FASHION GOSSIP.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3035, 18 March 1881, Page 2

FASHION GOSSIP.

The newest muffs aro made of a piece of the dress. . The mania for plush increases rather than diminishes. Necklaces of medium-sized pearls are worn both with high and with low dresses. Distinct trains coming from the waist are worn indoors over short dresses. Bands of beetles' wings are a most fashion* able trimming on black and on dark gveen dresses. The beaded jerseys are very handsome, and likewise costly, but are effeotive in the evening. Tartan chequers will be much used fo. children's dresses this autumn; they are bright and gay-looking. Orange blossoms are to play a subordinate part in wedding wreaths, myrtle and jstephan* otis will prevail. Never, out of poetry, did flowers play so important a part for room decorations and personal adornment as now. In brides' dresses the orthodox white satin is still used, and the lace employed ia more costly than ever known by the oldest milliner. Plain gold necklets are now made, to which is attached a tiny sheep in gold and enamel, as a reminiscence of the golden fleece At the Swis3 universities this year the female students took a majority of tho prizes, alike in chemistry, medicine, and philosophy. The last application of beads is made to the long gloves, which have the backs beaded in a pattern up the arm, even above the elbow. In Ireland the decrease of marriages was so alarmingly great during 1880 that s member of Parliament urged an inquiry into the subject to ascertain if the bad times were the only cause.

Next to the Marlborough House ballgiven by the Princess of Wales, the one given by Mrs Cornwallis West, the professional beauty, was the best of the season.

The open sandal boot, with intersections of lace, is much used for evenings; anything that displays a pretty stocking is liked for home and evening wear.

In walking costumes, mixtures of plain and patterned material, such as satin and plushes with velvet Scottish plaids and Madras check, are much worn.

The cruel fashion of wearing small birds is again being brought forward, and the English papers are commenting strongly upon a style that robs nature of one of her greatest ornaments.

The simple coiffure that has adorned so many beautiful heads for the past few years will now be changed for the pads, puffs, and chignons which gave occasion for so much. derision and caricature some ten years ago."

Large hats of the Rubens and Rembrandt style in plush and long-haired felt, trimmed with several feathers and satin, are very stylish ; and small bonnets, with broad tiestrings, ai'e equally fashionable.

The latest ideas in buttons are of immense size, of glass, with a tint at the bottom just gleaming through the glass of the colour of the dress they are to be worn with. They are very expensive, and more bizarre than pretty.

Mantles, cloaks, and paletots in fur, thick cloth, or wadded silk, are made long, iwith fur or plushed borders. Tight jackets of cloth, with small high collar of plush, on which is often a little silver or gold braid embroidery, are also very fashionable.

Ladies will discover in Lord Beaconsfield's { Endymion' a new mode of showing their regard I'or dead husbands—a mild form of suttee. The heroine cuts off her long hair, which reached nearly to her feet, and ties it round tho neck of her husband in his coffin. The idea is original, but it has not much else to recommend it.

The popular style of bonnet seems to be the closely-fitting, small, princess shape, which are very simply trimmed with plush coronets of some bright hue, with strings of the same colour. Brown appears likely to *be much worn this season — red, golden black, greenish, and purplo browns being seen in almost every shade. Plush is much used for book-covers, purses, work-boxes, bags, and photograph* frames. A curious fashion respecting visitingcards is coming into vogue, and consists of sprays of passion-flowers or Virginian creeper painted on them in such way as to leave the name untouched. _ For morningcards, a stem of hare-bell is etched across it. Those which are left as evidence of I approaching departure are even more absurdly decorated, a castle with rocks and crags of gloomy aspect being painted on one side to denote ' the feelings of the owner on taking leave of her Mepd,'