Society and Fashion Gossip.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 28

Society and Fashion Gossip.

Parting the hair at the side is again in fashion.

Lockets are going out and large orosses coming in. , Never too late.— Naomi, the daughter of Enoch, was 580 years old when she married. There is a heavy demand on the United States Treasury for bright new dimes for bangles. There are none in the Department.

The Empress of Austria has set a fashion, already largely followed in Europe, of wearing the hair flowing over the shoulders. The PrincesS of Wales has declared the long wrinkled glove clumsy and slouchy, and appears always in six-buttoned tightly fitting gloves, The fashionable satin muff, covered with lace and bows of ribbon, has almost superseded the standard fur muff. What are we to do with our fur muffs? Lace manufacturers are becoming millionaires, for lace of every description is used even in greater profusion than last year on dinner, reception, and evening toilets. A freak of Worth's is putting on simple walking costumes an embroidered bouquet in place of the real or artificial one worn so generally of late on the bodies of evening and ,other dresses.

An old observer notices that it is only those ladies who have passed their thirtieth birthday who wear broad-brimmed hats at the theatre. He says that the number of elderly^ ladies who attend, operas and other entertainments is greatly on the increase, and 'you can always distinguish them by their big hats.'—Rochester Express. Helena Frederica Augusta, Princess of Waldeck, and the betrtohed of Prince Leopold of Great Britain, was twenty years old on February 17th. She is a pretty, round-faced young ladyj and has been brought up in the midst of a patriarchal and simple hf s in her father's castle of Aroison. His principality has only 54,000 inhabitants.

Lace is vised in more profusion than ever for toning down too vivid colouring. Dinner and evening dresses, and also matinees of plush are trimmed and almost covered with fine imitations of old Valenciennes, Bruges, Mechlin, or Alengon point, or else real guipure, unbleached and rather thick, which is wrought by hand in our eastern provinces. It is rumoured that the Marquis of Lome and the Princess Louise are to be removed from Canada to Ireland, replacing the Earl and Countess Cowper at the head of the vice-regal court in Dublin, gratifying the Irish people with a royal ruler among them in person, and also the Princess by a nearer residence to the centres which sha prefers to Canadian wilds. A nice little story comes from Vienna. It is said Marie, aged thirteen years, the youngest daughter of the Emperor Francis Joseph, at breakfast one morning, when asked what she desired most as a Christmas present, said that she would like to have permission to adopt one of the children made , orphans by the Ring Theatre fire. Her request brought tears to the eyes of all present, and greatly affected her imperial father. Two exceptionally beautiful ball dresses have just been sent to the Queen of Portugal from Paris. The first is white satin, trimmed with lace, with a yellow satin train, brocaded with buds and flowers after a Japanese design. The second is white tulle, profusely studied with silver flowers, and trimmed with honeysuckle in trails.

There is now what is known as the ' flowergirl brigade ' in London, It is f under the patronage of the Princess Frederica— everything is under somebody's patronage ; and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts — still called so, although she is married— is the President of the organisation. Occasional exhibitions for the sale of artificial flowers, which are the work of these girls, are held at Kensington. Lace has taken the place of the fine embroidery and French cambric frills upon underlinen, for it covers the petticoat worn under evening dresses, it edges every balayeuse, and to every dress these are considered indispensable ; and all this independent of the vast supply needed for the trimming of dresses, mantles, caps, aand bonnets. When we have the large collars revived (and it is thought they will be) the rage for it will be at its neight I should think, for I can imagine nothing further for which it could be used. — Lady correspondent.

The assertion made by one or two fashion writers, early in the year, has proved truenamely, that the return to crinoline was inevitable. Slowly but surely it is looming up in increasing proportions. The small bustle was long since replaced by a much larger one, and now the full crinoletto, reaching from the belt to the foot of the skirt in the back, is seen, and it is to be feared that fashion will sfcop short of nothing but that hideous rotundity which Leigh Hunt calls leas an habiliment than an enclosure.

The latest unique conceit, especially designed for New Year's receptions, is the magic toilette, which appears in daylight very handsome, yet devoid of any striking featiires,but under the electric or brilliant gas jets assumes perfectly dazzling* hues, prismatic gleams, and silvery lustres. Theso effects are attained by the ingenious introductions of steel, gold, bronze, silver, and glass threads and small figures into silk, satin, moire, velvet, gauze, tissue, and crepe, and the elaborate use of illuminated, iridescent, and prismatic beads,

In colour the evening dresses of the present day (or night) are simply perfect. /Latheticism, well abused as it has been, has certainly been powerfully instrumental in banishing the crude greens and blues, frightful pinks, and, above all, the maddening magenta of a few years ago, and in introducing the tender halftones anddeliciously soft tints of greenish blue, brownish yellow, russets, cool greys, and warm browns now so much in vogue. A girl must, indeed, be hopelessly plain if she does not look at least picturesque in evening dress now-a-days. x . , Among the oddities in dresa materials are satins brocaded with pine cones, pears of natural size, or clusters of yellow nectarines upon bronze or olive grounds. Last of all are heavy fabrics, with tiny insects running all over grounds of various hues, the little creatures resembling nothing so much aa our own industrious potato bug. These last mentioned patterns may be bought for the sum of nine dollars a yard. There may be a touch of tender' sentiment about them which will ensure their sale, but left to their own merits they will hardly secure a purchaser even at this modest a price.— N.Y. Post. As Prince Leopold is about to be married, and will have a demand made in his behalf for a handsome annual allowance from the British exchequer, such paving-the-way innocent paragraphs as the following get into print : — ' Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, promises to become the most popular, as he already is the most intellectual, of the Royal English princes. His speech at the dinner of the Royal Scottish Corporation, on St. Andrew's Day, was a really fine oration, delivered with ease, and with telling elocutionary force. It is said that the royal address materially influenced the subscription for the charity ? which was the largest ever collected at a similar gathering. If the right to the throne was a matter of competitive examination among Victoria's sons, Leopold would surely win it. The Prince of Wales, who is very fond of his brother, is quite willing to believe that this would be so.' Some costly antique dresses have lately been imported through special orders from private individuals both in New York and Washington. The greater portion of these dresses are made in the style of the sixteenth century. They are splendid, it is true, but they are decidedly stiff, with their high upright collars, voluminous panniers, and plain skirts. It is quite impossible to describe them minutely, even after careful inspection. One dress of torquoise blue satin is made exactly after the manner of the pictured costumes of Diana de Poitiers— a style much admired in the {esthetic world just now. Another, of canary -coloured satin, is made all in one piece, straight and long like a Gabrielle dress, with puffed sleeves, high black velvet fraise about the neck, ana no ornament on the skirt but a velvet mtmonidre depending from a fine gold ch&telaine. The dresß laces behind.—N. Y. Evening Post,