IMPROVED BRIDESMAIDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8125, 24 April 1906, Page 3

IMPROVED BRIDESMAIDS.

RECENT INNOVATIONS IN FAS- { £HIONABLE ENGLISH SOCIETY. The great rush of weddings, that brings to a clcwe the pie-Lent season of marriage? offers an excellent opportunity of reviewiLg that important topic —the bridesmaid, says a writer in the Daily Mail. Whether she should be alone, or several times duplicated, and bow she shoald be dressed, are serious questions io happy pairs to be, who are looking forward to Easter as the occasion of their nuptials. The autumn and winter season of weddings has confirmed the suspicions of the observant that the bridesmaid has rather been tottering on her throne of late. An exaggerated train of attendants—to ten or a dozen—-has not been fashionable, because it has been perceived ihat the BEWILDEKINU FASCINATION presented by such a garden of ' girb has militated against tho supremo interest that should centre round tho bride. The experience of tiny maids of two years old or so has been abandoned because of the stern refusal of one couple to act their part when the critical moment arrived, and the piercingly shrill manner in which . their; obstinate denial was pronounced. More than one bride has aotualiy proceeded to the altar absolutely unattended, aud has believed those who have assured her that the effect she produced upon the spectators Was most "striking and interesting, and others have arrived at the church with JUST ONE MAID IN WAITING, to take the gloves and bouquet of the bride at the important moment of putting on the ring. So it will be couched that the bridesmaid question ia one upon which there are divers opinion at present. But the most salient innovation (continues the writer) has yet to be mentioned. It is the introduction of the matron of honour. The plan of asking one or more charmingly pretty young matrons to head the procession o! maids is no new one in America; but in London it was tried fortneflrot time this winter, and MJST WITH SUCH SUCCESS that another element of disturbance enters into the discussion of the bridesmaid aud her position. "Will phe maintain her proud supremacy or is she to bo abandoned as well as the groomsman? • There used to be much more of a eoarcity m.dayß gone by of willing bridesmaids than there is now, so why supplement their number by matrons of honour? That ancient saying, "Three times n bridesmaid, never a bride." apppealed with such force to the superstitious that a limit was soon placed upon a girl's powers of obliging her best friends, l whereas now when to flaunt commonsenee in the VERY FACE OF OMENS is the delight of youth, that old embargo is withdrawn, and as often as she is asked to do so, a girl may attend her friends to tho altar with a light heart. So well does the twentieth century bride realise this that when she searches tor attendant maide, she picks and chooses her retinue most carefully. and with a truly aesthetic eye. Her maids must be beautiful, but not quite so beautiful as herself; they must not over top her if she be tall, nor if she be of goodly stature must they look like pigmies; they must not throw into the shade her first bridesmaid either us regards Jooks or height, aud if they are to walk two and two, as they do in these days of the exclusion of groomsmen, then each pair must match as to height. Avauut sentiment, hurrah for the r,ioturesque. The question of the 'bridesmaids' dress is the most serious one, and if favouritism is to bo shown and the first bridesmaid's likes and re quirements are to determine those of the rest, then it is very necessary lo choose the maidß on a pattern. For what will suit the tall will not become the short. As a rule, tfie prevailing fashions of the day are passed in review when a decision has to be made, and the one that has a certain amount of bearing upon the season of, the year,-or the bride or bridegroom's nationality, is fixed upon by the bride. What prettier for an April wedding when the Easter season of marriages begins—a shori; one, it is true, because May is stiil CONSIDERED'BY MANY BRIDES an unlucky month for a marriage—than an adaptation of the now so modish Empire vogue? It is possible to indulge iu little eocontricites that would not be permiesable were the toilete one for ordinary outdoor wear, and so to emphasise a new and pretty idea. Picture an Empire gowu of the softest wiJd-roso pink chiffon veiled by a coat of ivory tinted lace of three-quarter length falling from a high bolero of striped blue and pink satin, with little blurred blossoms meandering over and breaking the stripes. The piquant coatee may have sharply pointed revers, a memory of the Direotoire period, and the sleeves should be of elbow length, met by long ruckled gloves. A touch of exaggeration is noticeable in tho bonnet (yes, tho bonuet, for bonnets are a new revival in the millinery world, and are to know success again), for it is a remote cousin of the old coal-scuttle shape, which was an EVOLUTION OF THE MILITARY helmets the fair copied in Napoleonic days in, all manner of wayß remotely like and widely divergent from the real head-covering of the war. Made of roee-pink tulle goffered over a wire frame, it is ruched with white mousseline de soie, and is famished with strings of piuk tulle demurely tied beneatb the chin Another reminiscence of the Directorate is the very tall stick bunched with flowers at the top, which might be exaggerated into a crook without loss of effect. An alternative scheme, and one that is most suitable for a spring wedding, has already been triea with triumphant success. Bridesmaids of medium size were chosen by a

certain.young bride, who is herself of migfion proportion, and indeep' it is only girls of medium height and slight build that the vogue could suit. The maids were dressed as country wenches in flowered silk and white mousseline, with bunched up paniers over short skirts, and flcbus tacked into lace ohemisettes. They are supposed to have been out gathering wild flowers in the woods, some of which thay have tucked into the ribbon snoods upon their heads, while the rest they carried home in their big rusticii leghorn bats, the ribbon strings of which serve as handles.