ABOUT WOMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 4216, 31 August 1876, Page 4

ABOUT WOMEN.

LONDON FASHIONS FOE JUNE. ]

This is deeidedly a «ai»on pour ks maigrcs. The maypoles, the lamp-posts, and all the lean kine-to whom opprobrious names used to be given, by reason of their miserable scragginess, are having a good time of it now.' It is their turn, at last, to laugh at their fatter sisters—only they dare not laugh much, lest they should grow fat too. For the dresses seem to get narrower every day, till the ladies who wear them no ldnger re-: half-closed parasols, to which someone wittily compared them, but are much: more like simple walking-sticks. The only wonder is how they can be used for walking, purposes at all.

. Yet there is something very graceful about these dresses when, they have been carefully made and carefufly worn. I saw a very pretty one the other day. It had just arrived from Paris, and is to be repeated in a variety of tighter summer materials, it is composed of chamois-colored cashmere and silk ; the under train is entirely of silk, with a deep train ; the tunic and body is made in cashmere. The tunic falls very low in front, and is draped up very much on both sides. The whole is finished off with bows of the silk.. A straw hat of the same color, trimmed with silk and ornamented with a bunch of lovely crimson roses, completed this toilette. The lighter materials which accompanied this dress are a soft strawtinted barege, a p.-lc pearl-colored gauze, and a thin striped cotton, called-by the Parisienness "zephir." Indeed, nothing else is worn of a morning in Paris except these "zephir" costumes.

Evening dresses seem to Lave undergone but little change. The skirts are still cut with a long train ; they ar.e mostly plain at the back, all the drapery and trimming being placed on the front, or at the slues. Low. bodices are of course indispeusable for great parties. We noticed the other night a : sort of return to the old wreaths of flowers. One young girl wore a chaplefc of roses right round her head. It sounds poetical, and it is a fashion highly approved of, no doubt, by the artificial florists. But it is not universally becoming. • The milliners have been particularly successful this year. Kever were there so many pretty and picturesque combinations 1 for tho head and hair. The "Baby" bonnet still maintains its supremacy, but a new shape, called the "Empire" bids fair to win the field. This is made of straw, with a high crown, and the brim is bent over the ears. It is simply trimmed with ribbon or velvet, but a long feather placed over the left.-ear, and facing roui.d the bonnet, is indispensable to this shape. As for hats, they are of all sizes, shapes; and oolors. The larger they are, however, the more fashionable it would seem. We saw ; two sisters the other day in great white hats, jutting out in front after the fashion of Don BasilioVhat. A prettier one, to our thinking,' was shaped like a Beefeater's, covered with blacksilk, and edged withaMue feather trimming. Where shall we go next for our models ?—H.D., 'Land and W<->ter.'