Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1892 — COMMANDS OF FASHION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

COMMANDS OF FASHION.

SLAVISH OBEDIENCE NOT ALWAYS DESIRABLE. A Fashion May Often Be Judiciously Mortified—The More Common Sense You Get Into Dress the More Favorable Will ■'o the Result. Styles of the Season.

’M willing to folIlow the styles, if the styles will follow me!" exclaimed a well-known lady of fashion, by which, of course, she meant that she was not willing to yield slavish obedience to the comk mauds of Queen Mode. But the trouble with such ■ disobedience is that it is very like- | ly to result disastrously unless I the best of judgment goes with it, says our New York fashion writer. No doubt, a fashion may in most cases be ridiculously exaggerated. It is with dress as with many other things

In life —the more common sense you can get into it, the more favorable will be the result. Take, sot instance, this question of the short skirt or the cornet skirt with demi-train. While there can be no doubt that for dressy costumes intended for the house, for the hotel veranda, for calling, or for the public promenade, the graceful demi-train will keep its hold upon favor during the summer, yet for the tenuis ground, for boating, climbing excursions of all sorts a skirt that just clears the ground will be rigorously in order. If a woman has any grace at all she has a good chance to display it in reaching for her train and in carrying it. There is something extremely coquettish in the various poses called for by this operation, and no one knows it better than the women themselves; hence you may accept it as a decree of her mysterious majesty Queen Mode that no glittering shears shall snip off this pretty bit of feminine toggery this summer, anyway. But while skirts are to remain flat and close-fitting, there will be a manifest tendency to set them off in different ways, such as with foot garniture, panels and tabliers, and the thin summery stuffs will lend themselves admirably for all sorts of ruehings, ploatinga, puffings, minings and smockings. In my initial illustration I set before you a very pretty outdoor costume in glace serge, with a sleeveless jacket which has one dart on each side, and is turned back In such a way as to show the princess gown plastron-like. At the waist line there is a tab and button to hold the jacket, but, if so desired, the

fronts may be left quite open; but to warrant this, the cut should be perfect. The back pieces cross one over the other below the waist, for which purpose you should cut them larger than the pattern. The curves should he bordered with bius strips of the material, but to Jteep them from drawing you must sew on S strip cut straight and pjgated in the Siiirt i%Made process Afid quite plum, and in order to secure the thio comet train the back breadths especially must be very much gored. The to suit taste, belted in with a broad corsage should be lined with satinette, and the skirt with thin woolen stuff, or the whole costume may be lined with taffeta. At the bottom of the skirt you should place a false hem of muslin fifteen inches deep, between the stuff and lining. You will find a quaint hut stylish outing costume in my second picture, which may be made up in any striped material leather belt, with a jacket of the same material made exactly like a bit of masculine attire. Inside the broad turndown collar there should be worn a dainty linen collar or ruche of some sort, with same finish for cuffs. While it may he true that these imitations of men’s attire don’t become every youug person, yet they suit some styles of the summer girl to perfection, lending them a piquant and dashing flavor which is

greatly relished by their gentlemen admirers. Saxe, the poet, once said that people went to the springs to play, to pray, and to pay; he also included in his list, to dance, to dawdle and drive, to eat and enchant, to fib and to flirt. But, as a rule, no sign is hung on the wall that carries more joy to the young heart than “Hop to-night.” So, no doubt, you will l>e glad to have a look at a styiish ball costume, which I present in my third illustration. This handsome

dress Is made up in a moire pekln. Tlie front breadth Is cut straight, and the sides on the cross, so as to attain the effect shown. The back pieces are also cut very bias and pleated at the top. The bottom of the skirt is edged with a band and the skirt is lined with blue merveilleux. There is a flehu of blue silk muslin V-shape front and back, and the Watteau fold of silk muslin starts from the point of the cut-out. The deep belt of blue ribbon is set off with hyacinths. It hooks at the back. The sleeves are made of the pekin and have large ornaments of the silk muslin caught in the middle with bows of blue satin ribbon. The skirt will need a balayeuse. Speaking of the Watteau pleat, Its general use has led to the adoption of all sorts of effects wieh conceal the figure, such as the blouses worn unbelted, paletots and pelerines. The paletot sacque is called by many a monstrosity, but in spite of hard names It is sure tq figure as a part of morning costumes, an hour when the air is apt to be a bit fresh. It is too ungainly a garment for walking purposes, but for driving and early attendance on the race-course it does very well and covers one up so that there Is no need to make an elaborate toilet. I note that summer dresses threaten to have a great profusion of lace about them—berthas, bibs, jabots, and cascades on the corsages; flounces and tabliers on the skirts, and also lace effects on the sleeves. Basques are conspicuous by their absence. Striped stuffs are extremely modish and crepons the rage. The fashionable colors are so soft and delicate that one must needs be an expert in tones to define them. Foulards, delaines, nainsooks, batistes, satinettes, and zephyrs are all excellent materials for summer garbs. The thing is to attain some pretty and rather start-

ling effect with sleeveles jackets, blouses, corselets, braces, and Watteaus. The “Moujiks,” or Russian blouses, are sure to be very popular made up in India foulards, gauzes, or crepes de chine. It is a comfortable summer garment, and you may, if you choose, make it up in lace over a transparency. The summer girl will look very coquettish and piquant in a Moujik, especially when she sets one of the quaint straw hats on her head, hats which look as though there had been a scrapping match in the factory at the moment they were made. They are simply indescribable with their curiously shaped crowns, seven inches and more in height, and the general effect will be to give the summer girl the look of a rejuvenated fairy god-mother, a very good character for her to assume, by the way, for, with her dainty sunshade for a wand, she is easily able to perform wonderful tricks with the stout hearts of stray young men who drift into watering places to see what there is to be seen. But the hotol veranda is not the exclusive kingdom of the modish maid, with her russet shoes, Mother Hubbard hat, Moujik blouse, cornet skirt, puffed sleeves, and red sunshade. The classic miss, who has declined more Greek nouns than offers of marriage, who understands how to construe Latin sentences better than she does the silly chat of college boys, who would rather meet a young man well up in algebra than athletics, is also there, and her great soul is not above rejoicing at the prospect of a ball, although she doesn’t dance round dances. Her only circles are those found in her geometry, but she loves to look on, and in my fourth illustration I show you the classic miss in

tulle and feathers, as she appears athe Saturday night hop. The summet girl may sneer at her lack of modishr ness, but the classic miss is a daDgotous rival, all the same. Her powers of fascina'ion may not be so swift and sure, but they are subtle as they are slow. She is full of quaint fancies, and her speech has many more flowers than her gown. And then she looks well sitting down, which the ultra-fashionable girl does not. She needs movement to display her good points. Repose is dangerous to her, rest fatal. She is like a butterfly—she lacks her charm when she alights. Many young girls really get their first glimpse of gay life while at summer resorts, dance their first waltz at a hotel hop, and then go back to town and go through the form of making a debut to the winter festivities. Hence you will not be unwilling to examine a very pretty ball gown for a young miss, shown in my last illustration. It may be made up either in tulle, gauze or thin silk, set off with a lace corselet.

TRAVELING COSTUME.

DANCE TOILET.

A NON-DANCER.

COSTUME FOR DEBUTANTE.