DINNER DRESS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue VII, 17 February 1894, Page 165

DINNER DRESS.

HERE have been some developments in beadgear of late, one of the newest hats being made with a deep fall of lace over Vkl fl il th® hai r at the back, almost in the style Z of a Charlotte Corday cap, though in By front it is of the ordinary pattern. The hat which serves as our first model this week is in black felt reversed with white on the underside, and edged all round with a white lace insertion. The rest of the trimming consists of a white satin rosette, and two small black ostrich tips, placed erect, their stems being hidden by the rosette. The liking for ‘ sunburned’ straw as the deep Tuscan tint is now generally named, seems stronger than ever. The most fashionable way to trim them is with black velvet and feathers, or black moire ribbon, with one or two small rosettes matched to the tint of the gown and its trimmings. For instance, if worn with a white muslin trimmed with sky-blue—a very favourite kind of dress just now—the sun-burned straw will be turned up at the back with a sky-blue rosette, and perhaps have one tucked under the brim as well in a position that is chosen as the most becoming to the wearer. A very pretty costume, seen at Scarborough

last week, was in the new Redfern sail-cloth of a soft tan colour, trimmed tastefully with brown braid, and worn with a shirt of cream-coloured China silk with a jabot of cream-coloured lace. The hat was in sunburned straw, with a couple of wings in cream-coloured lace, a band of brown velvet round the crown, and a tan coloured ribbon rosette at the back. With long suede gloves to the elbow, brown open worked stockings and tan shoes, this was a very charming and seasonable dress, as well as a very becominone. **♦ * * ♦ My second sketch shows a costume of cream coloured cloth made in a new and attractive fashion, with a front and sleeves of black satin. The latter are very much puffed at the shoulders, but tight from above the elbows to the wrists. The front is drawn in at the waist under the skirt, and so managed that it encircles the whole of the waist, giving it a very slender appearance. In front it is drawn up over the cloth bodice in a point and held by one of the indispensable rosettes, another of which covers the junction

of the satin at the back of the waist. The cloth bodice buttons down the back. The small bonnet consists of a jet cone with two cream coloured rosettes and a black feather. 1 he strings are hooked under a rosette just below the left

Just now comes the announcement that the immense shoulder rutties and the voluminous waist trimmings of the immediate present and the recent past have become so obtrusive that their room is far more desirable than their company. There is always a reaction after an extreme, and the next pronounced one is said to be coming in the shape of the most rigid simplicity and the carrying of the tailor made idea to its most strictly tailor made conclusion. For the present day dress, though complicated and awfully becoming, is easily made. This is the rock on which the fashionable ship is to split. Designers and dressmakers are in league with a sentiment that is to bring back into popularity some style that only an expert can do credit to ; a bodice, skirt and sleeves that require an artist of the artists to put together in proper shape, and to finish after the most approved manner. In pursuance of this idea the close fitting basque is to come in, the basque with its curves and lines of beauty and its long seams that are alike the pride of the expert and the despair of the inexperienced amateur. To make the coming dress for the coming woman one must study dressmaking by geometric laws and unite the grace of the finished draftsman with the strength of an athlete and the patience of Job. One of the most successful dressmakers of the day used to finish her fitting with a needle. She worked so accurately that when the final trying-on came, the customer was placed upon a stool, and, with needle in hand, madame smoothed and patted, taking up two threads here and three threads there, and she often ripped out a long seam to smooth out the fulness made by one single extra thread of the fabric. It was not taken in by fingers either, but by lifting up and drawing in the single surplus thread with the needle’s point. And this is the sort of bodices and the fashion of fitting them that are promised us in the near future. It therefore behoves the amateur to furbish up her knowledge of dressmaking and to try her hand at fine fitting and finishing, the latter being quite as much needed as the former. *** * * * Just now, when everything is draped and shirred and folded, the facing and bindings may go on • every which way ’ and pass muster ; but with severe styles this will never do. The tailor’s fine hand sewing must go with the elegantly simple styles ; and as only by fine sewing can the best finish be secured, it follows as a matter of course that a little preliminary education in the use of the needle is eminently proper. But let us be happy while we may. Let us revel in our blouses and puffs and ruffles and take delight in our loose sleeves and comfortable waist-gear generally, for we know not how soon the day of the close fitting basque will confront us, or how soon we will be expected to appear on all occasions in dresses that suggest being melted and poured into the ready-prepared dress-body. Among the tight-fitting garments that are promised are long coat bodices, some with tails almost as long as the dress skirt and short, cutaway sides, bodice fronts, rolling collars and moderate lapels. Some of them are tolerable, but the more pronounced are for some reason suggestive of waiters’ suits. But as they are difficult to make and, therefore, very expensive, their reign will by no means be general. * * * *** * * * Tea gowns are worn open at the neck during this hot weather, and many people are wearing collarless bodices even out of doors. At the seaside it is orthodox to wear pearls, as the sea air—their native ozone—is said to be so beneficial to their tint. Tea-jackets are made of chiffon and silk muslin, and bodices of these aerial fabrics are worn

in the morning and afternoon, with skirts as cool and light as can be devised. Brocades are banished for the moment as being too hot and heavy, and dinner-gowns of lighttinted satins are as far as anyone gets in the direction of warmth and sophistication. To dine in a light and pretty jacket is to fall in with the universal view of what is expedient. Some of these are made on foundations of muslin in order to render them as cool as may be. They are open in a V at the throat for dinner wear, and very often for ordinary use as well. The V. extends for not more than three inches from the neck downwards. The dinner dress shown by our artist in sketch No. 3 is in primrose silk, with a belt of Byzantine gold embroidery. The deep cuffs, as well as the loose pieces pendant from the shoulders, are in the same embroidery, and impart quite an Eastern effect to the gown. The sleeves above the elbow are in primrose-tinted silk muslin made transparent, and they have a very cool and pleasing effect, especially if, as our artist suggests, a few pale yellow roses or a very deeptinted carnation be worn with it. These little .-esthetic touches add surprisingly to the effect of a pretty dress, minute and even trivial as they may appear to the novice in such matters. For dinner at the hotels or in the villas I have seen ecru muslin embroidered and worn over pink silk or lightcoloured silk broche with roses, with wide lace on the

square ent bodice, the full sleeves ending at the elbow with a lace flounce, and a profusion of satin choux placed about on the corsage. A pretty dress was a pink damask,trimmed with mousseline de soie, embroidered with gold and small enamelled sequins. Many of the dresses were white gauze or mousseline de soie over coloured silk, but made in various ways. Very few were to be seen in the Empire style ; tiny lace Figaros of guipure embroidered with gold and sparkling beads were worn with low bodices. The young girls wore light dresses of pink crepon or light muslin, trimmed with narrow galons embroidered with silver, fulled bodices with a Figaro, or else a Marie Antoinette fichu. Of the newest autumn gowns I saw a very elegant dinner dress, a combination of the Louis XV. and 1830 styles. The skirt was pale blue brocart with small pattern, made rather long ; the bodice bad a small basque, and was open in front, with long revers of pale green velvet; these went round the back in a heart shape, came over the shoulders, and diminished towards the waist,a high guimpeand mass of lace filled in between the revers in front ; large 1830 sleeves with velvet revers at the wrist. A scarlet plush dress, with satin train, had a cuirass bodice covered with black jetted net, and descending in front as a tablier ,- collar and cuffs of sable, and a band of the same fur went across the chest to simulate a jet yoke.

Heloise.