sets OF this
silk underwear. all trimmed with the most
costly lace. She has also night dress to
match each suit in color, and some OF
these have 500 worth of lace upon them.
Felix of Paris, who has made this finery,
is a dressmaker, who many consider quite
the equal Of Worth, but he isn't above
| making peticoats, etc, for anybody who
can paw his prices-and he makes nearly
everything in this line that Mrs. l.angtry
wears.
The woman of society, who can not
abide to be surpassed nowadays in reckless
lavishness by any one, has determined to
distance all competitors In ths cost and
bizarre splendor OF those unseen garments
that. though lost to sight, are so dear to
every woman. Hence the most fashion
able thing about a fashionable woman is
her Undertaking. They are the true
test of the degree OF her ton.
For one thing, styles in undercothes are
sort of freemasonry business. They are
not given to the public through ordinary
fashion channels; the pictures OF night
gowns and chemises in women's fashion
magazines are quite without interest to the
four hundred Neither can the selections
OF these exclusive danes be seen in the
smartest and SWEETEST of shops.
IL is considered the proper thing that
there should be an an individuality about
underwear. II il the Geld for the express
sion of personal and poetic fancy, yet in
diyiduality must not run into eccentricity
even here. There are set fashions, definite
tendencies, which must be needed, and
which fashionable women must learn from
| one another.
The great distinctive tendency of the
times is TO silk The typical fashionable
woman is silk-robed from the skin out;
even though the last garment, the one for
the public eve, be of Irish frieze or alleged
| homespun.
The Chinese and India silks that have
been imported in such variety in the late
wears are responsible for this laying aside
OF the fine muslins and linens our mothers
g!oried in and put their eyes out embroid-
erinp. These silks wash perfectly, and
they have provoked Occidental manu-
| facturers TO such competitor that now
great deal Of surah silk is made that is also
washable.
These goods gave lovely woman chance
10 do something delightfully."- novel by
abandoning all the traditions of all tins
| and making her underclothes of silk. At
! first only few we're in the secret, and il
was regarded rs deliciously expensive.
| But soon experience began TO prove that
silk outfits were not necessarily expensive,
and their popularity increased 20 such a
! degree that they no longer conferred dis
| tinction. 1t is, in fact still increasing.
| The shops now have suits of underclothes
i'm white Chinese silk that are compare
| lively Inexpensive.
Clearly. the fashionable woman must be
up and doing or she will be overtaken by
her imitators, and that is the fate she can
never endure. But no one is more ener-
getic than the fashionable woman about
| her fashions. White Chinese silk no
| longer concerns her. She looks upon
white underc othing as antiquated; hers
| is all the co ors of the rainbow--not all the
colors at once, but successively. She wears
everything to match as scrupulously as ii
it were all for public exhibition.
In fact some things that used TO be con
sidered as restricted to the deepest privacy
are now indeed made in degree public
| nichtgowns, for instance. Nightgowns
may be worn through the early hours
when feminine friends are being received
I in boudoirs. Certainly itwould be shame
| if somebody did not get to see them.
A lady acquaintance calling lately on
/ Mrs. Frederick w. Vanderbilt about noon
was received by her in a pink connection
that can only be justly described as a
/ dream. 1t was of pale pink surah, pink
! with delicate lilac tint-or like lilac
! with the first blush upon it. 1t was laid
in the tiniest handmade tucks in the
/ back. running from the throat TO the
/ shoulder blades. The front was composed
of two straight widths Of the surah,
| hemmed about the neck and edged with
an exquisitely fine lace about finger deep
sewed on plain.
Through the hem We're run tiny pink
ribbons, which drew the gown either
loosely or closely about the pretty wearer's
pretty throat and which thus gathered up
! the lace and impaired the necessary full
ness to the beautiful flowing garment.
| The sleeves were made up of lots of tiny
! perpendicular tucks from armhole to ell
! bow, below which they fell in a loose
flounce edged with lace both within and
/ without II a lady cOuld not have rosa