During the past fow weeks my time has been largely occupied in assisting in the purchase of a very beautiful trousseau. Fashions in dress change so rapidly nowa-days that the bride, wishing to avail herself of the new autumn models, decided to leave the gowns to the last moment; as a matter of fact most of them were only delivered on Friday and the wedding took place on Saturday, so they could hardly have been more up-to-date, more especially as they all hailed from very smart houses, As a consequence of the very large amount of worry which all this shopping has entailed (more especially as the prospective bride first thought she liked one style, and then another, and invariably ended by choosing something entirely different), I 1 feel to have "chiffons" on the brain, 80, for the possible edification of a coming lo in Shanghai, I will describe a few of the dresses I helped to choose.
I think the wedding dress was at once the simplest and daintiest I have seen for long time. My little friend was fair and exceedingly slight, so she needed good deal of flufiiness to give her importance. The gown itself was of the richest ivory satin, not oriental, but at the same time beautifully soft though so full of substance. Round the bottom of the skirt wore numerous little frills of very silky chiffon, arranged so as to form festoons, which ran up at each seam to the height of about twelve inches in front and nearly double that distance behind; each festoon was finished at the top with a small spray of o1 blossoms and from this hung two bel made of very finely tucked and drawn chiffon with just a bud of the blossom inside. These bells were quite the feature of the dress and they were most exquisitely made, quite on the model of a real church bell. "The bodice, which was of swathed satin nearly covered with priceless old lace, was also ornamented with tiny bells and they were used to hold together the satin epaulettes or outer sleeves which partly covered the inner drawn ones of chiffon. As is most' usual now, the bodice was in reality intended for evening wear and was quite low, but a dainty yoke of tucked chiffon, decorated with motifs of drawn chiffon converted it into a day dress and will also make it useful for restaurant wear if necessary.
The going-away dress was perhaps the most distinctively up-to-date gown of the whole trousseau. It was directoire in style and the new shade of blue, a very dark royal which is not quite navy, in colour. The skirt was beautifully cut, quite plain, but very full round the bottom where it was slightly stiffened and much stitched. 'The coat reached nearly to the hem of it, Just at the back it was cut en princesse but the fronts were made in the bolero style, much ornamented with folds and' strappings, ud with an inner vest of most lovely and-embroidery in Eastern colourings just excoptingat thack the of he skirt the coat was put into a stitched velvet waist-baud. The sleeves wore just below the bow and had turned-up cuffs of velvet and inner ones of embroidery to match the fronts. It is a garment almost impossible to describe as it seemed full of complications and a mass of work. The little slip sent home to wear under the coat was dainty in the extreme, and likewise all work. It was white crepe do chine, but one hardly saw that excepting in the sleeves, as the back and fr composed of nothing but inch-wid {of the very finest take) and half-inch folds of the crepe, joined together with a now kind of herring-bone stitch in white silk; cuffs to the elbow wore done to-match, and about every other row of the crepe folds was then ornamented with tiny, hand-covered, pale blue velvet buttons. Such a garment, could easily be manufactured at home, provided only that one pot necessary amount of pal worn with this charming toilette blue beaver, trimmed with velvet to match and two very long shaded blue feathers, seems that these shaded feathers are to be very much worn again this winter, though at the same time one sees in the shops tons of thousands of birds and wings both iv black and white and every conceivable colour and tint. One trembles to think of the numbers of poor little dickies which must have boon slaughtered even to supply London, Letters have appeared in the papers on the subject, but year by year the trade seems to increase. I suppose the demand for bird imining is so great that certain kinds ated solely for the purpose, from which standpoint it really seems no more cruel than the beating in of game is simply to shoot them down, or pigeon matches which I always regard as a very cruel form of sport.
My little friend had two particularly charming evening gowns, One was 9 chine louisine silk, the ground being white and the colouring mainly polo rose with just a suspicion of blue and apple groan. It was adorned with quantities of cream lace and mieux rose velvet. The other was a pale blue satin-finished crepe do chine most beautifully made, It was a mass of frills and ruchings. The estimate for it seemed to me enormous, but when I saw the gown I thought it quite moderate as the material is very costly and endless yards must have been used in its construction. To describe either gown is almost impossible; the skirt of the louisine, however, was somewhat original. The trimming ran up each seam and was composed, of ruchings of the mieux rose velvet put on in a stiff design which rather resembled double lattice work. It was, of course, wide at the hem and ended ina point near the waist. On either. side of the velvet ruches there were tiny frills of cream lace, and where the lattice crossed there were little lace rosettes with tiny velvet centres. Of course it
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.