Elaborate Gowns That Weigh Less Than a Pound.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue IX, 29 August 1903, Page 641

Elaborate Gowns That Weigh Less Than a Pound.

French women may surpass others in the froufrou of their dress, English women in neatness, but the American woman has gone beyond them all in extravagance. The summer girl will expend an immense amount of money for what, in weight, is practically nothing.

Seven ounces is the least her summer gown can weigh; fourteen, and be quite correct, is the most, says one authority; but what she may pay for these few ounces is another matter. Her modiste’s bills will run along the eighties and hundreds for even the seven ounce gown. You cannot put a gown through a wedding ring as you could the proverbial white mull of your grandmother’s time,

but you can hardly feel its weight as you pick up waist and skirt of a chiffony texture, made over ehiffon skirts and worn with a chiffony expression. The object of the ten oune gown is, first, comfort. In hot weather the less you wear the more comfortable you are —that is mere faet; but the texture this gown is made of determines its expense, and the underskirts play a great part in the appearance as well as in the expense of the gown. White pineapple gauze and chiffon, a combination of two expensive stuffs, make a beautiful gown. The underskirts are made of the finest of lawn, weighing scarcely more than the gauze, and are ruffled with a single thread lace, effective and light. There are no tucks in the underskirts; they would be too heavy. The plain ruffle without insertion and only the lace edging is much in favour. The pineapple gauze gown may be trimmed as elaborately with lace as may suit the wearer’s fancy, provided she does not buy laee that weighs much. This is prohibited, and only the lightest, daintiest, and. of course, the most expensive laces are used. Chiffon takes the place greatly of lace, and, as with pineapple gauze, is made over a drop skirt of white silk. Between the drop skirt and the outer skirt is an interlining of chiffon that falls in billowy fulness at the bottom and makes lace ruffles unnecessary. A yard of ehiffon weighs but a fraction of an ounce. You can utilise a good many yards in making an ounce, and seven ounces is enough for a gown. Ac-cordion-plaited dresses are being made in these thin, light fabrics. Aside from the gowns of lace net and ehiffon there are those made entirely of laee. A Cluny lace gown will cost £4O, perhaps, but to the summer girl who aims at lightweight clothes this is no objection, and nothing eould be handsomer than a cream Cluny lace gown made over a pale pink ehiffon, and surely nothing could weigh less. The young girl is not alone in wearing these gowns. The woman who prefers dark colours can wear them, too. A black laee dress made with white point

laee trimmings is beautiful for a dinner gown, and surely nothing can be lighter in weight than black thread lace over ehiffon. There must not be that tight-fitting appearance that is permissible in heavier gowns. There must be enough fulness in the soft, thin material to do away with this sort of thing or else the effect is lost, and the way to accomplish this is to use yokes, tucks and shirrings. A yoke of laee extending over the hips weighs nearly nothing; it fits well, and on to this may be gathered the soft material. Three or four deep shins accomplish the same effect and lend variety, and a yoke made of little tucks is pretty. The tucks may be as deep or as shallow as the wearer wishes and accomplish the same end of giving the full fluffy effect. The underskirts must be made perfectly plain across the top —almost habit backed —or else there would be a deal too much fulness and it would be a deal bulky; but at the bottom they may be ruffled and froufroued as much as one please*.