Birmingham state herald., 1897-04-18

 BONNGTS.

The new fashions in headwear for women are in immense variety, all governed, however by a few general rules.
 Noticeable even to a careless observ- CT is the scarcity of hats that are plainly intended for dressy occasions. This is because the tendency to discard headdress at such times is now marked. The hair is done elaborately, and ire quently tying a soft coil with rich bow of ribbon offers an .embellishnent, though it is a part of the coif and in no way a headdress.
 Among the hats that make no at tempt at dressiness sailors are plenti- ful. The untrimmed sorts show wide brims fairly low crowns and wide ri5- bon bands. It is pleasant to note. too, that such of these hats as are suitable for wear with yachting rigs, etc, will be large enough to do without elastic. The great trouble mas each season been that these sailors have all been in small head size. With trimmed sailors the brims are higher than ever.
 Gewgaws are no longer admissible on millinery. Artistic buckles and orna- ments are often employed to add to the beauty of handsome hats, but common substitutes never. Little soft tams of velvet. finished with a single upstand- ing plume held in place by rich jewel may be worn with costume to match late in the season and if there is a soft folding of rich lace against the hair all around such a hat will serve for the entire season. We are no longer as absolute as we used to be about straw for summer and felt or velvet for winter. -
 Veils will be worn with all hats. The big spot veil is out of style all of a sudden. You see it worn great deal but that is one proof that it is gone by. The correct veil now is delicate mesh that really offers 0 protection to the skin. White chiffon spotted in black Is becoming and is to be much worn, and there are shown very delicate weavas for veils showing a mixture of black and white threads.
 The straws for early wear are very rough and are trimmed for the most part with velvet. The velvet trimmed straw is an appropriate compromise between the heavy feits of winter and the airy millinery of summer.
 Purple violets will be more popular than ever, if such a thing can be pos- sible, and white violets appear as a novelty of the season.
 Camellias are a new flower for mil linery use, and so are reproductions of delicate orchids. The latter are almost as expensive at first cost as the genuine orchid, though naturally they last longer.
 All flowers will be much used, and it seems likely that feathers will as the season advances be less and less em- ployed in millinery effects, though among the early flower toqUe5, which are hardly more than series of flow CT knots, fastened together in the sir cling folds of ribbon, are many that are ornamented by single outstanding os- trich plume. For these plumes white or black is the color without reference to the hues of flowers or ribbon.
 Pink will be shade most highly ia vored in the millinery world this sum- mer. Pink roSeS-not the dull, Sickly looking kind that seem to be afraid to be too bright, but roses that look tx actiy like natures own-will grace any number of straw hats for young maids and matrons alike.
 Crisp pink taffeta ribbon, something that has long been out of vogue as hat trimming, will be revived for sum- uleT IillilHeTy use.
 Another new hat trimming is drawn velvet of the palest shade, almost as light in weight as satin.
 As bridesmaids are about the only persons who find nothing to take the place of the wide brimmed picturesque hat, nearly all large hats that the fash ionable milliner is showing are called "bridesmaids' hats"
 The notion for headgear tied on will gain vogue as the season advances, and that means that we shall be treat ed again to milkmaid sun hats of wide straw, with low crown and a wealth of roses tumbling about the brim, for garden wear. The brim will be curved in toward the face by ribbons set on the outside of the hat. This idea will be further elaborated by the use of wide lace scarfs instead of ribbon. These scarfs will be shirred on the out side of the hat, and being spread as they are drawn to the chin, will make a veil effect for the sides of the face that is exquisitely becoming and very artistic. a-t
 A great many women buy their hats for two years, a new spring hat one year and a new winter hat the next year.
 For such extended use just now bonnet must by all means be chosen something, for instance. in a softly woven dull green chip the crown small and high, the brim spreading in front.
 Such bonnet will be as pretty next fall as this spring and will now be in excellent taste.