Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — MOURNING STATIONERY. [ARTICLE]

MOURNING STATIONERY.

Mourning stationery shows greater changes than dress. The deep, blackedged paper and cards are no longer in vogue. A lady who sets many fashions in New York has recently ordered her monogram stamped in black on plain white paper. Many use stationery with a narrow border but do away with crest and monogram while in mourning. If the address be used it is of course stamped in black. Black sealing wax is fashionable, and this has banished crest and monogram from the envelope. During second mourning gray paper has become popular, and gray sealing wax matching the uvelope takes the place of black. When heliotrope is reached in dress heliotrope wax may be employed on envelopes. Memorial cards, which have gone out in England, are occasionally ordered, but the custom is not general. Nor is it considered obligatory to send even a card in answer to a call or letter of condolence. Death releases the afflicted from all social obligations for a period of not lees than a year. Should “complimentary mourning” ever be introduced among us it is possible that those who live beyond their income might resort to a device said to have been used in England, where pater families finds it cheaper sometime* to buy black gowns for his wife, daughters and servants ostensibly for the death of a distant relative rather than fb return certain dinners and balls for which they are indebted to their acquaintances.— [St. Louis Republic.

FASHION NOTES. Leather bindings will supersede velvet on the bottom of dress skirts. Diamond ivy leaves and pearl berries form long sprays for the front of an evening gown.

The Marie Antoinette flehu of silk muslin trimmed with laoe is a great favorite with the young ladies, to wear as a summer mantle. Felix has brought out new sleeves for summer dresses that are composed entirely of frills of three-inch lace from the shoulders; they are edged with Irish guipure, bead fringe or passementerie. The notched lapel collar, which so often appears on tailor-made gowns, loses much of its severity when applied upon the short, full waist of a lately-designed street costume. Sloped gores let into the back of a lounging gown produce a graceful bell effect, and an oddly shaped sailor collar heightens the attractiveness of the garment. A collarette that is coming forward in cotton gowns, and will be repeated in wool later on, is a three-quarter circle, shaped to fit smoothly around the shoulders, and folded to points in front. It is effective in the stiff linon and heavy cotton goods. White braid is most used for the trimming of yachting costumes, though many of the skirts arc quite plain, the revets of the coat being faced and the blouses, or shirt fronts, giving scope for color. Linens this year arc worn for quite dressy occasions—at the races, at garden parties, summer church weddings, etc. Their trim tailor make does much toward rendering them au fait for such uses. Flax gray, pale and deep blue, ecru and chocolate colors are all well worn among the linens, ducks and piques of the season. In evening drosses there is a radical change in the sleeves. The large, full puffs are gradually disappearing, and in their place is a bell-shaped sleeve made of frills lined with a definite color; in fact, all sleeves are becoming less pretentious, and in a very little time the grotesque and aggressive hump on the top of the shoulder will subside altogether. As the chief idea jMt now is to be cool, many ladies have adopted dark or black orepon skirts, with which they wear pale pink, pale blue, mauve, yellow, black or white finely-plaited chiffon blouses ornamented with narrow insertions of Valenciennes, Bruges or guipure in black or biso. Designed expressly for deck and shore wear is a costume in cream serge, striped with fine lines of dark blue. The short jacket is faced with dark blue, and is ornamented with knots and loops of white and gold cord. The white linen vest is fastened down the front with small gilt buttons, and is left open nt the neck, to show collar and cravat. I’llo jaunty cap is of blue and white serge and with the name of a yacht printed on the band.

A new and not particularly graceful fashion is that of plaiting bias bands of silk in rose-ruching fashion and placing them around the shoulders of lace capes. The bands for plaiting are about ton inches wide. A very wide sash-ribbon was recently used on a cape, being plaited very full and used to outline the round yoke, the ends falling almost to the hem of the skirt. Nine yards of ribbon were used in the plaiting.