FEMININE BED FASHIONS.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 32, 23 April 1881, Page 341

FEMININE BED FASHIONS.

•Coquetry in night-clothes is as much indulged in as ever. The coy maiden is often as careful as a bride for arraying herself for sleep. Even beads are now quite extensively used in the embroidery of the bosoms, making a fine surface, truly, to abrade the wearer's flesh, if she be given to lying on her face. The day of the night-cap is completely gone. Few old women and no girls now make themselves frightful by covering their heads with caps. A new practice among girls is to sleep with their hair flowing free, and the sight of it spreading over a white pillow is certainly very winsome ; but there tangles in the morning to pay for it, and a more sensible plan is to wear a net. Pink and blue ribbons in knots at the shoulders, baby fashion, is one of the new kinks ; and the extreme of absurdity is readied when a night-gown is discarded' altogether, and the arms, legs and bosom are left bare all night by a mere apology for a chimese. This nonsense, however, is not much indulged in by respectable women. A novel night-robe shown in the stores is a modification of the much-ridiculed chemiloon. It has both sleeves and tronsers attached to its body. The wearer gets into it through a slit up and down the front, and then buttons herself in. The cut is jaunty, the trimmings elaborate, and the idea seems to combine taste and utility. It is cut to fit the figure loosely, and, if the figure be reasonably geod, the effect ought ought to be quite entrancing. Night-gloves are a new toilet device. They are made of cloth of undressed kid, and are worn with a view to keep the hands soft and white. Some of them are alleged by the dealers to be medicated. While on this general subject, I may as well say that with the increasing use of porous-plasters, liver-pads, heart - discs and electric breastplates, the body of the average woman when she undresses for bed is grotesquely spotted.