LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1247, 23 January 1896, Page 16

LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

From Our Own Correspondent. Regent Street, December 21st. Holiday season has- once more come round, and all the world and his wife, with the olive branches, is plunged into the pros and cons of seeking pastures new, for rest, recreation, change of scene, or society, according to the respective needs, tastes, and temperaments. Whatever the individual scheme may be, the subject of clothes for the occ tsibn is bound to require important consideration by the mind feminine, and wiili good reason, too, for the pleasure of a holiday may well be spoilt by finding ourselves unprovided with suitable wherewithal f ,to clothe ourselves. For a restful visit to country quarters, where aim is to rusticate,

how incongruous our town clothes seem, for instance ; and how distracted the more frivolously disposed visitor to a fashionable watering place feels if she finds she has neglected to pack her “ Noah’s Ark ” with sufficiently smart toilettes to enable her to feel “in it ” on the gay promenade or pier. Modes suitable for the various holiday seekers in New Zealand will form the subjects of my sketches for a week or two till the time comes for recording the new autumn fashions.

In Fig. 1 we have a pretty and useful trimmed sailor bat. The shape is of the present sailor family with small crown and broad brim, and is of dark blue rustic straw. The trimming consists of a dark blue ribbon band round the crown, and a big chou of the same on either side with bunches of red cherries. This would make an excellent knock-about hat, though sufficiently stylish and becoming for show purposes at the proverbial “ pinch.” Fig. 2 consists of a smart little coat for travelling or promenade, cut on the latest approved lines, which, it will be noticed, are more moderate in every respect, for which the gods of fashion be praised. It is built of pale fawn-coloured cloth, has white cloth revers and cuffs, and is worn over a whits cloth waistcoat. This coat could be worn over a dark blue, brown or black skirt, the bow at the throat being of corresponding hue, and a white boatshaped hat with white ribbon band, and white stitched gloves, would be suitable accompaniments. For seaside haunts, a most important item, of course, is a bathing suit, and (since those ancient days of the dim past, when, for our sins, we were wont to

disport ourselves in a species of dismal sacks by way of toilette for the sad sea waves) this, each year, becomes more carefully considered. At fashionable watering places in the season some of the smartest people were desirous of gaining the reputation of

elegance by competing as to who should wear the best made cotton or pique gown. WonderfuL sartorial successes were ob*

tained with simple frocks in white Oxford shirting, this material showing for most part a pattern of blue or red stripes on checks. There is, by the way, a great tendency in favour of woollen fabrics in which two colours are blended through the medium of diagonal lines or checkings. Serges and cloths in which pink and green or blue and red are thus conventionally associated are to be very popular for your autumn. Indeed, a few of the toilettes noted at Goodwood already exemplified to some extent this mode. Here is a little gown of the kind, the checked cloth being blended with two other materials. This trio need only to be seen to be fully appreciated, for the

fabrics are so well chosen that the association becomes perfect. The tablier and pieces falling from the hips are in a fine make of vieux-rose cloth, the fan-like insertions being made of the same kind of stuff with the addition of a sage-green check and spots running over the pink ground. Behind is a water-fall back of green silk crepon. Into the building of the bodice there enters none of the plainfaced material. It is solely composed of the crepon and the fancy cloth. Bows of pink satin catch up the folds of the sleeves, and an arrangement of chiffon of the same delicate tint encircles the throat. As is seen by this dress, skirts are to be rather more complicated as the winter approaches. Roselle.