LADIES' COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11056, 6 May 1899, Page 4 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

LONDON FASHION NOTES. [written specially fob the new ZEALAND HERALD.] London, March 24, As a result of having devoted my space last time to the two Buckingham Palace Draw-ing-rooms, I feel sadly behind the times regarding current fashions, for it is now nearly a month since I last discoursed on them. And new things of all descriptions have been appearing thick and fast in the interim. In consequence of frosty nights the mornings have been very sharp, and so altogether airy fairy fabrics are not found particularly inspiring topics, seeing that they are debarred from our use at present, though we hope to have much wear out of them in a few months hence. To the coat and skirt all sensible people steadfastly cling— if the present " cold snap" is going to continue, we will want, for the first time since the winter began, warm jackets and furs, which garments have for months past only been worn because custom have caused people to wear them, say from November to February. Those who have got new coats and skirts have selected good warm materials for their construction, and the style of coat most universally adopted is the double-breasted. The most prominent characteristics of them tills springtimo are their shortness in length, the great deal of braiding with which they are trimmed, and the use of a great many dainty little fancy buttons. Little gilt buttons and those of crystal in all manner of shapes and sizes are not quite the newest, although they are very charming; more recent introductions are buttons of tortoiseshell, buttons of pearls, and others of carved ivory. At present all these lastmentioned varieties are very expensive; and personally, barring perhaps the pearl, my choice remains in favour of the gilt and crystal kinds. It is quite astonishing how rapidly thoso coat and skirt costumes whose skirts are made of shepherd's plaid, and whose coats are built of plain cloth with plaid trimmings, have "caught on." There are swarms" about, and I am beginning to think they will soon become rather too common to enjoy long life in fashionable circles. Often, while the coat is trimmed to correspond with the skirt—namely, with plaid material—so is the skirt trimmed to correspond with the coat—namely, with strappings or bands of the plain cloth. Some of these mixtures are very comical. Skirts get more and more tight. The very latest of all is so plain down the back that the middle Reamthere is only the one, by the way, used in the construction of this skirt, at all—is quite visible all the way down to tho edge of the skirt. This is a vile fashion. Occasionally, to lake off somewhat from the extreme plainness and scantiness of the middle of the back, a single row of fancy buttons is placed one after another from the waist to the hem; there is a great craze for buttons. Tunics and redingotcs certainly seem to be the height of Dame Fashion's present whim. With these there is no fulness whatever until below the knee, when the skirt spreads out in a marvellous manner, is well on the ground in the front, and forms a long train behind. This part is generally of a different material from the rest of the costume, say of velvet or accordion pleated silk, or cloth of a contrasting shade. With panels, some very pretty effects are the result when they are tastefully carried out. One skirt, made by a (listclass costumier, and very original w:ilir], was divided into a series of panels which reached almost us high up as the hip. The gown was in the Princess style, and of a lovely orchid mauve tone. The panel*, t.f which there were three in front, were cf accordion pleated silk muslin in a lighter shade. These panels were outlined with a design of orchids worked in chenille and stell paillettes. Frequently the upper portion of the inserted panels are slashed, and strapped from one sido to the othci with cord and fancy buttons. A litt'c velvet peeping out just at the foot of the sknt in front lias rather a dainty eil'ect; but it is too dreadful to see a whole underskirt made of it, especially when its mission seems solely to be to sweep tie c'iit and dust before it and behind it. Trains are always a pest even when only adopted at weddings; if not to the wearer herself, they undoubtedly are to other people. That Icing so it seems the height of absurdity that bridal trains should be doomed and become as memories of the past only, when lorn.tich more inconvenient occasions they are destined to become so general. In order to show more of the underskirt, the long tunic is frequently cut away in rounded or pointed or squared tabs. Coats too arc, by-the-bye, elaborately tabbed and so are the basques of tailor-made bodices. Sometimes, when the velvet or silk underskirts are very voluminous and very longespecially the latter—they look like a petticoat which has fallen down below its regular confines on account of a defective tape or a wandering button. Another kind of skirt has a " yoke" round the waist and hips, and this "yoke" can be rounded, pointed, or squared. Of course it must be of another material, preferably corresponding with that let in at the foot. Having attained the required depth and shape, this "yoke" is mot by a tunic of cloth, the union of the two fabrics being hidden by an outlining of braid which continues down one side of tho skirt until the material of which the " yoko" is composed peeps out from underneath at the foot. In such instances as this, little buttons and straps of cord are frequently employed. Tunics and redingotes are to all intents and purposes Princess robes, for they are all cut in one, both back and front, and are always very tight fitting, especially at the back, where there is never an atom of fulness for the entire length. Some tunics are longer in the skirt portion than are others; that is a detail, merely a matter of taste, and depends principally upon the nature of the trimming and the quantity used. There are times when tunics arc only assimilated by the use of braid. On some of the new skirts piping is much seen ; generally, if the skirt be of a dark shade, white satin is used for this purpose; while on a light dress dark satin is frequently employed. Presently we shall be Laving skirts flounced from the waist to the hem, but for them muslins will be chiefly used, and as yet we have not arrived at the stage of requiring to put on muslin frocks. ,

A LADY SCIENTIST. READS A SCIENTIFIC PAPER TO EXPERTS. A little dark-haired lady, wearing pincenez, created on March 23 in the handsome tbtatre of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Great George-street, Westminster, a sensation which perhaps accounted in some degree for the unusually large attendance of young men members. She was the first woman to be recognised as worthy of reading a scientific paper before experts, Mrs. Ayrton, the talented wife of the distinguished professor, completely justified, on the part of her sex, a claim to be regarded as capable of becoming profound students and clever exponents of highly technical subjects. She discoursed with perlect confidence and complete mastery of detalk upon the " Hissing of the Electric Ale. She did so with the aid of diagrams, curves, and beautiful screen demonstrations. Without these illustrations it would be impossible, perhaps, to make the matter clear to the average mind. But this much, at any rate, can be said: its. Ayrton has devoted her attention to an inquiry which has for its object the scientific explanation »f phenomena that are apparent to every user of the arc light. Nothing but loud applause and compliment awaited the ladv led by the president, Mr. J. W. Swan. He; communication, he said, was of no ordinary description, but was based upon elaborate painstaking, exact observation and experiment, and upon reasoning followed out in the clearest way, forming quite a model of scientific method in research. S'he had made the first contribution to electrical engineering procedure by a lady who, no doubt, had other occupations than that of highly abstract scientific research, and therefore the results she had achieved were all the more astonishing. Need it be said that Mrs. Ayrton was not one wit dismayed by the masculine criticism, which was not withheld by 1 rofessor Sylvanus Thompson arid Mr. Money, '''I treated the lecturer, not as an amateur, rut as an export who had made a gmume discovery?