Ladies' Column.

Otago Witness, Volume 15, Issue 1562, 15 October 1881, Page 26

Ladies' Column.

The world was tad— the garden was a wild; , And man, the Hermit sighed— till woman tmiltd.

Bizarre Costumes of English Ladles.

Why, asks the Spectator, do women with red or yellowish hair wear 'dead* gold and greens that remind the beholder of badly cooked vegetables? Why do pale« faced, brown-haired women wear the deep red and orange hues wnioh oan ' go ' only with the olive and pomegrante tints, and the bine-black hair of the South ! Who ia accountable for the terrible terra-cotta garments in which some otherwise harmless maidenspervade fashionable crowds, inspiring the observer with wender, totally unmixed with admiration?— Blender girls arrayed in shapeless clothes, made apparently of Blices of the wall of the naw Natural History Museum at South Kensington; strong* minded young women in aggressive cloaks, so unspeakably hideous that we sigh for the ulster of Issfc season, which we then believed could not be surpassed in odiousness ; awful things made of sage-green tweed with blue frills, or gosling woollen stuff tipped with pink ! The eel-skin style has been succeeded by the bag, and though the latter is more decent, it is not much lobb ugly. A woman with high, narrow shoulders and thin, long anna might do better thsn array herself in a black satin bag, with a running string at the neck and at the waist a 'piping' (such wa were assured by a sympathetic friend of the offenders' own sex, iB the correct term by which to describe this contrivance), from which the skirt hangs shapelessly to within an inch of the ankles j and she might orown the edifice more becomingly than with a bonnet— or was it a hat?— like nothing in nature except a crumpled cabbage. The 1 cosey,' sb an adjunct to the tea-table, is o! dubious eleganoe, as well as unqueßtlon* ably fatal to drinkable tea; but when adapted as a cape to the shoulders of bloom* ing girlhood, forming a straight line aoross the middle of Its back and cutting itssleer«* In two Jusj ftborc tb« elbow* II li fef

moßt unsightly piece of dress that can be put on, especially if it is of a mokly colour. Salmon-pink satin, lining a big bonnet of crlnky crinoline, looking like half a dozen shells joined at the edges, would be try ng to the best complexions ; It was conßolmg to Bee It applied only to the worst. Why should a very pretty lady wear a flat gown of a peculiarly repulsive green in colour, but of rioh velvet in material, and over it a hideous camlet cloak of another, and if possible more repulsive green, with a bunch oj vellowlsh ribbon at the back, and a plush bonnet like the vizier of the knight's helmet ? Why should writing people, painting people, Binging people, persons presumably Intel, licent, since they all do something that pleaseß the public and ia paid for in money, array themßelveß in garments, of price indeed — shabbinesß Is not the note of the popular affectation— but whioh render them distressingly conspicuous ? These questions cannot faQ to occur to men observing tho humours of a select orowd, and especially as the dress of the 'conflicting gender' tends more and more to simplicity. Of course, there wiU Swaysbe affected male idiots, long-haired and short-haired, with neckties that make us stare, and hats that make us wink by their brillianoy J but these are the mere * brats of sJoK tW are too Insignificant to be offensive.