LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 6, 6 February 1892, Page 138

LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

EARLY AUTUMN GARMENTS. (SEE FASHION PLATE. PAGE. 1*1.) Some very smart gowns, mantles, and millinery have just been brought from Paris to meet the requirements of the forthcoming season. < >ur artist has sketched on page — a few representative examples of tasteful novelties specially appropriate to early autumn. No. 1 is a handsome evening gown, in a rich quality of black Irish poplin, a fabric which promises to be very much worn this year. The train is cut in quite a novel fashion, and divided down the centre with a volant of fine black lace. The whole of the front of the skirt is draped with a Ireautiful tablier, covered with gold embroidery,and jewelled all over with tiny multi coloured precious stones, in very brilliant but perfectly harmonious colourings. The becoming bodice is arranged to corres]>ond. No. 2 is a graceful tight-fitting summer mantle, of black peau de sole, with a deep flounce of finest black Chantilly lace all round, and long sleeves of the same lace, ornamented by fringes of fine jet. Three lines of jetted passementerie come to a point at the back of the mantle, the front being also trimmed with jet to correspond. This mantle will be found becoming to almost any kind of figure. The hat worn with this mantle is of fine black "Irish lace straw, trimmed in front with a large bow of mandarinyellow velvet, and arranged at the back with long clusters of yellow geranium, which droop gracefully over the hair. No. 3 is a simple little frock of soft fawn colouied voile, made on a silk foundation. The bodice is made with a long basque at the back, and a jetted butterfly clasping the fulness of the fold in front. The skirt is cut up at the sides, to show narrow panels of dark brown silk, bordered by rows of buttons. No. 4 is a smart but useful gown made in one of the new figured tweeds. The skirt is simply made with a deep hem, while the coat bodice is arranged to open over a doublebreasted vest of silk, in some contrasting shade of colour. No. 5 is a dainty gown of pale grey’ corduroy ciepon cut < n princesse and outlined with several rows of narrow gold braid studded with small steel stars. The graceful Greek drapery on the bodice is specially worthy of note.

< >ne of the best English authorities states that brocades are still greatly worn. One that suggests autumn has a reddish brown ground coloui brocaded with variegated foliage and bramble. It would be lovely for the train of a dinner-dress. The new moires antiques in black or pale soft colours, patterned with narrow stripes in bright blue and yellow, pink and green, or yellow- and mauve, are very pretty for young ladies’ dresses. The Macclesfield weavers are competing with the French now in the production of cheap silks. I saw some lovely brocades in soft blues, yellows, pinks, and greens, with flower and scroll patterns. Silks for middle aged wearers show a good deal of pattern and very little ground-colour. One example has a black satin ground strewn with large pink flowers that look like roses and are beautifully shaded. Another in pale green is brocaded with marguerites and guelder roses. Among the silks that go off well just now are those that are prismatic. < Hie that I saw was green in certain lights and silver-grey in others.

Some dainty, inexpensive evening gowns attracted my attention. There were some made of crepe de Chine, in lovely shades of blue, pink, green, and mauve, with frills round the bottom. A pretty dress in primrose silk or satin was covered with a diaphanous drapery in the same colour, embroidered in two shades, and had a fluffy ruche for a border. For a very cheap dress there is nothing better than white muslin figured in pink or blue, trimmed with ribbon the same colour. Plain book muslin trimmed with lace and ribbons looks fresh and dainty on young girls.

1 must tell you of some of the pretty things that were prepared for Jlitting days, for les caux or the seaside, the mountainous districts calling for few fallals as requisites or adjuncts in dress. The plainer the costume the better for climbing steep and rugged paths, so theie is not much to describe in simple serges or homespuns, whereas the filmy muslins, exquisite laces, dainty organdis, and the thousand and one other things that go towards making up fashionable clothes, and filling fashionable trunks at this period of the yeai are simply bewitching. 1 have seen a great many new things, but nothing has impressed me so much or so pleas antly as the new silk’cambric, striped with a myriad of fine lines grouped together or scattered all over with delicate toned designs. This slightly transparent material is as light as the zephyr's wing, and makes up into most exquisite gowns, old blue, salmon pink, and faint heliotrope designs being the prettiest on a white or cream ground : the flouricingsand trinimingsare cutout into long dents or pointseither rounded or acute, and are finely buttonhole stitched all round with soft embroidery cotton, the exact tint of the printed design. The foundation of the dress is invariably pure white, thus throwing up the pattern : whereas, when the lining is employed in similar colour to the pattern, the latter grows very pale and at times disappears altogether. The waist is finished off with a two-inch satin ribbon that ties in a bow and ends at the back : or is fixed by a rosette of ribbon the same colour as the pattern upon the linon de sole. This style is very smart, or again the ribbon looks well taken across the shoulders in bretelle fashion. These diaphanous gowns can also be trimmed with fine lace or a little very little—ribbon velvet. The corsage and sleeves are very finely shirred into manifold fine pleats, and give a kind of foamlike appearance to the body.

Finely dotted Swiss muslins are also novelties, printed with bunches of fruit upon their somewhat rugged surface ; a maize with branches of small plums, a pale mauve with wood Strawberries, a white with cherries, a black with apricots, a soft grey with wee rosy apples, and a Nile-green with little bunches of purple grapes, are among the prettiest. Then the series of coarse meshed silk nets, with bunches of printed Howers in natural tints upon them, look very pretty made nil over silk of the exact tone of the fond of the material. One of the kind I saw was of beige net, with bunches of pink ami crimson roses and leaves: it was mounted quite plainly upon the skirt, cn f'ourreau, and was finished around the feet with a ruching of poppy petals in crinkled silk of the same shade as the gown. The waist

was draped across from left to right, and the Florentine sleeves had high wristlets of beige velvet edged with a narrow row of poppy petals ; the ruching round the neck (the collar was of velvet) matched the hem and wrist edging. Another gown of similai material was of serpent-green net, flowered with a large brown and yellow blossom of the soldi species. The ruching in this case was of dark green silk frayed out, and the waistband was of silk to match, forming lorrn ends and a small rosette of silk, set exactly in the middle of the waist behind. Then, again, the toiles de Jouy— a very fine kind of cretonne, by the way—make up into most picturesque and charming gowns, with just a little ecru or bise lace and a bit of satin ribbon tied round the waist, and frills of lace turning over from the echanerc collar. Foulards and twill silks are still very fashionable, particularly the latter, in all the old-time colours that imitate so admirably the picture gowns of the past centuries, shot as they are with two colours, the changeant chiffon more often than not being brought into requisition as trimmings and flouncings for neck and wrists. The Louis XV. bow design on very fine silk net is also much used in black, ecru, or ficelle tints, and makes very light and graceful baldaquins or hip flounces. All heavy trimmings are, as may be imagined, eschewed during the very hot weather, the object of couturiires in making summer gowns being to gain a maximum of lightness, both in colour and texture, and not to add to the weight by superfluous decoration. Besides which, nothing looks uglier than heavy trimmings of any kind on thin materials, unless it be weak and meagre-looking trimmings on handsome silks, such as brocades, Lyons velvets, or Louis velveteens.

The large summer hats are now enjoying their heyday of popularity. They are bent and jerked about into all sorts of senseless, though very becoming shapes, and are tied on by long narrow strings of velvet generally upon the left side, whence they (the strings, be it understood) are allowed to drop carelessly down on to the shoulder. Tuscan, Leghorn, and the new coloured rice straws are all the rage, together with a more serviceable sailor shape with narrow brim turned up all round, said brim gradually fading into insignificance as it reaches the back of the head. A light role of chiffon or a little lace is simply draped round the base of the crown, while on the left side, slightly towards the front, three wee satin rosettes, arranged in a harmony of colour, form a big pompon, from which rise two narrow ostrich tips placed back to back, and reminding one of two notes of interrogation. A delicious feuillis of cream lace, overhanging in a flounce in front, mauve and rose satin and black feathers as trimmings behind, make a quaint and cute Louis XV. bonnet, that Virots have somewhat erroneously to my mind christened the ‘ Griselidis.’

I must mention also, ere I forget it, the novelty that has just replaced the old-fashioned, though always pretty, monogram or crest upon cigar or cigarette case, or upon portemonnaies. The new style is to have an old silver coin set in, or on, the leather in the left hand upper corner of the article, and upon which in ancient characters are engraved the crest of the owner, while in guise of a motto around, the name is quaintly arranged. This is a curious and very pretty style, and may be carried out as well in gold as in silver ; the favourite colours for gentlemen in leather goods still appear to be a very dark navy blue, cigar brown, Hark olive or duck green, or the old and ever useful black. For ladies there are some exquisite shades in light colours, while fashionable note paper is now nearly always embossed with silver, and on one page carries two shades, the margin being of a much lighter tint than the other part of the page. This novelty, in grey, mauve, and soft blue, is rather pretty, although, after all is said and done, nothing is in such good taste as colourless paper and envelopes, or of ivory tone, neatly and unostentatiously stamped.