FARIS FASHIONS.
(Trona our mon (Jorrespondent.)
it is high time that our gay and brilliant carnival should have come to a conclusion ; for it is certain that our belles dames must sooner or later have succumbed under such prolonged fatigue. With Lent comes a temporary repose, quite indispensable to our tired lathes. In reunions where thew is no dancing, the simple toilette of tulle is replaced by coloured tarlatans, and white lace gives place to black. We recommend urlatan dresses of dark blue, violet, or green, with eight small piped floufees, surmounted by a flounce of black chantilly. Dresses in stuff are worn with upright trimmings in the form of a pyramid, very pointed where they finish, but not reaching so high as the waist. This charm- ing novelty should be placed at each seam on the skirt, and it may be ornamented with horse-shoes of fringe about four in number ; or the horse-shoe may be made of lace or guipure. Moire francaise, striped, is fashionable. The skirts are worn plain, and the corsage is arranged like drapery which is finished off on the shoulders with a bow of fringe. The whole dress presents a very elegant appearance when a scarf of the same material, edged with a niche of ribbon, proceeds from the figure and is fastened down on the middle of the skirt by a large bow and long ends. When moire francaise is employed for a robe de ville, the stripes are abandoned, and their place is supplied by plain and quiet colours : the boddice should be made to wear with a waistband, fastened by a double buckle or a cravatte knot. It should be high to the throat ; but quite young girls have them cut slightly square. La maison Gagelin has recently revived the sleeve known as the Charles Quint, which is well suited to the dresses we have just described. It is very large and shaped so as to liberate the arm and to display the muslin or lace of the undereleeve.
The same maison has invented a mantle, which takes precedence of all others. It is a sort of square pelerine, long before and behind, and short at the shoulders. It can be worked with silk or jet, or trimmed with two rows of deep lace or guipure. It is high to the throat, there- fore warm ; at the same time it is degagee and graceful, and it is emi- nently suited for early spring days such as those in which we now revel. In a short time this mantle will be teen in all the caleches which haunt the Bois de Boulogne. This bright sunny weather has forced our large houses to invent things specially suited to the temperature. The Maison Gagelin, inspired by the spirit of novelty, has produced some exquisite sorties du bal and paletots for morning wear. One of these is a burnous of purple cashmere, the hood and corners only embroidered with gold and black .braid in delicate arabesques. The surtout Napolitain is made of fancy cashmere, grey and white, with plaid velvet braces and a new shaped hood with fringe and tassels. For walking or riding nothing can be better than those little paletets of double-faced poplin, where the out- aide is one colour and the inside another. They arc very simple and convenient, and sometimes they are made with sleeves and little pockets. The double cashmere burnous, light grey, ash coloured, or chestnut on the outside and striped within, with a bonne femme hood, is very suc- cessful, and it may be worn all the summer in the country or by the sea- side.
Sleeves and collars, which play such an important part in a woman's toilet, will soon receive their full share of attention. Several novelties in this department have already been started. Sleeves with one puff and a double flounoe of tulle, in - the hems of which is run a coloured ribbon, are very pretty, and light up a toilette amazingly. To make them handsomer, a lace insertion may be let in between the last flounce and the puff. Charming collars and sleeves are composed of valenciennes insertion, and a lattice-work of narrow velvet, blue, green or mauve.
For a demi-toilette, fit for dinner or the theatre, nothing can be more graceful than the double braces, with long ends before and behind, in- vented by lea dames Mouree. They can be made in black or white, tulle or lace; they are always ornamented with two rows upon a founda- tion of tulle bouillonnee, and are trimmed in various ways with velvet, which should be of a colour to harmonize with the rest of the dress.
LEONIE D'ArNET.
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