FASHION NOTES.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 137, 28 April 1883, Page 88

FASHION NOTES.

By "Jenny When." Odd stockings are the latest idea. Plaids in sober colours will be worn this winter. G-uipure embroidery is coming into fashion again. The latest French dresses fit loosely rather than tightly to the figure. Only slender, well-formed women can wepr plush to advantage. The bodice with points in front and long coattails behind, is still the favourite. Some of the new redingotes have small shoulder capes that are caught up gracefully on the left shoulder. The 6ilk pompons are worn in clusters as trimming for both hats and bonnets, and different colours are grouped together, as well as different shades of one colour. Collarettes are still made of cream surah, and bordered with lace, the silk gathered in two or three rows round the front, and having a lace frill standing up round the throat. * The new material, "Velours ottoman, which is merely a soft-ribbed silk like terry velvet, is attracting much attention, being used in some instances for entire dresses, in others for trimmings, and for muffs, aumouieres, &c. For outside wraps plain velvet is very fashionable, worn both for large and small confections, and many redingotes and iong casaques are being made of it by principal modistes. The trimmings are of fur or of jet pendants, and exceedingly wide pessementerie bands. Another costume is of dark prune-coloured cloth and figured velveteen of the same colour. The cloth skirt is pleated a little more than half way up ; the upper part is concealed under a scarf drapery of fancy velveteen, which is puffed very high behind to form the tournure. Cloth jacket bodice, with round basque, faced with velveteen ; collar and cuffs of the same. In dress materials there is really little to describe that is not already familiar. Woollen materials for morning wear are indispensable now, and will be for some months to come. Serges (checked and plain), velvets and velveteens, brocades, broche silks, camels-hair cloth, and cashmeres all offer themselves for admiration in the drapers' windows. Skirts are either very plain or very much trimi mcd. This description is paradoxical, but true nevertheless. Much depends on the material used as to the character of the trimming, the heavy serges requiring draped folds or braid, .and the lighter cashmeres admitting of flouncings, gangings, and quillings. A tweed skirt made in larg\e box-pleats falls over an underskirt, or simulated skirt, bordered with a smali frill or full pleated niching. The box-pleats may possibly fall fi;om the knee only, above which a short tunic \ drawn towards the back, or a series of puffings meeting the skirt of the basque, the latter fbeing either short or long as taste directs, either^ being fashionable. The admiration for high shoulders to which Mrs f Langtry gave rise still continues, the shoulder seam being short, and the sleeves cut to fit ar\i set in very high up. As if this was not enougVh some of the sleeves are fulled a little, just on the top of the shoulder, others have a puff on the tofp. Slight figures have the sleeve cut full and lijning to fit the arm, the former gathered on the latter in graduated puffs, large above and decreasing as the wrist is reached finally. Sloping shoiMders used to be lauded by novelists as the sign^of youth and activity. Now a girl is so distressehd that she is not square shouldered, that she coaxes tbhe dressmaker to put in padding, and even then aqlds a bow of ribbon, with a buckle in the centre, {right on the top of her shoulder. Long! Jersey gloves ot finest wool are much favourejd. Not for many seasons lias there been so muclh. discretion permitted in the choice of bonnetst|nd hats as now. A woman may wear a huge coalscuttle front, or a small close-fitting capote. S^ may deck her head in a Q-ainsborough list, rolled ujq on one side, with hearse-like plumes nodding over) the front ; she may coquettishly prefer the tujrban or the moderate square crown. Any of theseybhapes are now worn, and the severest critic isjd|Hiced before her decision. The large ff onteaHßets are certainly creeping jn, and they 1 are jl^^H|iiljl^^£iuiitation in cheap materials. By / one^Hß|HßKßfcradiction3 .for which no one : can accoHHHH^^. giyeC^small capote^^Hßl strings,-, Q^H^^H|^B^cubtkvand^b^X^^^^^H ;, to mdulgVJ^^^^^HJß|^bj*yjj||^^B^^^^| ; sets; of B^T^^^^^H^^^^^H^^B^^^h^^hH|^H