Gossipy Paragraphs.

Otago Witness, Issue 1598, 8 July 1882, Page 27

Gossipy Paragraphs.

Few of tho spring fashions are new ; most of them are revivals of styles worn only a few years ago. The wedding dress of Princess Helene, of Waldeck, was made in Paris, not at Messrs Caley's, Windsor, who have always made the wedding dresses for our English Princesses. It was the gift of the Queen of Holland. It is said that His Royal Highness Prince Albert Edward never pays' a tailor's bill, and that tradesmen are anxious to obtain his custom, for the patronage of a coming King means, even on these terms, success. Soap-bubble parties are the revival of a juvenile pastime, much practised in London, with the difference that a prize bag is added, from which the one that blows the most bubbles draws.

Parasols are made very large, and of satin, watered silk, or black brocade. They are edged with lace, and have a bunch of flowers, and a bow of ribbon at the top. Some parasols consist of frills of lace on a bright lining. A cultivated singer of European experience says that black silk has a peculiar magnetic property, which prevents the wearer from having her energies drawn upon or absorbed by others. For this reason most public speakers and singers prefer to appear before an audience in this sombre dress.

Fans are still worn immense. A fashionable lady should have a different fan for every dress and every occasion. An antique painted fan for private concerts; feathers for balls; modern painting for dinners ; white satin for theatre ; Chinese for home. Among .the innovations of modern fashion one of the strangest is the wearing of velvets of all kinds, in all seasons of the year, without excepting summer. There is an endless variety of these velvets, which are plain, pressed, moire, brocaded with foliage, zigzags, flowers, and a number of rare devices. •

New evening shoes of pale blue, lilac fawn, or black velvet, are laced up the fronts with slender cords of gold or silver, and the pointed toes are covered with embroidery worked in gold or silver threads intermingled with silver, gold, and amber beads. They are made over Spanish lasts, and have high French heels. Velvet bands, with a row of very small pearls at the top, and a fringe of the same below, are fashionable necklets for evening wear. The fringe falls on to the neck, and the band is fastened by a hook or small brooch at the back of the throat. Occasionally lace is added beneath the pearl fringe. Brown continues a fashionable shade, and a costume of watered silk, satin, and cashmere is made with a gathered vandyked flounce, with puffings in satin, side pieces secured with large buttons of watered silk, and a drapery of cashmere at the back, having revers of watered silk fastened to the double-breasted basqued bodice.

Dresses, whether for day or evening wear, are very voluminous at the back, their puffy appearance being increased by buckram or stiff muslin flounces placed inside the dress or on the underskirt. Steel and whalebone bustles are also worn under dresses, but they do not look graceful. For dancing they are particularly ungraceful and uncomfortable. Shirring still abounds in English costumes, entire collars being made of it, and draperies being shirred from front to back in lines running parallel with the bars of the basque. The one new thing in English dresses is wrinkles. Wrinkled sleeves and chemisettes appearing above velvet cuffs and vests have a very pretty effect, especially if made of satin. A Paris milliner has just concluded a contract by which a dealer in game in Berlin undertakes to deliver the skins of 30,000 pigeons during the Beason for the adornment of hats and bonnets. The birds are to be caught in all parts of Germany and taken to the railway yard, and there killed and immediately skinned, the skins being forwarded to Paris and the carcasses retailed for a small sum upon the spot. That last, best gift to women who do their own shopping, the ulster, is as popular as ever, and this spring is made up of handsome goods of every kind, from tho mottled cheviots to the fine cloth fabrics in fashionable colours to match walking suits of flannel, the favourite shade being of dark, myrtle green, tailor-made and trimmed only with a double row of goldwashed buttons partly covered with green enamel.

Yards upon yards of lace are used for frills and flounces, some plaited, others more economically put on in gathered ruffles. First in favour comes Spanish lace, and next to this is guipure, which is again on the top wave of fashionable favour. Valenciennes is also abundantly used, while for those who wish a charming effect at moderate cost, there is nothing prettier than the new 'Mauresque lace, a soft, etherial net, handcun in floral designs. Silk gloves, long, buttonless, but well-fitting, are to be had to match all colours ; and quite a novelty is the Mother Hubbard glove, which has no buttons, but one or two cross-cut puttings, exactly carrying out the picturesque style of dressing of the day. Fop country and hard wear a Danish glove, at a low price, has been brought out of ib'6 tan colour, but for country wear nothing can jsurp&es the Nantwioh glove,

soft to tho hand, with stiff gauntlets reaching half way up the arm. An attempt is being made in fashionable circles in the old land, to introduce colours into bridal toilets. White silk or satin, so the folk say, is very trying to most complexions by daylightj so a little dash of variety in the shape of bright wreaths, warm colours in the dress, knots of scarlet, crimson or pink according to the wearer's complexion, are to appear. The popular fancy in favour of pure white ia, however, so strong that it is very unlikely that the new notion will be generally adopted.