LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8300, 5 July 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

A FORECAST OF SPRING.

By the lost mail's papers from home we get a full epitome of all the fashions to be worn during the English spring and summer; and as these will be the dressing for our spring a lew notes on styles and materials may not bo out of place, and, mayhap, will serve as a guide when the shows at tho end of next mouth take place. The beginning of the season will witness the introduction of broclWi crepes in immense quantities. To say that these fabrics are magnificent hub weakly expresses it, for they beggar adequate description. Twills, gauzes, bombazines, grenadines, and rich basket-gauzes are in handsome assortment. Crepes in plain colours and printed will demand the attention of all people of good taste, for they are the finest of this class the manufacturers has ever produced. Sleeves still continue to bo of a totally different colour and material to that employed for the rest of the gown, and dresses are now making their appearance having the skirt and corsage of dotted or figured materials, with the sleeves quite plain. At other times the gown material is unadorned, while tlio sleeves sport racy dots or an elaborate design or embrodiory. Mauves and greys, together with the old-fashioned floral silks, seem likely to lead the dance of fashion during tho coming months. A strong effort has been made to bring wide ties into vogue, but it has not been successful. There are several reasons for this, and not the least of them are found in the undeniable facts that broad ribbon is difficult to tie, that it soon shows signs of wear, and that at the best ib has a very prim look that is seldom becoming. The favourite ties are of velvet ribbon, ranging from lin to 2in in width, and rather long. They start from the back, and arc knotted carelessly in the way that best suits the face.

The absence of collars from many summer dresses is likely to induce the wearing of jaunty little shoulder mantles or capes out of doors.

The mohairs have a particularly fine surface finish which renders them very silky-looking, and they are very smart. Among the plain colours arc seen moss, olive, and tea-green, deep purple, two shades of navy-blue, one of army-blue, and golden-brown. The army-blue is very effective, and jwssesses an air of newness that seems rather odd, considering that we have been used bo cho colour for some time, although it has never appeared in this material. The striped mohairs show the small lines in neutral shades characteristic of " trouserings," as well as stripes a little broader than those, and others that are quite a quarter of an inch in width. The stylish contrasts are blue (very pale) and brown, brown and yellow, blue and mode, steel and mode, shrimp and grey, two .'hades oi blue, a. tea-green and mode, besides many others comprising the numerous well-known shades.

Tho challies are especially dainty, many of them looking as if their patterns were copied from a fine piece of Sevres. If the figure is a llowcr it is delicately wrought, oven though it bo a flower in miniature. These fabrics are not only cool and prettylooking, but possess the additional virtue of suiting old and young alike. A pure white challis shows the tiniest of moss rosebuds artistically wrought upon it, and another has a pale-blue ground, on which aro seen bunches of apple blossoms in miniature. One especially pleasing specimen is figured with small pomogranates on a pale yellow background, another is white, displaying pink blossoms ; and still another shows pretty violets standing out from the white surface of the materials. The union of the white and grey is very popular, while for those who do not care for this contrast there is offered a decoration of mauve, forming a scheme >1f colouring that is just now in high favour with the French modistes. A gown of soft and silky Henrietta cloth displays to wonderfully good advantage a mingling of mauve, white, and grey. Elaborate gowns of wool materials are decorated with velvet and coarse laces, while dresses that are to receive general wear are trimmed with braid or else are devoid of ornamentation, save that derived from their grace of design and beauty of fabric. The stitches used in making garments of this description are, as far as possible, made invisible. The newest bonnet is a large black lace butterfly, one pair of wings folding fiat upon the sides of the hair, while the others rise on either side of the little puffs and coils of the coiffure. The antenna; are in sparkling jet. So large are some of the spring hats that a group of young women look almost as though they were wearing umbrellas or parasols for head coverings, yet no one can say that these chapeaux are unbecoming or inartistic. The sailor hat makes its appearance with a slightly lower crown and wider brim, but whether it will be accepted in this form only the future will chow, for the pretty girls of the period are very careful to select a sailor hat that will exactly suit them, well knowing that in this shape they always look the jauntiest. Every woman has a right to appear as young and as pretty as possibleindeed, it is her duty—but sometimes, with this good end in view, she takes the wrong means, and, of course, fails to attain her object. iSobody but a really young woman should wear a sailor hat ; it imparts a hard or a ridiculous air when worn by anyone else. Small flowers very closely bunched are given greater favour than the large varieties. Even the roses are small, and such little blossoms as forget-me-nots, arbutus, primrose, apple blossoms, miniature wallflowers, wild flowers of all kinds, and the various fruit blossoms are well liked. The wreath chapeaux continue to be worn, and are unusually becoming when properly chosen. Those made of small pale-pink roses are the prettiest, for somehow they seem almost natural and probable. These roses are of velvet painted a blushing pink, and the ribbon tie that unites them and keeps them in place upon the head which they crown so prettily should also be of velvet, either black or of a deep shade of cose—preferably the former. _ The small bonnets permit so little trimming that the French milliners are using with much success bands of line gold passementerie, on which are placed semi-precious stones, or imitations of real gems. The feminine taste runs towards tho topaz and the turquoise, although many emeralds and not a few diamonds are seen. The coloured stones are by far tho most effective. A rather long bonnet, with an almost square crown, display* these handsome garnitures to particular advantage. A stylish specimen of this class is of tine black Neapolitan violets, the brim being barely wide enough to turn up. Against the crown is placed an encircling band of gold passementerie, in which are set some very artistic imitation turquoises, and this trimming is so carefully sewn upon the crown that it looks at first as though it had been woven into straw. In front is a bunch of deep yellow velvet primroses that seem to vie with the gold in colour, and the bonnet is secured with black velvet ties.—" Queen Bee," in Australasian.