PARIS FASHIONS.
(From our own Correspondent.)
We are in the midst of the concert-season, and for the moment ball- dresses are forgotten. Wreaths and garlands give place to light tulle bonnets, and these, • destined to grace tae promenade, begin their ex- istence by candle-light. At musical reunions it is the custom to wear velvet, satin, and moire dresses ; or robes de bid are freshened up by the addition of sonic new trimming. Now, la lingerie de fantaisie comes in handily ; for a low dress is all at once modified by the substitution of a jacket-berthe, and sleeves of lace or tulle. This berth° is pointed be- fore and behind, and it is made of alternate puffings and rows of white or black lace. Sometimes it is edged all round with a flat tulle ruche, in the hem of which is run a riband, with pretty bows in front and at the shoulders. The sleeves present the same appearance ; but for young girls there is nothing more becoming than a berthe made entirely of palings, sprinkled all over with Lilliputian velvet bows. The bows, half-hidden in the tulle, look like pretty little insects sporting about a bed of flowers
Seasonable dresses are made of taffetas ; they are for constant wear, and bright colours are worn of an evening with seven or eight little flounces at the bottom of the skirt. No wardrobe is complete without a black taffetas. They arc most useful for walking dresses, and the skirts in this case should be plain, because flounces catch the dust. They can he trimmed en tablier, and with zigzag stripes at each side, terminating inwards by a buckle, which confines the ends of black velvet. These buckles should be in bright or burnished steel, or they can be imitated With small, flat, black buttons, sown together in the shape of an oval. The zigzag is repeated on the corsage, and a buckle on the shoulder holds the long black velvet streamers, which flow loosely over the arm ; the sleeve can be demi-bouffante, with a flat velvet niche below, or very large, with the velvet carried round on the inside. There is nothing more characteristic of the latest fashion than the quantity of velvet em- ployed in trimmings. Riband has fallen into desuetude; it is not even used for bonnets.
In bright coloured and demi-toilette dresses we have adopted the tallied° or slashed sleeve, which is very effective. Imagine a large puff sleeve in which above, and at equal distances, pieces have been clipped out by the scissors, so that, except at the wrist, nothing remains but strips of stuff of the breadth of three fingers. The slashes are bound with a narrow velvet it cheval, and with a very flat black lace, and,they leave to view the under sleeves of muslin or lace. This custom recalls to mind the old fashioned creves, only in the modern sleeve the cut of the slash is more liberal and larger pees of the stuff are removed. The taillade is sometimes filled up by a quilling, but this only happens when the skirt is ornamented. Silk dresses are often trimmed with two quillings laid on, and describing undulations all round the skirt. There should be a second skirt with the same trimmings; and this is espe • elegant in taffetas of two shades, such as two greens, or two This union of tints is not succ....sful in blue.
We continue to blend different colours, more particularly on bonnets. Madame Gervaise, who invented les chapeaux capitonnes with flower*, now mixes ruches in crepe-lisse and taffetas, with wonderful cleverness. As black bonnets are preferred for walking, she produces delightful ef- fects with green crepe and black lace in flat plaitings, to which are added bunches of lilacis, and inside is a black riband wreath. These limn* are so indescribably pretty, that they must be seen to be appreciated. The Pompadour style is always a favourite with young and fair women: Madame Gervaise makes caps of blue tulle, on which a shell-shaped mass of white blonde is filled up by three or four roses without leaves, and inside is a diadem of rosebuds. These delicious coiffures are of the utmost freshness.
The new-shaped mantles are not at present forthcoming. The mate- rial most worn just now is poplin it double face, that is to say, it is one colour outside and another in. Cloth and velvet are replaced by new pelisses, round behind, square in front, and bordered by plaid velvet. Young women and girls give the preference to long jackets fitting the figure' made of bright gray poplin, and piped with blue or cherry- eoloured velvet. The sleeves are straight, long, open, but not at all deep—the veritable sleeve of the moyen age. LEONTE D'AIINET.
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