Gossip.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 964, 22 August 1890, Page 5

Gossip.

Full bodices have no basques, but a band round the waist. Embroideries and galons become more and more elaborate, both for day and' evening wear. The Empress of Austria employs a woman doctor. Frau Goldbackor, for whom she has great esteem. Au effort is being made in fashionable quarters in London to introduce tartan covers for the parasol. Ihe handles of fashionable parasols are much shorter than heretofore, but the parasols are larger. Henry Irving is noted for his generosity, and has a host of pensionois, including Lewis, author of ‘Tho Bells.’ ° Old-fashioned Bilks are reintroduced for elderly ladies, and are very suitable for the present plain style of making tho dresses. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Tokio, Japan, now meets once a month, and has taken up twelve departments of work. Mmo. Christine Nilsson possesses ono of the finest collections in Europe of historical and other fans ; connoisseurs appraise it at more than £IO,OOO. Blueish-greya are very fashionable, while drab woollens are much shown for ordinary wear, as they do not show the dust, and are summor-looking It is proposed in Chicago to engage a matron for every school building in the city, whoso duty it shall be to look after the physical well-being of the pupils. Cashmere is always much worn, and now it is to 1 e had covered with a small vermicelli design all over, in line cord, aud is made up into most stylish gowns. The Zouave fronts, whether round or square, are extremely pretty for walking dresses, more especially when made of velvet to match the high full sleeves. Black grenadine is a revived material, which exactly suits the wants of middle-aged women. It is light, thin, cool, serviceable, of good appearance, and not too juvenile. The present liking for plaids is not without its Influence on masculine attire, as may be seen in the new plaid silk cravats, either in blue, green, or the most vivid colours imaginable. Mrs Isabella Bird Bishop, the famous traveller, has obtained from the Maharajah of Kashmir the grant of a piece of land on which to build a hospital ol sixty beds and a d.spensary for women. Chips and Leghorn straw are used for large Hat bats, and these are trimmed with high bunches of flowers in front, or are snrrounded by gauze veils, with one long end left to surround the throat, for couutry wea^. Straw trimmings are being largely sold for summer dresses ; they are of the kind which has a net foundation worked all over silk and a straw appliqud, some in the natural colour, some brown and some grey. A new way to dress the hair is to bring all the front hair forward, and to puff it and to arrange the back hair in other puffe at the top of the head, which puffs are visible when there is no crown to a hat or bonnet, So many women immigrants have disappeared from the new Landing Bureau at New York, that Commissiouer Weber has aDp&inted two inspectresses to keep suspected persons from entering the Barge Office. A number of ladies in New York have arranged to open a normal school for domestic servants, where thorough training in all household duties will be given, diplomas bestowed, and situations found for competent pupils, Jet embroideries are in great demmd. They are applied to net, chillon cr6pe, silk, satin, and velvet, as well as to moird. The beads are very closely set, and the patterns are so arranged that they stand out well and boldly. Plain and fancy tweed are combined in quite a novel style in the making of the new promenade costume, which is trimmed with black velvet. Grey bene buttons are a fitting completion of this tasteful, though simple toilette. Scotoh plaids are so much the rage just now (says a London correspondent) that we have not only a daily increasing supply of plaid stuffs in every new arrangement of colour, bub the veritable Scotch plaid shawls are pressed into servioe for ladies’ dresses. Satin foundations of the brightest shades are much used at present, especially (says the Queen) for dresses destined for America or abroad ; even if the gown is of a dark material, American taste inclines to brightcoloured underskirts. Society ladies in New York will no longer have an excuse for not keeping posted in the literature of the day. A clever woman in that city proposes to meet them once a week, and give them the gist of every new story worth reading, as well as a comprehensive review of magazine articles, and such other literature as may appear advisable. Any society woman of ordinary brightness can thus acquire in an hour or two all the information neoessary to sustain a reputation as a brilliant conversationalist.