Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1893 — WORN BY THE WOMEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WORN BY THE WOMEN

SOME OF THE VERY LATEST IDEAS IN DRESS. Rakish Trimming* of Braid* Are Much In Use—The Tailor-Made Gown* Are Being Carried Out In the Most Severe Line*. Gotham Fashion Gossip. ,is'ew York correspondence:

AKISH trimmings of braids are used FXk f°r all sorts of gowns for all kinds of occasions. Thus a stylish skirt of 1 very heavy repped 1 80 f wool has two bands v&J of wide Hercules KL / braid at each side My from belt to hem. Buttons and but--1 \ tonholes are added n 1 on the braid as far M as the nees, and ■WI on one side these r/ * buttons and but- % Wl tonholes are practicable, for the skirt really butvly\S tons on, not all the ■pt-jK way down, to be sure, but just far

enough to make getting into it an easier matter than is usual. The set of this skirt is a wonder; front and sides are stiff as board and sweep out in a beauteous inclined plane from belt to foot. At the back it lies in heavy or-gan-pipe flutes. The stiffness is due partly to [crinoline and partly to the weight ana close weave of the goods. The bodice is a round waist with cute little skirts attached, and fluting as prettily as does the back of the dress skirt. Sleeves are leg-o'-mutton with coat cuffs turned back loosely; the bodice opens over a vest of silk, and there are stiff revere that flute a little at the edge. The wool stuff is a bright green ground, heavily reppod in dull red, a line of brown running on the green ground between the reps and softening and enriching tho entire effect. The vest and braid are shot green and brown silk. The skirts of the bodice, the entire dress skirt and the cuffs and revere are lined with a bright emerald shade of silk. The whole combination is most stunning,

but it is all very heavy. Really, it would be better to let a maid follow trundling the gown in a wheelbarrow, that all may admire. It will be, you will find, too much like work to carry it. Women now are excessively careful that their house gowns shall harmonize with their rooms. A well-khown society woman always sends her dressmakers a sample of the curtains hanging in the reception rcom in which the dress ordered is to be worn. Even little breakfast gowns are carefully selected to harmonize with whatever the scheme of color may be in the dining room. It is even said that one young lady insisted that her fiance should give her full information about the plans for furnishing the house in which he intended to receive her, contending that otherwise she should not dare select any of her more elaborate gowns. While many of us are not in a position requiring such extreme care, it may be as well to avoid a receiving gown of a color that will distinctly clash with the walls of your room, or the chair upon which you may perhaps be seated. After the initial, which presents a simple and dressy walking costume in gray cloth, there comes a houso dress which .is a safe one for any ordinary surroundings. It is made of black silk with a yellow stripe through it and strewn with little yellow dots. The bodlco' fastens at the side and is cut on the cross. Two wee bows hold the bertha in place and the collar, of velvet, is trimmed with yellow ribbon. The companion figure displays an odd and yet very swell example of stylish mourning. The gown is in black orepon and the cape corresponds and has a band of crepe cut on the cross about

the edge. A crepe ruching ges about the Leek and a small bonnet i-> worn trimmed with two crepe bows. Another dressy bit of mourning is portrayed at the right in the third illustration. In this model, which is designed for a young or middle-aged matron, the skirt is mode of black cashmere trimmed with three graduated rows of crepe. The jacket is of cloth with a pretty butterfly cape of. crepe. Although, as shown, the dress is for mourning, It can be carried out for any other time by substituting velvet for the crepe trimming. The other street costume of the same picture has its skirt of dark-brown cloth trimmed only at the hem with a narrow flounce. The pretty cape is trimmed with three rows of otter fur, as is the deep collarette. The Medici collar is warmly lined with the same fur. Dark-blue, quite the usual yachting shade, is combined with a dull grassgreen for the street, and in m.ny instances in most extraordinary fashion. Only that the green is too evidently a new color to permit anyone for a moment to imagine that the gown was other than a fresh inspiration of the latest craze, it would be supposed that the girl had made some awful mistake

As for instance, a gown of blue rough cloth is made quite plain with a full gored skirt. Over this is worn a Russian blouse bodice of the green cloth, the skirts coming well down and hot buttoning below the waist lino. Over the blouse is worn an Eton jacket of the blue cloth, cut short in the back and front, and hanging loose and open with little revers at the collar. If the green thing were left off the rest of the gown would be recognized as just a little outing affair, but that cannot be suspected either, because as the girl steps up the high curb the blue skirt is lined, as far as you can see, with green silk to match the green bodice affair. So it must be all right, you decide, and sigh with wonder. Tailor-made gowns are being carried out in the most severe lines, the only concession to the present mode being in the gored skirt, but no exaggeration of effect is allowed there even. The bouice tits as a tailor-made must, without a wrinkle. It is double-breasted and has coat collar revors which are no more pronounced than those on a man's coat. The finish of tho gown is in all

ways like that on u man’s suit. Masculine collar, tie and cuffs aro worn and a soft felt hat. The material chosen is an extraordinarily heavy cheviot, in solid black or dark mixture. Every effort is made to render the ?;own conspicuous for alwolute simplicity and freedom from all exaggeration of style. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that such a gown costs about three times the usual ornate and iiddle-deo-dee gown, and that proportion generally holds between tho cost of u thing which is elegantly simple and one which is “simply elegant.” Pretty capes are shown In bewildering variety, und two pretty velvet ones are sketched in the nnal two pictures. The first of these is In black velvet lined with pink silk. Rows of small jet ornaments hide each seam of the narrow breadths of velvet, and the epaulettes and collar are profusely trimmed with passementerie. A jet ball fringe finishes the cape's edge. The epaulettes come over to fasten at the (font of the oape aud must tie well stiffened with crinoline. Miroir brown velvet composes the other pretty ga> ment. It is lined with turquoise blue silk and ornamented at the shouldors with points of jet. What appears in front as a ruching of velvet falls In a hood at the back. The latest and most hideous idea for skirt decoration is a series of ruffles set a-tilt in a manner calculated to make a woman fall over her hose directly she gets into the skirt. The first ruffle starts in tho back as high almost as the hips and in its progress to the front dips to a level below the hips right in front. The next frill is set just below the first and accomplishes a corresponding dip from back to front, and so on down. When a ruffle in its

dip hits the edge of the skirt it U stopped there and taken up on the opposite edge of the skirt to continue ill reckless career to tho starting place at the back. The frills, of courso, got shorter and shorter till the last appears only at the back, and for a tiny space to each side. It is surely safe to say that no woman could comfortably Keep her balance In such a skirt. But with a bit of grumbling at an occasional crazy or demontod trimming we should remember one groat advantage to the sex due to the wide skirts. That is the improved gait women hare acquired since these now wide gowns came in. Wtmen should be grutoful, for there was never a skirt so pietty, so light, or so easy to wear as tne unexaggerated example of the skirt fashion now gives us. Lot us stick to it. A generation of such skirts would do much to reorgani e women physically, and give her again the grace it is said she so sadly lacks just now. With the advent of real cold weather the great big muffs of our grandmother’s day are to be carried, and they are surely a lot more sensible than those of a few years ago, that hardly warmed the tips of tne tiniest fingers. The big ones are so nice to keep tho hand* warm when coming home from the party, and they do say, those who aro old enough to know, that the c b'g muffs will hold three hands as well a* two. and that is a big advantage. Copyright, lsus.

A HOUSE DRESS BESIDE SHOWY MOURNING.

FALL FROMENADE COSTUMES.

A CAPE IN BLACK VELVET.

ANOTHER OF BROWN VELVET.