WASHING MATERIALS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2361, 28 October 1881, Page 4

WASHING MATERIALS.

Whether owing to the heat, or to a sudden freak of fashion, all tho dresses for morning outdoor wear, whether for race, afternoon flower show, or carriage wear, havo of late been, almost without exception, made of some so-called washing material—cambrics aud linens having the lead. Beginning the summer with richer and more drossy materials, there has been quite a revolution in favor of what are generally considered cheap fabrics, but which now, owing to their delicacy of tint and exquisite patterns, are in many cases undeserving of the title. Fabulous prices are, lam told, paid for tho designs of these patterns by some of tho leading London firms, who retain the exclusive right to them, having them expressly drawn for thorn by very clever artists, and tho flower painting is really ns beautiful and finished as that of oil paintings or the fashionable china that decorate our walls.

Particularly beautiful are some of the aquatic designs of reeds, rushes, and water flowers upon soft-tinted grounds, and others of grasses and various cornflowers upon very light grounds, those having, to a groat extent, taken the place of the very popular Japanese ones, that at the best can only bo described as not positively ugly. Those printed cambrics and sattoens are constantly made up with plain ones, either of the color of the ground, or of one shade which stands out prominently in tho design, and a very good effect is arrived at, the favorite ones not being bo grotesquely large as they have been worn. Besides these printed materials tho plain ones have been equally fashionable, and in these tho colors are almost entirely confined to pink, blue, and pale yellow.