Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — LOVELY WOMAN’S GARB [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LOVELY WOMAN’S GARB

EARLY SPRING STYLES SHOW MUCH NOVELTY. Gown* for the Season Are of Exquisite Design ami Workmanship They Are Also Costly Enough to Tax the Largest I’urse—Some of the Latest. Gotham Fashion Gossip. New York correspondence:

F you are going to select a wrap, I should advise a cape instead of a jacket If you have a jacket airOady, I should cheer you and assure you that jackets are really much worn. The sack-back jackets are modified b y clever adjusting of the Empire effect in belting in the fullness by strips of embroidered ga 1loon set below the shoulders,and coming to a point at the collar. In the point thus made is

Bet a full fall of lace, or a fan of silk, or a big bow of ribbon with long ends. That is one way of doing it. If the jacket is light, you will use either black or cream lace; if it is dark, you will make the best of it, and use black lace that is heavily embroidered with colors, or that Is even tinseled. For very slender people queer little jackets are made that hang in the back the way the Greek tunic used to hang in front. The whole thing is a sort of box pleat, the middle of it being shorter than at the sides, and it Is of course, very loose. Such a jacket is made of material to match the dress, and Is usually part of a really elaborate theater or carriage costume. Now and then they are made of a rich piece of India embroiderod goods, and lined with thin India silk of some very bright color. The sleeves are only another pair of box pleats that hang short on the top of the arm, and are long and away from it below. Of course, such sleeves will acc ommod'ate any sized puff. Jackets tight litting and finished with the “butterfly” collar are turned out by the thousand and sold at such low figures that they cannot fail to bo very

common. The mode is not particularly becoming, the butterfly collar making one seem short-necked and narrowshouldered. Jackets are mostly either half way to the knee or quite to the knee. The little short jacket so nobbylooking a season ago is no longer stylish. Sleeves are all very big, In the vain hope that they will be big enough to go over the puffs beneath, but they won't. The only sleeve* that will do this are the box pleat kind which I have mentioned, and another sort which are really only exaggerated epaulettes at the shoulders, the seam under the arm opening some distance down, and so enlarging the armhole and closing with hooks and eyes, buttons, or ribbons to tie. The epaulette ialls ioose to about the elbow, and there is a lower sleeve that goes on separately over the hand. It is fastened by a couple of ribbons that run under the epaulettes to the armhole of the jacket. These ribbons may be sewed in permanently. When adjusted this sleeve, epaulette effect and ail, is notunlike anymodish sleeve. Bolero jackets of all kinds ate shown in such profusion that one does not know what to say about them. Most of them are hardly more than a pair of sleeves held together by a flaring collar. Others are really a protection as well as an accessory, and are made of' bright-colored velvet, puffed sleeves and double-breasted. These are as pretty things as can be worn with 6oft muslins. They seem more part of the costume with which they are worn, however, than a jacket. Some jackets in mode-color cloth and black are pretty much like a section of a Mother Hubbard cut off at the knees or just above, and they are quite as ugly as they

sound, even though the sleeves be made so elaborate as to obscure the rest. A few very swell jackets flare at the bottom and have enormous rever sleeves. They make the average little plump woman look like some feariul aod won ■ derful new kind of bug, while the slender and tall girl is—well, impressive, to say the least of it. The pretty garment of the initial is tight-fitting, back and front, and has a rolling shawl collar with revere. The back is cut in one and joined to the side backs, a narrow braid covering the seam. A pleaded piece is inserted at the bottom and reaches to the waist line. The jacket has a short cope about fifteen inches wide sewed to the jacket in the back, but loose in front and laid in box pleats all the way around. It can be lined with changeable or plaid silk and trimmed with three rows of machine ,

stitching around the bottom, down the fronts, on the cuffs of the sleeves, and also ou the collar and cape. The edges are finished with a narrow braid. The sleeves are quite full, are also lined with silk, and the braid is sewed on at the wrist to imitate a cuff. The jacket fastens in front with small buttons, an extra piece being sewed on for buttonholes. The young lady’s cape next shown is made of cloth ond is finished with machine stitching. It has a large boxpleat behind, and the second, smaller cape is gathered around the neck and sewed to the lower one. If desired, the cape can be lined 1 with thin silk and edged with fancy braid. As already hinted, these capes are just the correct thing at present. This bolero jacket is to be worn on warm spring days as a substitute for

heavier capes and mantles, and is made of dark-blue cloth. It is quite short, and embroidored with green silk and metal threads. The fronts turn back, forming revere. The latter us well as the shawl collar are embroidered. It is lined with green silk. Neither lace, feather, nor flower boas is the right thing in summer. The lace is apt to look stringy in less than no time, the flowers are scratchy, and the feathers are too much like winter, besides being dreadfully warm. The question has been solved, however, A scarf about half a yard wide, and long long enough to reach nearly to the hem of the dress, is edged with feathers set on thickly and softly, the quills being covered, hidden, and kept from scratching by a puffing of the crepe. Crepe and feathers match as nearly as possisible. Such a scarf is every bit as becoming as the feather boa, indeed it is more so to short-necked folks, and it is as pretty in itself, besides being neither too warm to wear nor scratchy. One more advantage, if your winter boa has grown shabby and you have infinite patience, you can use tho feathers that are left and border a scarf for yourself. It will need more patience than you will think when you begin. The first full-length picture is a costume intended io be worn as u carriage dress, and is made of dotted silk in a light shade. It may have a basque of the silk or a blouse, as shown in the illustration. The skirt requires six or seven breadths of silk and the seams of the back breadths are biased on both sides; the front breadths are only biased on the sides joined to the back, and the other seams are curved so that the skirt will fit snugly over the hips. The back may bo gathered to the waistband or laid in two deep box pleats. The skirt is lined with silk and has a flounce of silk on the inside. The blouse lias a tight-fitting lining and hooks in Ihe center. It has a V-shaped

plastron in front, of the silk used In the skirt. The back and front are cut rather full, so that the blouse hangs over a trifle and a draw string conflni sit at the wa’st. It has a bioad, rever-llke shawl collar of volvet lined with silk. The sleeves are tight and have a large puff trimmed with a bias fold of velvet, at the top. The cuffs are plain. This charming costume is completed by a toque of pink crepo de chine having a fluted brim edged with jet trimming. The crown is shirred and three tips are placed in front. The tie-strings are pink ribbon. The last illustration brings us to a pretty costume, with which a jacket is worn which fastens to the center underneath a box pleat, wider at the bottom than at the top. The back is also laid into a box pleat, held down, if necessary, by an ornament of passementerie. In front, reaching to the side seam on both sides, is a yoke of the same material, covered with black guipure lace hav,ng the form of a short Spanish jacket. The ends fall over each otljer gracefully. The sleeves are plain and have epaulettes of gathered lace. This ja-ket is made of grayish lavender cloth. The skirt showing below has the new funnel shape. It is lined with silk and stiffened with haircloth to about twenty inches from the bottom and clears the ground. The back breadths are gathered and the front is plain and tight over the hips. The skirt is trimmed with bias folds of dark lavender velvet, edged with slightly gathered rutiles of lace. The inside also has a gathered lace ruffle, tnd the bottom is finished with braided silk cord. With regard to skirts, it is now said that crinoline and wires will only be used where a lack of efficiency on the part of the dressmaker makes her unaable to accomplish the requ red flare by m re art Stic means. According to these authorities only very foolish folk are putting crinoline into the dresses themselves as part of the lining. The way is to insert one or two crinolined ruffles. These can be renewed, and they w 11 need it almost as often as the lately used and so pret.y 6ilk ruffles did. The effect of the gtwn with crinoline inserted in the lining, after one good wett ng about the hem, can be better imagined than described. Copyright, l >:u.

A MODISH CAPE.

A PRETTY BOLERO.

FOR THE CARRIAGE.

THREE-QUARTERS LENGTH JACKET.