NOTES FOR THE LADIES.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 73, 25 October 1884, Page 4

NOTES FOR THE LADIES.

The nowest cambric handkerchiefs have a wide border, either blue or pale red, with a crescent or horseshoe enclosing the owner's monogram in the same colour in one corner. Hats with high conical crowns and brims, widening out from the sides, are much worn by children for beet, and others of coarser straw ar e adopted for use by their elders for a walk round the garden or fields. White and pale creme dresses of nuns'veiling are now trimmed with coffee-tinted lace, and not the shade of the material, as before. The effect is exceedingly good, and makes the toilette look less bride-like. Bows of ribbons are the most serviceable and appropriate trimming for hats for all travelling purposes ; they harbour no dust that cannot at once be wiped off j they last such a long time clean, and, if spoilt, can so well be replaced. With growing children it is never well to have too many dresses, as they soon outgrow them, and as fashions and colours change it will be found that a child is better dressed with a few fresh fashionable frocks than with a great many. Dust cloaks become more important portions of dress each season. The newest now are made in brocaded fawn fancy cloths, and are cut to the figure back and front ; they have long cape-like sleeves, and quite cover the dress. A great many dresses are made with long tunics open on the left side, and showing a panel of the skirt trimmed in various ways. Nearly all bodices are made with a puffed plastron of silk or velvet, whether the corsage be tight-fitting or in jacket form. At a well-known lace warehouse I saw for 30s, some Lyons lace, intended to cover skirts ot black or coloured silk, as is the present fashion. The pattern was designed especially for the purpose ; there was sufficient lace to make a covering for bodice of dress also. Ready-made children's clothes, if well made, are a good investment, but then a long price is charged for them as an article de luxa ; but with a clever workwoman to execute, and a mother who has taste and ideas, the little people may be well and picturesquely dressed at a comparatively small cost. To thoroughly clean silk, lay it on a clean deal table, and, following the grain of the silk, wash it with a thin lather of softsoap and rain-water. Rinse it frequently in cold, hard water, and roll in a cloth to dry. On the following day, sponge with sour stout, and iron it while wet, having a thin cloth interposed between the silk and iron. A most uncommon head gear was a hat of fine red satin straw, the brim crimpled up in irregular curves, and edged with a single row of narrow dead-gold braid ; in front of the crown, which was dotted with small gold braid dice, was a very full cockscomb bow of pale pink and creamy-white satin, loops and ends being edged with the same gold braid. In Paris skirts for dressy toilettes are made more of shot silk than of any other fabric. They are usually plain, or trimmed with tucks or narrow pleated flounces. These flounces are being arranged in groups in the same manner as tucks, the plain skirt appearing between the groups of flounces. The plain portion is, however, usually covered by a band of lace or embroidery insertion. The petticoat skirts are simply made fuller than they used to be all round, with steels at back, width 2£ yards. Soft woollen and calico add white muslin are the materials used. Tucked skirts can be worn up to thirty years of age, provided the wearer be tall and slim. They are four yards wide ; the tucks one inch deep ; five to seven are the usual number. The season, like comedies, winds up with marriages, and as soon as these are over everyone hurries off to their favourite watering place, anxious not so much to restore their health as to show off the new chapeaux and toilettes that are kept in reserve for the occasion. Of these special modes many are general to all, or nearly all ladies ; others are the result of individual taste or caprice, and are distinguished for their elegance or eccentricity. Travelling hats are now trimmed with ribbons or with squares of all brightcoloured silks. Flowers are seldom seen upon them, and feathers are quite out of date. The handkerchief squares can be deftly arranged, and firmly secured to the brim of the hat by a number of long, gilded pins. A hat of grey straw looks very stylish when trimmed in this way with a bright yellow " Liberty " square, the folds fixed by pearl-headed pins. The dresses worn this season, owing to the preponderance of shot materials and of coloured embroideries, have a most kaleidoscopic effect that needs the toning down of the white and e*oru fabrics that are equally fashionable for summer toilettes. Even these quiet-looking costumes are trimmed with Bulgarian or Persian embroidery, or else embroidered with small scattered sprays of flowers wrought in colours. Shot silk, crepe de Chine, and velvet with thick ribs are all fashionable for seaside dresses, Parisian dress materials have been undeniably lovely, and crfipe-grenadines are some of the prettiest fabrics yet invented ; they are of light delicate colours ; sprinkled with designs in faint, half -faded tints called "old tapestry" shades. The preferred colours tor the back-grounds are sea green, dark pistacio, fresh butter, faded roses, and all very pale blues and pale greys. The material is used for ceremonious visiting toilettes between county neighbours, and for promenade dresses at fashionable watering places at home and abroad. The best seaside dress as a piece de resistance is always a serge. Such costumes are made this year with plain, full skirts, and white waistcoats to the jacket bodices. But cottons of all kinds are worn — blue with red spots) crushed strawberry, plain white dresses, spotted ecru muslin ; all these are now fashionable at the seaside, with the inevitable sailor hat. It is usual to wear a serge or plain cotton in the morning, and more dressy cottons and muslins in the afternoon ; but it depends entirely on what seaside place it is. Deep orange is a tone which now and during the winter is likely to find its way into nearly all the best dresses and bonnets. Small velvet lobsters in reds, greens, and other varieties of colour are fastened on the left side of lo«v bodices with diamond pins. Bonnets composed entirely of marabouts are fashionable, especially in light colours. Dresses of printed net, which at a distance look like mousseline de soie, are quite new, and several were prepared for Goodwood. They are made up over silk. Tea-gowns are made of black lace over coloured silks, and cut in the Princesse form*