(From our own Correspondent.)
At length the lovely weather has come, and the season of airy muslin toilettes, so sweet, so short, has begun in earnest. White, will soon be the order of the day, at least among ladies who make any pretensions to elegance. White pique dresses, with casaques of the same material, trimmed with braid and buttons, are excellent for the country. They stand a great deal of wear, and there is no danger of their tearing in the walk through wood or garden. The sleeves are made large and open for the sake of coolness, and the costume is best completed by a good sized
• straw-hat, ornamented with black or green velvet, and a bunch or gar- land of flowers. Flowers are more used for hats than for bonnets, and we think the prettiest and most effective for this purpose are poppies, clusters of corn, mixed daisies, jasmine, roses, and mignionette. Ranun- culuses of every hue do well together, and so do different kinds of leaves if arranged with mountain ash or elder berries. Mademoiselle Pitrat has invented a most lovely garland of reed leaves, striped with pink, and the effect on rice straw is superb. Dinner and visiting dresses of muslin have two large flounces if the design is flowing, and a number of little ones at the bottom if the pat- tern is small. Gaze de ehamberie and mousseline de chine are the most suitable textures for evening wear; and the flounces, if deep, have a smaller one superposed, or, if they are numerous, the same effect is pro- duced by a frill of riband. Indeed, some skirts are literally covered with miniature riband flounces. Simple white tarlatan is always in fashion. The skirt is trimmed with green or mauve niches of crape or crape
disposed in various ways. The niches can be placed equi-distant all round, or, what is still prettier, they can be arranged to resemble a double skirt. The corsage, if low and square, is finished off by a niche
round the shoulders, or, if it is high, the ruche begins at the waist, is continued up the front like braces, and on the shoulder it terminates with a bow and ends. Some elegant women wear their dresses made of two different materials, one figured and the other plain. The founda- tion is of taffetas, the figured and plain fabrics are let alternately into the flounces, and the low boddice and sleeves are correspondingly fantas- tical. The same sort of robe is constructed with one material and two ' colours, of which one is white. For instance, at the bottom of a skirt is a breadth of coloured taffetas, vandyked in points ; the white fits into these scollops, and so on alternately to the waist. The front width is ornamented with bows and ends of riband or bows of velvet. These • robes are only fit for carriages, and they should be accompanied by a mantle of white lace, or by a taffetas shawl of the same colour as the foundation of the dress, embroidered and trimmed with guipure, or with one of those fringe laces made expressly for this purpose.
LEONIE D' AUNET.
Previous page
