THE FASHIONS

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 8 April 1890, Page 2

THE FASHIONS

Mibs Maktauxi.)

\The tendency in the style of dresses now is towards simplicity. The Directoire and the Empire h ive, cortainly disappeared, and the cut of gowns is going back to the old Princess shape. This is had for the dressmakers. Their art comes in w lien gowns require draping lint

if the simple Princess robe is fashionable a lady's maid will bo able to go out and buy a dress length, take it home, and make her mistress look smart without the aid of a dressmaker. The art of making good ball dresses is an art of concealing defects and indicating iv as pronounced a fashion as possible personal advantages. This is the idea that Mr Pitts, of Pitts and Richards, tel.s me he is compelled constantly to exercise. For instance, for a lady who has very red hair— almost en in sen hair in fact— he lias made a gown of small patterned black silk. It 1 was a tea gown for evening wear j with rather a low-cut neck, and the ■front of the skirt was of pale blue satin under embroidered pale blue lisse. It was fastened up at the left side to relieve the straightness of the folds, The same lady had ordered a ball gown wholly of whit* satin, trimmed at tho bottom of the skirt witn Oriental embroidery over a narrow fringe of white ostrich. The dress had epaulettes of Oriental embroidery and the train and the bodice were of white silk brocade patterned with palm leaves and chrysanthemums. Very handsome materials, asruay be imagined iron* the foregoing, are being used, for trains now. Two very pret'y ball gowns had been designed for sisters. The material was a combination of green brocade and' green satin. But such a shade ...-of green ! ; 80 soft and delicate it was that to look at it convinced one that Spring couldn't be far-off. Over it was draped that .soft material called crepon, with faint silver -lines running through it. .It was caught up lightly here and there with silver flowers. - Another pretty ball gown had a train and bodice of peach-blossom silk. The. front was of white satin draped with, lisse, and the lisse was embroidered, with forget-me-nots and corn flowers. Another gown for a dark complexion was of yellow and white brocade, with the yellow satin of the front of the skirt draped with white crepon.