The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-29
COMING STYLES FOR SPRING
SEEN IN BRIDES TROUSSEA UX
Full SKIRT and Long Shoulders Are Established Facts but
May Be Modified

Correspondence OF the Indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK. Jan. 27.-While spring is still
long time off and we have many days of
storm and trying conditions still TO endure,
February brings the first hints of the modes
for the coming season and marks the open
ing of advance styles as surely and as GER
tainly as II brings few warm, deceptive
days. Again, il is apt TO be a month OF
many weddings. for Lent will shortly stop
the marriage bells for a time. and to bring
the demand for advance models to be used
in the trousseaux. The season of "a makes
no exception to the rule. The chimes viii
ring out their hearty welcome 10 many
neW-made wife within the next few weeks,
and there is much talk Of chiffons in the air
in spite Of the disagreeable weather. That
these. tToUsseaux should be serviceable for
early spring as we'll as for the Immediate
needs is held important. If not essential, so
that for that reason, as well as because
many hOneymOOns are passed in the South,
advance styles require to be understood and
really satisfactory dressmakers find it nee
essary- to be prepared with models from the
other side During the week il has been my
good fortune to see several of these last and
TO be allowed peeps al a number of the
gowns that are to make parts OF bridal out
fits, so that, although rs 1 write we are ter
rcrized by the prediction of a still colder
wave, my eye is filed with visions OF beauty
suggestive of milder days, of bridal gowns
and OF all the fascinating ct cetera of u mod
ern rousseau.
That we are to have full skirts is an
established fact. OF that there is not a
shadow of doubt, but, inasmuch as we
have outlived the time when one style and
one only prevailed we are to have them
of many sorts and we also are to have
those of palmer cut; 1880 styles, or sug
gestOns, viii reign, but they will be much
modified and will not stand alone. Word
reaches us from Paris that a famous
young beauty of the ultra fashionable world
has had the independence to rebel abso-
lutelY and refuses to conceal the lines of her
1.-THE figure beneath voluminous folds order
ing princess models instead and that al
ready she has found followers in consider
able number. In an age when such indie
pendence is liable to break forth into re-
bellion at any moment fashions must in
evitably be pliable, let predominating in
NJ nc 5s2 be " what they may We Viii aim
may be quite sure. We will study por-
traits of the period and plan from them
what is best. but we will not slavishly
follow them and we will not commit quite
as many errors of taste as did those pro-
genitors whose gowns we are copying after
a style of our own.
WILL NOT HAVE HOOPS.
We viii not, for example, return 10 crino-
line, or L mistake the twentieth century
woman and her intent. We may be driven
to hold out our over long skirts with some
frilled stiffened device, but hoopskrts
and modern life are too hopelessly irrecon-
cilable to gain any hold Those sweet
women who learned to wear them with
grace, in spite of the difficulty, were women
of leisurely movements, of languorous
ways. They knew nothing of the mad rush
Tor cars at In the afternoon they had
never climbed elevated steps nor hung on
to straps They rode decorously in their
carriages or they walked with calm, I'M
hurried movement Distances were short.
OF strenuous existence. The mere sugges-
ton of a woman of affairs, a woman bent
on accomplishing much in little time, ham
pered with hOopskirtS, is so absurd as to
true, and we have modified the trials our
eat-grandmotherS knew, we are to be vic
smart upon formal occasions, must consent
TO walk with difficulty, if at ALL TO allow
our arms to be hampered by dropping
shoulders, 10 forego much of the freedom
of movement that has been ours. Luckily
the fiat stops there. Morning and general
utility costumes are made to clear the
ground ana with mOQlneQ shoulders. One
can readily get about and move the arms
freely while one shops and attends to the
affairs of life, but with the hour of visit
ing the restrictions of skirts long at the
front and of blouses and little coats that
hamper the shoulders make themselves
felt.
The full skirt cannot be much shaped. AS
a result it is at it's smartest, made to lie
some two to four inches the floor all
round. Walk with comfort, of course we
cannot but as one devotee of fashion was
heard to remark, I'VE can kick along" and
fear many will be the ungraceful results
OF necessity the skirt must be lifted if
more than few steps are taken, and not
one woman in twenty can lift it with grace.
Plaits, shirrs, tucks all known devices are
in vogue The ideal skirt fits the hips
smoothly and falls into its myriad of folds
and ripples below and all these various
methods of holding the fullness are en-
ployed. Waists are uniformly blouSes and
almost uniformly show deep girdle BELTS
while the little coats take both blouse
bolero and Elton FORMS. An exceedingly
chic Paquin gown, sent over for a bride
of the month, is Of the new soft-f1nished
taffeta in the new shade that is neither
cream nor champagne, but between the
two and known by the familiar name of
ecru. The skirt consists of three fiounces
and is of round length, resting well on the
floor. Each fiounce Is tucked at its upper
edge to a depth of eight inches while on
each edge and again three inches above
are placed two tiny double bias ruffles of
the silk. The bodice takes the form of a