Ladies' Column.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 414, 21 April 1904, Page 2

Ladies' Column.

La{est London and Paris Fashion^ Br MISS ADA MELLEB, £ J"' ""■''•, JjADT JOUBNALIBT, &C.

[All Eights Eesebved.] COSTUME OF FANCY TWEED. raEHEBE is a great run on fancy * $Mb materials this season, and to the ySL* economically-minded this is good news, for a fancy stuff generally wears better, on the whole, than one with a plain surface. Plaids have come in among the new materials, and are chiefly concerned with trottoir skirts, plaids of dark blue and green colouring not unnaturally being considered, the smartest of the smart, owing to the continued popularity of blue and green mixed. Plaids require to be very carefully made up and worn, otherwise, if the odours are at all pronounced, they are outre and unbecoming. ' A green and blue pleated plaid skirt looks well with a golf- jersey of daik blue turned back with brass buttons.

There is, in fact, a great tendency to complete a plaid skirt with a coat of selfcoloured cloth or with one of the fashionable, knitted wool jerseys, "rather than with a coat of its own material. Frenchwomen are very much in favour of the scheme. Flecked materials, checks and stripes are making a brave show,.pipings, braids and buttons playing their part in the scheme of decoration, and tabs are more than ever worn. A costume of fancy tweed, out with tabs on the bodice and, skirt, is sketched in this column. The tabs are provided with little buckles of velvet or leather, and at the rieok ta4T bodice is out round and.rather low, t» chemisette filling in the cavity. The sleeve caps are cut with tabs, and the buffs are en suite. s ,t

A CHILD'S PINAFORE FROCK, &T j. It may be taken as a rule that the simpler a child is dressed, the more becoming will be the toilette. At the same time, frocks for juveniles necessarily take upon themselves certain of the points that distinguish modern fashions for grown-ups, the bell-sleeve, and stole collar being examples. The great thing to avoid in dressing children is an inclina-

tion to exaggerate any points of fashion. Few styles are prettier for little girls of from six to eight than the pinafore frock worn with a skirt of silk or flannel. A design for; a pinafore frock of red serge or cashmere with an embroidered bodice ia suggested in the accompanying sketch. A cream or red flannel skirt would complete it very prettily. If preferred, the embroidery ooald be done away with, and the bodice be of plain cashmere like the skirt, -in which case it would have a piping of its own material at the top and waist. The same pattern copied in cream satin, the short bodice covered with cream coloured ; guipure, and the skirt cut rather longer than in the sketch, produces a very pretty frock for party wear. The chemisette and sleeves should in that case be of white or cream chiffon. S

BIBBQNS AND THBIK ONE-TIME '.- SiaNIPIOANOE. .A ! great featuW ia made of-fancy ribbons, and some of the new varieties are most costly, especially beautiful and expensive bring the ribbons with floral designs in velveji dn a white ground, with borders of coloured velvet or satin. Wu£fe ribbons are used very mnoh for the higmk swathed belts that are adopted on dresses, panne ribbons being favourites for the purpose. Soft satin ribbona in the new shade of rose or cerise are elegant accompaniments to black or creamcoloured dinner dresses, and pale green ribbon is also a good deal used at the waists of • neatral-tinted gowns. Dressmakers are, in fact, doing great -things with ribbons jußt now; and although these pretty trifles are not typical of any special significance, as'in the days of long ago, still, they sore items of importance in the modiatic schemes of the present Formerly, the colour of the ribbons won proclaimed the politics of the fair owner* t and white ribbons denoted the adherents of the house of Stuart " ■«

It?is not every man in this world' who ;."• can: save his money and still remain popular, jf'- : ' "':;',. "43$ ■