LADIES' COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LIV, Issue 21, 24 July 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

Jubilee Fashions. Thus our London correspondent on the fashions of the season : — The question which exercises the female mind as much as anything in connection with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, is what new fashions are to be introduced to commemorate the year of rejoicing P It is perhaps wrong to say what new fashions, for t;he tendency seems to be to go back in everything to the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign, and mould ideas and fashions on the models of that period. So what was to be feared and regarded with shuddering apprehension was the probability of an attempt to revive the crinoline of 1837. The display of early Victorian costumes in the shop windows of late has given some grounds for this fear, and it will be a relief for mankind in general to learn that no outrage of the sort is premeditated. The worst that is to happen is a 1 revival on a small scale of the bonnets of the early part of the reign. For the information of those whose memory will not carry them back quite far enough for them to conjure •up a vivid picture of the bonnet of that period, I may cay that it bears a strong resemblance to the present day Salvation Army lassie's head gear, differing mainly from that eyesore to an artistic nature in that it is generally of white straw, is very considerably shallower, and is decorated with feathers and white ribbons. It will be pleasing for those who have either actively or silently rebelled against • bloomers ' to learn that the powers that be have decided against them, and the lady cyclist who wishes to be ohio will content herself with a well-shaped plain skirt and a smart silk blouse. Of course, West End milliners are laying in vast stocks of novelties for the Jubilee season, but they are all very small and harmless changes, and forecast no important alteration in the present mode of ladies' dress. Skirts, sleeves, and capes are undergoing a considerable modification and all of them are visibly becoming beautifully les9. Puffs are subsiding, gathers are giving way to pleats, and the fashionable lady who desires to, be in the swim will be neat and compact. Pale fawns and delicate greys relieved with flashes of pink chiffon or creamy lace are to be the hues for the parks or afternoon calls ; and for those whose complexions do not go well with tame tints it appears that a gorgeous new blue, christened periwinkle, which is a subtle combination of tbe familiar navy and cornflower, will be fashionable. Ordinary man, whose only alteration of fashion is generally a change in the hue or shape of his necktie, is to have some attention paid him this season. ' His evening dress is to be tampered with, and silk waistcoats, which may, if the wearer chooses, be in rainbow tints, are to be substituted for the present sombre black cloth. In obvious development from this will be satin knee-breeohes, with buckled shoes to follow, and man, in his evening dress, at present a sombre, cross between a waiter and an undertaker, will be transformed into a gaily dressed cavalier.