THE CZARINA'S BALL COSTUME

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12260, 2 May 1903, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE CZARINA'S BALL COSTUME

St. Petersburg, March 14,—The Czarina has been displaying of late such a passion for magnificent costumes that it excites much comment. It is feared that it is another manifestation of the nervous disease which brought sorrow to the Court last year.

At the latest ball in the Winter Palace she appeared astonishingly arrayed. She wore a white velvet dress with a train four yards long, embroidered with gold flowers, in the centre of each of which was a diamond of unusi'.rd lustre. Over the dress vas a veil fastened to her hair with a snowwhite bird the size and shape of a species of pigeon which is only found on the remote Arctic shores of the White Sea. The wings were outstretched and studdded thickly with diamonds, the eyes being replaced by brilliant rubies. The beak was fashioned from a piece of rare coral, which the Czar brought home from his journey around the world. The Czarina's majestic figure, crowned with this striking head-dress, combined with a strange, far-away look in her eyes, gave her the supernatural beauty of a heroine from some old saga, or Norse tale. Her dress and jewellery on that occasion represented a value of 3,000,000 dollars.