THE LADY'S WORLD.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3872, 11 May 1906, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE LADY'S WORLD.

IN FASHION’S REALM. Op-to-date Notes on What to Wear. To say that she is clothed in silks and satins is a way of saying that my lady is luxurious and luxuriously clad, But silks are cheap, and satins are likewise, and even velvets are not beyond the reach of all classes alike. Truer is it, as indicating luxury to say that she is clothed in furs, for furs are seldom cheap, while they may be dear enough to represent a small fortune in a single garment or article. Here, in this country, we don’t see so much of these extra expensive things as they do in the older ones, where either a plutocratic aristocracy or an aristocratic plutocracy enables art to show her finest fur treasures in profusion, secure in tho knowledge that no extent or price will prevent the sale, if only the article is desirable. Thus, one can walk down llcgcnt-street, London, and see furs that cost as follows;—Bussian sable muffs from £25 to £l5O ; stoles ditto, and a little more ; coats to the heels, containing sometimes one hundred skins, from £SOO up to £10,000; bolero coats about £350. The foregoing prices arc for sable only, but silver fox is dear, as a skin is worth from £SO to £2OO, and two are required for a long stole. Chinchilla of late years has gone up considerably, a skin now being worth £4, which means that a jacket will cost about £OO, and it may be even £IOO. Sealskin is not nearly so fashionable as of yore, but it is still expensive, and if allied to sable £IOO goes nowhere, while black fox means money, and ermine is dearer than ever. Ermine, in fact, is now worth 35s a skin, and ns two hundred tails will be consumed in the making of a wrap the latter may run from £2OO to £350. But in London, Paris, and St. Petersburg there are many customers for such things, and to have them is the ambition of every fashionable who wants to hold her place.

One of the daintiest boleros that I have seen for a long time constitutes this important part of the equally elegant costume. As however the skirt may be of a different material it is possible to treat it alone—an artistic creation with much that is new and one thing especially that is very new. The latter is the way the sides are drawn in and overstrapped, the strap “ buttoning ”on the front piece, and the gathers assuming the design to finish of ft frill. The sleeve con

eludes in the same way, and returning to thc bodice the front panels arc frogged, thc pretty collar is embroidered and a smart litre -rest points on to the corselet and may be embroidered or not. Needless to say the material for this elegant bolero may be either light or dark, thc collar and vest contrasting ; and so for preference a dark material, and a light silk collar and vest ot thc same complexion and embroidered the same way.

The Empress ot Japan since she took to wearing European clothes has suffered a little martyrdom. Not that she doesn’t like thc garments and connot feel comfortable iu them, but she cannot get fitted. She is just the same as other women, of course, though of the pocket edition variety ; but still no dressmaker can fit her, and the reason is simple—no dressmaker is allowed to try. It appears to he against the rules of Japan for any dressmaker to touch tho person ot Royalty, and unless you can do this, how can you fit a European bodice? Well, her Majesty Haruko has to keep a proxy—someone with a figure to all intents and purposes the same, and this lady is fitted with tho garments intended to be worn by her superior. Which is something that fits and doesn’t fit, something that fits Japan, but that would be hardly likely to fit any other place.

A girl ncror likes to see a young man she admires squander liis money —on other girls.

Both jacket and skirt are elegantly cut, entirely seasonable and very up-to-date. The former in a light covert cloth will please best, the garment being semi-fitting, the col'av “ mannish,” and the sleeve plain. The pretty feature after the cut is the way tie

jacket “buttons” under the side panels, a conceit of sonic originality but requiring very careful making. The skirt is a tweed nr serge, and if the former a check for preference of small pattern. Perfectly plain in oilier respects much is made of the pleating in front—three threes, one in the centre and one either side of it stitched to the extent of about a foot.

This papular!ly of gowns that have an unbroken line from the middle of the body down, whether iitted, as in the princess, or seini-tittcd, as in the Empire, necessitates

a c;ireful selection of underwear. Since gowns of the cut described must not wrinkle at the waist, the corset must be of an exceptionally good make and must fit to the figure, as so much depends upon it. The new corsets also fit well over the hips, to carry on in a graceful line the fitted lengths of a princess gown. Indeed, these gowns have worked a good many changes in corsets, such as a giving way of the straight front lines and a lengthening of the corset below the waist and raising of it above. •Inst think of it—Motor hats 1 I don’t mean by this bats designed for use when motoring, but hats imitating the motorcar in respect of their embellishments. Two examples I have seen arc sul'liciently startling to make me wonder bow any woman could possibly don either. One shows the hat raised at the back in imitation of the back of (ho car-seat, and in front there is a tiny lamp, while the sides display wheels that rest or, 1 10 hair. The other example is a complete car, front and hack, and again the wheels rest on the hair, descending and pressing against the sides. It is solemnly declared that such hats are now being worn in Paris, hut if so I should imagine that the craze would he very short-lived. ***** GUM AT WRITERS' OPINIONS Oi’ WOMEN. Thackeray writes; “Tin’ pear! i.s the imago «!' purity, hut a woman i.s purer than tho pearl,” ami “a good woman i.s tho loveliest flower that blooms under heaven.” Ralzae .save: 'Even the errors ol woman spring from her iaifh in the good." Voltaire declares: “All the reasoning of men i.s not worth one sentiment: of woman.” Lamartine assorts that " M onion have more heart and more imagination than men.” Otway exclaims; “Oh. woman, lovely woman! Nature made thee to temper nien. We had been hrule.s without yon. ” A woman writes a- letter l>ecan.sc .‘die has something to say or nothing el.so to do.

Carry in your mind’s eye the lines of the skirt down from the indications in the sketch and you have an extremely elegant season’s costume of severe but beautiful cut. The material is smooth and plain, a satin face indeed, and the applications need to be of velvet with, if liked, the straps of silk. The

entire costume is a version of the new princess model with “ Etonised ” jacket, the skirt being in light gores with a simulated bodice lino produced by an overlap or by mere stitching. A pretty idea is the button treatment, but a feature that will attract many is the way the collar is overstrapped and the sides having a touch in the same character.

Mrs. Bradley Martin, the head of the American social “ colony ” in London, is going to give a fancy dress ball. It is an item worth the notice, because it is designed with an object. Most people will remember the Duchess of Devonshire’s fancy dress ball in 1897, when, probably, £IOO,OOO was spent in decorations, etc., and it is to eclipse this that the Martin function has now been designed. Mrs. Martin is rich, extravagant and thorough, and so she intends that every guest shall submit the name of his or her intended dress, so as to avoid clashing. For herself, she has announced that she will appear as Cleopatra, and she has allowed the press to learn of the nature of her dress to be. This will be an “ undancoable ” dress, for the reason that the wearer will only just be able to walk in it. The skirt, then, is to be covered with pearls and emeralds ‘, the bodice is to be a mass of pearls, with a breastplate of diamonds. Her neck will support three rows of diamonds and rubies, and her arms will be weighted with bracelets practically for their length. Then her headdress will be a helmet of jewels, with side chains of pearls, and she will carry in her hand a wand of diamonds with a huge ruby at the top, set into a very open lily. Likewise jewelled will bo her sandals, and if she hasn’t jewels set into her teeth or a ring of diamonds through her nose it will be because she isn’t built that way—and because of that on 'y. ...

Just a blouse, home or outdoor, or both, and a very stylish one at that, The original was a flannel with silk yoke and sleeve piece, allover Jace appearing with the first and a frill of lace with the second. The same design will develop in a flannel or other soft material with velvet, and the

edging of the latter can be by means of an application of cord or the use of stitchery, though both in combination served to make my example beautiful. A blouse ot this character will wear with any plain skirt and look elegant, especially a dark skirt which is absolutely destitute of ail adornment. w W •

Tlius an extra poetical, and perhaps imaginative, writer on the fan ; —ln France, Italy, and Spain the fan still holds sway. It has a place on Honour in Hie bride’s wedding chest. There are tans for matron and maid, flirting fans, and fans most sober and sedate. The dark-eyed beauties of Spain still carry their fans- to church and silently converse with their lovers by their help. A Hash of the eye, a droop of the long-lashed iids, and the'fan rests for a space ot seconds on Canno.i’s lips, and at the door of the old cathedral, when the faithful file out, a woman's shriek tears the stillness of the sultry air-the Hash of a dagger, and two men struggle together and fall. The dramas of thc fan are many. A wave of thc fan sends thc hull-fighter to his death—in the sea of faces he had seen the girl he loves with all the fierceness of his southern blood talking under cover of her fan to a rival - ho sees the iovelight in her eyes, and the skilful hand loses its cunning. One false movebravo, Toro ! the man falls and welcomes a death more merciful than his mistress’s heart. In China the fan is part ot thc men’s allirc. In old Japan it was once an instrument of war fare-soldiers warred with thc fighting (an and used it as the .Scottish men used the skcnc dim ! No need to trace the origin of the fan. It was born of that woman’s coquetry which takes us back to the days when Eve llirted with thc Serpent in the Garden of Eden !

Maugueuitb. PADKRKWSKI WRITKS AX OPKPA. Al. Paderewski. the famous pianist, lias just finished a new opera-, which will -bo producer! - shortly. lh<; great artist Jias <-om])l»‘lfly recovered from hi.s recent illness, ainl hi.s next public appearance will be in conjunction with hi.s latest work. Since bin return from America, A!. Paderewski has been, leading a hermit’s life at his beautiful chateau .at Merges, practising the piano for many hours a. day and supervising his farm. Among his .stock are a number of sheep bred at Sandringham, and presented by King Edward. A number of Polish aristocrats 'who have boon forced to leave their country by the recent revolution arc at present his guests, but they rarely see the famous pianist. h