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SOME STYLISH IDEAS.

Toques are fashionable again, so in fact are all shapes and sorts of hats and bonnets. A very pretty new hat was em-

broidered and transparent, formed partly of guipure net and partly of straw, with upstanding bows of the most charming light green velvet, and ostrich feathers.

The first of the illustrations this week is a delightfully becoming spring bonnet. It is made in the 1830 style, but is so modified as to be extremely pretty. This chapeau has a Tuscan brim edged with jet, and black crown with band and bows of cerise velvet, and bouquet of polyanthus in the new waxed silk.

The second shows the very fashionable black satin which is, just now, quite the most chic material. The jacket is made with velvet sleeves. Double cape and revers, edged with velvet. Bonnet covered with black silk ; brim lined with drawn ivory silk; trimming of tall bows and black ostrich tips ; a paste buckle at one side, and rosettes above the strings. Always velvet ! It seems a necessity with the present style of dress. Whether anything will replace it in hot weather it is too early yet to say. It is used in the third sketch, which is a harmony in black and pink. It is black satin broche with small knots of flowers. The wide sleeves terminate with a deep frill of black lace, and the neck with wide full revers of black velvet, lined with pink. The upper half of the bodice is pink satin, richly ornamented with pearl and gold embroidery. Two velvet ends on front. Here is a poem of a eown without velvet, though. It is of silk, cool, greenish grey in the lights and mauve in the shadows, like the sea in a mist, and flecked with white and covered with broche discs, beautiful enough to inspire a sonnet. It is trimmed with ruffles of greenish grey chiffon. Several overlapping ruffles are on the skirt, and a ruffle round the waist at the height of the bu«t. There is also a ruffle sewed on the sleeve several inches down from the armhole, so that it falls in a line with that round the bodice, giving somewhat the effect of a cape. SHIRT WAISTS.

The percale and linen blouses of last season are seen again, and it is certain that the fashion of jacket and blouse will survive through the coming summer. It is too pretty, too convenient, and too chic to be dropped. Scarlet and pink are favourite colours, and wash well. There are also lovely white lawns with hair lines of colour, and sometimes of tiny dots. These shirt waists are made in side pleats, often with wide double ruffles down the front.

Bodices are, however, very different in styles. For spring wear some made in red and white serge with pretty shoulder trimmings of white worked in red, and cross way bands at the waist; in others the entile yoke is formed of glitteiing passementerie.

Of the novel wide skirts some reach 5j yards. A sort of crepon trimmed with three rows of jet reaching to the knee was made this width. In the centre of the front of this skirt there was a pleat from the hem to the waist. Seven yards round is not too much now for a dinner gown. I was

much attracted by a beautiful dress of this width, made in black with red flowers. It was lined up to the knees with horsehair, standing out in the most graceful rounded folds at the back, an effect, by the bye, which cannot be obtained except by this lining of horsehair. The front was a mass of the most exquisite embroidery, all hand worked, with thread, beads, and pailettes.

We are going to wear velvet bodices of distinct colours with light skirts—Eminence velvet, for example, with a white gown The wider we make ourshoulders, the smaller seems the waist, and this we rarely forget in modern dressmaking. A favourite trimming for the front of a skirt is the introduction of large velvet bows at the hem. Velvet will be much worn alone and as a trimming, and so will silk. Full bodices and full sleeves, with large revers of velvet are decidedly the dominant idea. One of the favourite colours remains—beige. A beige cloth was made with a light blue rounded yoke, edged with narrow white trimming, a full frill going all round. This frill can hardly be too full about the shoulders, and is employed on all kinds of dresses. Feather stitching is to be seen on many of the bodices where pleats have to be kept in place, and it is effective on red gowns which are likely to be much worn as the season advances, especially trimmed with black velvet. A good ladies’ tailor is making most of his dresses with the belts on the top of the skirt to be worn outside the bodices. This saves a great deal of trouble to the wearer, and any fear of their separating. He is cutting skirts in various ways ; some of the styles are only suited to wide materials, the front being plain, the back quite on the cross, so that the skirt stands out full at the back. Others, again, are a succession of gores. Paper patterns are valuable, but they need much knowledge and explanation, and skirt making is becoming more of a study even than the bodices.

Heloise.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZGRAP18930826.2.31.1

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 34, 26 August 1893, Page 141

Word Count
912

SOME STYLISH IDEAS. New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 34, 26 August 1893, Page 141

SOME STYLISH IDEAS. New Zealand Graphic, Volume XI, Issue 34, 26 August 1893, Page 141