London Fashions.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 998, 17 April 1891, Page 5

London Fashions.

(EROSI OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, February 20. There is rather a chio sort of Spanish hat which has been a good deal worn this winter, and of which 1 send you an illustration. It suits mo3t faces, and is very stylish. The brim is quite round, turning up about three inches deep. The difference between it and the * Matador ’ shaped hat, worn with folds of silk underneath the hrim, lies in the crown, which, instead of being almost flat to the brim, is eoniaal in form and comes Blightly above it.

These shapes are trimmed with a baud of velvet round the brim, and bows of velvet and pompons on the left side of orown almost at the back. The model my sketch is taken from was a fine black straw trimmed with black velvet and gold coloured pompous# Another was of bronze felt with bronze velvet and salmon pink pompons, a pretty and becoming combination of colour. Plain veils are now de rigueur, their only ornamentation consisting of a richly-worked bordering. This will be welcome news to many whose eyesight has been sorely tried by the spotted arrangements we have so long worn. Nothing is more irritating than to have those small dots dancing before one’s eyes and obscuring one’s vision, and it is not at all surprising that the doctors have been load in their'condemnation of these veils. Becoming they certainly were, but not more so perhaps than the absolutely dearnets we are now adopting. The heavily figured veils were hideous. It is astonishing to think that wo could ever have disfigured

ourselves by their use, but fashion evidently deadens our susceptibilities sometimes, else we should never have gone about in public like tatooed ladies, believing ourselves becomingly veiled. Amongst many charming indoor gowns which fasoinated me at one of our beat West End shops is the one I have sketched for you. It ia made of very deep red soft wool beige, and velvet the same colonr. For ladies with a high colonr, I would suggest green, in a nice dark shade, in preference to red.

The manner of making this pretty dress is as follows :—The bodice, which is made to fasten at the back, is gathered fully into a pointed yoke of the velvet, and at the waist to the dresß band, which also holds the skirt, the latter fastening at the back like the bodice (the extreme fulness, will be found to obviate any unsightly gaping or showing of the petticoat), over this being worn a pointed velvet waistband. The sleeves are velvet to the elbow, full sleeves from the shoulders of the beige meeting them there ; arid round the hem of the skirt is a border of the velvet about tour inches wide. This gown, though quite simple, has a most elegant effect on a slight figure, and is particularly becoming to a fair-haired wearer. For either blonde or brnDette great care should always be taken in selecting a shade of red. There are so many shown, and so few really harmonious and becoming for personal wear. Any approach to scarlet should always be carefully avoided.

Illustration number three is a charming toilette in a pale shade of heliotrope cloth, with sleeves, crossover rever, buttons and border of velvet the same shade. With this dress is worn a large black hat trimmed with heliotrope ribbon velvet and ostrich plumes. The long feather boa exactly matches the feathers in the hat, and can he either grey or blaok. This feather trimming has also been worn a good deal on evening dresses. Sometimes groups of feathers are placed at intervals, or the plumes are laid in rows, singly. It seems almost wrong to use so many, and one would think the ostrich would soon become an extinct bird, but for the many farms where I bear it is carefully cultivated. The newest body and princesß gowns show an effort to avoid seams or to do away with them altogether by stretching a bias cloth over a fitted lining, or by the use of a group of pleats at the dart seams, and other devices in vogue last season. The tailor gown is fitted smoothly to the contour of the figure as far down as the swell of the hips; thence the skirt hangs easily. On close inspection the waist seam may be found, but the character of the rough tweed used, and the skill of the tailor is suoh ia shrinking the goods in at the seams, that they are almost invisible, and the wearer appears moulded in her gown. Roselle.