Fashion Items.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 4

Fashion Items.

Princess dresses, polonaises, blouse boaices, and plain full skirts are the order of the day for every type of dress. Plain high bodices fitting tight to the figure are quite demode ; either the whole corsage is full, or merely the front, and If the bodice is gathered at the neck, the rule is to gather the skirt the same depth at the waist. Nothing is better than light alpaca for travelling dresses. This season they are trimmed with moire or ribbon velvet, or prettily braided. A pelerine of same material can be worn either with the dress alone or with the dust mantle to match. Narrow velvet strings are universally used to tie small toque bonnets, and are attached very far back, the trimming, whatever its nature, being generally reserved for the front, or so as to sweep back over the crown, or t e place where the crown should be. Twenty years ago, after an excess of crino*

line, plain dresses oamo into fashion ; now, after the extravagance of the tournure, we have come hack again to the fonrreau. Skirts are hecoming as straight and scant as possible.

Silk fabrics are never stitched at the edge by way of finish, unless it is the cheaper silks, like foulard, employed for ordinary wear. With silk drosses a little trimming up the edge of the corsage’s open fronts is almost imperative, and is usually supplied by passementerie or an ornamented revers. THo inferior finish is in all cases the same. -

Apropos of white gowns, says Fashion and Fancy, it is exactly 100 years ago since Marie Antoinette set the fashion of white matinees to her court. Before the middle of the sixteen th century white clothing of any sort was unknown in Franco. Under Louis XV. the great merchants and ship-owners Who had dealings with the cblohies began wfeaPijag white cotton and linen habitudliyj although they always sent their washing to Maurice or Madagascar to be “got up” in proper fashion. Marie Antoinette once happened to see a young creole lady gowned iu pure white from head to foot, and, struck by the elegance and purity of this costume, she resolved to adopt white herself, aud this is why so many women of that day were painted in white gowns and Leghorn hats. It is said that this sudden simplicity greatly displeased the people of Paris, who preferred to see their queen in stately gold and silver brocades and huge head-dres3es. Very little drapery is worn, the tendency being to straight and plain styles, and naturally tournures are going out of fashion, but at the same time it must not be supposed that dresses are worn perfectly flat behind. Such a change would be too marked, and it is still usual to put a steel in the skirt and wear a small cushion or improver, only these are in each case much smaller than have been usual of late. The alteration in the make of dresses has, of course, effected this. With round bodices and straight skirts large tournures are oat of place--look very ugly, in fact. The cushions or pad 3 are made according to figure. Many dinner gowns are made very plainly, some of them having one plain width at the back, with a gored one on eaoh side. They all hang quite straight at the sides, but in many cases the lace or fancy petticoat in front is considerably wider than it was a short time ago. In Paris one of the latest introductions is a Surfde Mousquetaire glove, with the smallest of rimmed purses inserted in the palm. A semicircle incision is made iu t.he mlm of the glove, to which the metnl opening is attached. The purse is stated to bold a gcoided, and yet is not cumbers tme, but of course its practical utility depends a great deal upon the particular kind of coin which is deposited in the receptacle. Manifestly, such a purse is not intended for the baser coins of the realm. We (says the Drapers’ Record) understand, however, the introduction of this glove-purae, or purßQ glove, has met with that success which the ingenuity of the inventor merits# The large veils that come over the bats aud cover the face without coming in contact with it are preferred to the small veils, and all the old-fashioned veils of bygone times are bei< g looked up for the purpose, also for scarfs and chemisettes. Instead of the stiff upright collar that has been worn for so long we shall see dresses cut out in a deep round at the neck, with deep lace falling outwards, and there ia a decided tendency to fasten dresses at the back again. As the style ia so inconvenient it is not likely to become general for gowns for day wear. A soft bow of monseline chiffon below the chin is most becoming. They are sold at small prices to match any gowns, and can be pinned on in a moment.