QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE FASHIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 184, 4 August 1900, Page 6 (Supplement)

QUEEN VICTORIA AND THE FASHIONS.

THEIR INTRINSIC WORTH.

The ordinary woman's desire for pretty and fashionable clothes is usually only bounded by her power of purchasing them, and it is consequently rather curious that as money is absolutely no object to them, Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, the Empress Frederick, have never-been women of fashion. Her Majesty has never ceased to cherish the traditions of her youth, that fabrics were valuable only for their intrinsic goodness, and ought Jo be made to last as long as possible. On this principle, when she was a young mother, she bought the best of cloth and French merino for her children's frocks and had them turned for the second or third winter.

Like all other little people, princes and princesses had an endless succession of starched white embroidered muslins for summer. The royal mother herself had a predilection for pink silk for evening woar from her first banquetSvith the City Fathers onward. She also recognised dark blue or royal purple and crimson velvet as essentially regal colours and material, and wore them, trimmed with ermine, assiduously as her right and prerogative. When she fell in love with Scotland and all things Scottish, tartans became her favourite wear -rthe royal Victoria, which is a fancy tartan for taste, and the royal Stuart for sentiment. A velvet dinner dress, of royal Stuart tartan is always Included inthe trousseaux of her descendants. She also indulged in Paisley shawls; Irish poplins she has always genuinely liked both for herself and others, and has given them away right generously.

Her Majesty was in the prime of womanhood when the second French empire flourished, and its fashions suited her plump, wholesome style of figure and complexion. She wore crinolines, but never to excess. This was the period In which hey. personal dress proclivities took root, and her taste, though now subdued by wearing only black and occasionally grey, remains frankly" Bhtlistine. In' the' aesthetic tendencies of" later1 years Queen Victoria and her children have had neither art nor part. The "greeneryyallery" was not for them, nor were the straight-down smocked dresses and limp sashes; and, truth to tell, none of them since early girlhood have been slender .enough to look well in such attire. For real lace Her Majesty, has always had a very great fancy, less for Its effect as an adjunct of dress than'for its own intrinsic beauty. She has, in fact, collected lace as some women collect china or gems. The

laces of the British Isles have been-<*)$»:• by way of encouraging local Industries, ■ [ M,: for Instance, when she selected Honlton for her wedding gown, following in that reßpMt the example of her Aunt Adelaide, the WK: of William IV., who had worn and, hjld made, for her a great deal of Honlton Mk and of Princess Charlotte, the daughterof George IV. Most of her trousseau undeig linen was trimmed with fine narrow, Bticfc iiigharnshire pillow-made edging, and when the Princess Royal was born the lace.,foX her christening robe was specially made in Bucks. She also sent: down some beautiful Brussels lace to see if the Buckinghamshire women could copy it, as she obseryc| that the same stitches were used In both" countries. The Queen is a connoisseur of Irish lace, and has some beautiful. specimens of rose needlepoint, and of the jSjKit''and most elaborate crochet guipure in blact and cream silk, as well as fine cotton. She has some of the very loveliest Chantllly and; Point d'Alencon and Cluny laces, to say nothing of Valenciennes, and Indeed lief treasures of this kind form a perfect m* scum. Princess Henry of Battenberg inha-:, its her mother's predilection for lace, and is. the owner of the old "black Spanish Bh« found rummaging at Windsor Castle, .whicb }\ is said to have belonged to Catherine of Ar- j ragon. -Queen Victoria has always beeif difficult to please in the matter of her, bro-1 cades, and only one or two old weavers to j the south of France have ever madetbein to her satisfaction. When 'she . wanted.*1! very beautiful black grenadine with, raised | flowers, a new Jacqu,ard loom was set opj for it and cards prepared which, were afte^j wards destroyed that no copy might. be } made. One of the old weavers was set to \ work on it, and could only make very slovr progress, but it was finished at last. The ! gold and silver embroidered black .brocade ■ with its white front she wore at the' Ptamond Jubilee Drawing Room pleased her so much that she was photographed In it, and signed the portrait. In bonnets.the Queen has for many years remained faithfulto; a small shape that comes well forward bn-her head, and exactly suits. her hair "parted In the middle, as she has always worn it. -S&8, has at last discarded crepe, and* general'!' has it trimmed with small black ds'trlco tips, among which a white one is sometinttSv inserted on festive occasions. All'last Bummer she wore a black chip .^iushrobm:h»' trimmed with beautiful, long black^ white ostrich plumes that are almost pi* "' less, and she usually wears a plain Mac* hat of this form when going about tl« ; grounds and gardens of her various reslv j deuces in her donkey chair. ' "'.. \ The black Vienna cloth of which her orAVS nary dresses are made Is very good- wf /• costs a guinea a yard; the thinner pnes*^ § silk or grenadine, for she feels the1 he« J very much in summer. Her underwear!*;. tno very best and finest longcloth, and Cost> : I threo-six a yard. This Is qertalnly not &* ? ionable, only comfortable, for nearly every-, | one now puts line sills or soft cashmere ] next ,to the skin.—Mrs ■E. 8.. Clarke, I" : Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly for Maf.' j