DRESS AND FASHION NOTES.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9305, 4 January 1896, Page 3

DRESS AND FASHION NOTES.

" Weekly Press and P.eferee." LONDON AND PARISIAN. A new skirt has appeared for taffetas. It is made of innumerable small breadths very much wider below than above, forming little godet pleats at the sides, while the back and front fall each in a box-pleat cut by the seam, which, oddly enough, is thus rendered fully visible. Chine is the height of fashion, and a wonderful example of it was shot in heliotrope, black and white with chine bouquets forming stripes. The sleeves were of striped silk. Glace silks are used for the fashionable distinct bodices, such as green and white or blue and white, and one of these was cut in curious battlements on the bust, a treatment which constituted a trimming in itself. The sleeves aro always large, and the bodices full, yet tightly drawn to the figure.

The new wide skirts are the reverse of comfortable from the pedestrian pcirit of view. Stiffened pleats are not to bo held up for any length of time without an arm-ache, and the hideous effect of a held-up skirt that has has a steel at the edge can be easily imagined. As a house-gown the wide skirt just touching the ground is perfect, but in the street it leaves its wearer no choice between enduring a stiff arm and acting as a pavement sweeper. Fashion has ordained this year that the outdoor coverings should be of the most ornamental description. The capes are elaborate, and often cause the figure to look too broad. The pointed shape in front is eminently becoming to a slender figure, and the shoulder pieces follow the line of modern modes. It is made in shot silk, with net over it, thickly worked with ropes of sequins, these selected sequins being a new treatment. They form large distinct patterns on a groundwork of tracery, formed of the same paillettes put on flat, and black lace is used for the top of the sleeve. Some of the new silk linings are certainly remarkable; even the severe black serge boasting a lining of immensely patterned plaid of quite voyant hues. The true inwardness of to-day's toilet lies in tho fact that the most opulent portion thereof is hidden from the eye, in which respect tho fashion of to-day is akin to that of yesteryear, when the pride that apes humility was aptly illustrated by the coat and skirt of humble brown holland, with good black satin lined.