Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1892 — IN FASHION’S GLASS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN FASHION’S GLASS.

WHAT TO WEAR AND HOW TO WEAR IT. Don’t Depend Too Much on the Dressnteker—A Handsome Gown, Becoming Wrap, and Stylish Hat, Are Often Originated by the Wearer. Onr Fashion Letter.

HERE is no more I dangerous fallacy ’ I than the prevalent one that all a Ipv woman has to do, BY \ in order to be well Pp: I dressed,is to make [A J choice of a sashWiri l° na b 1 e dressrW maker, and give yj her full power to Mw act i n the premWJb ises, as the lawlijl vers say. One t if] might just as well !! jjl expect to regain }WJ health by merely b calling in any i| popular physician, I J :Bays our fashion 1 1 writer. True, he f t might effect a cure, .JJ and so the fashion- ’ x able dressmaker fylr might occasionally turn out a gown

which would suit your style exactly, but in neither case will it do for you calmly to sit down a'nd fold your hands. You must co-operate; you must burden your mind with details; you must study out questions which your dressmaker, in the natural rush and hurly burly of the commercial side of her business, has not sufficient time to solve for you. The young dude, who puts his whole mind on his tie, accomplishes a result anyway. And what is life without results? A handsome gown, becoming wrap and stylish hat are all results of somebody’s hard work, and pretty generally the hardest falls upon her who wears them. Y'ou can’t unravel a woolen stocking and knit a silk purse out of the yarn; and even admitting that your dressmaker should send you home a handsome party dress your dressmaker can neither get into it for you nor wear it for you. AYhat I want to prove is that this matter of dress is largely personal, and without the personal contribution it can never be made entirely effective. My initial illustration presents rather

a unique reception dress. The jacket bodice has a front and basques of crepe de chine, with a transversal arrangement of velvet ribbon cutting the bust diagonally. The lower sleeve is also of crepe do chine, with ribbon band and bow. This gown may be made up in plain silk for the bodice and figured for the skirt, tho ribbon being of the same shade as the dark figure in the skirt. A refined and elegant deshabille is appreciated by every woman, and I think it would be difficult to design a garment of that class more likely to please than the one pictured in my second illustration. It is made up in a surah with Pompadour figures, but I should add that it may be made up equally well in crepe or other soft and dinging material. It should be cut princess, and have a Watteau pleat, made up of the very full back. It lias hooks part of the way down the front, and is sewed the rest. The fronts have one gore. In order to prevent the train from rolling up, you must make the side breadths longer than usual, and cut them on the bias. The Watteau pleat is gathered and fastened under the collar to the adjusted backs. The turn-down collar, doublepointed on each side, is surmounted with small lace ruche and set off with a tulle bertha. The tulle fronts are scalloped and draped as indicated. Galloon ceinturo with long ends hangs down in front. Bouffant sleeves trimmed with wide lace cuffs. ■ The Watteau pleat remains in high favor and is applicable with equal grace

to many different kinds of costumes. It may either be made to take its rise at the cut-out, from a yoke or from the waist. In the last named case it Is well to make one large hollow pleat in the middle with two simple pleats on each

side, an arrangement which produces a superb square train. And, speaking of trains, Just you try to get a dress without a train nowadays, and see if it’s possible. You will find it isn’t. The more second-class and the cheaper the dressmaker, the surer she is to prove herself "just right” by giving you a train. Oh, husbands and fathers, sweethearts and brothers, be easy on us. Once more hear the sad, sad truth. We are not to be blamed for our high collars, our small waists, our long train. It is the inexorable dressmaker who drives us to folly. We may direct her as strictly as we will —the dress comes home cut to suit her fancy, not ours. And what are we to do? We can’t, as husbands and fathers peremptorily direct, send it back. For one reason, we need it to wear; for another, it’s just so much money. Wear it we must, pinching our waist, cutting our throat, sweeping the streets, and, worse still, bearing the sarcasm of all our male relations and the cruelties of

such common-sense women, as we know, who make their own clothes. A handsome long wrap is both a luxury and a necessity at this season of the year, and the one which I present in my third illustration is an extremely elegant garment. It is made up in gray ribbed vicuna and consists of the two parts composing the sleeves, and of a pointed plastron, front and back, embroidered with steel and braid. At the collar this cloak lias a garniture of gray feathers which extends down the fronts. The portion which makes up the sleeves is much gathered at the shoulders and makes a large hollow pleat at the back. This being the season for dances and evening entertainments, I contribute something appropriate in my fourth illustration—a very charming little pelerine in silk muslin, folded over in the direction of the width, so that the muslin will be double. The ruche is also made up double and gathered. The pelerine is pleated Severn 1 times at tho top, diminishing to suit the size of the cut-out. In front, lengthwise, the pelerine falls in jabot style. This pretty garment may also be made up in tulle, veiling, or ajiy other light material. For the small dances now so popular, there are some new materials which are extremely delicate In color, and soft and pliable and well adapted to successful draping—a sort of crepe gauze, running in all the delicate tones so suitable for evening wear, to wit, pale pink, pale blue, cream, etc. They must be made up on silk foundations, and are in all respects the ideal dancing dress. Embroidered tabliers are much affected for ball dresses. Silver embroidery on silk muslin produces an exquisite effect, with which there should be a higli flaring collar of silver embroidery, thoroughly lattened so as to keep its shape. The ceintures in filagree have long ends. Fur will naturally hold its place as a garniture till the season closes. You see it everywhere and sometimes where you don’t oxpeet to see it, as for in-

stance on a dinner dress. In former times it would have been deemed sadly out of place there, but this is an age which,\Jike a spoiled child, is bound to have itftown way. In my last illustration you will find a suggestion for a neat street dress, tailormade, with men’s coat buttons and braided ornaments on the cuffs and collar. An exquisite dinner dress in tulle with Pompadour figures lately attracted my attention. It was made up on a silk foundation. The corsage was in velvet and laced up at the back and was outlined with a basd of pink feather trimming. The short upp>er sleeve was of the velvet, outlined with the feather trimming, and, in addition, there was a bouffant little sleeve reaching to the elbow. The figaro, which composes part of the corsage, may either be made up with the corsage or worn over it. A strange freak in the matter of feather fans for bull toilets is the addition of flowers, the flowers being tied on one side with a bow of ribbon and a sprig running out over the fan. It is certainly a peculiar but none the less effective combination. But after all, this question of dress depends largely upon the Individual. If a young woman makes up her mind that her mission in life ia to “smile sweetly, dance lightly, coquette gracefully and dress daintily," then she has marked out a really easy course for herself, but her more earnest sister, who desires to give expression to her character by outward symbols, viz., by dressing as she thinks and believes, that is, in a manner as far removed from the frivolous as possible, will find that she is setting herself a difficult task. Dress has a certain power of expression, but fashion doesn’t care for this, and rides rough-shod over sentiment. Hence, the fashionable woman must forever nnd always appear to be more or less frivolous. The coldest spot on the. earth Is at Werkhojansk, in Siberia, where the thermometer his registered 81 degrees below zero. Tie soil there is frozen to a depth of 400 feet

FIGURED SURAH DESHABILLE.

LONG WRAP IN GRAY CLOTH.

SILK MUSLIN PEBFRINE.

A NOBBY, TAILOR-MADE.