Ladies' Column.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 440, 1 September 1904, Page 6

Ladies' Column.

LATEST LONDON AND PARIS FASHIONS. BY MISS ADA MELLER.

• [All Rights Reserved.] SERGE, fine cloth and voile, arc excel lent materials for spring wear, anc there is a large run on these particulai fabrics just now. Very pretty are the nev knap voiles and crepons, that really weai better than plain-surfaced materials Nothing could be cooler or more useful foi hot weather wear than these fashionabk voiles, which are designed with selfcoloured" stripes, broken by, or rathei decorated with, loosely-woven, raised knaps. In various shades of grey, biscuit, and fawn they look very pretty, made up with lace and muslin collars. Being of less transparent substance, owing to the knap-spots, than plain voiles, they do not necessitate the wearing of a silken slip beneath—which is an economy. Mercerised cotton or sateen serves the purpose equally well. Delicate shades of pastel cloth are very fashionable, pale blue being, as usual, a colour much worn. Certain soft shades of brown are also becoming and useful, and there is a strong fancy for reseda green. Now and then a cerise frock, cither of cotton or woollen material, appears among the paler Spring colours, and of course there is the usual for black. Accordion-pleated blouses of nun's veiling, either in black, navy, cream, or other colours 7 are worn a good deal with tweed and cloth skirts, and are usually mounted into yokes of light lace insertion, the accordion pleating sometimes being broken by lines of insertion to match, and the lace is repeated at the wrists. The accordion-pleated blouse made in the way suggested is simple and smart. Accordion-pleated skirts of cloth or nun's veiling are. also fashionable, but they are not so popular as the fitted or gauged skirts. Trimmings are used to any extent, military braiding being the particular favourite for serge suits. Many of the smart modes of the momont reserve their trimmings for the coats or capes only, the skirts being guiltless of adornmont. A pretty fashion that obtains a good deal of notice is the skirt arranged in small or wide folds running round the figure. Sometimes the folds are interrupted in their course by a stitched strap of the skirt material running down the front and back

centre of the skirt. The? front 8 panel is encouraged very-much oil 8 every material. ''~' : ';l '■■^^'^wKm A NOVEL SPRING .DFESBJ. |ffl| A-protty cloth costume is s k^c k e s*%sKi with, the design being -,yery : The bodice is arranged with a collar and a silkon net-worlr Wshed;^:' tasse™ the longest of which fall over*thevwaist. mM& the neck, the bodice is cut out into a V, and is filled in with lace. The sleeyMM are gathered in at the wrists, aud a*B|

finished with laco ruffles; and the skirt is gauged at the waist and trimmed down the front with lines of silken network, in harmony with the collar, and straps of cloth, while a few tucks run round the skirt above the hem. Faggot stitching take the place of the silken network, if One- of the fashionable leather belts encircles the waist, and the bodice fastens at the back.

TWO PRETTY BLOUSES. The ' useful' dress, consisting of a blouso aud skirt of different materials, adapting itself to various occasions, has come to be recognised as a most important part of a woman's wardrobe, and as one skirt does duty for various bodices, it becomes necessary to possess a pretty set of blouses so that changes may be rung with the ono skirt. lam showing in the accompanying sketches two suggestions for useful blouses for spring and summer wear. One is of ivory-white nun's veiling, arranged in folds

from shoulder to waist, thus simulating a pelerine, and suggesting the early Yictorian mode. The folds could be stitched at the edges or not, as inclination dictates. A line of stitching at the edge of the pleats is effective, and helps to keep them in shape. The back of the blouse is the same as the. front. The sleeves are very big, and are slightly gauged on the upper part of and again where the fulness is caught up on the inner side of the arm at the elbow, while at the wrist is a tight-fitting cuff of unlined lace, in ; harmony with the jabot at the neck. This, blouse would be very useful in black

as well as in whito nun's veiling. Tho other blouse, sketched is composed of alternate lines of tucked black voile and fine -black lace, mounted on a white slip. The front is of butter-coloured guipure lace, and the bands of tucked voiles and black lace insertion that form the sleeves break away from one another just below tho elbow, and fall independently over a puff of .vhite chiffon. The blouse would' be effective carried out with bands of black ribbon velvet instead of voile.

HINTS ON SUCCESSFUL DRESSING.

The successful costume depends not only on expensive matorial and a skilful dressmaker, but also on the art of choosing a mode adapted to the material to which it is to be allied. Serge, for instance, is illadapted to gauging. It is too stiff, too unyielding, unless the quality bo almost that of a fino cloth. Stiff, resistable fabrics show to tho best advantage when allowed to hang simply and straight ; while, on the other hand, thin, crushable silks look poor unless draped or gathered or tuckedi It is useless to try to convert materials to fashions in which they ■ are naturally opposed. Tho result can only be disappointment. ;~' • • .'.■"