The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-29
THE FASHIONABLE TROUSSEAU
FROM $4,000 TO $4,000 THE COST
NOWADAYS.
The New York Girl Dispenses With the
Linen Chest, but Makes Up for IL with
Expensive Dresses, Stockings al $50
n Pair and the Finest Underwear.

Expensive Dresses. Stockings At $50
n Pair and the Finest Underwear.
"To my mind the most alluring feature
in connection with matrimony is the trous-
seau, sighed a bachelor after inspecting
one. .
Answered the mother of the bride-eleot:
And, best Of all, when money is easy,
it is the feature easiest Of all to assure,
In these days the mother of a bride has a
comparatively easy thing of it.
There was a time When every woman
relative Of a bride, rich or poor, was reduced
almost to nervous prostration by her Efforts
to bring the trousseau to top notch per-
lection, and even yet in certain parts OF.
Europe years are spent in accommodating
some bridal outfits. Over here, hank
goodness, it is different.
New Workers. are Anglomaniacs in some
things, but not in this. OF late, say
wiehin the last two or three years, many
OF the most elaborate trousseaus OF New
York's wealthiest young women have
been made ready in three weeks, and
without the owners putting foot out OF
this city. At one time Americas richest
brides went to Europe to collect their trous-
seau, even to the wedding gown. They
were not satisfied to do otherwise, insist
ing that one might as well be poor as to
buy ones wedding things at home.
THAT was when crossing the ocean
was more Of a novelty than 1t is now. But
Miss Up To Date and her mother now feel
differently, and for a good reason, which
is this: The fashionable engagement has
been getting shorter and shorter, and is
now altogether too brief to permit OF spend
ing several months in collecting a trousseau.
and to begin to get wedding clothes ready
before a girl is engaged is out Of the question
in this day OF quickly changing fashions
and of women who would rather break
all the Commandments than be found wear
ing a last years garment.
Lingerie modes are just as tickle these
days as the fashions in gowns, for the reason
that the one is made to complement the
other. Consequently, about the only articles
it ia safe to collect against a possible en-
gagement are laces and jewels.
"A friend of mine with a very attractive
daughter just turned 10 has placed a large
order through a relative, now in Mexico for
| edgings and insertions of all sorts Of widths
Of Mexican lace as fine as a cobweb and
which is sold down there for a fraction of it's
cost here, but she hasn't the least idea Of
having any of that lace made up till her
daughter ia engaged-if she ever is.
Il am often amused to hear old fashioned
people speak with admiration of the chests
filed with bed and table linen and under
wear which fell to the lot Of the we'll dow
cred brides of the British Isles and Ger
many half a century or more ago just az II
those young women were immeasurably
LattA y. ~ than Ararioap laftap 1oy hriIoo
In point of fact, no European bride Of the
old days spent anything like the sum now
spent by rich Americans on trousseaux.
German, English and Scotch girls may
have had four dozen white petticoats each
when married, as n old fashioned lady I
know is fond of pointing out, but it is GER
tain that the four dozen didn't cost so much
as the one dozen pettiooats now considered
an ample number for the modern trousseau,
and the only advantage, If advantage it can
be called, in the former Is that in nearly
every European home of any social promi-
hence there are great chests filed with vel
lowing linen, which are handed down from
one generation to another without being
used by any one in particular, for OF course
every bride starts out will her own new
individual supply Of body linen, a quarter OF
which only she will probably Use before 1t is
outgrown or becomes old fashioned.
Rich Europeans. though, are patterning
more and more after the Americans IN
the troussaau question, and there are no.
yellowing chests of linen in fashionable
New York houses. In the matter of bed
and table linen and white underwear the
modern trousseau has been cut down in
favor of adding to the stock Of gowns,
wraps, tea gowns, hats and other finery,
costing in the aggregate, it is safe to say,
ten times the sum ever spent by the most
a%fluent brides of a century ago,
"A main reason given for the celebrity
with which a modern trousseau is got to-
Rether is the transplanting of the choicest
of Partisan materials and made up garments
to New York. No bride need go across the
ocean any more in search Of the daintiest,
newest, most beautiful Of wedding gar
ments
"TheFarest in the European market comes
across the ocean to her. There are one
or two establishments in New York where
everything in wearing apparel which a
bride can wish or ask for is furnished in
varieties which those who know say can't
be surpassed in Paris, and in one Of these
there are saleswomen in the lingerie de-
partment who are specially detailed to
attend to brides.
an this department the most elaborate
orders are put through in ten days or less
time if required. which means that every
piece il necessary is altered to fit perfectly
and is decorated with a handsomely en-
broidered monogram.
Zone dozen Of each article is the preferred
number explained one Of these sales
women. Few of even the richest of our
customers exceed that number. There
is little or no demand for the palmer, heavier
styles-styles with solid embroidery on
stout linen such as used to be considered
verv elegant.
Almost without exception American
brides want quantities Of lace on their UNDER
wear, which must be Of the sheerest nain-
sock and lawn finished with the very finest
embroidery to join lace and muslin. Sets
of underwear which twenty years ago
would nave been bought only once or twice
in a season, and one Of which at most would
have been included in any one trousseau,
are now bought by the dozen.
al am not exaggerating, 1t would be
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