The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-03-23
4 IDEAS for JMnlmen

terest that is told you as soon as you
make your appearance in a d~ressmaker's
is that one about clinging clothes.
From the way the d~ressrnaker's are
talking it really looks hopeless for the
skirt that had any pretensions to stand
ing out at the hem; a skirt that asserts
itself after any crinolined fashion is at
once tabooed, ostracized.
Positively. ! don't believe crinoline will
dare TO show its face if this thing keeps
up.
l told you before that nuns yelling
was being used to line silk skirts with,
that the material might swing into the
figure more, and now revers and collars
and the ruffles on the bottom of the
blouses are all lined with a good, thin
quality of Canton flannel for softness.
The trains of evening gowns are adopt
ing the Canton flannel lining also.
But the "hoppiness'' one would expect
from SO much that is unstiffened is not
apparent, for ruffles and shirrings and
pufings are so elaborate and profuse
that one looks decidedly larger than is
expected.
And why should we say anything about
the return of the bell skirt? Really, we
are a marvellous race, We womeni
1Ou are tllOuSA ~ ! oHC ho'
said a leading costumer to me yester-
day.
you don't know what you want; that
is why we make the fashions for you,
Just as Providence makes the weather
for you. Leave it to you and the world
would be topsy-turvy,"
what have we done that is so dread
fule" I asked.
why. I hear the shrieks now that come
from all my customers when I first whis-
pered the word 'crinoline.' Hideous!
Horriblel Ungracefuli the worldly wom-
en- cried in chorus. we won wear it;
it is deformity,' they reiterated. And
now, see; we costumers say: Then back
to your clinging draperies, your soft eff
fects; You were right; there is no style
so graceful, SO becoming
And, heavensi what happens? You
fly in a rage and declare you won't give
up the ugly, short, Stiff skirts; you will
have crinoline in the facing; you will have
your flares at the side.
But l think you I say to them, you
don't know What you want"
I quote you this to show how the feel
ing goes over here. But the dressmakers
are surely right. There never was any
thing artistic or pretty about full. stiffened
skirts. Every woman knew that five
years ago when they came out. She can't
eonscientiously think they are pretty now.
1t is only custom and laziness that make
her want to cling to them.
She has all her patterns in the house,
ara she d:slikes 10 learn a thing all
ever again. Above al, she. hates to think
what she will do with these skirts of last
year.
Merely taking a reef in them viii not
do. The narrow front cores are a fea-
ture of the new skirts and there is no
flare at the side, while the back width IS
absolutely different.
And, again, they all touch, these new
ones. They brush the ground in front and
drop for an inch in the back. After one
gets a good pattern they are much easier
to cut than the last skirt we nave at
tempted. for it got beyond the skill of an
amateur; in truth. as some one remarked,
ito be successful, it took the efforts of
an architect. a dressmaker and a civil en-
gineer.y Truly. it wassa labor worth the
dressmaker's price.
But to equalize the difficulties there is
a trick about the ruffles and pleatings that
betrays the unskilled hand at once. l
cannot tell your readers how to do it, but
the ruffles. especially the deep ones, have
a queer trick of looking very fat and of
falling in a clinging, swooping way that
I am sure no ruffle ever thought of be-
fore.
There is a current report in the states,
it seems from the papers, that large hips
are again the style, even if one has to
resort to padding. l see no evidence of it
here.
In truth, one notices the opposite. The
slender hips are entirely in vogue. Every
thing thai suggests the Bernhard type
is in favor. The very low bust effect is
sought in every bodice. The waist re-
mains natural and not drawn in.
By the way, after / wrote you of the
heavy null ties we are ali making ovei
here, I saw that many of the clever ones
had an edge of pleated ribbon. Tt was
very effective, this ribbon. For example,
take a white Brussels net and ecgr 1t
with cherry satin ribbon. 1t is most be-
coming.
Beige cashmere is going to be such a
fetching material for gowns this spring.
The costumers love to make it up, for
it lends itself admirably to designs and
color combinations. Only remember this
Il Never combine beige with other colors of
brown 1t ruins everythingi and /
think your Madame Nash said the same
ching in one of her admirable letters In
the Press on dressing a debutante.
We are going in for a pretty little trick
over here of putting pleatings or ruffles
up the sides of a skirt, leaving the back
and front widths plain. Try it. Make
I the ruffles narrow, and run them from
] hem to girdle.
Information in reference to ribbons is
thus far too meagre to be accepted as
( dncontestable. Yet it may be safely
sverred that of the plain ribbons the
taTeta weave will probably have the frs
place, with satin as the second choice
and gros grain and faille Franchise il
use by the election of the modiste. Tht
very pretty ribbon of linen effect, which
appeared first in our market a year ago
is again seen in the trimming and finish
of Paris models. and MORE taffeta rib
bons have reappeared in diminished
quantities. Very interesting glace an6
c~hangeable satin ribbons, which take or
the pearly tinting observable in somt
of the recent noted paintings. revealing
a suspicion of delicate steel or silver
gray, shot with red, are seen in the
garniture of French hats. these ribbons