LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8354, 6 September 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

SOME PARIS FASHIONS. The new feather collarette (which is now a feature of Paris dross) is unversally becoming, enhancing the delicate outlines of sweet sixteen, and softening down the asperities occasioned by the unrelenting hand of time ; Ib is very voluminous, and is tied ab the back with ribbons that hang down in long bows and ends. Ib is worn in white and" light colours to match the dress, or more frequently still in black, or black with a touch of metallic lustre, a3 supplied by cock's feathers. Those in bullc and lace are equally voluminous, and tied at the back in the same way. If lace is chosen, black is the most suitable. In tulle, however (a correspondent of the Daily Telegraph tell us), they may be of any colour. Sometimes this material is merely folded double and then ploatod —tho only suibableway for thin sorts; coarser meshed nets, however, look best single and bordered with the narrowest of ribbons, a running of floss-silk, or a little lace picot. At Longchamps a maize silk dress was worn with a black ostrich foather collaretto and a yellow straw hab trimmed with ma r e ; a pearl-grey gown of bengalino with a . ',o ruff of the same colour ; and a costume oi pale green foulard, figured in black vermicelli scrolls, with a white ostrich collarette. An elegant robe of white silk, covered with black lace, had a black lace frill round the top of a lace mantelet; a pink muslin dress was completed by a black feather rufl, black lace parasol, and Leghorn hat trimmed with maize ribbons and black plumes ; and a similar collarette and straw hab, ornamented with black velvet and ostrich tips was worn with a palest pink gown of China crape furnished with white laco sleeves. For a gown of a palo shado ot lilac, a aollarette of cock's feathers of tho same tint had been chosen, and a black one for a dress, of maize faille draped with white crape. Finally, a mauvo silk gown figured in old gold, the sleeves of which were in plain faille of tho latter tint, was finished off round the neck with a ruff of yellow tulle. High Medici collars—which are in greater favour than ever—are frequently filled in, and thus rendered more becoming, by frills of tullo or ostrich feather edging, a. trimming even extended to dust-cloaks. There was brought out—among other novelties for the races—a new composite garment consisting of a sleeveless Figaro vest of white cloth, prettily trimmed with gold braid, to which is attached a long flowing mantle of blue cashmere that may bo allowed to hang in a sort of Watteau draping behind, or be wrapped about tho f uro where acovoring is required. The mantle looks very nice in black cashmere as well as blue. When the temperature is favourable Parisians mostly dispense with outer garments for smart functions, but the capo or collet is privileged ; they were to bo seen at Longchamps in pale-grey or stone-colour for tho most part; in one case daik blue, with a white cloth plastron and collar. The fancy for sleeves of a different material to the rest of the dress still prevails, and another useful adjunct is the gauze fichu, to be had in a variety of dainty colours. They are worn knotted round tho throat, .so that frills form a coquillo down the front of the bodice, and thus arranged provide a charming finish to an otherwise simple toilette. Bub, apropos of sleeves, a slight change in their aspect is manifest -. instead of being allowed to puff up simply around the arm, more or less above the shoulder line, they are gathered in here and there "in a graceful chiffonnage"—to borrow a technical expression— now with a bow, now merely with a few stitches. This is particularly necessary when the material is of a soft, yielding nature. Sometimes the puffings are carried half-way up the shoulder seams, and fixed there by rosettes of velvet. White laco sleeves of this pattern are applied to a gown of rose-petal-pink bengaline, the knot of ribbon being in black velvet, and the front of the bodice cub down low over a high chemisette of tho same lace. This is a very favourite style of bodice. The front of the bodice only reaches to tho centre of tho bust, being either gathered and mounted with a little beading on the chemisette, or folded fichu-wise from the side seams over it. Tho backs of such bodices are generally quite plain and high. A biscuit-coloured silk dress is made in the latter fashion—that is to say, folded over a chemisette of cream embroidery, the sleeves made of tho work being fastened on tho shoulders by mauve bows, tho end of which are brought down like braces and lose themselves in the folds of silk. The various combinations of materials and colours in sleeves and dress fabrics aro endless. Figured muslins are often made with silk sleeves—pink, blue, mauve—to suit one or other of the tints in tho pattern. Black silk dresses havo been seen with sleeves of white embroidery, and ono of white veiling, the white silk sleeves of which were covered with black laco; a faconne silk— a brilliant harmony of pink and dark blue—furnish**! with sleeves and chemisette made up of braids of blue velvet and white insertion ; a combination of mauve velvet, the latter used for the sleeves and collar ; a high black silk bodice worn with a skirt of embroidered pink batiste, and wide sleeves of the thin material. A black foulard dress strewn with Pompadour bouquets had blackspottcd not sleeves lined with green ; ono of lilac bengalino, sleeves of lemon-coloured velvet, with collar to match ; and a second of grey cr6pon, sleeves of palest pink silk. Fashion, however, does nob exclusively patronise contrasts of this sort. Frequently tho sleeves are of the same tissue as the gown, though tho bodico may show a laco plastron. Again, variety is obtained by trimming. Thus, a dark blue foulard figured with yellow has slashings of yellow merveilleux on the upper part of the sleeves ; a white cashmere gown is trimmed on tho sleeves and front of the bodico with applications of black lace flowers, and a whito foulard figured with single violets has full sleevegathered to the shape of the arm below tho elbow by means of narrow bands of mossgreen velvet. The skirts to go with these bodices aro simole enough. Some have rows of insertion let in above the hem, others are finished off with ruchings —those in silk particularly—while others again aro cut up in tabs, showing a frilling of lace between, and sometimes loops of ribbon, or tho material, if it is thin, is festooned and caught up ab intervals with small rosettes. Ribbons play a considerable part in dressmaking nowadays, anil the rosette-shaped bow is in high favour ; a whole row of them will be sewn on one side of a skirt, and belts are fastened therewith either at tho front or back, but more especially the latter. Flounces, too, are decidedly fashionable. They are used as an edging for skirts, which are cub short so as to leave space for such an addition.

Madame Christine Nilsson, we are told, boasts one of the finest collections of fans. She has some interesting historical examples in her cases. Thus, one which she particularly tresures is tho fan which Queen Mario Antoinotto had by her in prison, and which alio carried with her to the scaffold. Madame Nilsson also owns a series once belonging to Madame Du Barry. Connoisseurs have appraised the collection at more than £10,000. There are specimens in the collection which date from the Middle Ages. The button-hole folly has really gono too far this season, and it threatens to go further still. A couple of years ago the tree carnation was specially affected. It had qualities. There was a good show for the money. Tho flower did not shed its petals, and its delicate pink colour harmonised with the greys and lavenders which were fashionable for morning coats. Last year the flower-breeder took it up, and this year we have seen his result. Bigger and coarser, an ugly yellow colour, as if it had been dipped in the yolk of a goose's egg, so it has been offered to the curled darlings of the season. They have accepted it at a smart advance on the price, and the florists do a roaring trade in blooms the size of small cauliflowers, ugly, senseless, and vulgar. That is the first chapter in this chronicle of fashionable folly. An old lady the other day went through laboriously and conscientiously tho Tudor Exhibition. As she was leaving she went up to the secretary and said, "I beg your pardon, sir, but can you tell me if they have a portrait of Mr. Stanley himself here ?" "Good gracious, no, my dear madam! Where do you think you are?" "Oh, I thought it was the Stanley and African Expedition !" Mrs. Catherine Sharp, of Philadelphia, says that when she was twelve years old she sold milk to General Washington and his staff from her father's farm. She is no l one hundred and twelve years old and Ik mental facul ties are unclouded, though her veracity is probably a trifle palsied. Jones: "What "does your wife do now that you are bald-headed? She certainly cannot pull your hair." '' She swings on my whiskers."