Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-17
PARIS FASHIONS.
Special Correspondence Of The star.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
PARIS December e 1905.
77HE Christmas season, when good
will and peace should reign
throughout the world, Is no.
II where marked more distinctly
by the giving and receiving of
presents than in Paris. Floral gifts are
especially affected by the Partisan. Indeed.
the gay capital has been called the para
disc of women and the city of flowers ;"
At Christmas time this fact is particularly
noticeable and the fashionable florists
windows are mass of seasonable bios
SONS. 1t is the custom here to purchase
holly and mistletoe long before the festival
week. hence the vendors for some time
have been busily supplying their pretty
floral wares-emblems of merriment and
good fellowship.
season to be literary or at least to pose for
cleyerness up to certain point not eX-
ceeding that OF smartness. as the term is
socially accepted. There RACES pretense
of study which consists for the most part
of attending lectures sandwiched between
two fashionable receptions or two after
noon teas. 1t does not follow by any
means that the mondaines who affect these
lectures, which are principally held at the
Louvre. understand are interested in
the subjects discussed. Rather 1t Is the
result of the fad, Snobbish love or snow
ing off, that leads these Partisan butterflies
of fashion to lectures and to lessons. One
or two really gifted women who lead So
ciety were to be seen regularly at these
talks, and as always happens, the satel-
lites, sheep style, fiocked after the leaders
Every Saturday afternoon there are
crowds of elegantly gowned women at the
Odeon Theater listening TO the lectures,
is chosen as a subject, and the actors
represent the characters or read passages
from his works These literary matinees
help to make an author known and to
educate the audiences. L remember last
year hearing at the Odeon many details
of the melancholy truth about the life of
the great George Sand which did not
know in spite of my admiration for that
woman of genius. The afternoons are es-
pecally precious as means of acquiring
good, if superficial, knowledge to the spoilt
darlings of fashion who often spend their
pretty lives without opening a book.
Speaking of the Louvre, it may be a
pleasant surprise to a number of Ameri-
cans who know their Paris well to learn
that a wing of this palace of art, the
Pavilion de Marsan. has peen devoted to
are exquisitely arranged in different
shades of color, so tastefully selected that
the stuffs look like rare ornaments or
valuable bric-a-brac. Not far from the
exhibition of dress is the collection of
chinaware in symphonies of white, slightly
tinted with pale blue and pink.
1t has always seemed to me very dlfncult
for visitors at the gay capital to choose
the right millinery ateliers. barring those
famous ones in the Rue de la Paix and the
Rue de Rivoli, and, by the way, there is a
decided choice even In these sacred pre-
cincts 1t is a. well-known fact that
chapeaux are not to be purchased in the
large magasins, but in the semi-private,
first floor ateliers is it fatally easy to make
a mistake. Many persons seem to think
that all is well when "it is worn in Paris"
Such Is not, however the case by any
means. 1t is worn, yes, but by whom?
That is the all important question. By
we'll dressed women? Again, yes. but who
| and what are these well dressed women