LADIES’ COLUMN.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1677, 5 July 1879, Page 3

LADIES’ COLUMN.

FEMININE FANCIES AND FASHIONS. [By a correspondent of the “Adelaide Observer.”] London, March 1. Coloured balls will be a novel feature of "the coming season. The hostess, in her invitation, will name the color which she ■ chooses shall be worn, and all her guests will be expected to appear in it, no matter whe- ■ ther the adopted shade is becoming to their complexion or not. Doubtless it will be vexatious to a rosy blond to have to wear a dress of analogous red, while an unhappybrunette, in disfiguring green, would suffer > unto’d misery if aha had to present herself before a fair rival to whom the shade would be eminently becoming, and whose triumph • of the hour would not be less mortifying to •the other one because of a color reversion in her favor ordered for the morrow. The •motto, “ To-day for thee, and to-morrow for me,” will hardly make the situation supportable ; so docs present evil ever outweigh the assurance of future consolation and atonement. Does not Rochefoucauld say : “ Philosophy triumphs easily over past and over future evils, but present evils triumph over philosophy.” I do not fancy these colored dances will bo popular. Women will sacrifice much to novelty, but hardly their good looks ; and if we see a woman in an unbecoming bonnet or dress, be sure the fault lies in her taste, and does not spring from asceticism; for no woman would buy the head-dress which her milliner had pronounced decidedly unbecoming. As regards the new fashion, it is questionable whether . a monotony of color will be as pretty as a variety ; and it must, in a ballroom, creat* • endless confusion when ladies are all dressed as much alike as blades of grass. A particular dress points out at a distance the partner sought, or the friend we look for. ;ln a crowded assembly the color of a gown .is often the only clue to the quest. i-Bonnet-makers have been anticipating spring. Their windows are full of early flowers —violets, snowdrops, and primroses ; • but deep yellow bl- asoms such as crocuses ,-and buttercups are the favorites, and all the mew bonnets are profusely—l had almost •written extravagantly—trimmed with them. Very much worn in Paris aro coquettish 'black lace head dresses, which do duty for bonnet*; bundles of spring flowers or pink poppies are placed at the side, and a fringe ■of small but suitable flowers falls on to the Demi arisen dresses will soon bo ■engaging our attention. Beautiful gendarme bine fabric is to be one of the favorite colors this season. It is a variation of the shade called peacock blue. Whatever may be said of the effect produced by multicolored damasks, brocades, Pekin satin, and gold and silver embroideries, I am sure a. pretty self-colored dress of good material is an better taste and far more elegant. I heard of one eccentric costume which displayed a pattern of Japanese figures, and imitated sheets of paper covered with writing. Such a dross might be expected to delight an unhappy creature in the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, but could scarcely be the choice of an EnglLh gentlewoman. Striped moire dresses are very fashionable. This material is frequently used in combination witb silk and velvet I saw a dress made cf lemoncolored satin, with a train of pale blue brocade ; and for dinner dresses canarycolor or buttercup yellow fat in is much used. Transparent sleeves are often worn with evening dresses of thick material. A friend of mine showed me a handsome black velvet dress which had removable sleeves. Sometimes she wore black, sometimes white Brussels net sleeves of a loose coat shaper They were finished at the wrist with kilted frills of Breton lace—a change of sleeves and bows, as I have also before remarked, alters a dress considerably. I think pale blue or crimson satin bows forms the prettiest contrast to a black toilette. Dark silk dresses can be brightened up for evening wear in the way I have described, and I am glad to chronicle so useful, pretty, and economical a fashion. I like a change sometimes, but am strongly opposed to extravagant outlays, when, by a little skill and taste, the same pleasing result can be obtained at a trifling cost. Black kid gloves are worn with the lightest dresses; they aro considered extremely stylish. The kilt of Breton lace at the top is an indispensable addition to them. In a shop in Regent street there was last week a toilette trimmed with alternate bine, green, and salmon coloured flounces. In my opinion the effect was far more startling than beautiful. _ _ Men evidently take an interest in women’s clothes, even when the women aro not in them. I have noticed how often gentlemen will linger at a milliner’s or draper’s window, and it is amusing tfheartheiropinions. How oracular they are —just as if they knew all about it—delivering their judgmemts with a solemn gravity eminently befitting so weighty a matter, and how strangely they miscall things. A gentleman, who goes much into society, remarked the other day in my hearing, “ that, as a rule, women looked best in black, and with rare exceptions that men thought so.” This is a point which enters largely into the calculations of women when making choice of a new dress. Talking of new dresses reminds me that an artist in Austria is said to have invented a

pliable material out of glass. Surely wondeia will never cease. Dresses, cuffs, collars, veils, and even carpets are manufactured out of the brittle substance, which, being a non-conductor of heat, the discoverer says makes warm clothing. We presume it is opaque, and, like the new tumblers, unbreakable. Otherwise, living in glass dresses, we must forbear to throw stones, and insure our clothing against breakage as shopkeepers do their plate glass windows Truly men have sought out many inventions —whether they will be popular or not remains to be seen.

Shoes with toes pointing upwards are now made, and are, I suppose, intended for wear. Like panniers, however, they are in an incipient state, and the chains formerly used for their support are not required at present. The shots 1 saw were of black patent leather, the toes turned decidedly upwards, and the instep was finished with a bow of black satin ribbon and jet. Many ladies wear extremely wide lace collars, turned back over the dresses, while others muflle the throat to the ears. So very much depends upon the style of face and the way of dressing the hair ; no broad general rule can be laid down. Lace scarves twisted round the neck are pretty and so much worn that instead of brooches long pins have been made to fasten them. They are called lace pins, and take the very quaintest shapes imaginable ; sometimes it is a pair of oars, sometimes a miniature rake and spade fastened together, or other novel conceit. Heavy lockets and chains ara not worn in the streets. Unobtrusive ornaments for out-door wear are - considered in better taste ; but to match the

mauy-colored dresses fashionable ladies in the evening put on jewellery to correspond. Roman mosaics, Rococo ornaments of turquoises and garnets, also huge beads of amber, lapis lazuli, and onyx. They are as large as, and strung together as children do, birds’ eggs. However valuable such necklaces may bo, there is a common, tawdry look about them which their actual worth in no way neutralises. Perhaps a South Sea Islander might work them with fitting harmony. THE MEN GIRLS LIKE, [“ London Week.”] It is, we believe, commonly understood to be a fact that wom-n are less affected than men by mere personal beauty. And to some extent we incline to this opinion also. Yet what are called “ beauty men ” have their worshippers and dispense their little favors with as charming a sense of their own condescension and affability as their rivals of the opposite sex. But, after all, a man who . has beauty, and nothing more, is apt to fail, and we doubt if he comes under the category of the men that girls like. His serene belief in his own perfections, and his secure conviction that every woman who come under the charm of his soft eyes and elegant features must fall a victim to their fascinations, have an irritating effect. And the consequence of widespread search after admiration makes such a man difficult, almost impossible to fix. A girl, as well as a man, may feel with Touchstone that “ a poor thing, but her own,” is preferable to a thing of beauty shared among her friends. Beauty, vanity, brutality, obstinacy, effeminacy, folly and selfishness are all in their turns adorned by women of all classes. Therefore let us take a typical girl—one who has seen more than one man in her life, who does not live in the country all year round, or in a watering place where a man is a man be he never so little of one. Our typical girl shall be intelligent, healthy, good and fairly well educated. And we need not concern ourselves with the men whom, under pressure of circumstances, snch a girl might be induced to marry. The question is, What sort of man does she like ? Is it the young man, turned out by the dozen from our public schools and universities, without an interest in life but his own amusement, whoso whole talk is of himself and his own proceedings? Of this young man there are two types, the effeminate and the manly. They are equally selfish, equally uninteresting ; but of the two, if she has a preference, onr girl will incline to the latter. If such soul as a specimen of the manly type possesses is absorbed in cricket, athletics, yachting, hunting, shooting ; if he never opens a book, and can only discourse of his own feats of prowess on land or sea, he is upon the whole less objectionable than his brother, who sits and talks ‘‘like a girl” of the balls he has been to, the balls he is going to, the new dances or the old dances, the cut of his own coat, which is so good, and the cut of his friend’s coat, which is ‘‘much too awfully disgusting ; ” the division of his hair, the *‘ very, very nice people ” he meets (by which, par parenthese, he simply means people who are “in ” society—the higher placed the " nicer ”). But we may with confidence say this is not the man our girl likes. Nor do we think she takes much to the lout who finds a type in all classes. He is the man who has no conversat ! on, who professes to despise “ worldliness, ” because the world rejects him ; who comes into |a drawing covered with mud, often with his trousers rolled up over his ankles, if he had been walking, and a general air of here-I-am-and-be-thankful-to- have-me- at-any-price about him ; ” who sits still while his tea is handed to him, and never even offers to help with the kettle and the bread and butter. Nor will the ‘‘shoppy” man attract our girl; the lawyer who always lapses into cases and courts ; the parson, who cannot rise above schools and districts ; the author who "quotes his own words; the musician who perpetually airs his special passion—bo it Bach, Beethoven, Brahm or Bizet ; nor the painter who is in a continual state of heartburning at somebody else’s success Not one of these men satisfy her requirements. Of course we refer to the time in her life before fate has, it may be, caused her to love a man the very opposite of what her reason tells her to admire. The man she likes will be, we fancy, neither an Adonis nor a Caliban. He will have some slight power of sympathising with her, as well as of expecting her to sympathise with him. He will be good tempered and obliging, and the less selfish the better. Being a sensible girl, she will not look for the impossibility of an entirely unselfish man. Ho will be educated and intelligent, able to talk to cleverer people than himself without appearing a fool, but ha will not, as a rule, bo a distinctly learned personage. He will be in the habit of pay ing to all women pretty little helpful attentions, which, because they are done only out of kindness of heart, will not detract from his manliness. And here, we believe, we have made our best guess at the quality dearest to our girl’s heart. Manliness is her requirement; by which we mean that she likes a man to be so thoroughly brave that ho cannot be brutal; so true and strong that she may trust to him, instead of having to be the guide, consoler, comforter, and friend of his uncertain steps. That he should be physically manly is of less importance to her than that he should have a manly mind, broad and fair and free from littleness. At the same time we believe she would prefer that he should ride and shoot, and be able to enjoy himself honestly in the country, always provided he will not bore her with continual talk of runs and bags. To uncommon natures other things are necessary, but with them we have no concern at present. We wish only to convey to our readers our distinct impression that a bright, intelligent, pure-minded girl is by no means so anxious to know what are the types of ‘‘girls men like” as to find a type of man she likes herself. And, as a rule, we believe she knows true metal when she hears it ring.