Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1892 — STYLES FOR SOMMER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STYLES FOR SOMMER.

GARMENTS THAT ACCORD WITH THE LILAC’S BLOOM. The Jacket Will Continue to Be Ftahlon’i Most Striking Exemplification that Grace and Utility May Be Succeudully Com-bined-Outdoor Gown*. Fashion’* Latest Fancies.

S in London and Paris, so in New York, the month of May is the bright particular season during which the woman of fashion unfolds her early summer plumage for the delight and edification of her townspeople, writes Clara Belle .from New York, i During May she is quite content to display her magnificence upon the fashionable av e -

nues and thoroughfares, but with the coming of June flag and asphalt grow too warm for her dainty feet, and she gets restless like bees when the inclination to swarm seizes upon them. Nowadays, the big cities 6ee less and less of the gorgeousness of summer toilets, for the reason that the outing season begins so much earlier and lasts so much longer; and then comes the supplemental season, which keeps the fair creatures out of town until late in the autumn. However, May is queen now, so, long live the Queen! . The fact is, too, that the latter half of May often affords the woman of fashion a softer light and more favorable atmosphere than the much lauded Juno weather, for the reason that the first foliage, the first flowers, the first greensward, springing as they do from the cool lap of tearful April, are the most tender, delicate and fullest of earth's sweetness, and therefore It is that to-day I sing the early summer gown, the garb that accords with the lilac’s bloom and perfume. In my initial Illustration you look upon a oharming specimen of that garment which has been well named the “style giver.” I mean a becoming jacket. This season, more than ever, the jacket will continue to be fashion’s most striking exemplification that grace and utility may be successfully com-

blned. This particular garment may be made up In serge or cheviot, black or blue; and be embroidered with braid laid on as indicated. The jacket closeß all the way down the front, and the braided design is contained on both sides. The collar and yoke should be of velvet, the embroidery covering the seams. In front the yoke peaches nearly to the bust line. If I am right in maintaining that Lowell should have located his “rare June day" in the latter part of May, why then the very stylish young person represented in my second illustration wears a vqry appropriate garb tq do hfasr to day—a lace pSilrTne of marked distinction. Upon a muslin or grenadine yoke, round and well-fitting, you gather the lace, which must be about three yards in length to give the requisitefullness, and the pleats must be close together and sewed to the yoke in such a way as to form the ruffle shown in the picture. The collar consists of ruched lace set off with a bow of double-faced satin ribbon with long ends. As there is always a great deal of marrying and giving in marriage at this season of the year, I am sure you will be glad to know not how the bride must be dressed, for every one knows that, ,but how the bride's mother should be attired. Of course, if I were writing for men I should take good care to suppress the mother-in-law, for ever since the day that Simon Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of that fever, mothers-in-law have, justly or unjustly, I’m not prepared to say, been more or less objects of banter and ridicule. It is very ridicu-

lous, for brides will never grow on bushes or drop out of the clouds, even though the marriage be made in Heaven. The altogether lovely gown worn by this charming mother-in-law that, is soon to be is a silver-gray brocade with sliver spadgles. The middle of the skirt front and the saw-teeth of the lower edge are ornamented with silver wire ribbon. The saw-teeth fall over a

flounce of gathered lace. The train calls for three breadths of the brocade. It is rounded and forms two large box-pleats. The corsage closes at the back, being round in front and pointed at the back. There is a draped celnture starting from the side seams and a draped lace effect over the bust, and the upper sleeves are also gracefully draped with lace. Fan and hat to match, with flowers aigrettewise. To listen to (he enumeration of summer stuffs, foulards, batistes, crepons, grenadines, you would be tempted to cry out: “Why, these are the very same materials that you offered us last season." But wait till you see them; wait till these dainty fabrics are unrolled before your eyes. Then you’ll find that there has been no furbishing up of old styles or old patterns. They are new

creations, absolutely. Solofnon himself would be obliged to confess this, ana the lilies would be forced to hide their quaker heads, so bright, so beautiful ore these tissues for summer wear. In my fourth picture I present an extremely stylish outdoor costume in silver-gray crepon, with a lace jabot. Be careful to allow extra length of skirt for the tucks indicated. At the back the train Is hooked to the waist, and to accomplish this there must be an opening in the basques, which are sewed on. The under fronts are made over fitted linings and are covered with pleated crepe de chine or silk muslin. The jabot effect is very original and stylish, as you will note, being gathered at the neck, then dividing into parts • and cascading to the waist line, where they run to a point. The pointed belt, like the plastron, is sewed on one side and hooked on the other, and made over buckram. The lining of the collar closes in the middle, the pleated material at the side. The outer fronts of the corsage fall quite straight with a shawl collar trimmed with silk. There is no seam in the middle of the back, and you must therefore hollow* out the side seams more than usual. The leg-o’-mutton sleeves have a narrow bias of silk at the cuffs. With this charming costume you may wear a bronze-colored rice straw hat trimmed with a band oi watered pink ribbon, a bunch of roses and green grain-heads. It will be hardly possible for you to find anything in the line of stuff gowns for outdoor wear more tastefully and prettily designed than this.

If our only indebtedness to the Orient were the fan and the sunshade, it would be a hard one to pay off, foi these two articles of the feminine paraphernalia enter so closely and intimately into a woman’s every-day life that they grow to be part of her. In "her hands a fan becomes endowed with life. It lives and almost breathes. Only a little imagination is necessary to regard It as a wing growing from the hand instead of from the ankle oi shoulder. It keeps time with the holder’s heart, beats in unison with her feelings, now waving gently and slowly, now fluttering wildly, now beckoning

towards her, now bidding adieu. True, a sunshade is hardly capable of so much feeling, but yet a sunshade is a potent weapon in a woman’s hands, not only against old Sol’s rays, but against milder beams, too. Or it may cease to be a weapon and become an encourager of glances by timidly and coquettishly raising its edge to let these glances in. In my last illustration I picture a figure that becomes very familiar before the summer is over—the young girl with a sunshade—and a glance at the drawing shows how easy it is to increase by a graceful touch the close relations existing between girl and shade, by which movement she bends an arch ot silk between herself and some one else’s self. The young lady in question wears a .striking costume of brocaded woolen material, with a belt in beaded passementerie. The gown is cut princess at the back. At the front it consists of corsage and skirt. It hooks at the back; the skirt opening closes with a flap which is hidden under the pleats. The back has no seam. The belt is caught into the side seams and the braces end with fringed rosettes. The joining of skirt and corsage is hidden under the belt. The corsage front has no seam. It is included in the side seams with the lining. The leg-o’-mut-ton sleeves, the material and lining of which are or the same width, have only one seam, whi:h Is on the inside. From the belt the beaded fringe reaches nearly half way down the front and runs somewhat to a point. The skirt may be lined with thin silk or satinette. Great care should be taken to avoid wrinkling in the back. The great designers are still exercising their ingenuity over the skirt, which in growing tighter at the top becomes wider and longer at the bottom. At first they were satisfied by calling it the bell, but that term no longer applies. Now it is the trumpet. This last form consists In making up the back with one breadth of wide material, the two sides of which are turned over shawl-wise from the top so that the’ middle of the book is in the straight line of the material, and thus the trumpet shape is attained.

Wisdom never kicks at the iron walls it can’t bring down.

LACE PELERINE.

bride’s MOTHER IN BROCADE.

ARTISTIC OUTDOOR GOWN.

AN OUT-DOOR GIRL.