The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-06

from her first banquet with the city
fathers onward. She also recognized dark
blue or royal purple and crimson velvet
as essentially regal colors and material,
and wore them trimmed with ermine, as
siduously as her right and prerogative
When she fell in love with Scotland and
all things Scottish, tartans became her
favorite wear, the royal Victoria, which is
a fancy tartan for taste, and the royal
Stuart for sentiment. velvet dinner
dress Of royal Stuart tartan is always in
cluded in the trousseaux of her descend
ants She also INDUCED in Paisley shawls.
Irish poplins she has always genuinely
liked both for herself and others. and has
given them away right generously.
Her majesty was in the prime Of
womanhood when the second French en-
pire flourished, and it's fashions suited her
plump, wholesome style Of figure and
complexion. She wore crinoline. but never
TO excess This was the period in which
her personal dress proclivities took root,
and her taste, though now subdued by
wearing only black and occasionally gray,
remains frankly Philistine. In the aes-
theuc tendencies of later years Queen
Victoria and her children have had neither
art nor part. The gallery was
not for them, nor were the straight-down
shocked dresses and limp sashes; and,
truth 10 tell. none OF them since early
girlhood have been slender enough to look
well in such attire For real lace her ma
1esty mas always had very great fancy,
less for its effect as an adjunct Of dress
than for its own intrinsic beauty. She has,
In fact, collected lace as some women col
lect china or gems. The iaces of the Brit
ish Isles have been chosen by way of en-
couraging local industries. as for in
stance, when she selected Honiton for her
wedding gown. following in that respect
the example of her Aunt Adelaide the
wife of William W, who had worn and
had made for her great deal OF HonIton
lace, and of Princess Charlotte the daugh-
ter OF George ". Most of her trousseau
undernen was trimmed with fine naNow
Buckinghamshire pillowmade edg:ng. and
when the princess royal was born the lace
Tor her christening robe was specially
made in Bucks. She also sent down some
beautiful Brussels lace to see IL the Buck
inghamshire women could copy It. as she
observed that the same stitches were used
In both countries. The queen IS a con-
noisseur of Irish lace, and has some beau
tiful specimens OF rose needlepoint and OF
the finest and most elaborate crochet g1i-
pure In black and cream silk as well as
fine cotton. She has some of the very
loveliest Chantilly and Point d'Alencon
and Cluny lafes, to say nothing of Valen-
ciennes. and indeed her treasures of this
Kind form perfect museum Princess
Henry of Battenberg inherits her mothers
production for lace. and Is the owner of
the old black Spanish she found when
rummaging at Windsor castle, which is
said to have belonged to Catherine of
Aragon. Queen Victoria has always been
diffeult to please in the matter of her
hrocades, and only one or two old weavers
in the south of France have ever made
them to her satisfat ion. When she want
ed very beautiful black grenadine with
raised flowers. new Jacquard loom was
set up for 1t and cards prepared which
were afterwards destroyed that no COW
might be made. One of the old weavers
was set to work on IT, and could only
make very slow progress. but 1t was fin
ished at last. The gold and silver en-
broidered black brocade with its white
front she wore at the diamond Jubilee
drawing room pleased her SO much that
she was photographed in It and signed the
portrait In bounets the queen has for
many years remained faithful to n small
shape that comes well forward on her
head. and exactly suits her hair parted in
the middle, as she has always worn it,
She has at last discarded crepe and gen.
orally has it trimmed with small black
ostrich tips among which a white one Is
sometimes inserted on festive occasions.
All last summer she wore a black chin
mushroom hat trimmed with beautiful
long black and white ostrich plumes that
are almost priceless, and she usually
wears plain black hat of this form
when going about the grounds and gar
dens of her various residences in her
donkey chair
The black Vienna cloth of which her
ordinary dresses are made is very good
and costs a guinea yard: the thinner
ones are silk or grenadne, for she feels
the heat very much In summer Her I'M
derwear Is the very best and finest long
cloth. and costs three-six yard. This is
certainly not fashionable only comfort
able for nearly every one now puts fine
silk or soft cashmere next the skln-Mrs
F.. T. Clarke, In Frank Lesle's Popular
Monthly for May.