THE LADIES COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6051, 9 April 1881, Page 3

THE LADIES COLUMN.

FASHION NOTES. The mania for plush increases rather than diminishes. "Fluttered frog" is the absurd title given to the last new colour. Thin ladies will rejoice to hear that paniers are being made to many new dresses. Fashionable women have taken a fancy to wear broad and low heels to their shoes. Enamelled shrimps mounted in silver are among the eccentric ornaments of the day. The three distinctive styles are the feather bonnets, the fruit bonnets, and the beaded bonnets. silks are mneli in use for dress trimmings and for lining cloaks of fur and brocade. The poke bonnet is becoming only to thin, tall women with a picturesque Grseco-Roman caste of countenance. Bonnets are worn ridiculously large, or otherwise run into the other extreme, and I are so small as scarcely to deserve the name. So much is worn round the throat now that in addition to the ruQle a beaded or embroidered band of velvet is sometimes seen. Painting on coarse brown paper of the darkest shade is a new idea. Screens, door panels, and album covers are made and decorated thus. At a recent wedding one of the bridesmaids wore a silver necklet and bracelet of Roman coins. We hear there is to be quite a furore for ancient coin ornaments. Much of tho elegance of a lady's dress is made up of comparatively trifling accessories —little elegant nothings, flowers, lact-s and ribbons, dainty gloves and bewitching slippers. j A harlequin dress is the latest and least pretty novelty, consisting of a skirt of lozenge shape pieces of plush, long jacket 'bodice, with sleeves patched and pieced with 'bright coloured plush, and toque to match. S The latest ideas in buttons are of immense jsize, of glass, with a tint at the bottom just 'gleaming through the glass of the colour of ;the dress they are to bo worn with. They iare very expensive and more bizarre than | pretty. Woollen dresses will be <le rigeur this season, and the prevailing shades garnet, peacock (blue, and coffee brown. Plush bands and j bows will supersede velvet and silk in trimjmings, and caps of plush similar to that adorning the costume will be much worn. ! At a recent wedding in Philadelphia there ! was a novelty in the dress of the bridesmaids. : They wore suits of ivory-white camel's-hair .cloth trimmed with soft bands of swan'sidown, supplemented with large white plush ! hats and drooping feathers. The novelty was ; most effective. ; The beautiful beaver collars and tiny muffs, in the most delicate shades of grey and £cru, 1 are prominent amongst tho fashionable noveli ties in New York ; and in Philadelphia the ;young ladies are wearing slender silver bracelets with a large " I" set horizontally across ; the top, as souvenirs of*a regimental fair recently held there. A new petticoat has just been brought out. It is 80 arranged as to keep the short skirt i out at the back, just at the spot above the ankle, where it frequently annoys by falling in. The plan is a simple one, like most clover inventions, and consists merely iii a crinoline steel being run through a casing in ihe back . breadth, "w here its stands out stiffly, and holds out the dresa, to the great comfort of the wearer. Lady huntresses in French provinces are more numerous this year, inspired by tho example of President Grevy's daughter, who is as devoted to sport as her father. Semimasculine garb is adopted, consisting of black cloth Breton trousers, made very wide, and reaching below the knee, where they are met by high buckskin boots ; long jxuiis XIH. jacket, ornamented with silver dogs' heads, and thrown open to shew the waistcoat, fastened by similar canine buttons; a felt bonnet, caught up at one side by two large silver dogs'neads, and cuSs, collar, and frill of old Mechlin lace.

POLITICAL LADIES.

Speaking of "Endymion" the correspondent of an American journal says :—The author evidently intends that ladies should study his pages carefully, and, so far as they are concerned, his book seems to have been written with a purpose. It is full of hints to the Conservative ladies to imitate the tactics of the Liberals, and take some practical interest in politics. Before the book appeared, this subject had been much discussed in upper circles of society, and more than one great dame is spoken of as- having come to the rescue. The Duchess of Manchester is the first to step into the breach, and at her table politicians of all parties have been invited to meet each other and make one happy family. Lesser luminaries have signified their willingness* to shine in the same sphere. On the other hand, the Liberal ladies are by no means slumbering. No less a personage than Lady Roseberry is to lead her husband's party, and ground, costing a fabulous sum of money, has been secured at Knightsbridge, close to the new barracks, on which, when cleared of its present f old buildings, the daughter of the Rothschilds will hold her court. A woman's first duty is to be charming, and if she fulfils this by strengthening her husband's political pftrty, then she is peerless among her sex. It is rather hard upon Lord Beaconstield that his words should have so encouraged the enemy. While on thesubjectof "Endymion" it may be interesting to state that the last sentence of the book was traced with the identical quill which was used iu writing the opening line of " Coningsby'—" It was a bright May morning," &c.—six and thirty years ago. This quill pen is to be set in gold and presented to the Queen.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A set of dress buttons worth £124 was recently exhibited at Home. To remove coffee strains, brush the coffee stains with glycerine, and wash out with warm water. Rosa Bonheur, Mdlle. Dodu, and Madame Abieot, together with five Sisters of Charity, are the only women, it is said, entitled to wear the decoration of the Legion of Honour. Tiiere is a red girl in New York not an Indian. She has abundance of dark red hair, which falls down over her shoulders. Hat, dress, gloves, boots are all the same colour to match. At Wurtcmburg, the winter schools for teaching domestic economy to the daughters of the farmers and peasants have greatly ameliorated the household condition of the peasantry. By the revised codc of Mississippi wives and husbands inherit the whole of cach other's property if there are no children, and ' a child's portion if there are, and a wife can will her own property as freely as an unmarried woman can. Princess Beatrice, it is said, has put all the busybodies who interest themselves in looking for a husband for Her Highness to rest, by declaring her intention to remain single during her mother's lifetime, in order to devote herself entirely to that august lady. Why do not the mothers remember that a young girl's bones are compressible, and that the free use of her arms and shoulders is absolutely necessary to strengthen the spinal column at the top, in the same way that the proper balance of the foot on the ground and use of the leg strengthen it at the hips ? Not one girl in fifty but would be made another being by regular drilling and sensible clothes, which give freedom for the limbs, such as is required for lawn-tennis or roller skating. The Baroness Burdctt-Coutts's wedding- i dress was composed of crcain satin and velvet brocade, trimmed with bows of ribbon and white marabout; bonnet to match, trimmed with stephanotis and white heather, lace lappets, and an ancient Spanish veil of very fine lace. Her only ornaments were a locket of antique gold, the gift of her sister. Mrs. Trevanion, and a cat's-eye bracelet set in diamonds, the gift of the bridgroom. This stone is of unsurpassable beauty. Her travelling dress was composed of heliotrope plush, trimmed with brown marabout; feathers, bonnet and muff to match. Mrs. Bartlett, the mother of the young man who has just married the Baroness Bur-dett-Coutts, first became acquainted with the Baroness 011 the occasion of her son Ellis entering Christ Church College, Oxford, by reason of an incident not considered of any moment at the time. Ellis was to recite a selected piece of English literature, but his mother, Mrs. Bartlett, insisted oil making the selection for her son herself, and chose an extract from Longfellow's "Hiawatha." The recitation turned out to be a marked success, and Baroness Burdett-Coutts was so pleased witli it that she asked an introduction to the boy's mother, Mrs. Bartlett, of Philadelphia. The acquaintance so be.uu ripened into close friendship, and from that time Will. L. Ashmead Bartlett, whom the Baroness has just married, became a prime favourite, and, when lie grew to manhood a close friend, being the almoner of the Baroness on many important occasions, but never her secretary or in her paid employment in any way.