Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1887 — Women's PROGRESS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Women's PROGRESS

A Palatable Olla Podrida Prepared Specially for Our Fair Headen. Fashions in Dress, Notes on Housekeeping Affairs, and Other Topics of Interest Facts and Fancies in Fashion.

NE may have at this season of the year as many hats or bonnets as there are days in the week, millinery has become so cheap. Most of .the straw shapes 'can be bought for

from ten to fifteen cents apiece, and the trimmings of ribbon and artificial flowers, or pompons, are very inexpensive indeed. The newest Parisian bathing dresses are so outre and so extreme that there will be few ladies with temerity enough to wear them. Some of them are of jersey cloth, worn above corsets; they are all made with very low-cut necks and without sleeves, while at the same time the skirt is more abbreviated than ever; indeed, in some of them it disappears altogether. Cream white is a favorite color for a bathing-dress, and when ftrimmings of gold braid are added nothing prettier or fresher in appearance can be imagined. Full-skirted, velvet-trimmed dresses for summer wear in light sprigged organdie lawns are very popular. The basque of such a dress is usually gathered, with sometimes a white chemisette set in. The trimmings merely consist of collar, cuffs, and belt. A square scarf of the material is added for street, as illustrated below. Gingham dresses—combinations of plain and striped materials—are popular for rough wear out of town, for which their durability is extremely well suited. Basque-shaped mantles are among the neatest freaks of the season. These

(with the exception of the sleeves, which are made full across the hack) fit the form in the same manner and with as much precision as the ordinary basque, being of the same shape, but trimmed profusely with black lace and bead passementerie. Box-plaited blouses of cashmere or other light material are much favored for in-door wear at home. The plaits are detached from the body, from the bust to a point below the waist, while beneath them is drawn a broad ribbon sash, tied in front, so as to allow the long ends to fall. A lace fichu worn with such a blouse adds greatly to the charming effect. A neat house dress may be made by a combination of a plain with a striped

zephyr woolen. The plain material composes the skirt arid basque and the striped forms the drapery, which is a very prettily shaped tablier, passing beneath heavy folds on the sides, and with bouffant back draperies. The basque is trimmed with broad revers of plain dark-colored velvet, which inclose a deep-pointed chemisette of

finely plaited and starched cambric. Cuffs and collar, together with tabs upon the skirt, and all the necessary trimmings, are of the same velvet Kilted skirts are observable on nearly all children’s and misses' dresses, but are not much worn by ladies. Lace is a very important factor in all summer dresses, and justly so; for all costumes made from the soft materials and in the light, graceful styles appropriate to the season have their beauty greatly enhanced by the addition of lace upon some portions of them, if such garniture consist only of a jabot or fichu upon the front of the basque. 1' ull folds of tulle cover the bodices of dinner, evening, and reception costumes, being laid from the shoulders across the bust. Low shoes for street wear and for wear at summer resorts are quite fashionable, stylish patent leather varieties, tying up the instep with a silken cord, being most chosen. They are always black, and worn with black, dark blue, or dark-brown checked stockings. For yachting suits, these stockings are embroidered with tiny yellow anchors, and for tennis little rackets may be embroidered upon them very effectively. Plain and striped woolen materials were chosen for the development of a very natty street costume. An open basque with broad silk revers was worn, being of the striped fabric. The vest, which showed beneath, and to which the collar, of the same material, was attached, was fastened up the front by a row of very small round wooden buttons. Larger buttons, intended merely for ornament, appeared upon the basque itself. A coquettishly arranged drapery, drawing up on either hip, revealed a kilted skirt, and was supplemented by an overlapping back drapery. The dress was an exceedingly appropriate and stylish production. Hair Coiffure Diana. The accompanying illustration furnishes a pleasing contrast of coiffure to the present very prevalent mode of

arranging the hair in a small braided knot, at the back of the head-—a severe and in most cases unbecoming style. The Diana coiffure here represented is especially suited to young faces, and may be dressed in two ways. The back hair is either to be combed over to the front—this can be done where the hair is short—where it is fastened with a plain comb and the ends arranged with the front locks cut about the length of two fingers, in a high toupet. The curls at the nape of the neck, in this arrangement, must be furnished by false hair. When one has a thick, fine growth of hair, the toupet and short front curls may be made entirely of the front hair, and the back strand arranged to fall down in curls. Ornamental pins complete the coiffure.

The Masculine Girl.

The sad thing about it, says an Eastern exchange, is that the girl is making an ass of herself, to use one of her own expressions, and in just this way: “Everything carried to its extreme becomes its contrary,” says Hegel, and the girl beginning with the masculine costume goes on to please men more and more by adopting their slang and even their freedom of manner. The girl does not see that. Although men are amused by it, they are not made more respectful and courteous thereby. She only sees that she is a favorite with men,that she always has partners, and escorts and is invited everywhere Men are at their ease with her, but, ye gods and little fishes! there is a mighty difference between the girl one loafs and smokes with and the girl one prefers for a wife or a mother. The very fashion that in moderation was charming, in excess is disagreeable. The slangy, lolling,- sprawling men-hunters—and some girls of the period are little more than that—have spoiled the liberty which it was delightful to see women accepting in moderation. There is a liberty that makes us free and a liberty that makes us slaves, and the girls who take liberties with modesty of speech and manner, and who cross well over the border into masculine territory, are not more free but more slavish than before. And the approbation of men, which is the end in view, is lost by the very means taken to gain it. There is one young woman in Boston who has been a belle for two winters. One day she remarked to the writer that now she was obliged to do the marketing; that her mother had always done it, but “at last ma kicked.” When the writer said to a friend of that young woman that she would not get married for several years unless she changed her manners, he was told that she received more attention than any girl in Boston. Nevertheless, that young woman has had two seasons and is still disengaged. She is a type of the short-sightedness of some of her sex. She has men about her in plenty, and “she shall have music wherever she goes,” but men are better than they appear. At bottom men love kindliness, gentleness, modesty, purity in act and thought in women.“ • i i