Dress and Fashion.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1060, 23 June 1892, Page 14

Dress and Fashion.

Marie writes in The World: —All habitskirts are cut shorter than ever, and should hang perfectly even all round ; the bodices, however, show a decided divergence from the strict severity of past seasons. The smartest are made double breasted, with rather wide revers turning back over an under waistcoat of ‘ Tattersall ’ cloth, the white ground thereof being gaily dotted all over in red, blue, or brown pin-head spots, and just showing at the throat a gleam of white shirt front and silk tie. The sleeves are very plain, slightly raised at the shoulder, and buttoned at the wrist —the gauntlet cuff being quite a thing of the past. An extremely neat young girl’s habit had the coat bodice, quiteloose in front, fastening with a single button, and falling away over a tightfitting waistcoat of checked ‘ horsecloth,’ red bars on a tan ground, for chilly mornings, to be exchanged for a more comfortable shirt, either in spotted cambric or the inevitable ‘ Tattersalls,’ when enjoying the unconventional freedom of green fields and country lanes.

A patent safety habit skirt is thus described by ‘ Flower o’ May ’ in the World: —‘ A wide yoke band, some six to eight inches deep, shaped perfectly to the figure,

has beneath the outside clotli-flap a row of small metal clips, to which the skirt proper is attached, and which the bodice effectually conceals. In the event of an accident the least overstrain causes the skirt to part company from the clips, and the rider to fall free of the heavy drapery—too often the cause of a fatality. Another safety method of making the skirts is with an aperture in the right side, sufficiently large to pass over the pommel, the seam underneath being fastened together by buttoned flaps, which also give way very easily, and so afford a greater chance of a clean tumble.