FEMININE CHIT-CHAT FROM ENGLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 3357, 22 November 1873, Page 3

FEMININE CHIT-CHAT FROM ENGLAND.

Devoted as women are supposed to be to the very absorbing .subject of dress, I find wo all read lengthy descriptions of what other people have worn with just about the same amount of interest as tho fluctuations of the money market, and tliat these descriptions very rarely bring any clear impression to the mind of what is being described. Ido not then mean to trouble yon with such minute details, but I want you just for the nonce to consider me an old friend wbo lias come in for a gossip, and is chit-chatting on things in general, with foot on the fender and tea-cup in hand, at cosy four o’clock, when in England the ante prandial tea gives occasion for so many confidential conversations. Whatever other subjects might be under discussion, being women, dress would be sure to come in for its share. Well, then, ns you know pretty well, every London season there is one particular style of dress which is all the rage. This year it has been the bird's eye fogels—dark blue, claret, or sage green materials, with white spots, or, in the case of blue, with light blue spots as well as white. Everybody vou meet has either a tunic or complete dress of this. The petticoats are often of the plain color, and so arc the sleeves and waistcoats, while the sleeveless jackets and tunics boast of spots. The material is either cotton, foulardiue (viz., cotton with a bright face like satin), or foulard. They are very ladylike, anfl duchesses and plain mestlames have alike adopted thorn, as they ruffs, laterally, everybody wears ruffs. You hardly see a collar now-a-days, and many of the dresses have plaited ruffs of tho material attached, inside which are double boxplaited tulle or muslin niffs, which in of muslin are edged with Valenciennes lace. They arc very soft and becoming to those who have long necks, and everybody now, in consequence of this fashion, dresses their hair very high, combing it upwards from the nape of the nodi, and then arranging it in a coil ; the front hair being very much frizzed, and often cut in a fringe across the forehead, n fa Gainsborough. All the shop windows seem to be full of these ruffs. They are sold set in a band of ribbon, or silk, or velvet, and sometimes arc attached to silk waistcoats of a bright celor surrounded by lace ; these put on over a dark silk boddice give a dressy appearance at once. Another of the small knicknacks now in fashion, which hare so much to do in giving ekir to this appearance, sue leather belts set in silver; these have a kind of silver hinge ami ring under each arm, to which fans or chatelaines can be hung, and are tipped with silver in front, having a small chatelaine to attach odds and end* at the side. Chatelaines of all kinds -leather, steel, gold, and silver-—are quite the rage now. The new parasols of the season arc very large, with enormously thick and very short handles, Thera has been a greater change in the matter of bonnets this season, however, than in anything <*Ue ; indeed, though wc are pleased to cal! them bonnets, they are nothing but hats. Bonnet strings are quite discarded, and save that the present head gears are w'orn further back on the head, and have a little more trimming, they would serve either purpose; indeed, one of our best milliners was showing me the other day some she was sending to a woman of fashion in tho country, which were to be worn either as hats or bonnets according to the way they were put on. either forward on the forehead or at the back of the head. Now that the season is over, people have been very much investing in travelling dresses. Though rather hot, serges as usual hold their own, and arc very richly braided. They are made wkh tunics, skirts, and bodices and liaise jackets for out-of-doors. The newest travelling dresses, however, are Gbambevton linen, or any light material of the dust-colored shades trimmed with navy blue linen ; and never stale, and more serviceable than any, are the ticking dresses. These arc really bomt fde bed-ticking, of a thin make, with narrow stripe* made with crossway folds of blue cotton on the skirt stitched with white, and a bordering of the same round the polonaise, and a large bine' sailor collar is attached to the neck. You can buy these suits ready to put on for LI Gs ; they are everlasting wear.