THE LADIES

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 95, 8 July 1882, Page 264

THE LADIES

4> Buttercup bonnets aTe charming. " Sparkling Moselle " is a new. colour. Ficelle, or troine lace, is the very latest rage. Ladies with. Titian, red hair should wear only black. . "■...„" Cloth-finished dress flannels are among the new goods. • • "',-■. Matted cloth is another caprice for walking dresses. - , ' Floral garnitures are very fashionable -, fort evening toilets. , ■ -•>■'_' Tea gowns for five o'clock teas, are made with square trains. Modistes are trying to trim bonnets vrith simulated moss. Most of the new dresses have large puffings on the hips. Lady Haberton's divided skirt is called the " Duplex Petticoat." Sober colored garments take cardinal red as a lining in most cases. Ribbons embroidered in chenille flowers are the latest novelty in that line. i Coloured grenadines will be worn over silk skirts of a strongly contrasting shade. London smoke is a favourite colour with many ladies, and looks charming with ruby 'or old-gold for evening. Darned net is very fashionable for underwear. It is beautiful and more lasting than the imitation laces. Coat-shaped basques are double breasted, or made to simulate a vest, and trimmed with a double row of buttons. The new mantles are shorter than last year, many of them are cut open at the shoulder and filled with flots of ribbon. Bonnefcs are sfcill beady — very beady — and being small, with close front, the crown, which must sparkle in some degree, is an important feature. The Princess of Wales always remodels her own bonnets, after buying them at different milliners. ■ She says she suits her own style best. Sinking is now relegated to the lower classes in London. It is considered vulgar. Lawn tennis having become a regular passion. At the late Drawing-room many ladies wore high bodices, having obtained the Queen's permission to do so on the strength of a doctor's certificate. Sofa coverlets of Indian red serge, lightly embroidered in low toned Eastern colours, will be found very useful to throw over rattan settees in Summer. All the new Spring costumes have double skirts, draperies and paniors. The underskirt, however, is merely trimmed round the bottom with a narrow ruching. Among the novelties is a pocket-book, with the leaves of soap. The book contains 40 pages of the best quality. Each leaf on being torn out is sufficient for once. An elegante is attracting attention on account of the number of owls that go to ornament her costumes. One is worn in the bonnet, one on the chest, and another on the parasol. Any nice white material can be made up to look very dressy. The success of a costume depends more upon the make and fit than tipon the material. Foulard dresses are covered with quaint designs of old-fashioned garden flowers, daffodils, ragged robbin, &c. They are seen in their mature colors on palo grounds. . There is a new kid glove coming into fashion. It has a tiny pocket fitted into the palm of the hand, and fastened with a button. It will hold any small sum of money, or a railway ticket. The best way of cleaning silver ornaments is to cover them with a thin paste of cream of tartar, made with water. Wrap them in flannel for a week, and when uncovered they will look like new. Bodices for dinner and theati'e wear may be cut heart-shaped, more or less away from the throat, in a long oval or square ; if the latter the corners should be- rounded off, which is far prettier than if left in an acute angle. Strings- are still worn either of ribbon or lace and as some of the hats closely resemble bonnets, and bonnets might be mistaken, for hats, it is understood that strings are always to be attached to a bonnet. My readers will be glad to know that lace sleeves will be very fashionably worn this season ; these are universally becoming, and many an arm wanting in beauty either of colour or shape, may pass muster thus partly concealed. Plush mats for the dinner-table take the place of straw or wicker work, and these are oftentimes embossed with flowers in relief. So pretty are they that it seems almost a sin, to set a hot- dish upon their dainty beauty. Flowers, all copied strictly from Nature, will be generally worn this year. The effect is very pleasant of cabbage roses, polyanthuses, and other old favourites in rich blumps, instead of a monstrous hat or a mushroom. Among the novelties to fasten bonnet strings may be mentioned an tfonbrella in pearls, two arrows tied with a ribbon, sets of five sparrows strung on a silver thread, nests with eggs in them the eggs being represented by seed pearls. A floral fancy is made by arranging sprays of violets to look like a circular fan, and worn. with the handle near the waist, the simulated fan catches up scarves or fullness lower down ; another spray is fastened to the bodice and a third to the hair. The Bachelors' Ball will probably be a greater success in its way than the Citizens' Ball, and it is being looked forward to with a greater local interest. At balls of this ilk the gentlemen are on their mettle and do not allow somany ladies to play the pai"t of wallflowers — or tapestry, as they say in France. Surahs are now made in so many tints, and are really so beautiful, and fall into such graceful folds, that dresses made of them are suitable for the quietest as well as for the most' dressy occasions. Bridesmaids' costumes are lovely of thi3 material, and elegant little evening toilettes may be trimmed with lace, or combined with velvetor brocade. • ' , _ •;

The Princess Helen, on her arrival in England, wore a dolman jacket of peacock blue silk, witE ruching of salmon pink; a dress of blue, embroidered ■with, gold, and a Princess bonnet of black velvet, having a wreath of gold strawberries/ with leaves of natural colour, and a bunch of pink roses for ornament. A lady, distinguished in that social world of which the Mansion House is the centre, committed a strange and almost inexcusable breach of etiquette on the occasion of the recent visit of the Queen to Epping Forest. The lady had to make a small presentation- to Her Majesty, and instead of kissing the Eoyal hand, she shook it vigorously. . Here are some pretty white costumes worn at a recent -ball in Dublin. A plain princess, robe of white satin with small bouquets of white roses. White-satin bodice with tulle skirt spangled. with silver stars. A white satin braided with silver. A white silk puffed with tulle and lavishly trimmed with silver acorn leaves. A tulle skirt with alternate bows of satin and loops of pearls. , At the Rojal Wedding, the Princess Beatrice being called upon to sign her name in the register gave her bouquet to the Bishop of London to hold, and then quite forgot to reclaim the fragrant burden from the, right reverend divine. In his dilemma, the Bishop turned to the Lord Chancellor, who was standing near him, and, having consulted the highest legal authority in. England on the subject, the Bishop decided to retain possession of the same. The hats of the present month are as beautiful as the plumes of tropical birds. Eed straw trimmed with Marguerites, and yellow roses looks stylish. Peacock-blue, chestnut- straw and green straw find favour with those who love colour. Claret satin and pale pink geraninums are a novel and pretty trimming for a fancy straw ; but black hats with ecru feathers, wreaths of small rosebuds, or faded leaves in plush, will always assert themselves as the most charming head-dress of them all. Now that we are on the subject of balls a few hints on ball-dressing will not be mal apropos. It would be well to choose colours, that are to be worn under the gaslight, by night. For instance there is a very decided blue that assumes a lovely shade of green by night. In London the younger portion of the community affect white to great extent, and white it is. No pink posies stuck here or blue frills there. . Nothing looks so nice in a well-lighted room as an unbroken mass. That is for young poople ; of course elderly ladies can • look very gorgeous in the thunder and lightning " colours if they be judiciously arranged. Spring styles show no decided change' of colour, every shade of brown, and very colour derive dfr.oni brown,including claret, maroon, &c, will be N worn and in good style. A walking costume of sealbrown vicuna, draped over a Pekin skirt, yellow silk striped with brown satin, and the four kiltings so arranged that the light and dark stripes are visible with every movement of the wearer ; waistcoat gathered to the throat, of Pekin to match ; small brown velvet bonnet, studded with large brown facette beads, brown velvet flowers with yellow hearts ; wide strings tied in a large butterfly bow, and without ends, plain sealskin jacket. The bright festival of Windsor, and the happiness of the bride and bridegroom, has been marred by the sad tidings of the death of the Duchess of Albany's sister, the Princess Marie of Wurtemburg. She was married five years ago to Princo Wilhelm, and was only in her 25th year. She was possessed of great charm of person and manner, and all will lament the close of a young life- that gave promise of so bright a career. This melancholy event will at onco put an end to the rejoicings and festivities which had been arranged to celebrate the recent nuptials. The deepest sympathy will be felt for the new-made bride, who thus loses a sister to whom she was tenderly attached. When in Paris, the Duchess of Edinburgh went about a good deal shopping on her own account. One evening quite late she arrived at the establishment of a celebrated couturiere. Everybody was gone, and the bonne sent the duchess away, saying that her mistress had retired for the night. Next morning the bonne reported that a "Madame d' Edinborg " had called late, and that she had' refused to admit her. "Do you know who it is you have treated thus ?" asked her mistress. " That was the daughter of the Czar of Russia, and she is the wife of the son of the Queen of England. " Tiens .'" replied the bonne, greatly exercised at her lost opportunity ; " and I let her go without having a good look at her!" Tho now Act relating to married women will bo a great boon to many. Only recently it was decided in a New Zealand Court that where a man, whoso wife held a protection order, broke into her house and stole a sum of money, the Married Woman's Protectiou Act made . no provision for trial of such cases by criminal process. The law secures to a married woman who has taken out a protection order all that she may earn or acquire free from the control of her husband ; but if the latter contrives to steal her goods, the law then recognises him as her husband, against wnom she cannot institute criminal proceedings. The only remedy lies in applying to the Supreme Court, which is too costly for poor women ; so that, to a great extent, the socalled " protection " is a perfect farce. Stripes appear in some of the new costumes, in combination with self-coloured fabrics, and take the place of the kiltings. of last year ; in other words, the skirt is made of the striped, material instead of being kilted. For -instance, a striped skirt is quite plain • two very narrow flutings of . bei<* e material show beyond the edge round the foot. The bodice is of beige, fitted at the back with five seams ; deep basques are added on in front, with five rows of ganging ; these basques are turned up at the sides, so as to form limp paniers and meet in the middle of the back,falling into a loose drapery over the striped skirt. A neat collar and cuffs of the striped fabric complete the bodice. . '„ ' Among the wedding gifts recently offered to a fair young New York bride was^ an ordinary sweeping - broom, provided with a long stout handle, to which was tied, with a strip of white satin ribbon, a visiting card, bearing the name and address of the donor — a married lady and mr timate friend of thejiansee's family — as well as the following instructive memorandum s-r-" Accept this. trifling present, and permit me to offer"

joii a suggestion, tlie fruit of my own matrimonial experiences, as to how you may v utilise it to the greatest .advantage : So long as the heaven ■of your wedded life shall remain calm and cloudless,, sweep the carpets with the lower end of my .gift: thus shall they be kept spotless, and you healthily employed. But, on the first symptoms .of domestic rough weather, reverse the broom ;and make use of its upper end with unflinching vigour : thus shall you avert the threatening .storm, and re-establish conjugal tranquility upon a firm and enduring basis." DBESSES WOBJf AT THE ItOYAIi WEDDING-. Lady Spencer : Dress of Oxford-blue satin. Mrs Gladstone : Dress of light blue silk. The Duchess of Connaught : Dress of varied colour and pattern, in whioh^ the tint of maroon rseemed to predominate. The Marchioness of" Dome : Dress and train of .cardinal satin and velvet, profusely ornamented with flowers. The Princess Yietoria,, of Hesse, was attired in a dress similar in tint to that of the Princess Beatrice, with a huge bouquet of rosebuds. The Duchess of Teck : Dress and train of the Tichest silk, of sundry hues of deep lilac or deeper lavender, decorated with a few bows of pink satin. 'Her Majesty woro a dress and train of black satin, embroidered with black and white chenille •and pearls, and a. skirt and bodice trimmed with ■Honiton lace, worn by Her Majesty at her marriage ; Head-dress — Her Majesty's wedding veil of Honiton lace, surmounted by the Royal ■crown in diamonds ; Her Majesty also wore a necklace and earrings of large diamonds. The Duchess of Albany's travelling costume ■wa3 of ivory-white embossed velvet, trimmed with ■satin and siciliennc of the same colour, and point d'Aloncon, the Volvot coat bodice, pointed in front, opening with reverses over a white satin waistcoat. Her niantle was of the same velvet, brimmed with chenille and gilt-beaded fringe, with an ivory-white bonnet to match, trimmed with orange blossoms. The Princess of Wales : Dress of the palest blue brocade, embossed with flowers and trimmed with •silver. The jnpe was of antique satin, over. which fell a cloud of lino Brussels lace, bearing her Eoyal Highness' coronet and monogram ; the train of brocade was richly trimmed with silver and lace. Her Eoyal Highness wore a diamond necklace of great value. Her three daughters were attired in dresses of the palest blue satin, trimmed in crepe lisse, tied with broad sashes of brocade. The Princess Beatrice wore a most beautiful dress. It was of sutiu, the colour being an indescribable pale, yet warm, shade of pink, with a tinge of salmon in it. It was almost covered with the rarest Point d'Alencon lace of great antiquity, which had originally belonged to Queen Catherine, of Arragon. The bodice and train were made of thick brocaded satin, with a ground of white, shot with, yellow, on which were strewn bouquets -of roses, forget-me-nots and lilies of the valley raised, upon the surface. This brocade was so perfect that it might be passed, thick as it was, through a ring, and yet come out without a wrinkle or fold ; but it was in colour that this lovely dress had its highest beauty. The roses on the brocade were in three shades, one being that of the satin described, another paler, and a third, darker ; the sheath of the buds and a little of the foliage were of a- delicate brown, and another group of leaves was in tints of olive, paling with a creamy green, like a lichen. This artistic union of colours was rendered still more beautiful by a border of roses, which trimmed both dress and train. These roses — they were G-loire de Dijon or Marshal Nicl — were of that inimitable colour which is yellow at the edge of the leaf and warms into pink as the put,.! goes deeper into the heart of the rose. The flowers were small in the front of the dress, buL increased in size as they approached the back of the train, where they were fully blown, gloriously rich in colour, and apparently ready to drop, petal from petal at the slightest touch. With this soft and rosy garland, the whole dress was a dream of colour — rich, warm, and pure. At the edge of the train was a Louis Treize trimming, very full and thick in effect, made with the pale, salmon-coloured satin with which the train was lined. The head-dress consisted of diamonds, plume and veil.