Ladies' Column

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 352, 5 February 1903, Page 2

Ladies' Column

FASHION AND THINGS FEMININE. By MISS ADA MELLEB. A SIMPLE DINNER DRESS. SMJKHERE has been a great run on yhrjls esprit net this summer, both in <2H&jb black and in yellow and the fashionable string colour. The material has many advantages, being inexpensive, dressy-lookingt and becoming. It is of esprit net that the simple little dinner frock, sketched in the full-length figure, is composed. The skirt should be made entirely separate from the foundation, and is finished at the bottom with a kilted frill, headed by a band of lace insertion, which might be either blaok or ivory-colour if the dreiß be black. The bodice is a little 'saoque' of .pleated esprit net, and is fastened at the left side, beneath an end of the fichu. A big bow of black velvet at the chest and a velvet waistband gire solid reli«f to the airiness of the dress material. The fichu, it will be seen, is clasped by a couple of paste

buckles, and the long ends are finished with frills and bands of lace insertion, similar insertion trimming the sleeves. Those who may consider esprit net somewhat too perishable for a skirt, might prefer to copy the dress in piece lece. Coloured velvet might, of course, be substituted for black velvet. Green or pink or blue velvet could be worn in change, and would save the dress from monotony. A black lace or fisher net dress after this fashion would assuredly be useful for theatre, dinner, or visiting purposes, and would be just the little toilette for. even* ing wear at a boarding-house. A suggestion for the ' sacque' is that it should be made of frills of narrow lace instead of pleated piece material. FANCY COLLA.RB. Of late years the rage for fancy cellars to wear outside blouses and coats has increased very ranch, aod to-day the making and selling of laee-and-lawa and guipure collars is a Very big trade, and a flourishing one. A collar of brown guipure is quite the usual accompaniment to a modish little coat of strapped or tucked, black glace silk. Not infrequently the coat itself possesses an embroidered collar of its own material, the cut-out edge of which asserts itself beyond the guipure collar. Irish crochet collars are much worn by the rich, but those who cannot afford Buch expensive little luxuries Content themselves with guipure, which Slow plays such an important part in toilettes of the hour that it may fairly be » garded as indispensable to thamodisfcio world. The handsome appearance of guipure gives it a place of honour among laces, and now that it is produced in string colour, as well as in brown and light coffee, it has taken upon itself quite the latest and most up-to-date characteristics. Medallions of printed silk awa inserted into many of the lace or lace* and-lawn collars, and others, again, are beautified by hand embroideries. A pretty fancy which is rather newer and more uncommon than the modes quoted, is to finish a muslin collar with a hem of soft silk of a contrasting colour. For demi-toilette wear fancy collars of lace, pailletted, are popular, and for full evening wear the lace collar sometimes develops into a berthe, which is 'made to shape' and falls becomingly round the neck and curve of the bodice. A TEIO OF HATS. In choosing hats when summer is well advanced there are two points to be considered by the economical. Bither the new hat must be of an inexpensive kind, if it is only to do duty for the remainder of the 'summer and be of no use for the autumn; or it must be chosen with a view to after-requirements and be of substantial straw that will bear retrimming for the autumn season. One of the cheapest hats, essentially for summer wear, is thecapelv* line of frilled muslin, an example of which' is sketched among the group of hats in this column. Capelline hats are much worn, and are composed of spotted and of plain muslin. The hat sketched is of spotted muslin, arranged in very full frills attached to a beef-eater orown. Fink muslin spotted with white or black is very becoming, or, again, a capelline of all-black muslin is very uncommon and smart, and looks charming with a light frock. All sorts of ideas, in fact, occur when once the notion of a capelline is started. For instance, black muslin spotted with red, plain butter-coloured muslin, white muslin, or pale blue mualin —all are suitable for the fashionable capelline, which is, of course, the ideal headgear for river wear. Little girls, their elder sisters, and their youthful mothers alike wear these pretty hats. The Princess of Wales' little daughter, Princess Victoria, has been wearing, this summer, a capelline of pink tinted muslin,

matching her rosy cheeks in colour. The floral-trimmed hat in the sketch carries put well in black or 'burnt' crinoiine straw or rustic straw, arranged, after the popular fashion this season, in layers or folds.