LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 17, 23 April 1892, Page 434

LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS.

SMART AUTUMN NOVELTIES.

(she fashion plate page 431.) The great difficulty dressmakers of any standing in New Zealand experience with their lady customers is in the fact that out here we receive the winter fashions in the beginning of summer, and so on, in a perplexing and irritating round of mixed-up seasons. To be consistent, a law should be passed forbidding the introduction of any fashion plates into New Zealand but those actually appropriate to the season ! Thus should we be spared the present painful exhibition of a summer gown of the last English season's material made up in the style of the following winter. Cottons do not lend themselves to Newmarket bodices. There are plenty of appropriate designs for them in more substantial materials. The very thick, heavy, fur-trimmed costume is now recognised at Home as being better adapted to a sort of Princess style, or to a bodice adhering to its skirt by means of a flat velvet or silk baud. But having had my growl, let me tell you how to make your autumn gowns. The illustration gives a very good idea of the correct styles for these useful betwixt and-between frocks, for, in the North Island at all events, there are many winter (?) days when a heavy dress is quite out of the question, and ladies gladly take from their hanging presses the sensible halt and-half autumn costume, which a cold day has caused them to lay aside for a time. And as jackets are much worn at this season of the year, I will begin with them.

A smart jacket of grey cloth—very becoming to a pretty figure, and there are many in the colony—is the first illustration. It is lined with striped shot silk. The pockets, the front, and the cuffs of the jacket are all braided with grey tubular braid, and outlined with cut steel gimp. The second design for a jacket is in rather a different style. It is a loose coat of fawn cloth, lined with shrimp-pink surah. The fronts are cut long, while the back is cut up in the centre. The coat is edged with braid, which forms Austrian knots, at the top of each opening. Similar knots are placed on the cuffs, and both inside aud outside the fronts, where they are finished with loops and olivettes to fasten. When the collar is turned down, the front rolls back, and shows the braiding on the inside. Turning to the important question of gowns, I am glad to give you a delightful idea in the third illustration, the central figure. This is a graceful gown of grey cloth cut, en princesse, and made to button down the back. The band at the foot of the skirt, as well as the lower part of the bodice, the plastron, and the sleeves, are in bronze cloth, braided at the edges on to the grey cloth, with twisted metal braid. The fourth figure wears a lovely gown iu cedar-colour vicuna, braided with a combination of cedar braid and mixed braid. The skirt is slightly draped on the left side, while the square apron is braided up the front, and brought from the right side, just over the centre line of the skirt, so that it hangs quite straight. The bodice is braided on the side, neck, and cuffs, as well as on the sides of the sleeves.

And, lastly, we come to a really useful and charming costume of checked tweed made on the cross, and arranged with a plain gored skirt, made with a pleated back, and a deep hem round the foot, headed by several rows of stitching. The bodice is tight fitting, with a roll collar, and revers, and a double-breasted waistcoat is of reindeer skin, fastened with buttons of smoked mother-of-pearl. The reindeer skin is made up to show the soft side, and will be found exceedingly effective. These sketches are all taken from first-rate English models, and are therefore a safe guide for stylish ladies out here.

My London correspondent, * Heloise,’ to whom I am indebted for this desciiption, further adds : • I saw such a ravishing cloak worn by one of les belles dames, of purplefaced cloth, with a Watteau pleat of shot purple and velvet down the back, outlined with a dainty design in black braid and gold cord. The sleeves had tight cuffs trimmed with braid and cord, into which full puffed velvet sleeves weie gathered. This is quite the latest. ‘ Another fashionable craze is the loose backed coat. It is hideously ugly, but this month (February) I have seen lots of them. I suppose you will have them by-and-bye. They are made in matelasse, or in plain or brocaded velvet, and hang straight and loose from the shoulders back aud front, to about six inches below the hips. •Stripes for spring gowns are worn in Paris, but just at present, strange to say, we Paiisiaus are dressing very differently to the English. I woie my last French gown yesterday and new hat, and was stared at. The hat looks old-fashioned, I admit iu London. It goes right off the head like an aureole, and has a little bow of velvet resting on the hair in front of the turned up high brim. At the back there are tips and ribbon bows. This is the very latest style, and forms a marked contrast to the universal English plateau hat—in varying shapes, I’ll admit—but still very much en evilence everywhere, though relieved from utter monotony by a few toques. I feel sure that next winter they wdl adopt these aureole hats in England, and they will drift out to you in the sweet by-and-bye. * Contrasts in colours are worn, or two shades of the one colour. In nearly every case this has a happy effect, and is far safer, taken as a general rule for the majority, for wies amies, colour blindness is by no means rare, and it is a dreadful affi.ction—for the sufferer’s friends. Such sinners, knowing that two colours, roughly speaking, harmonise, will use them without the slightest regard as to the special tints, which, of course, makes all the difference. Grey is a colour tolerably easy of treatment, though the blue greys are a snare to some. A pretty dress of this style was composed of cloth of silver grey and silk poplin of a darker shade, the vest, under sleeves, and the border of the skirt being of the poplin. * A lovely evening gown was made of black silk with the panelled skirt bordered with an applique of velvet, most beautifully embroidered in gold, and revealing at one side a petticoat of gold coloured satin, draped with fine black lace. The bodice of this was particularly pretty, being edged round the top with shaped bands of the gold embroidered velvet, and having a few folds of yellow chiffon to form an inner fichu.’