Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-10
AN EXTRhVAGANT ERA
Looking Back to Times When Tasks
Were Simpler.
TAKES MONEY TO DRESS THESE DAYS
Whole Lace Gowns or Trimmed
Flounces the Rage.
BRIGHT UP-TO-DATE HINTS
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
NEW YORK, June s, 1899.
Looking at some lace-trimmed organdie
and nainsook gowns, which have the dain-
tiness of cobwebs and the costliness of dia-
monds, the lines of the old and wise Per-
sian poet came into my mind:
A little hut beneath the bough,
A jug of wine, loaf of bread.
And thou, beside me- singing in the wilder
ness,
Oh. wilderness We're paradise now!
Can it be possible that even in the tw-
light of history any one was SO easily salts
fed? Were there really days when material
things Were not so imperious in their rule?
When gowns fell in simple lines, when
houses We're not so elaborate that they took
every golden moment to keep them in order
and when altogether life was 50 simple and
quiet that there was time to think, read,
write and, once in while, of course, do
nothing? This is not as far Il cry one
might think from lace gown For the elab
Grafton OF lace gowns and simple" muslin
gowns for summer points SO plainly
to the era of extravaganza which has swept
over Dame FASHIONS dOminions that one
wonders a little breathlessly what is to be-
come Of the great majority in the mad
dance, and signs for calico and homespun.
"ohty
Nor are the women who trail about care
lessly in the morning we'll the after
noon, gowns of exquisite laces. silks or vel
vet any more extravagant than their sis
ters who dress a little less extensively,
perhaps. but just as completely. No mat
ter how small a woman'S allowance for
clothes might have been once, she could not
live on Il very small one now, unless she has
been level-headed and kept cool as the cost
% llT 1Tl.- # {P.NKKr oi inc
rises higher and higher. Take just the cost
of the shirt waists OF a woman who has her
living TO earn as she appears spotlessly
day after day with the inexpensive waist
and clean collar. Keep a record of laundry
bills during a season and see. In times not
50 long ago even very refined women had
no laundry bills, If they were in modest cir
cumstances- They Were not ashamed to do
up their own gowns, and as for their fine
laces and thin gowns they would have stud-
dered at having the average laundress ham
die them Nor were they abashed at wash
ing their own fine china and glass; and sill
Verware never left the DINING room.
Multiplicity of Wants
Yet the consequence of this economy was
that even in the same circumstances as
their grandchildren they had handsomer
things. A silk then was an investment; it
could be worn for long time without the
dreadful fear that 1t would be old-fashion-
ed. And when that silk was bought 1t was
OF quality and texture worn now only by
the very wealthy. People in moderate cir
cumstances now have very little silver In
earlier days even in the colonies every one
had solid silver ware, that is, every one
VINO was in the relative position of people
OF refinement and moderate means now
adays, who have to dispense with the sill
Yer. OF course, comparisons are not only
unfair, they are inaccurate. But the fact
does remain that. with the multiplying of
material wants, we have less of solid quail
ity.
And here We back at the muslin
gowns trimmed with lace. So often it is
thread lace, and it is beautiful. One cam
not deny IT. But what is to be done with
II? Organize and nainsook soil. Such lace
cannot be washed. So expensive trips must
be made to the cleaners, as in few house
holds now is there the time. or the art to
clean gowns. 1t is a wicked extrayagance
And now having relieved my mind of the
first overwhelming thought which came TO
me when l saw the first and by far the
most popular creations of the summer sea-
son may as well confess that not for a
long time has there been anything quite so
dainty and beautiful as these eNtravagant
gowns.
Pretty, but Costly.
In the first place, 1t is long time since
there has been such scope for making them |
pretty. A plain skirt on which very little
trimming is allowed does not offer much |
field for adornment. no matter how excel |
lent its qualities. But a double skirt or ii |
skirt with a tunic, in which the long lines |
may be of sweeping lace, is a sight to rouse |
envy in any normal woman's breast. 1t |
sets one planning means to possess one of |
the coveted gowns. And when one looks |
over every scrap of lace she ever had or |
ever used for any purpose she can evolve |
a gown trimmed with lace even if she can
not have entire lace gown
The gowns trimmed with lace are really |
more suitable for the ordinary walks of |
life, although there is no doubt from pres |
ent indications that those who possess |
whole lace gowns will faunt them in the |
faces of their less lucky sisters on all and |
every occasion.
Yellow Narrow Lnce.
Some very lovely gowns trimmed with |
narrow Valenciennes of an inexpensive |
quality not as expensive as they are |
elaborate. and any one who has knaclz |
for sewing upon rows of ruffies, edgin,y |
them with lace, and then putting them on |
skirt, will be successful with these |
models They are usually of the YELLOW
Valenciennes. Dozens of little ruffles very |
narrow and edged with this very narrow
lace, are put upon white nainsook skirt
The skirt is white, but the ruffies and the |
lace edg1ng them are decidedly yellow
Then there is polonaise, or rather tunic
or White nainsook, which may have inser-
lions of the Valenciennes lace about IT'S
flowing edges, or may not. If IL does not
the tunic appears to be part Of the under |
skirt, that is. 1t is fastened to the ton of /
the ruffied skirt, and the ruffles come out |
from 1t like foam. The tunic meets at the |