LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9184, 13 October 1888, Page 4 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

PARIS FASHIONS. It is very rare that dressmakers, even when appearing to do so, actually repeat the same arrangements in consecutive seasons. They prefer to go back a few months, and borrow from last year instead. Even then, slieht differences—visible only to the initiated—mark the productions as novelties, but it is idle work drawing comparisons ; better leave this to the reader, and plunge immediately into description. Double-draped skirts have the fulness both of the upper and underskirt pretty regularly distributed all the way round, a matter of necessity since steel runnings are dispensed with, for if the amount of material were heaped on at the back the skirt would not hang evenly, deprived of its metallic support. Nevertheless the front breadth of the underskirt is often plain. Symmetry is neither avoided nor sought after. Some skirts have thin draperies and so on arranged symmetrically, others have not; there is no rule about the matter. Tunics are more often pleated thah gathered nowadays, and are fuller than they were. Eighteen yards of silk would be necessary to make the following gown composed of an underskirt—plain in front and pleated flat behind, and in double box-pleats at the sides—and a tunic divided i,nto a back drapery arranged in three bouillonnea and festooned apron. The back breadths composing the bouillonn6s are cut longer than the underskirt, pleated ut the sides, and fixed down beneath the edges of the box-plqats, which form panels. At the waist these breadths are mounted in pleats sewn edge-on to tho band, ono deep one dividing every group of a dozen small ones. Of these deep pleats there are three. Pulled out perpendiculary from the zone of the waist, they measure about six inches, but the top edge is turned in obliquely, so that they appear much longer, and fall outwards in a graceful, elongated loop. The extra length of the breadths is tucked up between each of theee loops. It is difficult to describe such an arrangement as this in words. I will put it another way. Suppose the breadth measure two yards and α-half in width, the first quarter of a yard would be pleated small, the second and third would hung forward in a long loop, after which another quarter would be pleated and followed by a a second loop, and so on. I insist on this, because these hanging loops, or deep loose pleats, are a special feature of the new draped skirts. They allow of a great amount of width being put in a skirt without rendering it bulky around the waist. The idea originated with train skirts, which were mounted entirely in edge-on pleats about three inches deep, the points of the pleats being tucked in, so that they stood out vertically from the waist, like a Shakspere ruff. Sometimes a couple of long pleats are set in the centre of the bacs drapings, and a third on one side, as in the case of a skirt drapped with two woollen materials —nlain and checked. The underskirt is raaclo of the checked tissue, and has only a few plcits behind ; over this is arranged a full square apron of the plain woollen, and a back drapery composed of a breadth of the latter and one of the checked material mounted in several hanging pleats divided by fiat ones. For this eight yards of double-width woollen is sufficient, equally divided between plain and fancy. Tunic? made of materials woven with a decorative I bonier on each of tho selvedges look very well mounted in hanging loop pleats, only it is necessary to turn the border inside on that portion of the material that is sewn to the waistband, unless there be basques to the bodice worn with ir. Draped skirts are often combined with round-waisted bodices worn with belts fastened by « buckle. Some of the newest jerseys are made so, and have no basques, or none apparent. This for everyday dresses. Round bodices of a smarter kind have waistbands made of the same material as the trimming, which m.iy be a stripe, a piece of embroidery, some sort of galloon or passementerie, or merely straight folds of material. Where a baud is worn with a blouse it may be drawn as tightly as comfort will allow; but if tho bodice is a tight-fitting one, and the belt tho complement of the trimming, it is preferable w> have it sewn down, that it may not pucker the underlying fabric. Many bodices are crossed over in front, and in such u case the ends of the band must be left unattached, so as only to be secured after the dress itself is fastened. Segments of belts attached to the side seams beneath the arms, and carried down in a sharp poiub in front, are still fashionable, aud are, moreover, ifc is well to remember, extremely becoming to full figure*. Very pretty dinner or theatre bodices, made in thin but not transparent tissues, have side pieces of some silken damask or brocade, cut in the shape of a triangle, of which the lines of the waist and side seams forms the base and upright. For the rest, the triangular system is carried out to the end. A couple of elongated triangles are sewn in by their shortest side to the shoulder seams, similar pieces being put on behind, while each sleeve has two more, the outer one placed with its base to the armiiole, the under base downwards at the elbow. The rest of the bodice may be of orrjandi, mousseline-de-soie, foulard, or nun's veiling, pleated (Int, and mounted on a tight-fitting lining, with a pleated frilling of the same for basque. A sort of Figaro vest or spencer, open in front, and cut three-quarters high, is a nice finish to a girlish toilette. The bodice worn underneath is close fitting, and secured at the waist by a sash or belt, and a short bouillonnt', of the same material as the vest decorates the top of the close sleeve. Several bands of galloon, or braiding, trim the upper part of the bodice, above the low line of the vest, and encircle tho sleeves below the elbow, the same ornamentation being applied to the underskirt. Blouses and Garibaldi skirts have hitherto only been applied to simple morning costumes here, and it was reserved for an ele/jante at Trouville to inaugurate the black velvet blouse as a finish to a marigold-coloured gown of bunting, made with two skirts— one nearly as long as the other—both gathered at the waist, and trimmed with wide bands of black velvet.

So much for draped skirts and their attendant and divided bodices, to which I have devoted the space allotted to fashions, having on previous occasions discussed at some length polonaise? and redingotes. The modifications to which they have been subjected so far are insignificant; the shapes remain the same—simple to a fault; but there is a growing tendency to decorate them more freely. The basques of the coats are frequently braided, or decorated with appliques of passementerie ; sometimes the lapels are suppressed, and their place is occupied by rich trimming to correspond with that on the skirt. Trimming, too, of a similar kind is applied to the upper part of the sleeves. And, finally, brocaded silks, Peking, and fancy materials are chosen instead of the plain woollens in which they first made their appearance before the world.

The marriage of tho Dowager-Duchess of Montrose is (Truth says) greatly resented by her son, as Her Grace had long ago announced her intention of making the Duke's youngest son her heir, and the child was therefore named after the late Mr. Stirling Crawfurd. This new marriage has caused the Dowager-Duchess to revise her testamentary arrangements. "Golden weddings" and "silver weddings" are recent institutions, so far as England is concerned. Custom and nomenclature come from Germany, and have taken the firmest hold in Germany. The fifth anniversary wedding-day is " wooden;" the tenth, " rin ," the fifteenth, " crystal;" the twentieth, "china;" the twenty-fifth, "silver;" the thirtieth, cotton;" the thirty fifth, "linen;" tho fortieth, "woollen;" the forty-fifth, " silk ;" the fiftieth, "golden ;" the sixtieth, "diamond." " It is not worthy of the workingmen o* E'.ieland," said Mr. Gladstone to the Staffordshire potters, "to put in the way of women bars and hindrances to their attaining excellence." Mr. Gladstone is right; but bars or no bars, the next generation of the women of England seem bent on "attaining excellence" in every sphere of activity. Already they have beaten the young men at Cambridge in learning, and now they are beginning to beab records in athleticism. Miss Flossie Morse is unquestionably the only child of thirteen who has ever reached the summit of Mont Blanc in a single day, and her feat is an astonishing instance of pluck and endurance. Grudging critics of the other sex will say, we suppose, that ib is only fair that girls should ' score" somewhere from being such "light weights."