Gossipy Paragraphs.

Otago Witness, Issue 1639, 21 April 1883, Page 27

Gossipy Paragraphs.

— No dressy toilet is now considered con> plete unless a fancy muff is added, matching the dress and bonnet.

— Hand satchels carried by the ladies become more and more elaborate, and correspondingly expensive. Those of alligator skin, bound with real silver, are the most fashionable.

— The most elegant street dresses this season are of dark colours, while for evening wear there neverwas greater tnilliaiicy or latitude in the selection of colouring. Light azure blues, brilliant greens, reds, and even the most pronounced yellows, are worn. — The crinoline scare is over, though skirts are made wider than they were. Certain it is that, notwithstanding the large orders the Sheffield manufacturers are said to have had for wire to make these petticoats, well-dressed ladies have set them at defiance, and decline to submit to these cases.

— Many rich dresses have fronts massed with pearls or beaded embroidery. For example, a train of ruby velvet has a front of ruby satin, embroidered thickly with ruby beads, in ivy leaf pattern. The collar is of embroidered velvet, lined with satin, and faced interiorly with Spanish thread lace, which fills the square and is laid full over the edge of the corsage. — Jewellery in any quantity should only he worn at night, a proUisiou of it, particularly of diamonds, in the daytime, is in the worst possible taste, and should never be indulged in. ■nave your jewellery aa good as you can posBlb ' .V j nave it, see that the stones' and setting and design are good, and that the combination of stones is correct ; and have one really good thing sooner than half-a-dozen indifferent ones. The former will always be a pleasure to you, the latter a perpetual eyesore. —A lady whose personal gear was of really questionable cut and condition, admitted the

other day (says a San Francisco paper) that she had not had anything new for two years, because she had put every dollar she had to use for herself into household adornment. One often wonders where this sort of thing is to stop. There used to be much heartburning in the matter of vying and outdoing in dress ; then it changed to mothers outdoing one another in. the dressing of children; now, household art is the focus upon which everything centres. — I feel so glad to make it known (writes the Paris correspondent of a contemporary), that as brooches, bugs, beetles, and other such hideous insects, which have so long held place as models of art in jewellery, are at last nov est ; in lieu of them Parisians wear sprays of flowers, exquisitely imitated in precious stones. Everyone cannot afford a brooch in this style, put there is no reason why they should terrify their fiiends by springing upon them a cockroach, for instance, when asked to loan them a breastpin, as it happened to me the other day. "Do loan mo a breastpin," I said to a friend, at whose house I -wus stayi g, "I have just broken mine." She produced a, roach in onyx, at which I shrieked. " Why, darling, it's a perfect gem, with gold legs and emerald eyes," she said. I wore it, but I shivered all day. Ugh!