Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-30
STYLES IN MEMS WEAR FROM
ENGLAND'S METROPOLIS.
London's Well Dressed Men Turning ia
Brown-Question of the Colored
Handkerchief.

Hat, brown bowler; cravat. brown foulard
or China Grape; suit. brown worsted or
homespun; socks, brown merino or Isle
thread; shoes, brown Oxfords; handker-
chief, brown silk "a silk handkerchief Is
supposed to go with Jacket suit, and a
linen one, with pattern in lines or bands of
one color, with a tailed coat; cane, brown
partridge. Each of these items would be
individually quite correct at the present
time; but, of course, no man In his sober
senses would GO (as our Mr.. Balfour,
prime minister, elegantly says "the whole
hog That would be too much.
Most especially to be condemned Is the
brown bowler: it is not the most beautiful
headwear imaginable, but 1t is far, far bet
ter than the black one. The taste for brown
cravats (Which are all of the knot type,
and therefore in the present condition or
the mode cannot be worn with frock
coat is comprehensive, and 1t will go
pretty far. The fashion for very pretty
fancy knots has been run into the ground;
we have tried a reversion to steel-gray,
and don't like it bit: and black-and- white,
which has also been tried and for formal
wear is a good deal favored cannot be
said to make a pleasing combination with
a tweed suit. Consequently, the public was
Just ready for a change of some sort and
as very few browns had been seen in China
Grape or silk cravattings latterly, the arr1-
val on the market of very agreeable
range of brown foulards with small
white pattern) took men of fashion by
storm. Those who still prefer a perfectly
plain, self-colored cravat for lounge wear
have been appeased by some new brown
grapes, which are even more beautiful in
tone than the foulards and we have few
brown knitted knots worn now and then.
Brown for Jackets.
Arising out of the taste for brown thus
created. there has come movement in
very influential set to introduce brown wor-
sted suitings for jackets. The details which
1 expect to find most favor in the autumn
are these; mixture or very small check
ground, made up of a dark, warm brown
and a little black; and a two-inch square
in thin lines of silk union, in either black
or a very rich wine-red. These jackets
will be cut with high neck opening and
round corners at the bottom. They will be
a shade long, compared with the usual pat
tern of jacket and will have four-inch
opening in the middle, behind 1t Is to be
noted that this is slightly less deep open
ing than at present used by the best tall
orS.
But the above, which may be regarded as
fats accomplis, do not, to my eye, alto
gether limit the possibilities of brown.
There has been absolutely nothing done as
yet, but can feel in the air something en-
tirely new to recent fashion, and that Is
the brown morning coat, followed or pre-
ceded by a frock coat of the same color.
do not mean brown tweed, but a plain
cloth. probably a worsted of some sort,
because all the movement seems to be
toward worsted and vicuna would be too
soft OF course when one INDUCES in pure
ly conjectural prophecy. it is hardly safe to
go into elaborate detail; but the precise color
for this thing is pretty clearly defined to
my mental eye by the trend of other fash
IONS 1t will be a middle brown, very pure
in tone chat is, without nuances of any
sorD, and in the same range of chrOmatics
as the leaf of a Havana cigar. Most likely
think they will be necessarily accompanied
by trousers to match. If a fancy waist
coat is worn with them, which is not GER
tain to my mind 1t will certainly be
black one with white spot pattern. About
this there is no doubt
Relief From Black and Gray.
1t is purely Gas we say in the land of
cricket "off my own bat that throw out
this suggestion and readers are entitled to
have a reason given for the conjecture.
Here is the reason. We have been banker
ing for a long time after some sort of re-
lief from the everlasting alternative of
black and gray for formal coats tand, mind,
it is formal wear that I am thinking of.
The blue frock coat revival which was duly
mentioned here as symptom, and it did
not go very far, for some reason or another
probably because it lacked impetus. Now
the present taste for browns is likely to
needed to a brown best-coating; and the
men who have taken up with brown en-
thusiasm happen to be just the set to get
their way in the other matter. They quite
know what they want.
AS a consequence of the brown boom, l
think may take it as pretty certain
that when brown passes out of the cravat
department, where 1t may be said to have
originated its present run, into the suit
department (Which is certain TO happen,
and will naturally kill off the brown craYat
idea to some extent there will be great
run on greens for knots, because green is
practically the only color which in any
mass goes we'll with brown. And there may
be another effect, and that is the revival
of the bow, because, for some reason not
altogether easy to understand, green knots,
and assuredly green full ties and Ascots,
never do look altogether right
The Colored Handkerchief.
Colored handkerchief have already been
mentioned as a new feature, but ! have
had no opportunity to give any idea of the
extent to which this fashion has progressed
So far as day wear is concerned colored
handkerchief has become as nearly uni
versal as it ever can, because in no con-
cevable circumstances could it become es-
sential, or a white one incorrect. And, as
usually happens when a fad has greatly
taken the fancy of the town. there has
come into existence a well-defined rule
about it; indeed, there are several rules
One is that you mustn't carry colored
handkerchief in evening dress. Another
is that in the day time a linen handker-
chief is full dress, and silk one semi
dress or lounge style. Indeed it is safest
not to carry a silk handkerchief with any
coat that has tails, except a tweed morn
ing coat. But the most important rule of
all is about the design of the handkerchief
itself, and a separate rule exists for silk
and linen. A linen handkerchief must be
chiefly white: not chiefly colored, with a
white pattern; and the pattern must con-
sist of nothing but straight lines and bands
in a single color-one color, one handker-
chief, that is; because there is no sort of
restraint upon the color to be chosen-any
mortal color, one at a time, will do. But in
silk you may go farther than this. The
pattern may be anything one pleases, the
colors as numerous as the designer may
yearn for. Bandanas are about as fash
ionable as anything.
However when l said that colored hand
kerchiefs could not be used in the evening
/ did not mean to imply that the dress
coat man was bound to stick to white
linen. Indeed. one of the most remarkable
and pleasing novelties in the handkerchief
way is precisely the thing which the smart
set are taking up for the evening. This Is
a pure snow white, hemstitched handker-
chief in crepe de chine of the richest sort
-exquisitely soft, boldly craped, almost
miraculously clean looking and delicate
like the foam of Niagara woven by fairies