Gossipy Paragraphs.

Otago Witness, Issue 1645, 2 June 1883, Page 27

Gossipy Paragraphs.

—Hand satchels carried by the ladies become more and more elaborate, and correspondingly expensive. Those of alligator skin, bound with real Bilver, are the most fashionable. —The most elegant street dresses this season are of dark colours, while for evening wear there never was greater brilliancy or latitude in the Belection of colouring. Light azure blues, brilliant greens, reds, and even the most pronounced yellows, are worn. —The crinoline scare is over, through skirts are made wider than they were. Certain it is that, notwithstanding the large orders the Sheffield manufacturers are eaid to have had for wire to make these petticoats, well-dressed ladies have set them at defiance, and decline to submit to these cases. —Jewellery in any quantity should only be worn at night; a profusion of it, particularly of diamonds, in the daytime, is in the worst possible taste, and should never be indulged in. Have your jewellery as good as you possibly can have 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 bo a pleasure to you, the latter a perpetual eyesore, —A recent novel has a heroine becomingly dressed, thus: —A violet robe of some filmy French goods fell in graceful folds of Reinbrandteaque shadow about the elegance and symmetry of her form, a polonaise of solid point d'Angleterre " dropped its silver foam from her throat, tastefully decorated with sprays of scarlet geranium, and a fashionable Parisian hat concealed her azure brow and temples. She was drifting over the vast expanse of the gulf in "a light, picturesque felucca." —A letter in the New York Commercial Advertiser descriptive of the grand ball given at the Quirinal by King Humbert just before Lent began, says: —"The best dressed, however, were two American girls, Miss Leonard and Miss Tilder. AH the dresses were a little too dicolhU. Nothing was left to the imagination ; the bodies of the dresses were mere belts with shoulder straps. The wonder was how they kept on the person, a d how husbands let their wives appear thus dressed, or rather undressed." —At a recent grand wedding the bride's dress, which was made in the Queen Anne style, was the theme of admiration among th« many guests. The costume was composed of the richest white Italian brocatelle, made long and plain, opening down the front to show a white satin petticoat richly embroidered in pearls, and mounted in very full gathers at the back, kept out by a pad inside. The bodice had a high standing collar lined with satin, and bordered with large pearls; the long sleeves were edged with pearls, and a cascade of "lace, matching the tint of the pearls fell from the throat. The veil was of plain tulle. —At her Majesty's last drawing-room yellow was the predominating colour. One entire dress of that colour, with large bouquet of daffodils, looked splendid. A black had a huge bouquet of white lilacs and lilies of the valley on the skirt; in the hand a gigantic nosegay of the same. One elaborate gown deservpvjotice; train of myrtle green, fastened on thb^Hioulders with diamond stars; down one side a trimming of cock's feathers, and on the other side a zigzag of fine lace; afc the bottom an enormous bouquet of water-lilies. The petticoat had a cream-coloured kilting round; falling over this were gathered tabs of ecru satin brocaded with large lilies and paniers. The tablier was a marvellous conception of cream plush with gold network over. Some ladies wore birds of various hues; one had birds on her shoulder and on her train. Another freak is to have the feathered tribe embroidered on gowns —the heads of owls, cooks and hens, a flight of swallows, &c. It is only the rich, of course, who can indulge their propensities in these eccentricities ; and it is a marvel that they are not, after the second time of wearing, thoroughly tired of this flight of birds, and wish them gone south for ever.

— There is said to be a man in Bellevue Hospital, New York, with a face that never alters its expression in the slightest degree. Something is the matter with the nerves and muscles so that they do not work at all. Not the faintest smile nor the suggestion of a frown ever varies the stolid monotony of his countenance. The features are regular and n^her handsome, there baing no distortion, or any ctttwattt evidence of the affection other

than the strange immobility. His name is Henry Sfcube, but he is called "Masky" because his face is like a mask, behind which he laughs and weeps unseen. He has worn this ma-k of his for two years. Ho acquired it after a neuralgic cold. He in being treated with elpctricity chiefly, find the phyaiciins think he will recover. In tho meantime ho parts his lips with his fingers for the introduction of food and water, and whnn ha sleeps his eyelids are h»4d shut by a slight bandage. His imperfect talking is done without moving his lips, and when he spealcs or listens tha impassiveness ot his face looks singular, indeed. There is something uncanny about it, and, after the idea has once got into your mind, you can hardly regard this face as anything else than a mask.

The real mistake that women make in regard to dressing is to allow themselves to become the slaves of dressmakers. These persons very wisely seek to make fortunes. In order to do this, they take good care to change the fashions frequently and that each fashion should be ornate in small details, because people know the price of materials, but are easily humbugged in the value of flounces, &c. I once had occasion to inspect the books and statements of one of the most fashionable of dressmakers. I found that this was the system: Material was first charged for with a profit of 15 por cent. , then the actual outgoing paid for making. To this 50 per c p nt. was added. My inspection took place some years ago, and 1 do not think that I was ever more amused than in reading the mimes of the persona who paid for the dresses of a great many of our fine ladies. A portion of the bill — a small portion — was paid by the lady herself, and the rest was made up by half-a-dozen, or sometimes a dozen, contributors, each of them, no doubt, thinking that he, and he alone, had paid the bill. That I have ever kept the curious secrets which an investigation of these books revealed to me is a matter of pride, 4 for there are so few pe< .pie in this world who can keep these sort of secrets. — Truth.

— The dress worn by the Duchess de la Torre at a recent soiree de gala at Chantilly caused some of the fair guests to turn pale with envy, while others laughed to scorn the strange innovation it displayed. The dress was composed entirely of fiae black jet bugles — and when the wearer entered the ball-room the dance was suddenly suspended, so strange and startling was the effect produced. The figure appeared as if actually moulded in this hard and sculptured toilet, which flashed and sparkled at every movement of the imprboned form like the luciola of Brazil. The train was long and narrow, and over it were thrown bunches of roses mixed with sunflowers. The bodice was a complete corslet fitting tight, and shining like the highly polished armour of the Black Knight of old. A huge bunch of roses on the left shoulder completed this strango toilet, which caused a regular imeutc among the ladies in the room. " Whose is it ?" was the cry. "It is not Worth's, it is not Pingard's— it must be foreign. Where is the Paris couturier who would take the time to adjust those thousands of bugles to the figure ?" The secret is well kept, for none can even guess the author of this eccentric costume, which a few years ago would have been called ci. la Salambo, but which the Duchess herself declares to be the simple costume of a certain Spanish dame. But, strange as it may appear, this fantastic dress has set the fashion, and many > ostumesof jet, both black and white, have bince appeared. Good taste has been supplanted by eccentricity among the fashionable ladies of Paris, for we hear of the robe serin worn by the Princess de Sagan, which, being of satin of canary colour, and profusely trimmed with feathers of the same hue, produces the effect of a frightened canary, for the t feathers are not made to lie down, but to stick up all round. — Paris correspondent of the Argonaut.