FASHION NOTES.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 154, 25 August 1883, Page 18

FASHION NOTES.

Artificial flowers are now perfumed. Ecru over pink is a favourite combination. Muslins, gauzes, grenadines, and laces are very much in fashion. Large hats are being made -with -white lace tulle and net, trimmed with clusters of fruit and flowers. A ribbon craze is threatening, ribbon looped in large bunches having lately appeared. On one dress 400 yards of expensive ribbon were placed. Fawn colour is most popular, and looks very attractive, trimmed with rows, and rows of ruby velvet on the skirt. Tucked skirts are greatly worn. A most attractive dress is one with fringes of chenille and steel balls, which glitter and sparkle at every movement of! the wearer ; parasol and bonnet to match. , Mrs Mackay, wife of the American Bonanza king, had a van load of dresses made specially for the Czar's coronation, that is, fifteen complete for that one occasion. . An excellent dress, recently worn at a ball in Victoria, was that of a crushed-strawberry silk i skirt and jacket body, with long and very { bouffant panier of crimson ribbed plush. The more expensive of the ribbons now worn are hand-painted broad silk or satin sashes, with groups of flowers, Cupid's heads, mosses, ferns, and swinging garlands of strawberries and vines painted on the ends. < On dresses a large fan of flowers is laid on one side, and new and very pretty are the floral necklets worn for evenings, a' perfect necklace of flowers encircling the throat and matching the small shoulder bouquets. Braiding is coming in again for cotton dresses. They are to be trimmed with three or more rows of inch-wide white braids, such as we used to ■wear on our frocks when we were little. How strangely fashion comes round and round. Tulle is extremely popular for ball dresses at home, and waterfalls are almost universal. There is a mania for ribbon trimmings ; the front of Borne gowns are covered with bunch ribbons and beads, and there are ribbons on sleeves, headdress, gloves, and fan. ' A French actress, Mdlle. Magnier, is weaving a dress which is the talk of Paris. The body and train are of red velvet, lined with green, and the skirt is of Nile-green satin, with lophophore embroidery, which alone cost £120 ; train strewed with gold and silver thistles. y Plaids are still very much in fashion at home. Not only woollen materials, but linen and cambrics," as well as silks and satins, and eveu braids to be weed as trimming, are stamped -with the pattern of the Scottish clans. Black and white is the prevailing pattern. The fishwife poke bonnet is found to be the most generally becoming of the poke shapes, and a new, quaint effect is given these by slightly turning back the peak of the. brim, and filling it out with a small bunch of flowers, or a smart Tittle bow of ribbon with forked ends, that rests lightly on the hair. ' Among thin unwashing materials silk grenadine is the most worn ; but not plain as heretofore. It must be broche or embroidered, or studded ■with applications in chenille, velvet, or beads. The small mantles in lace, tulle, or grenadine, belong to the same order as the dresses to which •we have just alluded. They, too, must be enriched with applications in jet or chenille. The latest novelties in parasols in Paris are two squares of black silk placed across each other in the shape, of a star. This is one of the newest designs, and wben each square is trimmed with - delicate black French lace, it makes a charmingly fluffy border. Another, made entirely of white or cream lace, arranged on the thinnest Indian muslin, is to be the parasol of races and fetes. ■ In opposition to Lady Harberton's loose divided skirt, some fast young ladies have started a new device, tighter than ever. It has a very narrow velvet- skirt, and no separation for the limbs ; but it is so extremely close-fitting, that in the distance it makes a woman look like a man. The upper part consists of a gentleman's coat and vest. Four finger-rings are also quite comme il J'aut. Here is a new idea for the ladies : — Women dainty in such matters are wearing in the house shoes made of cambric to match their dresses, or of some assimilating tint. In Regent-street there were recently shown at a fashionable bootmaker's many pairs of cambric shoes, very prettily finished, their price being 5s a pair. We think anyone who does not mind a little trouble, and possessing a pair of jean, or even soft old kid shoes, might cover them easily with cambric. A handsome rosette on the forepart, or neat bow with buckle, would be an admirable finish. The trimmings for dress skirts are not elaborate, yet are very effective. To finish the foot of Ottoman silk or Sicilienne skirts are four biasgathered frills, made quite scant, an eighth of a yard wid6 ; when finished and sewed on, to lap half their depth, to give a bunchy appearance. These have a self-binding or milliner's fold on the lower edge. Thread-lace flowers, or imitations of thread-lace, and the old-fashioned llama laces nearly cover skirts of coloured satin, surahred, green, or yellow — to be worn with black grenadine polonaises, trimmed with coloured surah. The kilted -jupe with simple tunic or tablier is as generap:>ii6w ; . as it was a few months ago. When ©^qiers^re ? worn they are short and as sbouffantJC^^RPSsiblej showing us, together with ' thfe large _So%%ed materials, that the "Pompadov^" ' period to; prevail- '■■ There is a tendency, howeVery to, shorten the waist, and this fact iff"BignificaJttfc^;Mraoy round waists are to be seen ' adorned t ispitb^ waiat-band '-or sash, and the basquj^^gj^Ang shorlery Oue or two ladies i^eVeS^^idr^ss have even adopted the Shork-waist of- Crispin, but perhaps the tendency in this direction will go no further. . -^ "The,Prmceßß of "Walee ami other leaders of fashonin the London. world are abqul to induce people to commence dances at aa earlier hour in thg; eyennj& .... '^.' : ± ':.... -.'.' , . ■ .