FASHION NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1296, 30 September 1876, Page 19

FASHION NOTES.

The plain, round cuirasse is still in high fashion.

Cambric dresses of dark myrtle green are worn.

Red and blue are mixed together in combination costumes.

Very close-fitting and uncomfortable Bleeves are still fashionable.

Trained dresses are made from one yard and a half to two yards long. A street dress for this season is far more stylish made of grenadine than summer silk. Morning wrappers, however elegant, | are not worn, excepting in a lady's own room. While cream white is still very much in vogue, pure white is pushing itself into notice again. A new grenadine is black, with hair lineß of white running through it, breaking it into squares. The pretty Scotch ginghams which are | becoming so popular are found to be still prettier when laundried. With polonaises of lace or muslin are j worn half handkerchiefs of the same material tied about the throat. Very handsome, deep fringes are in vogue, but narrow ones without elaborate I headings are entirely out of fashion. j Hoopskirts are not fashionable ; but a lady wearing the present style of bustle looks very much as if they had again been adopted. Mower garniture for evening dresses is worn straight down on either side of the front breadth and drapes the overskirt in the back. The fashion of combining two colours, whether in morning, afternoon or evening, dresses, ia likely to remain in vogue during another season. Neapolitan hats have not been revived " this season. Coarse and 'tine straws, both English and American, with French chips, fceemthe newest in vogue. ; Overdresses are arranged in graceful • folds in front, and draped low in the back; or are applied in scarf -like folds arranged 1 ! diagonally across the front. .Dresses for evening wear are occasion- ' 'ally made to lace in the back or fronts 1 If <ihe' costume is in two colours, the laces ", are'" sometimes of the colour like the (trimmings; ' • ■ ' • ' ; < ' A suitable dress for the street — being i -both' dark" and coblT-^isone of seal-brown "' lawny enliveHfe'd witlr narrow Valenciennes •, edging placed 'on the 'flounces' or plaitings. " Angora cloth, which is of soft wool as ' cool as muslin, is much used for seaside ' costumes. It comes in' the favourite ivory • colour and is trimmed with black velvet ' or bright-coloured ribbon bows. ' It is rumored that grenadines will be • fashionable next winter worn over, velvet underskirts. ' In place of bows, which now dot the coßtumes here and there, small ' birds and pretty wings will be used. To make an old train dress into a street dress, providing the back is long enough and there is material for trimming, it may be caught under near the bottom, edged with a ruffle, and looped to look precisely like an overdress. The " coaching hat," of rough braid, is very popular for seaside wear. It is a ' jaunty hat, and gives the face considerable protection from the sun. Very dashy silks, flowers, and feathers are used as trimmings. Three-cornered'handkerchiefs of muslin, Bilk, or lace, fastened at.the neck or tied, are taking the place of the white and black lace scarfs and ties which have been so recently in vogue. These are worn without other collar or ruffle in the t neck.

Thin 1 white basques or jackets are much worn with evening dresses this summer. They may be very elaborately made of Valenciennes insertion and muslin puffs or tucks, or less expensively of plain Swiss, trimmed with puff 3 and plaited ruffles, edged with lace. Fashionable ladies who do a great deal of driving ' at summer resorts, wear on these occasions black velvet skirts and sleeves with sleeveless polonaises of foulard silk or some thin material. These same skirts serve for cool evenings, with overdresses of light coloured silks.

A new feature in summer toilettes is

the basque, cut heart-shape front and back, and the open space filled with a muslin or embroidered chemisette. The fancy for wearing sleeves of white with evening toilette has been carried into more common dresses, where white muslin is substituted for tulle.

' The hat for young missea which met with popular favour last summer, and still continues iv use, is the toque shape. This droops in front and shades the eyes, and turns up in the back. The trimming consists of a simple torsade around the crown,

with ribbon of silk massed at the back with a few flowers or a bird's wing. A new way to make a handsome black

silk where an ample quantity of material has been provided is after the following suggestions : — The skirt of demi-train — arranged to be easily lifted from the ground when worn in the street by means of small rings and tape on the underside — is trimmed with one straight flounce three-eighths of a yard wide laid in very fine tripple box plaits, very'near together, and held with four tiny buttons, the first one placed about an inch and a half from the top and the others each an inch apart. The polonaise is made in the princessc shape. If for a young lady, it is buttoned in the back. If for a lady of uncertain years it is cut on the same pattern, but with a diagonal front buttoned from the neck to the bottom of the dres3 with three

rows of tiny buttons. The edge of the upper garment is cut in deep square points and faced, showing between the points a box-plaited ruffle trimmed with buttons. The sleeve is cut in the same way around the wrist — the ruffle making it flare enough to show a pretty lace ruching beneath,