Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — WORN BY THE WOMEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WORN BY THE WOMEN

SOME OF THE VERY LATEST IDEAS IN DRESS. Mmj New Dmlkiu In Dress CalcnUM Only to Make Money for the Dressmaker*—Thoee Flary Little Coate that Beaemble Penwiper*. Basque* Comint Back. New York correspondence:

ESPITE the fact that skirts are ordered to be tight at the hips, it should make no difference, for we shall have fold and fullness just the same if we want them from the waist. Coat skirts are made very wide and full at the back, hanging in organ-pipe folds. There is something very ichio ana cute about these flary little coats scal-

loping over the close skirts, and Miladi looks more like an idealized pen-wiper than ever. No matter what the fashion is, she manages to look like an idealized something, and one thing is as sweet as the other, so why fuss! Besides, the dressmakers must live. It seems too bad that the disused basque is on its way back. It is not a garment made on lines calculated to snow the figure to advantage, neither does it picturesquely conceal it. The basque is almost always made postilion back, or in some one of the masculine cuts which does not suit the feminine figure, emphasizing ungracefully as it floes the wider hips of women. The iifTerence between the round waist and the basque is that the latter shows some part of it below the waist line. A bodice, properly speaking, extends from the waist lino to the arms; it does not include sleeves and frequently does not include armholes. The prettiest basques are those which have merely

a circular addition to a round waist, but those with continuous breadths extending below the waist line ate again in favor. The part ‘below the waist is made full. A wide-hipped woman must avoid this effect. It really does seem as if woman will not keep away from that trying horizontal across the hips. No beauty is added to the slender figure by cutting it thus in half, and a stout one is made unspeakable. For bow short a time were women content to wear round waists and confine circular trimming to the space from foot to knee on the skirt! Already we are putting bands or frills about the hips, or making skirts to our waists and accomplishing the usually fatal line in that way. When will fashion adopt for her motto, “Let well enough alone?” Alas! That is easily answered. Never. In the initial illustration is shown effectively the prettiest of these two methods of adornment. Here the skirt of lavender crepe is trimmed about the bottom with ruffles each four and onehalf inches wide. These stick out perkily and add nicely to the pretty flare the skirt already has. The ruffles are practically repeated at the shoulders, and the waist is further ornamented by a broad Empire lace girdle, and yoke of the same. The balloon sleeves have a long lace cuff, and a sash is worn with long ends hanging. Tne second and third illustrations are alike in one respect, which is that they show the early developments which point toward the return of the overskirt. This, surely ,is another unwished for visitation. But what else is signified by the elaborate trimmings on skirts at and just below the hips? Just such ornamentation as is seen in these two pictures, and by the double skirt effects now so eager seized upon. Verily, the motto quoted should be framed upon Fashion’s wall. In the dinner toilet of the second picture the material is white open-work muslin with half-inch strips of white and pink,

the whole strewn with hand-embroid-ered dots. The border is pink with fine black lines. The skirt is in two parts, a gored upper half and a circular lower one. The team where both are joined is hidden by a band of lace underlined with pink satin, and a frill of lace. With the toilet is worn a fichu collar, pointed at the waist in front and back, and gathered in a standing collar: it is edged with lace insertion and a lace frill put on straight like that on the skirt. Through the thin muslin is seen the square decollete of the bodice. The foundation skirt of the handsome dress in the third picture is made

of taffeta, and contains four breadths with extra gores at the bottom to give the neoessary three and a half yards of width. Over this skirt fall two skirts of grayish green silk muslin, cut in the Bame style as thy foundation skirt, and each finished with two tiny frills of silk and hemstitched edge, the upper one sewed on with a small head. Above this comes a plain band of lace, the pointed edge toward the top. The belt of folded silk in a contrasting shade is whaleboned, widens at the back as in front, and hooks invisibly at the side. The round yoke and standing oollar are of point d’esprit lace, lined with the green silk, and the yoke is finished with three narrow frills, similar to

those on the skirt, and a ruffle of point lace. The sleeves have very full puffs trimmed with two rows of frills, in groups of three, and the long cuff is slightly gathered in the seam. Women stood admirably the rush upon them of bright green, yellow and imperial purple, and some murmured thankfully that at last they wore spared magenta. But now it is upon them. Conspicuous among the most swellest trousseaus are magenta gowns. Some genius has discovered that light-blue, used in combination with it, takes the curse off magenta, us it were, and really makes an artistic combination. Have you ever noticed the use the skillful modiste makes of black? You exelafcu at a daring combination accomplished, cry that no one but a genius could do it and that it defies oopying. Froquentlp this is because you fail to note the little thread of black that has been used, the narrow row of jetted insertion that oannects the yellow on one side with the utterly impossible green, for Instance, on the other. Sometimes it is a tiny row of frilled narrow velvet, again just a row of jet and nothing more, but the black is always there. That means that the real artist of these matters considers the lilies of the field, the line of the horizon, the effect s of sunset and so on. There sho finds black, sometimes gray and now and again white serving in striking combinations, and being a milliner or a dre*smake of a daring mind she '’goes and does it* in a bonnet or a vest. Then women wonder how she ever thought of it. Quite a new style of bodice is that shown in the next picture and one very prettily kuited for morning wear. It is sketched®ln black and yellow Pekin, the black stripes being strewn with oval yellow Bpots. The bodice drapery crosses in front in Empire style and is set off with guipure In zouave jacket form. This simulated zouave is very effective, especially when costly laces are employed, but inexpensive and pretty ones are always to be found by searching. The narrow pointed waistband makes a pretty finish and is particularly well adapted to the cross-over or surplice bodices now so much worn. The latter are not suited to women of

full figure, but a half hour’s observation on the streets almost any day will disclose a dozen large women in surplice waists, and that meane twelve mistakes, for in each and every case width and rotundity are magnified unpleasantly. Two stylish callers are depicted in the last picture. The standing figure displays a costume of heavv black sicilienne trimmed with yellowish Moorish lace. Around the shoulders there is a cape-like frill of the silk with an insertion of lace, and falling on this are three pointed flaps of silk, two in front like revere and one at the back. The bodice is finished with a pointed yoke of lace and a wide girdle of folded silk is worn. The silk is taken on the straight for the sleeve puff, and the cuff below is trimmed with three lace bands. The skirt is three and a half yards wide and is lined with surah. It is ornamented at the bottom with two fourinch frills of silk, and these are repeated higher up in conformation with the prevalent use of trimming at or below the hips. At the right hand there is a toilette composed of strawberry and green striped silk, and trimmed with black lace. The wide skirt is trimmed at the hem with a bias fold of green velvet, over which falls a seventeen-inch flounce of black lace, finished with a narrower bias fold of the velvet. The bodice has a round yoke of strawberry silk covered with black lace and finished with bretelles of lace headed by a bias velvet band. Both of these dresses are very handsome models. Many bdlt effects have attachment to fall over the hips and usually these pieces are cut into “battlement” squares which are sometimes edged with a tiny frill. In other words, a little while ago belts were elaborated downwards, then they were turned upside down and worn reaching up under the arms, while now they go both ways. What next? Copyright, 1891. There are over 750,000 Odd Fellows in «the United States; 106,000 in Pennsylvania and 70,000 in Philadelphia. Nearly one-half the total number of suicides take place between the hours of 6 a. m. and noon.

THE OVERSKIRTS BEGINNING.

YET ANOTHER STARTING POINT.

WITH ZOUAVE EFFECT IN GUIPURE.

SWELL VISITORS.