SOCIETY AND FASHION GOSSIP.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3229, 4 November 1881, Page 4

SOCIETY AND FASHION GOSSIP.

At the recent state balls at Buckingham Palace there was not a single lady present without a cvinolette.

Outside pockets attached to the dress are no longer fashionable; they must be detached, or detachable, and hanging.

Flexible cloth, a species of stockinet, has recently been introduced, and will be exclusively used for corsages of dresses. Silver gauze is the rage in Paris, where it is draped over satin, with silver leaves or ornaments, and with silver Jerseys for

corsages. Straw hats of large size, trimmed with wild flowers, are much in vogue in England ; buttercups, poppies, daisies, and hawthorn being the favorite blossoms.

A new lace for trimming hats is one called Fayal, which is arranged row after row so as to cover the crown, round which is placed a wreath of flowers entwined with a lace scarf.

Information from the Continent confirms the hope that short dresses will continue in vogue for nearly all occasions, and that there will he no very decided changes in the next season's dresses.

Printed muslins will be much worn this season, trimmed with blue or pink lace. ' Spanish fringe ' is composed of extremely fine twine lace, and will probably be popular as an autumn trimming. . Sara Bernhardt always wears London bonnets, never a Paris one, and does not select them herself, but sende her maid, who buys four or five at a time, and ' never an unbe* coming one'—so Sara' says. Sateens continue very popular, and are often seen trimmed with English embroidery worked with cotton matching the color of the dress. Indian cashmere, nun's veiling, and mouseline-de-laine are also to be obtained in the same style.

The morning attire introduced from Russia by the Princess of Wales fits like a glove to the person,, produces the effect when worn of a jet cuirass, and it's glittering black,ness is extremely becoming to both figure and complexion. The Very Rev. Dr. Lake, Dean of Durham, has married Miss Katherine Gladstone, daughter of the Premier. The Archbishop, of Canterbury, assisted by the Dean of St. Paul's, performed the ceremony.

. The romantic story that the Princess Louise would have been plain Mrs Duck-

Worth instead of the Marchioness of ..Lome, had. she followed her own sweet will, is again renewed, owing to the rumour that Prince Leopold's former tutor is to be made Dean of Westminster. It is not, however, at all credited in well informed circles.

Frills for the neck and wrists are now frequently seen made of the same surah as is used for trimming the dress. A single broad ruche.is also a favorite decoration for a plain skirt, made five or six inches wide in treble or quadruple box-plaits, the clusters being placed about an inch apart.

Oath era are almost as much in vogue for bonnets as for dresses and mantles, the former being often made of tulle drawn on wires with * poke brims,' and three frills of Spanish lace the same color as the tulle falling from the crown to the neck ; a bouquet of flowers being placed very low on the left Bide.

Very original styles are seen; for instance, a dress of black muslin, with immense printed colored flowers, either full-sized poppies -or dahlias larger than nature, trimmed with insertion and flounces of black Spanish lace. This has a Japanese aspect, which is only becoming to a very slender and spiritnclle person.

A tall silk hat is no longer an indispensable p.'irt of the riding dress. Tin; most comfortable and by far tho most being of a round form, matching in color the

mibifc with it, air'

!H':iii!y willi :i

'broad, ostrich phsmo, wlVum 'vm'H.llie* 'lie .;rown and droops very low in the back, sometimes reaching to the shoulder.

Hoops are surely gaining the day, and their sale is steadily hourly increasing, !*ut the hoop of the' moment isa modest one. barely two yards :it the most in circumference, while the fashionable short dress-skirt measures from %\ to 2\, .so that it sets well over it with a few indies to spare, and even more where the Ivoin are only in the back.

The man who manufactures false dimples is said to be making a large fortune. The operation is rather painful, but the result is -uch that the sufferers display great fortitude. The worst of it'is that they have to live in retirement until the wounds in the cheeks are healed, the necessary period being from three weeks to five.

. The latest odd Parisian caprice is for a minature chanticleer made of the blue-green or red impion feathers on the body, with the scarlet ibis for the comb, and some real cocks, plumes for the tail. This is offered as a side ornament for bonnets and hats, and is said to he as popular now in Paris as turtles, lizards, and beetles, were formerly.

Fashionable life seems arranged solely for display and effect. At the recent wedding of Mr Auriol Barker and Miss Cockerton, the bride carried a bouquet more than two feet in diameter. The seven bridesmaids completed a colour-harmony in rich material, the first bridesmaid wearing the palest shade of old gold, and the tint deepening, until it became a bronze in the seventh lady. Flowers continue to be more used than ever, and their imitation has attained perfection. A few are of velvety—pansies, for example. They are worn on the corsage, at the throat, on the skirt, at the b01t,,-and even on the long gloves, in the guise of fastenings, which is in questionable taste, for nothing is more unsightly than a crushed flower, and here it is inevitably crushed. A leading lawyer and politician in New York has trained his three daughters each to a differeni line of pecuniary independence. A leading society belle in the same city could, we learn, at any time, support herself by her own technical skill. There are women lawyers, ministers, physicians, one of the ablest in New York being the wife of Dr Jacobi (MrsPutnam Jacohi), and in every way his equal in the profession. Female reporters, critics, and editors of papers are also to the fore. One of the leading illustrated family papers (Harper's Bazaar) has a lady editor, while in art and literature women are holding their own. The dramatic profession is ' the Woman's profession.' As at present constituted, a clever woman has in it decidedly the adtantage over a clever man. Decorative art opens many new fields of employment for ladies.