The Opelousas courier., 1890-11-29
FAMILY FASHIONS.
Beautiful Ginghams in French Colors Il
Pcatty Summer Gowns.

Beautiful Ginghams in French Colors for
Pretty Summer Gowns.
While French styles are open to
criticism for their lack of refinement
and utility in adaptation to street
dress, and the revival of eighteenth
century styles can a revival OF a
certain "~loudness" in dress, it a not
be denied that the French fashions for
cotton house-dresses are beautiful and
picturesque. The soft, beautiful colors
of Sevres porcelains are reproduced in
the summer cottons. These are tur-
quoise blues, deep Dubarry rose hues.
dark Mazarin blue shades, pale winter
greens, primrose colors and clear
porcelain yellows as pale as the pure
rose colors of a few seasons past.
Above and beyond all other colors
rose-pink shades prevail and line OF
rose are introduced with pale blue
green called dragon in nearly all med
ley of colors. These colors are lovely
in cottons for fair young faces, but
matrons past the first bloom of youth
shun these girlish, brilliant colors,
and women of taste will adopt the
subdued colors, which are shown in
grayish blues, pinkish drabs and
pure grays, which are mingled
with lines and bands OF pure
white. The favorite material for
the summer cotton gown which
provident housewives prepare for their
families in the depth of winter, is
zephyr cloth or ginghams, which in
the new colors seem to have lost all
their old-time individuality. There
are only a few plaids, and these
are large and pronounced, for
entire costumes, which are worn
every season to some extent. The
majority of the ginghams are
striped in fine patterns, the finest be-
ing merely a white thread woven in
warp producing a striped effect and
the widest not often owe an inch in
width. Inch bands in different color,
with or without lace stripes, are al
ready sought after. Careful pur-
chasers, however, avoid all lace
striped fabrics and all epen-work pat
terms in cotton goods, for all these fab
RIGS thicken So much in the first
wash that lace patterns lose all their
sheerness and beauty. A familiar ex-
ample of this is the o%pen-work striped
white cottons, which were sold a few
years ago for dressing sacques and
white dresses. The goods were so
pretty that they easily found pur-
chasers, but no laundress was ever
able to prevent the open-work stripe
from thickening and presenting a
coarse appearance after washing.
Lace-striped ginghams will wear
and wash in about the same
way. There are so many beau
tiful ginghams without lace stripes,
but with sometimes raised threads
in curving line, outlining stripes
and other patterns as dainty and
attractive that will well and
wash well, that there is no excuse for
buying a gingham that loses its beauty
in the hands of the first laundress.
The Scotch ginghams with a ground
figured with tiny figures like the old
fashioned ''brilliant" eottons are ex-
ceedingly pretty, though they are no
longer a novelty. The best qualities
of Scotch ginghams in new patterns
range in price from 40 to As cents.
French zephyr ginghams are from IS
cents up to rs, and some elaborate or
nate patterns are more expensive.
A sheer pretty cotton in eross-barred
and striped effect, called Madras cot
ton, is 35 cents. Satines are little
except in districts remote from
the great trade centers of the East. A
cotton gown has no right to take on
the gloss of silk, and any dress which
is Sc difficult to laundry as Saline, is
not likely to find favor long with prac-
tical persons. Now that Saline is out
of fashion it seems hopelessly vulgar.
Good Housekeeping.