OPERA CLOAKS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9739, 29 May 1897, Page 8

OPERA CLOAKS.

These have become a most costly and important part of dress. We have had for some time a reproduction of the Venetian mantles of mediaeval times, but that is passing away as far as high fashion .is concerned. The newest, though they reach from the neck to the feet in an unbroken line, and are wide at the hem, are cut most carefully to the figure, retaining all the grace and style which a good' carriage entails ; the heavy folds and box-pleatings are attached to yokes, which were in favour in the Middle Ages. The redundancy of ornament, the masses of lace and fur introduced upon them, have given place in the newer make to light but graceful embroidery carried down the front, also under the arms, and down the centre of the flowing Watteau which starts between the shoulders in a point instead of a thick box pleat, and is so contrived that it blends into the material and does not stand out from it too boldly to detract from the beauty of the dominant fabric, which is generally the softest of moires lined with some colour, that asserts itself either in the front or through |ts outer covering. All the collars are high, but they are filled in with soft bouillonnes; this is most becoming to the chin and neck.