FASHION NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 6 (Supplement)

FASHION NOTES.

Autumn Costumes. —While there are many fabrics that are quite as appropriate to one season as another, it has been the custom to ignore the division of the year between summer and autumn, and to wear summer costumes until colder weather compels the adoption of warmer garments for winter. It may be questioned whether this is strictly in accord with the highest ideas of'fashioh. For autumn costumes, trimmed skirts and ovei'skirts are quite the accepted styles, and the old-time polonaise, or redingote, is, as one fashionable woman expressed it, /singing in the wind.' No style was ever more becoming to a fine figure. Now that sales of s irumer stock are coming t(j an end, . nJid the 'awful sacrifices' of surplus goods have cleared somewhat the shelves and windows of our dress emporium:*, the new winter goods will shortly be making their appearance. . Already some dayis have been cold enough to make light blouses and muslins uncomfortable, and tailoring and dressmaking establishments are now busy with.,tweeds, cloths, and other tailormade costumes.

We have sketched a Trelawny shape with string. This is a pearl-grey felt trimmed with grey chiffon drapings and string's and claret-coloured ostrich feathers. A fascinating chapeau this for a clear complexioried brunette.

The turned-back hat is still in , vidence, rather painfully so at times; for it is a shape that demands a distinctly refined face and style, or the effect is what Mrs Gamp called 'bragen.' There* is nothing to be defined as to coming pros or cons in millinei'y, and the stravy which shows which way the wind blows has not yet appeared.

Into what fascinating- garments have'pinafores developed of late years for little girls? Even boys1 have improved in their overalls upon the pillow or bolster-case with a string round the neck with which their much-tried frocks or suits were worn: to be covered in school or play hours, and they now look quite nice in the holland smocks, with collar, cuffs, and scarlet braid binding's. The giris' pinafores now are —excepting, of course, for quite rough wear—so extremely pretty and dainty, that they are frequently more attractive than

the frock they are employed to protect. The designs arc, endless; but, out oi many -we have been recently al--iniring, that sketched' here was perhaps as novel as any, besides being1 easy to carry out at home. It was of mull muslin and embroidery, and made smock fashion into a squarecut yoke of insertion. A strap of the same passed down the centre; the whole being edged with a flouncing

of the embroidery. Under this od:». ing (over the shoulders) was also an. epaulette of the flouncing. The bottom of the pinafore Avas finished by a flouncing, insertion, and three small tucks; and from the point of the centre strap of insertion fell a bow, and long ends of pa}e blue ribbon. The sequin and other trimmings of the 'glit, glit, glitter' ilk still hold us firmly under their glamour, and for evening wear especially are in evidence here, there, and everywhere. A bodice that particularly fascinated us at a well-known modiste's the other day was of black chiffon, with an ap-

plique of glittering steel sequins in yoke form over the shoulders, pointIng- down in the centre of bust, and from the distinct yoke fell slender threads of much smaller sequins dropping at'intervals to the waist amongst the folds, which, of course, ultimately pouched at the waist. This would make a most effective bodice for an.* informal dinner or theatre, as -ye think will be seen, from our note cf it in this figure, and might be successfully realised by our readers of tasts and ready fingers. In this figure we have the representative evening cape' of the moment, from a model just sketched at one of our great modistes'.. This is fashioned in 'Fleur de Velours,' the exquisite new evening fabric, and is of a water-lily green, which is irmch. affected just now, and is very delicate and lovely for such purpose as

eveningl wear. .The surrouadixt^ flounce is headed by white feather ;?

•trimming, continuing round the higlt collar. The cape is further adorned by an embroidery of tiny gold and silver spangles, and is lined with white satin.- Our ingenious reader1? will see numerous possibilities in such a design as this for utilisng their own materials and resources.

The plaid or tartan skirt is a power in the land of fashion just now, is specially smart in conjunction with a little 'mess' jacket of dark velvet. In this figure we have a very, modish and attractive toilette built on these lines. The skirt is of tartan, in. subdued greens r and blues, very, tight and close-fitting half-way from w*aist downwards, and very full below. The waist is encircled by a folded, belt of shot blue and green silk* The jacket is of black velvet, cut in, four points above the waist, edged with very narrow dark sable, and fastened the left side by three small glass buttons. A smarter, or more up-to-moment autumn, toilette could scarcely be found.

There is a craze just now for glass buttons. Some call them crystal, but this is a forced politeness, for they really do not rise to the dignity of crystal, but are, in plain fact, glass and nothing but glass. It is difficult to discover the fascination of these buttons; they seem to us so very, meretricious on good and handsome materials, but fashion fancies are difficult to account for more than occasionally.