Evening star., 1902-03-29
FROM ACROSS THE SEA
LATEST HINTS ON MEMS DRESS
FROM LONDON.
Velvet Edging for Frock Coats-Coun-
sci on Collars-Single-B Breasted
Day Waistcoats.

London Correspondence of the Haberdasher.
Although a year has now elapsed since
the death of the late queen plunged all
England and all the British empire into
mourning that was real as well as sar-
torial, and although colors are therefore
now quite allowable, according to court
etiquette, neither men nor women have
shown as yet much tendency to avail
themselves of this freedom and beyond
question this is a gray season. We began
to wear our rue with a difference a good
many months ago, when half-mourning
came in, and having had recent experience
OF gray-before black came in-we took to
gray again with a good deal of unanimity
and fervor then. Gray seems likely to per-
slst still for some time as a staple color
note, but with this exception, that Jacket
suits of fairly heavy colored cashmeres and
vicunas are made. The pattern is unob-
trusive and small; the coiors most in use,
dark blue and very subdued brown.
Formal Garment Fabrics.
For all formal garments, however, and
for overcoats, fabrics which have no chro-
matte values al all are the only kind in use.
Either true gray is used, by which l
mean a cloth the yarn of. which is all gray
in color, the pattern tusually very vague
being formed by herring -boning or differ
enceS in depth of tone; or else we have a
gray effect produced by combinations of
black and white yarns Lord Rosebery
several months ago talked in one of his
speeches about Harris tweed, which is
really more like homespun than a tweed.
and good deal of nonsense has been
talked about the lift given to that industry
by the eXpremier's words. 1t would be
nearly as sensible to talk about the encOur-
agement given to round-cornered wing col
10 h,-f . Ppn !, +tII To- L.,
affects that rather coachmanlike form of
neck adornment Lord Rosebery is in no
sense fashion leader, and his praise of
Harris tweed was addressed to its long
wearing qualities, which do not appeal
with very much force to men of fashion
who will not wear one suit more than forty
or fifty times at the outside.
A very remarkable innovation, inasmuch
as it is, so far as l know absolutely novel,
and not dixie most so-called innovations) a
mere revival of an old fashion, is the
of velvet edging on frockcoats and the
waistcoats that go with them. l saw such
a coat the other day a wel-known
American, resident in London, always rec
ogniZable a client of the best tailors
here, and always notable as man of i'm
peccable taste 1t was the first actual use
of this innovation that | had come across
and the opportunity for observing it's effect
was a good one. The coat and waistcoat
were made of smooth-surfaced. loose, gray,
homespun cloth, without pattern. and the
was mere piping, certainly not an eighth
of an inch wide 1t ran just where braid
ing would run. The coat was cut rather
close at the waist. and had urned-back
cuffs, also edged. 1t is hardly necessary to
mention that the edged collar of the coat
was of it's own cloth, not of velvet.
The buttons were covered with the cloth
of the coat. The wastcoat was single
breasted, with the buttons and button holes
straight up the middle, and both coat and
wastcoat had only a very small opening at
the neck: the waistcoat was collarless and
the lapels of the coat had no silk facngs
An Evening Dress Innovation.
There is a considerable probability that
this trick of velvet edging, which is abso-
lutely novel at the moment of writing, and
has not got beyond one or two very ex-
elusive West End tailors, may spread to
evening dress I have never been friend
to any innovation on the pleasant uniform
ity of evening dress, and | admit that l
regard even the prospect just mentioned
with some distrust. 1t must be admitted
however, that it is less Objectionable than
most suggestions for altering dress-suit
styles-it isn't horror like velvet coats,
velvet collars and GUNS, or like the various
distinctive color-notions suggested from
time to time by the class of people who live
In constant and well-grounded fear of being
mistaken for walters. The dark gray suit
tentatively introduced some months ago as
an alternative to the odiouS dinner jacket
suit for semi-dress, has not made very
great progress among the public, but where
seen it has always been very much liked.
Another movement in evening dress is
the soft-fronted shirt, of which good deal
has been heard. 1t is pleated, and only the
fronts of the pieats are starched, the inter-
vening portions are left soft. AS the pleats
are wide ones, nobody but the delighted
wearer knows this. however, and the ad-
mirable pliability of the shirt bosom thus
induced makes not only for comfort but
Hence the innovation iS likely to
go far, and If only the gentry who attend
the theater, and stTenuously endeavor to
enter the stately homes lof England. with
velvet-collared dinner jackets and diamond
shirt studs, which look like decanter-stop-
pers on the loose, viii be good enough not
to run it into the ground so far to make
it impossible for decent folk, it will last a
long time.
All morning waistcoats1 are made single
breasted, collarless and Perfectly plain the
buttons coming up the middle. not over to
one side like a singie-breasted waistcoat
trying to lock like a double-breaster.
The Matter of Cravats.
In the matter of cravats. it ought to be
remarked as a note Of some subtlety, that,
while gray is good deal in evidence this
gray is not quite the steel gray so greatly.
appreciated in last years London spring
season, but softer, altogether more gem
tie and silver gray, and that it is more
over, almost Invariably worked in with black.
In the Spitalfields silk which is so much
used for high-class puffs, imperfals and the
convenient form of once-over which close
fronted double collars require {and about
these / shall have something to say in a
minute), gray and black mixture ground
work, and elaborately designed spots with a
little bright color In them. form almost the
universal style The same, 1t may be re-
marked incidentally, Is true of the cheap
limitations of these silks. which are found
in the third-rate shops. Bows are entirely
out of general use. and 1t Is thought that
they win not come in again until after the
coronation. OF the larger shirt-hiiinr