FASHIONS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1752, 1 October 1879, Page 4

FASHIONS.

[From the " Qaeen."3 There ia nothing so remarkable this season in the range of the toilette as the beauty and costliness of the trimmings. There are hand-embroidered satins in exquisite designs and natural colors worked in strips ; there are soft Persian silks, in which delicate colors are blended upon a ground that reproduces the vaporous hues of the sky in tiny dashes and fitful suggestions rather than regular and decided patterns ; these aroused for trimming cream bareges, Indian cashmeres, &c. Then the fringes are marvellously well made ; simple in style, but as carefully finished as jewellery ; the fine, pure cut jet has now scarcely aty weight, and is consequently more light and durable than in any previous season. The ribbons, too, are im proved both ii style and quality, and when they are very costly only a small quantity is need. For example, a black straw bonnet, trimmed with black satin ribbon and black Bretoti lace, a single locp of gold and chintz brocaded ribbon upon n creamy ground will often do duty as a flower in the way of giving tone and character to the bonnet. Chip and Leghorn bonnets are both worn this season on dre=sy occasion". Some of the latter are made with a large crown and a wide indented brim, lined with pale goldcolored satin, and trimmed with ribbon to match the lining and with red feathers. Chip bonnets are usually lired with black velvet and trimmed with white ostrich feathers, plaited Breton lace, paste buckles and groups of skeletonised leaves in delicately shaped crepe. Plaited Breton lace, paste ornaments, and flowers are the features ui bonnet trimming this summer, and artificial flowers were never more perfectly made than at present Striped parasols are much used ; they are of medium size, lined, and shut with r. spring which projscta beyond the lining, .-nd ia slightly notched upon the edge. Another Style is the Japanese, which is laTger, having sixteen divisions, a"d only looks well when made and trimmed exactly to match the dress. Foulard sunshades are for country wear, and for town use they are frequently covered with black figured silk, bordered with deep Spanish lace, and they havo ebonised handles inlaid with black mother-of-pearl. I have heard of several young ladies painting their silk parasols with delicate sprays of flowers, but I have not yet seen specimens. Children are dressed very picturesquely this seasoT. Their r. -aint caps and bonnets, their high boots a': d locg stockings, the white lace trimming on their dark frocks, and tb.2 teaches of bright color in tieir neutral-tinted costumes, help to a very artistic effect. Littlo red Phrygian cap", ornamented with red feathers, are worn with white flannel or buntine costumes, the stockings also being red. All sorts of quaint capes and collars are added to frocks and coats; the double round collar, the lower one two inches deeper than the upper, being the most popular. These are generally Feen on coats and nlsters j dresses being trimmed rather to simulate a deep square, and enriched by upright insertions and outlined with lace.

A very perceptible change is coming over the manner of dressing the hair, doubtless occasioned by the different style of bonnets now in vogue, The hair is worn neither very high nor very low; the chignon, or back hair, scarcely reaches the bandeau, and falls only to the top of the nape of the neck. The hair is worn close to the head, and then is no extra size or bulkiness aimed at; the front hair is cut and fringed, but all exaggeration is avoided. The hair should never touch the eyelids, if it does the effect is hideous ; but then, again, if the hair is too short the forehead looks bare. The ju9t medium is attained by letting the hair fall to the centre of the forehead in the very lightest curly waves possible. Plaits—to which we always return—are again to be seen. Most people are content with wearing their own hair, but many wear false additions, which. to be comfortable, should be as light as possible. Despite the weather, fashions are now fixed—short costumes are adapted for walking and all useful occasions. Cashmere is always combined with some other material, espe. cially with shot Pekin—the dusk green shot with violet being exceedingly pretty, Bodices are made either with paniers or with a large basque, and paniers are only seen on dressy toilettes ; in ordinary woollen fabrica they are out of place. A soft material is necessary, such as Purah foulard, satinotte, batiste, and barege. When the bodico is caeaquin of zephyr velvet, or indeed velvet of any sort, the panier is on the skirt, and not attached to the bodice. Some paniers are made under the point of the bodice, quite close together, and are fastened to the front of the skirt; but they are not so pretty as those at the side of the skirt. Simulated paniers arethe most generally becoming; the La Valliero panier is only a retrousse—a tunic orening in front, and draped on the hip; but it is most stylish. New mantelets for wearing with shot silk costumes, have appeared ; they are white net, embroidered like the veils of bourgeois brides in Louis XV. reign, and they are trimmed with four rows of Breton lace. They are also made in black Spanish blonde, bnt are not so characteristic.

A dressy bonnet, to be worn with summer toilettes of black grenadine and satin, is a Email close shape of Tuscan straw, trimmed with loops of cream satin ribbon, and a wide Breton lace lappet that forms a bow on the ctowd, and also strings; the brim is lined with gathered satin, and the flowers on top are either lili' s or white chrysanthemums. Cherry bonnets are novelties in millinery; they are close cottage shapes of gathered white Tndisn muslin ; the smooth broad crown is trimmed with many parallel rowß round and round of red iridescent beads ; the brim is nesrly concealed by the green leaves of the cherries, while round the bonnet is a fringe of drooping small cherries, shaded from red to black ; the strings are a lappet of Breton lace. The new materials for summer wear are so varied that selection is the difficulty. The new grenadineß have a narrow stripe in chintz colourings on a thin black mesh, alternating with a velvet stripe—the effect both rich and novel. What are called the •'sewing silk" grenadines appear with the addition of a tiny brocaded figure, and there are other grenadines in which a brocaded stripe alternates with a velvet one. Among the summer Bilks, louisines are popular ; they are even made into ulsters, as is linen of a dark shade striped with a neutral colour.

Bunting ia again worn, and is much improved, being now a fine, soft, semi-trans-parent fabric, with a touch of woolly warmth. It is nncrushable, and makes excellent seaside costumes. The second quality is a little wiry, and is in dark shades, such as green, brown, blue, Sec. The delicate white bunting, also called " gaeeline," is worn by young girls, and is trimmed with kiltings of the same and with blue and pink satin ribbons. The novelties in thin silks are the Pekins with chintz stripes, and the creamy brocaded stripes alternating with self-coloured twilled satin stripes. These are made up in the Watteau style, and are lavishly trimmed with Breton lace.

But summer dressing is a difficult problem to all except the very rich, notwithstanding the variety offered by manufacturers and the improvements made by industrial art. The beauty of summer dressing is its lightness and freshness, and cottons are now so exquisite that they rival pilk in appearance, and, ,when they are made up after a pood model,-they are as attractive as those that cost doable. But, cui bono, they are not silk, and their destiny is the wash-tub. and apres —unless the mistress is mistress of her art, tbe.reaemblance to the bright fresh toilette when new is entirely gone. They are streaked and stiffened with starch, ironed out of shape, and made to look glossy, because thny have been pressed on the right side. The light muslins worn in days of yore are neveroeaa, because five and-twenty years ago there ware few complications in the make of dreosjs, and they were easily washed. But now we have lovely chintz satines, fine batistes >n delicate colourings, soft finished cambrics, and a host of the very best cotton fabrics it ispossible to produce ; and they are mostly worn by the rich, and not by the class who shculd enjoy them. This could be remedied, to.Bome extent, if a fairly intelligent head presided over the wash-tub, and used ofcrainsd bran water instead of soap and starch, and droned the dress on the wrong side, and aimed «t .making the cotton a* little stiff and as mueb like new as possible. But instead of this solntioC of the problem, the majority fall back on black grenadines and summer silks that will not " show dirt" ; because they are safe and durable, anfl sa» be worn on a majority of occasions.