The changes for the season are not in general very striking. There is said to be an unusual prevalence of sombre colors, with artistically agreeing brighter ones. Striped silks, taffetas, and barèges, are all in vogue.
ForBonnetsthe materials employed are very numerous. Paille de riz, fine Florence straw, gauze, tulle, crape, and crêpe lisse, are all fashionable; silk, also, but it is not much in request. The stripes are round, very open at the sides, but not standing out so much as they were last season over the forehead; the crowns are also very low, and the curtains full, and always short enough to be becoming. Among the most elegant rice straw bonnets are those lined with white tulle and ornamented with tufts of violets and snowdrops, the exterior decorated with a wreath of the same flowers. Others have exteriors trimmed with a light panache, composed of fuschias, heliotropes, and sprigs of eglantine, mingled with long blades of grass (this ornament droops over the brim on one side), the interior trimmed with small tufts of fruit blossoms. Rice and Florence straw bonnets are trimmed with a petite couronne of rose and white marabout tips, forming a tuft on each side; the interior is lined with rose and white tulle bouillonnée, and tufts of narrow blonde intermingled with small tips of rose marabouts. Bouquets of white roses and flowers of the double-blossomed peach are also in great request for these bonnets. The majority of gauze, tulle, crape, and crêpe bonnets, are trimmed in a light style with flowers or marabouts. French chip, trimmed with broad lace, promises to be considerably worn. Plain straw is always respectable, but it is less worn this season than heretofore.
InPromenade and Carriage Dressesthe redingote form is adopted in plain silks of a quiet kind, or striped, that are not showy, for the promenade. Redingotes for carriage dress are much trimmed, some with passementerie, lace, or ribbon; lace is much in vogue; ribbon is more so; it admits of a great variety of forms; one of the most novel is a cockle-shell wreath arranged intwo rows of festoons up each side of the front of the dress. Fashionable as flounces are for in-door and carriage-dress, they are, comparatively speaking, little seen in the promenade; the extreme width of the skirts, which does not seem at all likely to diminish, accounts in some degree for this.
InEvening Dressessilks predominate for robes, but always the new spring silks, the heavy ones being quite laid aside; the bodies are cut low, but moderately so; they are of the Louis Quinze, and la Grecque styles; the latter have the draperies attached by knots of ribbon, or brilliant ornaments, as the dress is rich or otherwise. A deep fall of lace, placed under the last drapery, is looped with it in the centre, and also on the shoulder; it turns round the back, and falls,en mancheron, over the sleeve, which is always very short if the corsage isà la Grecque. The Louis Quinze has the lace disposed in a full fallà l'enfant; or also a berthe, either round or pointed; the latter isen cœur, very voluminous at the top, but with the lace narrowing to a point at the waist; the skirts, if trimmed, are flounced, but many are made without garnitures. Several white dresses, trimmed, with black lace, have lately appeared; this fashion gains ground, but it is not yet a decided one.
The majority of evening dresses combine richness of effect with the light textures adapted to summer, ball, and dinner costume. Dresses of white crape have been made with double jupes, or with three flounces, the latter edged with pink-ruches, or with four or five rows of narrow ribbon. The berthe is of the shawl form, and should be trimmed to correspond with the flounces, either with ruches or rows of ribbon. A bouquet of flowers may be worn in the centre of the corsage. New barège dresses are made with three flounces, scalloped, and trimmed at the edge with a quilling of ribbon. The corsages of some of these dresses are made close to the figure, and with basques; the latter, like the flounces, having a scalloped or vandyked edge, trimmed with a quilling of ribbon. Other dresses of the same material have drawn corsagas, and then the top flounce is set on at the lower end of the waist, and by that means serves as a basque. The flounce may be open or not in front. Sleeves are almost universally worn open at the ends, whether the dress be plain or of a superior kind. The under-sleeves worn in dressed costume are also open at the ends, in the pagoda form, and are trimmed with fontanges or frills of lace, or richly worked muslin. Dresses intended for walking or négligé costume have muslin under-sleeves fastened at the wrist with turned-up cuffs. For sleeves reaching to the wrist, and not open at the ends, cuffs of various patterns are worn. Those generally adopted have two or three buillonnées, with a row of lace between each; or a single buillonnée, edged by a lace frill, falling over the hand.
Manteletsare likely to supersede pardessus in a great degree; there is a variety in their forms, and they are made of silk, muslin, and lace. The Medicis, the Violetta, and the Victoria, are the most remarkable of the new shapes. The first is of deep violet taffetas, small, and the hind part of an oval form—the garniture composed of three flounces, cut in dents, and encircled with a deep fringe, surmounted by a light embroidery; a narrow flounce in the same style goes round the throat. Being set on full it has something of a ruff.
Black Velvet Collarsdate from the earliest days of Louis XV., for thebeau monde, who adopted them from the peasantry, with whom they had been long in vogue. They are now revived, and likely to become general. The collar is a black velvet ribbon, never very broad, crossed on the throat, and fastened by an ornament of jewelry or gold, according to the fancy or the fortune of the wearer; the ends descend upon the neck, and some are bordered with seed pearl or diamond fringe. These collars can be becoming only to blonde belles.
There is no probability of any radical change in the costume of women of the better classes.