Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — GOWNS AND GOWNING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOWNS AND GOWNING.

WOMEN GIVE MUCH ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY WEAR. Brief Glaaeea at Fenrte. Feminine, Frtvoloea. Mayhap, and Tat Offered la tae Hope that the Bending May Prove Bnetfal tn Wearied Womankind. Gomip from Gay Gotham. New York correspondence:

■y. m ICHLY made “sets* I J for adorning gowns Parnow come in two I 1 pieces: a collar, with Ball the necessary elaborations of bertha effect, frill and cape or collar- \ ette, and paniers. A l\ | pretty design of this \\ sort snows a folded collar of sage-green 1 V’k velvet, with lace Vi\ \ falling in cape sashV \\\ ion over the shoulJl'tM . ders. The paniers QvATlareof the lace set <ron a folded heading the velvet and they are to be at-

tached to the edge of the bodice. Many made-up accessories oome to be basted on to gowns, much as real lace is, and in these, cuffs are added to complete the set. In the dress first shown here, the bands on skirt, bottom of bodice and cape are a handsome silk passementerie, and the fabric used for the dress is a dark-brown cloth, the skirt panels and upper sleeves being black mirror velvet The bodice is garnished With a separate collarette made of cloth and velvet and topped by a high Stuart collar. It is designed for a calling gown. A jacket of anew shape having a bell cape and also in brown cloth is the next garment presented. Its chief novelty is in the cape, which is cut circular, edged with fur and forms a big pleat in the back which makes it about fifteen inches shorter there than at the sides. The garment hooks ip front and is garnished with ornamented buttons, while the fronts must be of sufficient width at the bottom to permit the edges to be laid against the side seams, where they are apparently fastened with other similar buttons. The cape is cut with long ends reaching to the hem of the jacket, which are draped at the bottom and faced with light-brown silk. This is but one of

the abundant novelties in outside garments which are being offered for late winter and early spring wear. One other striking sort is an Inverness cloak made up for the tailor-made girl in exact imitation of those planned for her brother. They are very effective, and so dressy and convenient that even girls who are not strictly tailor-mades wear them.

It is a difficult thing to understand the system which governs the production of these new things, and it sometimes seems as if even our everyday garments are planned to show the characteristics of a carnival season, in their fantastic and odd arrangements. Buch a thing as an old-time winter coat is altogether out of the question. The lucky owners of carriages revel in the most gorgeous cloaks, and elderly matrons give a decided preference to a costume made of heavy cloth, which combines dress and coat and is usually trimmed withfich furs, passementeries or jet The same applies to younger women with this difference: that they affect a more youthful and jaunty style and sometimes even wear whole costumes of fur, but more frequently short jackets of it If cloth be chosen, then a Figaro jacket of fur, or a double fur cape, the upper one very much rippled and full, giving sometimes an almost grotesque breadth to the figure, takes the place of the customary coat. A glance at some of these elegant capes and jackets is enough to convince that no idea of economy is furthered by leaving out the coat—far from it. Many times, however, these short jackets are of the material of the costume itself, and in that case they are bordered only with narrow bands of fur. Such a costume is before you in the next picture. Here sage green

cloth is the material. The skirt is seven gored, fitting closely at the hips, and is trimmed with a band of Persian lamb at the bottom. The waist is perfectly plain, back and front, and tight fitting. Over it comes a small Figaro Jacket which reaches almost to the waist line. It has a turn-down collar of the fur and the goods are gathered in front to form a Knot at the bust line. The sleeves are a very wide

Bishop with a double frill at the bottom and the last one is edged with fur. The ruffles of the sleeves are reproduced at each side of the muff worn, and again the last one is fur-edged. Lenten hop-sacking, a cloth of very loose weave with a thread of black or white darned in and out through the meshes, has been made up extensively for street gowns of the present somber season. A dainty sort of collarette is really nothing but a square of chiffon with a hole cut out of the center. A slit is made from the edge to the middle where the opening is desired, and a folded collar of velvet is added as finish to the neck. It is worn so as to have one point hang each side of the shoulder. The edge is finished with a frill of lace set on an insertion heading. Rose-pink chiffon takes a collar of Havana brown velvet; cream and gray are combined, and purple and black. This style was a great opportunity for one wicked little woman who had a real lace parasol top—one of those wee parasols. She cut the center out, fol-

lowing the design of the lace, which showed points converging to the center. She ran baby ribbon from point to point, strengthening the holes for the ribbon with button-hole stitching. She made a yoke with folded collar of eminence velvet This being adjusted first, she pulled the baby ribbon as far open as it would go, put on the parasol cover over her head, pulled the points up snugly at the bae of the folded collar, tied the ribbon, tucking away the ends underneath, and then went about looking just as if she didn’t care how many people lost their minds trying to make out how she got Into her oeautiful neck rig. It is a shame to thus encourage surgery in lace, and to foster cruelty to women who suffer untold misery from wondering “how she got into it.l There was no more fur on the dress of the third picture than there is in the composition of the fourth example shown. Yet the former was an out o’ door dress which was especially designed for wear without a coat, and the latter is an indoor dress. Still both are very stylish and entirely consistent with present fashions, which exhibit a good many incongruities. Pale tan-colored cloth trimmed about the skirt’s foot with a twenty-five inch band of sable, seems a pretty warm sort of house dress, but it all looked very handsome and so positively new! Tabs of the fur extend above this band, as shown, and in the corners thus made, applique designs of heavy cream guipure are put. The ornamentation of the bodice is in keeping with the design of the skirt trimming. The sleeves are made of brown mirror velvet, with lace appliques on the puffs and sable bands come across the shoulders and meet in a point behind. Fur adorns the right hand dress in the last picture, too. and this time the pelt is mink ana the dress goods golden brown cloth. The bodice is tucked under the draped skirt, and is finished with wide draped revers of moire antique, bordered with fur and faced with brown cloth. The plastron in front is made of brown cloth, trimmed,

as .shown, with silver braid, and the hem of the bodice is finished with a narrow moire belt piped on both sides with the same braid. The bottom of the overcoat, too, is trimmed with four rows of it. In the other dress of the same illustration a return is made to first principles, and jet embroidered tulle lace is used for trimming, and fur doesn't appear at all. The skirt is trimmed with a draped flounce sewed into three tucks at the bottom and festooned by means of bias folds, over which areput jet nail heads and butterflies. The blouse bodice hooks at the side and is trimmed with tulle lace having vandykes of black satin. The sleeves are made of satin, with a draped puff partly covered with lace epaulettes, and nave cuffs entirely covered with lace. A wide belt of folded black satin which hooks at the side comes around the waist. Of this pair the first-described shows an unobjectionable sort of overskirt, but some of them are hideous things. One of these, though quite permissible, gives plainly the effect of an abbreviated dress-skirt worn over another one, on the principle that one had a good top and the other a good lower edge. The two skirts may contrast most unpleasantly with each other in color and material. If only you will carry out the combination in the bodice, you have the sanction of fashion for your attack upon other folk’s sense of the fitness of things. Copyright, 1894. Malachite, agate and azurine, when broken, may be cemented with sulphur, melted at low heat, so as not to change its color, in which different pigments are stirred to give it proper tints like the stones. It is possible that the United States Government will hereafter do its own printing of postage stamps and postal cards.

A BELL CAPS WITH DRAPED TAB.

NO SAVING HEBE BY BRING COATLESS.

FURRED FANCIFULLY.

CONTRASTED TRIMMING.