THE LADIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4090, 30 August 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE LADIES.

LADIES' GOSSIP. The new name for ashes of roses is Isard color. .. Half a dozen or more tortoiseshell hairpins, set with a single Rhine stone, are very beautiful-and fashionable ornaments for the half-high coil now in vogue.Black thread lace will be fashionable (rimming, not only for black, but for ecru, grey, and pale blue dresses. Tlie French imitation lace" is now used by fastidious and wealthy-women. Silver clasps of antique designs and the coin silver jewellery will be worn with spring costumes. The bouffant draperies of wool dresses are held in place by old silver clasps, and the buttons represent coins. Unique and Frenchy effects are obtained by combing 'off' colors, such ns rose and orange, shrimp pink and stone blue, violet and garnet, also tints and strong tones. In black these Ottomans are specially elegant and make up into magnificent costumes. Velvet will bo combined with airy gauzes and other transparent tissues worn the coming season. Gauze bodices, it is said, will have velvet facings turned clown to form a bertha. Similar facings are added to the short sleeve, and cockade bows of velvet to correspond are set here and there, butterfly-fashion, among the folds of the cloud-like draping?.

Lace cascades and loose fronts of cream or black lace, gathered at the throat, and reaching to the waist, are useful for smartening up dark dresses. A pretty way of arranging them is with a narrow band of black velvet round the throat, and two revere of black velvet down the sides of the cascade,' giving the appearance of the cream lace emerging from a velvet waistcoat. Dressy pelisses are made of the heavy Muscovite or Ottoman- silk, and trimmed with a profusion of lace. A handsome ornament is used here and there on a great many. Many skirts and silk and broche are cut into tabs' of various forms at the bottom, with thickly gathered or pleated ruches of plain silk set on underneath to make them set out.

Black lace points are utilised by looping them to form a hood in the back and shir ring them in at the waist line. Then with a loop'upon tho shoulders they make pretty mantles.

Ribbons and ribbon velvets play a prominent part in this season's garniture for suiting. Sometimes on one costume we see three widths of velvet ribbon, and it looks well.

Tbe Bernhardt glove is entirely out of style. Some few are found and sold, but are not placed in the catalogue of fine gloves. Cord-laced gloves are also a thing of the past. • In spite of all the ridicule that has been showered upon _thetic dress, the leaders of that renaissance may congratulate themselves upon having left a permanent mark upon the fashions of women's dress that will probably survive many a decade. Greek peplnms and Grecian surplices, aesthetic and artistic tea gowns, re-appear with-emphasised effects from season to season.

A fashion at the latest New York halls is to pass alternately hot tea and ices all through the evening. Thus the cold can be warmed up ;i the' warm-blooded can be. cooled off. The chaperones like the tea'; theyoungdancers like the ices. | '

In-stationery we notice one or two new fads, says a New York correspondent. It is to cross the envelope with a ribbon, dropping on the knot a bit of sealing wax, which is impressed with a Cupid, or some other favorite deity. The-direction should be. written after the note is sealed, so that the ribbon should not cover the words. This is a very old fashion, one which Queen Elizabeth and Q,ueon Mary and all royal ladies used to patronise, and it is a very pretty :ono.:. .But; the note thus fancifully guarded must be sent by a servant and .not through■ the-post. ,i Among fancy papers the grained: morocco has taken the place of the alligator-:skin paper. Raggededged paper is still chic, and there are artistic designs representing in one corner.various articles*of-bric-a-brac, such as a Japanese cabinet, vases, and tea-pots- silver punchbowls, .a sheaf of .wheat, horseshoe, saddle and bridle-etc. Asunken>q.uare of a darker color.than the paper,: with the monogram of the owner stamped in raised letters, is a good novelty. ■■■■■A facsimile ofthe hand-writing, soratebed as .if with a hasty pen,' in one corner, in letters of gold, on rugged-edged paper is, ■ however, the most stylish of all. In mourning note-paper the crape-finished border is very elegant. Parchment paper, old, musty, and mouldy-looking, isalsooneof the freaks of fashion.: If one should remember the meaning of palimpsest, which is one writing on a parchment rubbed out to make room for another, this parchment paper might bear many a romantic secret within its breast. All kinds of invitations are,- however, still engraved on pure white paper. Square envelopes of a modern-size are in the.best taste. Guest or dinner-cards ■ begin to feel the influence of St. Valentine, and have become very -sentimental. Cupids, Kate Greenaway figures, • and Rosina Emmet's lovers (in '.Pretty - Peggy '), are copied on these delightful bits of {esthetic luxury. The comical and the grotesque, of course, are in favor with the young. A very good device is to huve a conundrum on one card answered on another. Owls, horses, cats, tigers, snakes, and weasels are made to do duty as elegant dinner guests; and also, though rather far away from these inanities, we find witty and apropos quotations from Shakspeare on tho card and;'by the card.' . <

Many young ladies having thin arms now wear very low-necked dresses with long sleeves of, a different, color and material from the dress. The effect is curious—as, for instance, n. pink dress: .with a long, light sleeve covered-with black tassel-fringe, or loops, of ribbon reaching to the wrist. This and the corresponding oddity of a highneckod dress and no sleeves at all may be said to be holding fashion at arm's length. The young girla wear very short dresses to dance in, and increase their apparent simplicity by having them trimmed with real buttercups and daises—now more expensive than roses. .- Short dresses are pretty for small,, slender figures, but not for largo persons, nor do they look appropriate for married women. Masses of tulle embroidered in chenille, and much white jet embroidery on white satin and lace, seem to be the most conspicuous, novelties. Fanciful head-dresses arc also in vogue. A tulle: cap of scarlet studded with innumerable diamond pins was one of the prettiest head-dresses at the Astor ball.; At five-o'clock teasthe Anna de Bretagne cap is vory stylish. It is made of velvet and; satin gathered: into a curtain behind. It comes from; Austria, and was invented or adopted by the Archduchess Maria Theresa, who placed on her queenly head the.cap of a-peasant of the sixteenth century. .fThese are made of blue velvet embroidered in., silver, of terra-cot.a-colored velvet embroidered in gold, or in any orhei color the wearer; pleases. One fashionable lady who receives a few friends every afternoon.,at|.five o'clock, wore an elaborate teagown of gold-colored satin, trimmed :with deep, flounces -of tulle duchesse embroidered in gold. ~ A,loose;jacket of orange-colored velvet, embroidered in gold, opened over a chemisette ,of tulle ; a ... train • independant\ of -orange-colored: velvet completed this,elaborate .'unilress,'- which -was very much admired. This is only bne of the many eccentric and, almost fanciful dresses of* the present. fashionable era. *.**A tendency to fancy dress is very prevalent, also the expensive habit;of painting dresses by hand. One young, lady wore abeautiful drcssj all covered, mbhjleurs-de-lis painted by her mother; another, green with painted swallpws, rdone to the life—tbe .work of a clever.young artist. There is a great novelty in neck-laces, many of them being made of flowers, natural,aDd.artificial..^lndeed,:the very low cut of the, dresses give many thin people a good deal of ;i figuro■ to; cover.up, which,they do by improvising theec.neoklacos, which often have a pretty effect. Shoes are madelwith colored heels,to match the dress, even if the satin or kid does not match