Ladies’ Column.

Lake County Press, Issue 2184, 29 August 1907, Page 2

Ladies’ Column.

Latest London & Paris Fashions. BY MISS ADA MELLEE. [Ail Eights Eeseeved.] EYEJIUIG FROCKS. gk LAEQ'E number of present fashions show a tendency to revive the modes of bygone periods, old French dress of the days of Marie Antoinette and Napoleon being suggested, if noi copied, in many of the modern gowns. Some of the prettiest and most graceful evening dresses are arranged with modified Empire waists; in other words the waists are fairly low in front and high at the back. This effect is arrived at in a great many instances through the medium of ribbon-velvet, which marks a tolerably long or an ordinary waist in front, and is brought higher at the sides, until on arrival at the back the ribbon rises to a level with the shoulder-blades and is tied in a big bow thereabouts, the long ends flowing

almost to the hem of the skirt. When this pretty vogue is earned out by master hands nothing in the way of evening dress could be more graceful. The train begins to flow, as it were, from beneath the ribbon bow, starting in the form of a point and hanging away from the figure at the waist, after the fashion of a Watteau pleat. Gowns of not

or spangled chiffon look very well made in till:* way, fulling over slips of soft silk or satin in the sumo colour as the overdress or in a complete colour-contrast. L sefnl as a di..ncr dress, or for social evening-, is a semi-Empire gown of black spotted net, trimmed with straps of inch-wide black velvet-ribbon and a waistband en suite, tied I high at the back. i’rincess dresses of net, tight-fitting and cut to corselet height, and i met by chemisettes of tulle or similar delicate fabric, a-.e also trimmed with velvet- ! ribbon, a handsome example, in black, I mounted on a white silk slip, having a I tablier indicated by means of graduated | bands of the velvet, which converge at the waist until they meet and form a solid j corselet, and afterwards separate gradually |as they ascend the bodice. Simple evening I frocks of spotted chiffon and soft silk are i worn by girls of about eighteen and twenty, i the spot sometimes embroidered, sometimes | suggested by silver paillettes or smaU i crystals. Of pale blue soft silk with a silver j spot is the simple evening bodice sketched, j worn with a skirt to match, and belted wi.h | pale blue moire trimmed with black bebe velvet. A line of similar narrow intersects the little frill of Valenciennes lace at the decolletago. and thf short sleeves arc trimmed, below the puffs, with lines of velvet and rubles of lace. The medley of cream-spotted ckiffon and brown hebe velvet would also work out prettily according to the design sketched.

A COSTUME OF C*EaRY JRED FRIEZE The round or ‘ housemaid’s ’ skirt that camo as such a startling innovation a fenseasons ago—an innovation, that is to say, on the ell-skin skirts that preceded it—:s very little seen this winter, fancy leaning towards the fitted skirts again, which tailors are modelling in various novel ways, some with yokes, some without. Pleated effects arc encouraged, and for the useful walking skirt, accompanied by a short coat, anklelength is deemed correct, or the skirt may be a trifle longer, and yet escape the ground all round. With the long tight-fitting redingotes or pelisse coats, skirts, however, rest upon the ground—this chiefly for the sake of grace of appearance. The short skirt is unquestionably the most convenient, but the longer one is the more becoming, especially to short figures. Some of the smartest little coats of the season are those cut tight-fitting and single-breasted, and extending to the hips, over which they flute

gracefully, the spring from the waist giving a becoming shapeliness to small hips. The chic of the coat depends mainly upon the manipulation of this 1 spring.’ Frieze is an excellent material for the everyday tailormade, the rough surface showing dust less aggressively than the smooth surface of cloth, which requires frequent brushing The simple but smart tailor-made costume illustrated is -arried out in deep cherryfrieze, the round collar of the coat having a facing of velvet in a rather darker shade. Small gilt buttons run in a double row down the fronts of the coat, which fasten, edge to edge, with invisible hooks and eyes, and velvet buttons are used elsewhere on the coat and also on the skirt, which is strapped and pleated in a novel way. Wide stitched straps suggest a belt to the coat and trim the sleeves, these latter falling straight and simply from the shoulders to the elbows.

A LACE SAC. When a difficulty presents itself with regard to the selection of an evening blouse, and the woman concerned is unable to arrive at a decision between this, that and the other suggestion, a way out of the maze that usually gives satisfaction is to settle on a lace blouse. Nothing is more becoming than lace, and the fact appears to be generally realised, judging by the large number of lace blouses for all occasions that meet the eye. Net is also pressed into the service of blouses, daintv models for evening wear being made up with fairly wide tucks and with hems or frills of soft satin. A blouse of ecru net thus arranged has a pelerine of net tucked lengthways, between the tucks here and there being a narrow frill of pink satin. The short sleeves correspond, and the open front of the blouse, from the

bust to the throat, is filled in with a pointed rest of tucked net decked with tiny bows of pink satin. Lace pelerines, sacs, and boleros, for warding off draughts from the shoulders and neck when only a thin decollete blouse is worn, are useful and becoming toilette accessories that women are wearing at theatres. A little sac of the kind with cape sleeves, as illustrated, is of ivory coloured Irish crochet lace, trimmed on the sleeves and deep, turned-down collar with a Greek key design, wrought in fine black paillettes and bebe velvet. Knotted scartends of fine lace with tasselled tips career down the fronts of the sac, and altogether the little garment is useful not only as a draught expeller, but also for veiling the defects of a demode blouse.