The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-14

It will require a purse with Q goodly lining of currency and very elastic strings. indeed in order to be gowned In the first flight of fashion for the social season just opening.
 All the small economies of dress seem to be swept to one side, and an era of ex- travagance and elaboration has opened up In their stead.
 It seems as though the makers of the mode had exerted their ingenuity to the end of seeing just how much material they could artistically employ to the fashioning of a gown, and then set their wits to work to devise ways and means whereby this excess of material could be most extravagantly trimmed. But-and here Is where the unskiled or inexperi- enced dressmaker will meet her Water loo-the goal of all this elaboration md extravaganza is an appearance of sim pliclty. Under no circumstances must the gown so fashioned and trimmed ap- pear to be overloaded with decoration. Rather must 1t appear as though the trimming scheme were quite m accident, and that the happy result was merely a clever thought upon the part of the de- signer.
 The velvet gown Is really the acme of sumptuous elegance, when fashioned after the accepted mode Even the less ex-
 
 llghtfully soft and artistic in coloring this season, with the additional charm of proving absolutely fast In tint and guaranteed not to rub off delicate gloves or laces-will serve beautifully as background for the elaborate trimming devices that are really the making of the frock.
 The same sheer and almost limp weayes that the manufacturers presented us with In Qf aqnn ar at a thing, in spite of the fact that most of the new silks are all of them much less simsy than heretofore. While stiffness Is hardly the word to apply to those siken fabrics. there Is, nevertheless, more body and more stability to the weave than last seasons goods presented. Lin ing silks, such as the taffetas, archeda silks and the silk and linen mixtures that appear so often in imported gowns, are all of them of such quality as to af- ford a goodly support to the sheer ma terlal that still rules for the outer dress.
 While the woman of fashion will ac- cept the dictum anent the new skirt length, with It's many inches sweeping the floor, her sister of more moderate means will doubtless rebel against Il vogue that lessens the service of d gown and makes for increased cleansing bills. None the less, the best dressmakers are insisting upon quite marked traine to frocks of Il formal or semlformal intent and 1t Is only in the plain tailor made that goes to mill and to meeting" that the short skirt Is even tolerated. As though to empha size the difference, there Is quite q tendency on the part of the tailor to cut this skirt even trie shorter than heretofore, although doubtless the very smart styles in footwear have more than a little influence upon this ques- tion. dainty cut to q shoe and smart silken hosiery are necessary where the new walking skirt Is concerned. since the ankle rather than the instep is the focus that guides the tailor when deciding upon the length.
 Irish crochet and the padded embroider- ies that the Irish peasantry make to such perfection are charmngly appropriate upon the colleen popllns that find such favor abroad. For dinner gowns those are In high esteem, and the slightly ribbed surface, with its lustrous sheen, throws up both lace and embroidery 10 the utmost advantage.
 The elaboration of the Directoire period. the time when the first Napoleon was working to make France the artistic cen ter of the world-time has shown the won derful precedence of the Little Corporal In this respect-makes itself much felt In the present fashions. Then richness. the rich ness of a deliberate extravaganza. was the foundation from which the dressmaker worked, and no amount of toll and trou- ble-to say nothing of money-was spared to make the toilette of the elegante of bat period a marvel of artistic dressing. Those same effects prevail today in the gowns that the best makers of Paris are turning out for favored clients. Just at the present writing there are few plays of period" as they term draInas of his toric rather than contemporary scepes, on