THE LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6255, 3 December 1881, Page 3

THE LADIES' COLUMN.

FASHION NOTES. Balavfxses remain in vogue. Yellow chamois gloves are moribund. Moire is again used as half-mourning. Button gloves are no longer fashionable. Feather turbans bid fair to be much worn. Gloves arc iudispeusable to a gentleman's toilet in Europe. Lead blue and cadet blue are fashionable shades for cheviots. Diadem wreaths for the hair will certainly be worn with ball toilets. Ived and green are acain used in combination in fashionable toilets. Moircr Iroeade in rippled stripes is the high novelty of this season. Mitts will remain in favour until the weather is decidedly cooler. Many of the handsomest midwinter wraps are lined throughout with plush. Feather bands will he worn as dress trimmings as well as on hats and bonnets. Velvet basques will be much worn with silk satin Rhadzimire and soft-wool shirts. Bridal slippers are of white satin, highheeled, and with rosettes or buckles of paste. Little boys and girls are considered a necessary part of a bridal procession nowadays. Round skirts, medium short and of the same length all around, are the only ones that are really fashionable. Worth, Dusuzeau and other Paris dress artists are reviving tha use of faille instead of satin Merveillcuse for costumes. Long dolman sack visites have elbow sleeves and are trimmed with collars and bands of long pile plush, feather plush and fur. Pearl beads, silk and silver thread and cord are combined in the embroideries that adorn the tabliers aud accessories of the richest bridal dresses. Satin, moire aud brocaded velvet are comprised in the handsomest bridal dresses. Orange flowers and lilies of the valley mingle together in the handsomest bridal parnres. PARISIAN BONNETS AND HATS. The following are the leading types of bonnets at Mile. Eugenie's :—For theatre wear, the "Piccolino," in cream colour— pointed crown, wide brim in embossed velvet, lined with old gold ; torsade and long Amazon feather, curling gracefully at the tip. A small capote for town wear of a fur called grey rat, trimmed with seal-brown velvet, and two heads of grey rats, with black beads for eyes. A small muff to match —for Mile. Eugenie now make 3 the muff to correspond with the bonnet, which again is always harmony with the rest of the costume. The " Grand Duchesse" hat is boguefelt, the crown smooth, and the brim rough or shaggy ; long feather of two distinct colours (bege and brown), and a cut steel buckle. The Florentine bonnet of claret feathers, with shaded lace to match, and moire strings. Some of the bronze velvet bonnets are trimmed with shaded poufs, and have all moire strings. The newest effect given to the plush bonnet is a smooth crown and a rough brim, both inside and out. Ostrich tips, demi-long feathers, andlongmuch-curledplumcs seem in great request. The single long-feather is required tobeso thick that it is now pieced under the quill. Fancy feathers are made to match the glace aud shaded plushes with which they are combined. Doves, humming birds, and Impeyan pheasants are all pressed into the millinery service, as well as the feathers of kingfishers, herons, merles, parrakests, guinea hens, pheasants, aud peacocks, the feathers being separated and re-arranged in fanciful patterns. The plush used for bonnets and hats is of unusual variety. It includes glace or shot plush, ombrtf, or shaded plush, the shading repeating itself four times across the breadth, instead of one shading as formerly ; pontille or dotted plush, which is pretty anil light: moleskin plush, with thick, short, pile-like velvet ; ploughed plus!), with lines across the breadth, like furrows ; aud striped plush, with lines of varied width. Then there is a new clouded plush labelled "Nebuleux" and tiger plush repeated from last season. Plush as well as velvet is used for the small muffs, which arc gathered and much trimmed with bronze, claret, or sulphur lace, and large ribbon bows, all to match the bonnet. Millie. Eugenie has introduced a new maiitille in both black and white blonde; it is fastened on a small fanchon of flowers, and draped 011 the chest with a bouquet, one of its very long ends being fastened on the front of the skirt with a small bouquet. This is specially suitable for wearing at concerts, as it hits the happy medium between a bonnet and a bead-dress. A great feature in new bonnets is the dissimilarity of the crown from the brim. The former may be beaded or feathered (golden pheasants taking the lead in popular favour), while the brim is plain velvet. Chenille crowns, embroidered in a pattern on net and brightened with beads, are in vogue ; as are beaded crowns, so thickly studded that they are almost solid. When flowers are used they are large, and of chenile and plush ; roses, dahalias, nasturtiums, and asters are all clustered high on the left side of the bonnet, they do not droop as formerly. The ornaments are in atrocious taste, and consist of shrimps in coloured metal, jet spiders with gold feet, gilt snails, turtles, crabs, lizards, grasshoppers, &o. These are intended for bonnets, while for fur hats the claws and paws of various auimals are provided ; could anything be more inappropriate'!— Queen. CHIT-CHAT. One of the wire-walking women carries her husband on her shoulders. Most women have their husbands under their thumb. Do not let coffee aud tea be kept near each other, unless closely covered in tin canisters, as they are easily impregnated and the flavour of each injured. Princess Louise at a bazaar wore ite Holland, embroidered with crewels, and the Princes Christian wore dark blue, with a white muslin apron aud a white bonnet. For a princess the wife of the Crown Prince of Austria is exceptionally well educated, a good linguist, musician, and equestrienne, with artistic sensibilities, aud good sound judgment. Some ladies residing in North-Western Texas, like the natives in Souh Africa, are said to have taken to chewing snutF. The practice, it is stated, is quite common, and was introduced by some "Arkansas girls."

The tambourine dance consists of a small musical instrument of that name, to which eight knots of ribbon are fastened, four red ones for the ladies, four white ones for the gentlemen. At a given signal the knots are pulled, the tambourine falls apart, and the ladies and gentlemen find themselves curiously fastened to the white ribbons which the gentleman had pulled. The unexpected partners then dance together, and the fun begins. There is a sumptuary law against appearing at a wedding in mourning. If the bride's mother is a widow, she should lay aside lier cap and veil on that occasion. In England the very uncompromising colour bright red is considered " wedding mourning that is, the bride's mother or sisters, if in deepest mourning, will wear the colour of a Jacqueminot rose to the wedding, and still be supposed to be paying the true respect to the departed. Young women have taken a remarkable place in the late examinations of the London University. The class for mathmatical honours had but three members, one of them a girl, who took the palm ; a girl also came out ahead for English honours ; and two of the four for German honours were girls, who again distanced their male rivals; one of three, again, placed at the head for pharmaceutical chemistry, was a girl; and Miss L'rideaux was first in the honours list for anatomy, coming from the London School of Medicine for Women, and beating both of her rivals from Guy's Hospital. At the last Drawing-room, Lady Archibald Campbell must have resembled s volume of heraldy, with her silver grey satin train embroidered with the Argyll coat of arms and the motto, Scobliviscrai•>-, thesliieldbcing only live feet long; the quarteriegs of the Argyll Campbells and the Callenders of Ardkinglass and Craigforth emblazoned with proper heraldic tints on the shield shaped pockets of the black velvet gown, and the device of the shield in silver on black satin slippers ; while the boar's head above the motto, and the rampant lion supporters, might have suggested to the ignorant miml the approach of a menagerie. What are we coming to ? asks ' Atlas' in the World. Yesterday, in the Row, I first met a lady wearing a grey felt helmet (Army shape) with a pugaree round it, the whole having a very Amazonian and amazing effect; and then, a few yards further on, 1 saw another very pretty woman with an umbrella by her side, the handle of which was fashioned so as to exactly resemble the hilt of sword ; and for auyht I know to the contrary, the uin-brolla-cane may have concealed an actual rapier. Further on, another beautiful woman with a sort of iron cage strapped over the upper part of her left arm. This, if you please, was to protect the lovely owner's arm from being touched, it being in a state of vaccine sensitiveness^