ASCOT SUNDAY.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 52

ASCOT SUNDAY.

LONDON, July 2.

Dear Emmeline, — This season grey is, I think I mjiy say, " the " colour. In its delicate and varied tones it is seen in silky cashmeres, grenadines, gsuzes, silks, canvases, and all kinds of material. There were numbers of grey dresses having pietty white silk or satin front.! trimmed with a great deal of white chiffon and white rovers covered with cream guipure, or else trimmed with chiffon ruches. As a rule waistbelts are narrow this year, and white belts to mutch the trimming are not so much seen. With grey, when white bells are not worn, thcro is sometimes a band of grey ribbon round the waist. But there is a great rpge for grey dresses to be trimmed with yellow in all its shades, ranging from the deepest orange to the palest primrose. Many of the grey dresses, whether trinimed with white or not, have a nairow waist-belt of orange velvet, which is formed into a small bow or rosette .it one sido or under the pouched front. Wh>.n

tho weaier can bear it, a little touch is introduced at tha neck. But in all cases to be effective, artistic, and becoming a small quantity of id goes a very long way. Some of tha grey cashmeres thus trimmed are a great success. Then with mateiials more of tl-e texture of gixnadino and canvas, thpy are often made over yellow and trimmed with the same tcne or else with several tones darker. Some of these gowns a- ere successful, biit not maiiv, for generally the yellow foundation makes the grey on top reflect a dirty and somewh it faded tone. To bs in' keeping with the grey smd orange costumes, grey hats trimmed with, lovely grey phmea, from out of which thero peer s hero and there a suspicion of the orange velvet, seemed to ba very much liked. Thero are niany delicato grey hats this season, but they have not eclipsed the white- ones. Well then, in addition to grey and whits, and grey and orange or yellow, there wera sonio very taking dresses of grey and pink . grey and green, giey and heliotrope, and grey and black. Nearly all had full fronts of silk or chifio/ 1 , tucked or gauged, and usually there was some sort of rever, the two shapes most noticeable being long pointed ones, which helped to foim ihe pouch, and short square ones, which foimcd a sailor collar at the back of the bodice. Scvferes certainly aie the mos)--favourite shapes for yokes and vests this year. For trimming many of the white or black or coloured casuniere3 and muslins end grenadines a great many rows of white or black or coloured bebe sf-tin ribbon are used, both on. the skirt and bodice, and thc-y look very bright. Sometimes they are uxiangcd in rows one above another, and sometimes are arranged in groups of twos or threes. Sometimes they are placed perpendicularly and sometimes put on in Vandyke style. On the skirt they are often se^n in tiiblicr fashion. They need not always >j-2 sewn o.i plain ; indeed, in many instance 1 ", they are gathered on. Sometimes they repla'jJ tucks and sometimes they form a heading *> iucks. One girl in a cream serge dress hail any number of lows of cream bebe ribbon a<? a trimming on her skirt, and bodice, and a full vest of cream soft silk veiled with chiffon and trimmed with puffings of the same and with the bebe ribbon. She wore a hat turned up in the fiont with a large rosette of pale green velvet, nesthag in the middle of which was a handsome paste ornament, the other trimnrng consisting of cream ostrich feathers. She wun a fair girl, with a pretty, bright face and any quantity of fair hair, and thi3 hat suited her nicely, though it is a style dreadfully trying to most people. This season among figured silks there is ncthing so pooilar as foulard. Some of the design* are neat, but most ore staring and bold and hideous as ever. It is seen in white, delicately patterned with colour, and it is seen in colour diabolically covered with huge white designs which represent nothing in particular, but "are only splodges. Some colours with small white patterns are neat, but unfortunately thesa are comparatively rare. I noticed lhat or A&coc Sunday foulard silks were principally worn by middle-aged ladies, who nearly i/lways teemed to manage to choose as bold a design as it was possible to get hold of. Blue si>d "white were the favourite colours, but green ai- 1 vliite &ecnied to have taken a hold on tlie popular taste, while led and white wee somewhat in ihe background. And as a rule the foulard silks which had the largest and most* conspicuous white pattern were most kvishly trimmed with white, and this of courso mada them look more blotchy and ratchy than ever. The only really nice foulard dicss that I saw, in a dark colour and white, was giecn pnd white, and it had trimmings en the bodice of daik green ribbon velvet and a, rairow white silk vest. As usual it was the white, the cream, the white or cream over colour, and the grey drosses that weio the nicest of all, and it would rot bo possible to decide which of uhesc carried off the palm. Nor is it, I think, necessary that such a distinction should be made, for each hi its different way was perfect. There wcie a few dicsses, worn by girh, mads of a very s>i ] ky and fine alpaca, and this always was successful, but particularly .so in tho case of a fair sirl in a white hat, whose dress was of light bhio alpaca, made with a vebt of white silk and lace and a sasn of blue moire. Some soft coloured silk dresses, too, were rather nice, and one dark girl ha<l an entire dioos of pink silk trimmed with piu.c chiffon and a pink sash, a large mushroomshaped hat of pinlc satin stiaw trimmed with pink plumes, and her hair tied with pink ribbon, and white gloves. She was a study in pink, and looked very nice, for the colour suited her so well, but as a rule these brilliant colours are ioo conspicuous, though in a crowd a da?h of them here and there adds to the pitiuresquea^ps of the whole acsne. There are some people who still remain furhful to the pretty grey and white narrow .striped glace silks for thcix.' dresses. And m evo'y instance they looked in good taste— -i.ea'u, not gaudy. Sometimes a little colour was ia'troaueed in the front and at the waist, but as often as not white chiffon formed their O'lly trimming. These striped silks have been a great eical woni for several consecutive seasons, but I am SRdlv afraid that they are on the wanp. Other striped silk gowns, such as pink and white, blue and white, etc., when trimmed with chiffon and colour were alway3 effective and becoming and ladylike. Sivsb.es are one of the features of the season so far as the details in dress are concerned. As 1 have said, some aTe of moire, either trinimed or not; many are of chiffon eelged with ruchings of the same or with rows of satin babe ribbon, or with both ; otherß axe of silk muslin, and many are of spotted net. Those of chiffon sometimes look nice, but as a rule they look flabby and draggled. Naturally they require to bs perfectly fresh, and ?l sat upon the result is generally disastrous. So ribbon, on the whole, is more successful for sashes. There were occasions when 1 thought the dresses would have looked better

Parents and guardians, girls and "boys, You've heard in church the woeful noise Of coughs and sniffs in winter time, "Which spoil the service so sublime! Then note : for each the ron«dy sure Is W. Wood&'B tir«t rtfppwauat Uur&,

minus their sashes, but these were times when a delicato grey dress had a sash of flimsy black chiffon, or a pretty light sihi \va3 similar 'y adoTiietl. It is astonishing sometimes how quickly a, new fashion takes, and how at other times any now idea is passed by almost, unnoticed. Just now I am leferring to one which has met with a reception of the former kind — j&m.ch to my astonishment, I must confess, though I think it can be little more than a nnssing fad. In my notes on Paris fashionq I remarked upon the prevalence thero of the b?,fs turned up off the face, and in the meantime that same mode has rapidly obtained aa equally popular footing over here. Last Sunday, almost to the exclusion of other hats, wag tlul shape worn which is turned up from the fpce. Needless to say that most of the wearers looked frights, whilo the few faces it suited looliod just the reverse. As a rule a lai.^e TOLette of some coloured velvet filled in tho iroatj the rest of the trimming mainly consisting of feathers, variously arranged. Xot content with ths turned-up front, some hats were turned up at the back" in addition, thus producing a sharp peak spreading out over ILts ears at each side. Other hats wore turned up at tho b:ick only A noticeable feature was the &mallnes3 in shape of most of the headgear, nearly all partaking of tho nature and sizo of the toque, for of course the new one? turned off the face are for the most part small, while ohose turned up at the back have only a narrow brim in front. Of:- toques there wer.3 nipny, nnd some had the side tilt. The leally only largo trimmed' hats were in tho_ r>lial?le -Leghorn straw, winch can be bent about 111 all forts of fantastic and picturesque ways. This class were usually laden with plume-., iiid wevo very becoming to all ivho wore them — eminently riore so th?m were those of ti e rawest fchape which so many people heTe have with a splash gone in for. Few people wore fruit-bedecked chapeaux, and the fruit chosen was the cherry. As tho day was neither bright nor contini'.cusly sunny, scaicc-ly any parapols v,ere to bo seen, and about those which were used v;ere no freeh points worthy of note. They consisted largely of thoss with chiffon trimmiiigß outside, and a smaller number which were plain, outside boasted of gay and elaborate linings. Light gloves were general. So were open•worked ov else pure silk stockings, and shoes in the- court shape were most seen, though. Princess May iind Oxford shaped shoes were well represented. Unfortunately, however, there were none too ma-ny made wholly of patent leather. To sum up, then, taken as a whole, there

was somewhat of a falling off in the way of dress a.t the first three days of the Ascot races, but that was on account of the weather; so thero was, only in a- far more marked degree, at Hyde Park on Ascot Sunday. Glad as one was to see the park so full, one would at tho. same time have preferred a more ristocratic gathering. In my opinion the spectacle is far more worth seeing on any ordinary fine Sunday during the season, when all the peoplo assembled are of a more select class. It is thought probable that on this special Sunday, which used to be one of the gayest scenes of ths London season, the upper classes rather hold themselves and their gowns aloor. And ono canaot s?llogether blame them. —Yours truly, Ze.mia.