Year: 1879



 Slowly, yet by perceptible steps, the modes of the feminine toilette are chang ing, and the changes already made are

 but prophecies of what will appear in the near future. The days of the sheath

 like skirts may be numbered, and more

 bouffant and voluminous draperies are

 being introduced in the costumes for early autumn, which are a mere hint of

 what the autumn will bring. Puffs and

 panlers are seen on almost everything,

 and not only is the back draped but the

 sides are puffed, and in some of the late 1mportationS of summer toilettes the

 slde paniers are very marked, being ar ranged in a puff wide at the top. grow

 ing narrower as it descends the skirt and

 banded across the wide embroideries.

 giving them very much the appearance

 of the basket paniers, from which pre-

 sumably they were named at first There IS, In trained dresses more especially a

 tendency to more decided fullness of

 the skirt at the top. A dress now in the process of manufacture at one of the

 leading private establishments in the

 city has the entire width of the train gathered at the waist, underneath the coquettish basque, and hanging in one

 unbroken line to the end The effect is very elegant, especially as the material

 from which it is made is of a heavy bro cade, which would be spoiled by bunch ing up and otherwise perverting it from plain silk, and the buttons which are | used to fasten the train to are most pe- culiar, being made of silk cord in two shades with the enter tasseled

 New materials show the increasing tendency toward bright colors and the very newest and most novel of all is the

 old-fashioned changeable silk in a su- ! perior grade, with q polka-dotted silk in two colors to make a combination with

 it. As yet, there is not a yard of this ! silk in the countr" hut some patterns

 have been sent tv private establish

 ment by the commissionaire in Paris, which arrived only two or three days l ago. One of these is a changeable green

 and gold, having a golden sheen through ! which tn" green shines, making the most perfect effect; the silk which ac- companies it, and which is to be used in i combination as a trimming, has over shot gold colOred satin dots on green i ground. Another very lovely one has

 fawn colored and gold com bined in the l same way. In everything there Is the increased color; very few black dresses

 are worn out of mourning except silk

 and grenadine, and they are lighted up | by embroideries in satin or gauge or by | bows of color. A grenadine dress now l in process of making has a satin petit i coat trimmed with panels of satin, em- ! broidered in Marshal Nye and Jacque-

 minot roses in the natural colors; the

 overdress of plain grenadine is looped | jauntily over the petticoat by bows of

 satin ribbon. and is edged with che

 nille fringe bounded by silk of the colors

 in the embroidering. A vest in the same ] design, but in much smaller pattern, is inserted into the corSage. The effect is most gorgeous.

 Many of the imported embroidered bands have most decided PerSain effect. This appears not only in the coloring but in the figures used. One might think from their gayety that they

 would only be used on house dresses 1; but that is by no means the case. They adorn street costumes as well. A mas tic camel's hair cloth recently finished.

 and to be worn at Nahant this summer, had bands of this Persian embroidery 1 against black velvet. The effect was very lovely. Comparatively few these dresses will be worn in town; they are for the country or seashore, where gay clothes are quite in place. Prob i ably, if the rage for them keeps, they will appear in town in the autumn, but we can make no certain prophecy of 1 that. Boston women are quiet in their

 tastes and don't like to Haunt bright

 colors on the street, and they never go

 the lengths to which New York women

 go; so whatever one may see on Fifth

 and Madison avenues, he will not see

 the same on Beacon street.

 The putting together of the petticoat

 and train and the skirt and draperies of the short dress is only a step toward the one plain skirt; at least, that is the way the French modistes interpret it. It is not likely that we will return all at once to severe simplicity, if, indeed, that point is ever wholly reached: but the better class of women are really demanding less trimming and fuss. Plainness to a cer- tain extent is extremely desirable, and the average dressmaker should be made to restrain her eXuberance in the matter

 of ornamentation. When they learn that elegance doesn't mean ruffies and

 puffs and frills and flounces, they will have gone far in the direction of the artistic in dress, and they baye more

 hope in time to reach it. In the mean time, may the modiste who understands the meaning of discretion and taste con- tinue to give lessons to the rest.-Bostom AdCertiSer.