FROCKS FOR TO-MORROW.

By“THE LADY DRESSMAKER.”

Justnow there is a very general feeling that women need more oxygen than they get. I do not know if it be owing to the largely-published fact that the Queen spends most of her day in the open air; but certain it is that one of the newest fashions is that of walking, and this has taken, with the leaders of London fashions, the place of cycling, to which they were so devoted two seasons ago. Most of the great ladies might have been seen in the Park during the past spring taking an early walk, frequently accomplishing the round of the Park at a good even pace, which meant exercise and health. Of course, now we know that the best way to avoid fat and keep the slender figure of youth is to walk regularly and constantly, and that any dietary or starving process is unsafe, it is easy to decide the matter for ourselves. Three miles a day is said to be enough, though some people say more. At any rate, it is the regularity which contains the charm and makes its success. And the doctors say that oxygen iswhat is needed to keep the eyes bright and the skin fair and healthy. So, fortunately, walking is cheap besides being fashionable, and it is the only way to find that physical energy without which one is inert and languid. So, now that I have told my readers the latest development in this way, they should try to lay in such a stock of energy during the coming autumn and winter as shall make them perfect giants in ordinary life.

BRAIDED FAWN CLOTH GOWN FOR AUTUMN.

There is another subject which is rather akin to this one, of which I find a note, and that is the general complaints of eye-trouble made this spring and summer by cyclists. It is said to be a form of spring ophthalmia, caused by the particles of dust and decaying matter with which the atmosphere is loaded, which also affect the throats of those who are in the habit of riding with the mouth open. One of the great London dailies has mentioned this subject, and a London specialist of renown has declared that the remedy for the first trouble is to have a pair of spectacles with crape sides—as the wire sides are too hot—and to keep the mouth shut while cycling. A mild antiseptic is used for the eye-trouble, for which a doctor should be consulted.

CASHMERE AUTUMN GOWN.

And now, having informed you of the very latest modes in this direction, we may turn to another note of mine, made at the Women’s Congress in July last, when I quickly noticed one thing, that American women, who are strong on matters of hygiene and ready to take advice on it, had all dismissed veils both with hats and bonnets, and that all the Englishwomen present, with hardly an exception, wore them—of every kind and colour. In fact, an Englishwoman feels her face unclothed without a veil to hide it, and the idea of its becomingness and that it hides the ravages of time is a constantly alleged reason. The American woman, like Gallio, cares for none of these things, and she looks as well. Certainly her skin is as clear and healthy as anyone else’s, and perhaps it is better and rosier in hue. She has attended lectures innumerable on personal hygiene and on physical culture until she knows a few things by heart. They are, that neither sun nor air are enemies to woman’s beauty; and that science declares that veils of all kinds are of no good for anything, and that they affect the eye and its sight most injuriously. The subject of the danger of spotty veils has been frequently ventilated, and yet our women and girls do not seem to have taken notice of the warning. I was much struck with the docility of the Americans in this way; they really tried to follow out every suggestion and discovery which made for better health and improved powers and energies in daily life.

AN AUTUMN HAT.

It is difficult to say whether the revival, which has been very evident, of this early Victorian poke will be a lasting one; but I think it will probably extend into the winter in the form of comfortable velvet and feather creations, in which we shall all look more or less like our grandmothers. Some of us will find them very becoming indeed. The new pokes differ from the old ones in showing entirely that pretty coil of back hair which is so charming a feature of present-day hair-dressing. The old pokes of the beginning of the present reign were not made to do this, nor were they furnished with the pretty tulle strings which add so much to their becomingness. To me,this ancient head-covering is always associated with black ostrich tips and pink roses, but I may find out as the seasons roll that new discoveries have been made in this also, and that will be a decided gain, for there was, if pictures may be trusted, an unpleasant sameness about the headgear of one’s forebears.

The French sailor has been really distinctively the hat of the season. It is a wonderful hat, for it suits everyone, and especially all those difficult to suit on account of either having thin faces or possessed of a few years too many. The brim, moreover, is not too wide, and does not cast an unbecoming shadow. Many women invariably select this shape, and fortunately it is always to be found, as its popularity is quite assured. It is easy also to trim them for oneself, and select a black one trimmed with black net, relieved, if you choose, with a paste buckle; or else a white one trimmed entirely with white tulle or net. These were the most fashionable things of this last season. Fancy gauze is also worn, and the net and gauze ruchings that can be purchased ready-made can be used for them.

It has been also much in vogue during the last few weeks to have hats of this French sailor shape in colours,i.e., greys, fawns, browns, even drabs, trimmed with tulles of the same colour. These have been very pretty, and will be in good taste for the autumn season, as they are suitable for wearing with travelling dresses, and they will be found to survive a good deal of hard wear. It is rather the fashion to wear a veil of the same colour with these hats, the meshes of which are chosen large and the veiling clear, with dots very far apart. Violets and blues seem to me very becoming, but I cannot say that I think the same of reds and pinks. Veils of white lace—washing lace as it is called—are very much used with sailor hats again.

A GOWN OF LACE AND VOILE.

Our illustration of a braided gown of fawn-coloured cloth shows the last new style for autumn wear. The braiding is done in a darker shade of fawn; or, in some cases, in black, or in white; but the dark shade of the same hue is more fashionable. The hat is a lace straw, trimmed with ostrich feathers and shaded roses of a dark hue, and strings of black gauze. This hat, and that shown in our illustration of the single head, are good examples of the autumn afternoon hat; and they are suitable both for visiting, and for garden-parties in the country. The autumn hat is of a white chip, or Panama straw, with black feathers, black gauze, and a paste buckle; while under the brim is a cluster of chrysanthemums in mauve and red.

I wonder whether my readers have discovered for themselves the extreme usefulness of voile as a material? I have illustrated a dress which is, of course, suitable for dress occasions only, but which might be modified, and would be just as suitable during the winter for quiet evenings, as it would be for autumn garden parties.

The gown of cashmere is far more simple. It has revers of satin to match the colour of the cashmere, which is rather an uncommon shade of borage-blue—that delightful shade, so clear and yet not at all crude in tone. The hat is of blue, with a wreath of very tiny mauve flowers resting on a scarf of blue, of the very palest shade of the same.

If it should prove to be a fine autumn and winter, I hear it prophesied on all sides that red will be more worn than even during last winter: indeed, that all bright hues will be in favour.

My last few lines must be devoted to the question of “hats in church,” which seems just now a burning question in America. I read an account lately, in an American journal, of the movement in a part of the Methodist body to do away with the wearing of large hats in church, where their use is even more objectionable than elsewhere in any place where people gather together in numbers. It is said by the advocates of the change that it is not contrary to Scripture, for at the time when St. Paul wrote, the women were in a state of servitude and more or less seclusion, and they are not so now. It seems probable that the movement will spread throughout America. You will find that at many public meetings there, and even here during the Congress, many women took their hats off while the meetings were going on.

Back to Index Next