Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-08-22
NOTES ON THE FASHIONS.

Some Fresh Fancies In Feminine Apparel
Women have given attention to
dress, it is true, and have been accused
of bestowing a great deal ZOO much
thought on it, but this attention has
been not so much to originate and de.
wise adaptable things as to fit and con-
form and assimilate ready-mades and
utilize the things on hand. 1t is as
though instead of using the product of
the garden to make meal of, women
are gradually arriving at that state OF
mind and intelligence where they pro-
pose to raise the garden stuff and raise
precisely what they want instead OF
taking it, as it were, from the market
gardeners hand to the table. If
woman wants a special sort of fabric
for particular use, she has learned
how to go to work to get it. If the
design of her dress does not please her,
she locks herself into her room and,
with lap-board and table, sets her wits
to work to make one that will. If the
ready-mades are unbecoming, she sits
or stands before a mirror and works
and cuts and tries and manipulates
until she finds what pleases her. And
she does not do this without method
and excellent reasons for every pinch
and plat and every bow and loop and
bias.
For a good many years, dress has
been run on exceedingly narrow lines.
A woman bought an alpaca, CASH
mere, Henrietta broadcloth, cambria
or organdie and made it up according
to the occasion on which she was to
wear it. If she wanted her cashmere
in an evening dress, there it went; il
she wanted street costume, all the
same, the street costume it was. Her
broadcloth was cut and trimmed for a
dressy suit or it made severely plain
tailor costume. Gradually certain
fabrics are coming to be used for GER
tain purposes, and there is good reason
to suppose that the lines will be more
strictly drawn in the future than they
have been in the past.
The French woman is an artist in
this respect, and always has her cos
tunes made to suit the occasion OF
which they are worn.
Exceedingly dressy out-of-door cos
tunes are made from glace silk and all
moderately thin materials with change.
able effects. An attractive dress is made
of canvas-woven silk fabric worn over
any bright color The canvas is made OF
the natural silk fiber, and is therefore a
sort of pongee color or in paler shades
to an ecru. 1t is not generally known
that some silk fiber is of yellowish
cast, while other sorts are of the most
pearly white. From these extremes OF
color there is every variation. This is
said to depend largely on what the silk
worm feeds on, and this being the case,
the question naturally arises: Why not
feed the worms on some harmless col.
ored food and produce silks in the vary.
ing tints of the rainbow?
Among the favorite colors of the sea,
son are brown of all shades, yellow,
gray-which, by the way, is for the
moment simply a rage in some of the
ultra fashionable circles of London
heliotrope, blue and light shades of
green. There is a green, with sug.
gestion of rose, that is exceedingly
effective when well handled. Red is
used to some extent, and is very popu.
lar for fancy waists, provided it is be-
coming to the wearer.
Black, frightened with any of the
popular colors. is in the height of
fashion, and thin black made up over
color is among the most becoming and
stylish of combinations.
A great deal of exceedingly fine jet
is used, and embroidery and lace enter
into the makeup of nine-tenths of the
most popular dresses of the year.
Batiste and organdie dresses are made
with skirts gored at the front, the
side breadths slightly sloped off and
the back breadths plain. Many of
these dresses are worn over Innings of
the color of the figure; for example, a
white orgapdie, with pink spots. ia
made over a pink cambria or sateen
slip. All white dresses of thin ma
terial are trimmed with cream-colored
laces and worn over color With all
white they are not so much liked, al
though they are occasionally seen. =
N. Y. Ledger