Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1895 — GOWNS AND GOWNING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOWNS AND GOWNING

WOMEN GIVE MUCH ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY WEAR. Brief Glances at Fancies Feminine, Frivolous, Mayhap, and Yet Offered in the Hope that the Beading Prove Beatfnl to Wearied Womankind. Gossip from Gay Gotham. New York correspondence: 9

UCH showy C adornments a s i gold, strings of heads, spangles and jewels are all BkMk) to be employed in the effects of the Egjr coming elaborate Tj dresses. Many of / the close fitted \ hips will be em>J\ phasized by fesjr\ toons of glittering strings of beads.

and girdles are being shown so much like those worn on the stage by the oldtime queens that only an exclusive society woman would think of wearing in real life such tawdry adjuncts to dress. These girdles are inexpensive enougli when sold as theatrical properties, but are very costly when designed for other than stage wear. They are a series of Unks that pass about the hips, joining in front a little below the waist in a very large and elaborate link. From this hang a series of links that fall to the foot of the skirt, or to the knees. This model is a modification of the original design, which comes from the twelfth century. In those days it was a long band of jeweled chain equipped with a buckle on one end, through which the other end passed, the belt being drawn to suit the costume or the wearer, and the extra length falling loose In front. Originally only this pendent end showed, the blanket or hip drapery being drawn up through the belt and held by it, its extra width hanging over the belt. Artistic selection of these girdles is guided by consideration for their twelfth century adaptations, but it’s not safe to be too faithful in the copying, because either women were more hardy in the old days, or else our climate is more severe. It’s not every costume that will carry off one of these costly affairs success-

fully, and this sort of girdle is but one expression of a general liking for glint and glitter. It’s early yet to tell what winter’s development of this favor will be, but it is quite within the possibilities that the rule will be to have some sparkling accessory, no matter what the means of attaining it. It is a simple enough dress that shows beside the initial, yet the big mauve satin collar, with its pendant tabs and ornamental ro settes is not deemed sufficiently ornate, so the broad expanse of satin is liberal ly sprinkled with spangles, that in g-a.--light or sunlight the wearer can be distinguished from the unsparkling million. As for the rest, the dress is of apricot cloth, its skirt has side-pleated panels at either side of a narrow front, and deep folds at the back. The bodice Is fitted with lining hooks in front, and the left side of the stuff laps over, the edge giving the baggy fulness in the waist The back is of bias material with a few pleats in the waist, and a belt of mauve satin with rosette garniture comes about the waist. Spangled trimming borders the edges of the fancy collar in the next pictured dress, appears nlso at the top of tho plaid panels of the skirt and edges the hem all around, with the exception of the panels. Then there is a circle of it at the top of the fancy collar. Its use here is entirely tasteful, for the costume’s combination of laurel-green mohair and bright Scotch plaid is so striking as to safely admit of rich garniture. Beneath the mohair collar there Is a waist of dark-green satin and bows of ribbon top the collar’s slashes. Last winter’s tidal wave of crepons didn’t strand that material by any

means, for crepon will be worn more than ever, and the women who took advantage of the sales of that fabric during the summer will have saved a lot of money. The experience of this weave Is a marked exception to all known rules, and its revival but a few months after it was worn by almost everybody is so unusual and unexpected an event that even the dealers themselves seem to have been caught by the manufactur-

era. It certainly looked as if the dulera were trying to get rid of their ere pons as a goods that would lack sale this coming season, but how the stuff appears in all sorts of modifications, and any number df materials with erepon characteristics a re'on the market under new names. In the third picture there is a dress of one of these crepons, its shade styled a Louis XV. blue. Its skirt is untrlmmed, and its fitted bodice is entirely covered back and front with embroidered satin of the same shade of the dress, over which are spread the tiniest of sparkling spangles. The .dress goods is draped across this at the front and held at the left side with a rich gold buckle. The fancy bodice will remain for theater wear. The elegance of the elaborate rings that are to be in vogue is quite out of the question for use under circumstances that will bring wear and tear and no credit to the costume below the waist. So plain skirts of correct cut will be worn with bodices of contrasting and fancy material.

These bodices will many of them present the characteristics of those we have been wearing, having blouse or loose fronts, Inlettings of lace, etc, etc. Others will take the coat effect, and with low waistcoat and modish stock and fall of lace present novelties of new diodes. In some cases the skirt will detßf(»J»atrate Its planned association With the bodice and assert its kinship by a lining of the color employed in the bodice, or by the appearance of corresponding material in slashes up the sides. But the reasonable preference will be extended to the perfectly plain dark skirt, except, naturally, for box-party use. Figures, like fashions, change, and though the modification that time works in the former are not brought out with the rapidity of those that affect dress styles, their results are more difficult to manage successfully than are the most unconquerable new fashions. Of courses, if the change in dimensions is a lessening, the matter’s simple enough, but, unfortunately, lb seldom works that way, and ordinarily dressmakers are slow to suggest means of stimulating the slenderness that once was, and now, alas! is not A trick that will help to this end is presented in the fourth illustration, and lies in the V of silk let into the front of the waist. As here used, the silk is pink, and the dress goods gray brllllantine. Bias folds of the dress stuff trim the skirt, ps Indicated, and a row of satin buttons appears over each hip. Like folds outline the vest, and similar buttons are placed beside it, as shown. A plain baud of the goods gives the belt, and the sleeves are puffed to the elbow, finishing in long, tight cuffs. This V device is not enough to overcome great width of shoulders,

but is enough to act as a take-off for the early signs of broadening, when the need of heroic measures has not arisen. Hip display is on its way to faShionableness, and as the princess and petticoat styles are already winning acceptance, (t seems likely that the shepherdess fashions will receive favor, too. To judge by the clothes of the shepherdesses of ’95, the old-time ones now copied had to loop up their overgowns so that they might tend the sheep, without getting their clothes mussy. The effect of the long princess part tucked up to show more of the shorter petticoat was so pretty, and the pretty waist was so emphasized by the fulness about the hips made by the looping, that m’lady a-passing through the fields, straightaway went her back again and looped up hey gown. So, since petticoat and princess are already here, we may be certain of the shepherdess girl, who will promptly bring about her pretty modification of the mode’s stateliness. Then the hip draping will take all sort* of forms, and we shall loop up in the middle of the back, too, when the overgown will be again the looped up overskirt, in vogue about twenty years ago. In the hip pieces of the final pictured* costume, there is just a suggestion of this fashion, though one can easily see that, starting from such a beginning, the fashion may easily be adapted out of anything like close resemblance to the old-time style. This dress is of fancy tobacco brown woolen suiting, is made princess and buttons in front The sides and hip pieces are of plain brown cloth and are bound with fancy woolen braid, which also borders the hem of the skirt, forming sharp points in the centers of back and front The oblong epaulettes of plain cloth hare similar trimming, and the collar is of brown mirror velvet ’ j"

PLAID AND CLOTH COMBINED AND SPANGLED.

A BODICE OF NOVEL SHAPE.

DESIGNED TO DECEIVE.

A FORERUNNER.