Fig. 1st.—Walking-dress of green taffeta, a skirt and basque. The skirt is made on a band, very full, long, and plain. The basque is close, and much sloped at the hip. It will be noticed that it is very long, approaching the size of the velvet street basques worn last summer. Sleeves demi-long, and flowing, finished with three ruffles, pinked. Large collar of cambric embroidery. Bonnet of drawn taffeta, the same shade as the dress, a light plume at the right. A simple full cap of blonde inside the brim. Rich scarf, oriental style.
Fig. 2d.—A graceful and serviceable riding-dress, one of the best styles we have had for several seasons, being at once suited to the road and becoming to the figure. The skirt is on a band, or under waist, the ordinary fulness and length. The jacket, with its coat sleeves and rolling collar, fits the figure easily, and rounds over the hips into a short basque. A buff chemisette, in the fashion of a close vest, finished by upright linen collar and small flat necktie. Beaver hat and plume, the crown rather higher than has been worn of late. The material may be either habit cloth, cashmere, or merino. Habit cloth, being heavier, seems more serviceable for the road, and keeps in place better.
CHITCHAT UPON NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA FASHIONS FOR JUNE.
This is the favorite month in the year for the display of light and airy styles in our Atlantic cities, the few who have gone to their country houses in advance of the season being replaced by the arrival of Southern and Western belles, refitting at Stewart's, Levy's, Lawson's, Miss Wharton's, and every other fashionable establishment, for the summer campaign at Saratoga and Newport. Every resident has her favorite spring walking-dress, in which to pay her last round of calls, when she leaves her P. P. C., and is "not at home," until autumn comes again, to her dear five hundred friends.
These street dresses are mostly silks, varying from the rich dark poplins and moir antique to the lighter glacé stripes and plaids, or the India foulards, with their close glossy folds. The heavier silks are usually entirely plain in the skirt; even poult de soie, the heavy plain-colored silk that comes next to a poplin in richness of effect, has usually only a deep hem at the bottom of the skirt. The basques and sleeves have all the novelties of style and decoration. For these there are new galloons and ribbons appearing daily, matching the silks in shade, or used as a contrast, as taste may dictate. Velvet uncut, plain, and embossed; moir antique, richly watered; brocaded and embroidered ribbons, varying from one to three inches in width, are used for these heavier stuffs, which are now nearly out of season.
The lighter silks are in stripes and plaids of infinite variety. Green and violet seem to be the favorite shades. These are made with flounces, usually three, nearly the same width, the top one measuring the same from the top of the skirt. Fringe in alternate stripes, to correspond with the silk, is used where much trimming is desired on the edge of these flounces, or they may be simply bound or pinked. Pinking is used more than of late, and, in every establishment where it is done, there are a great variety of patterns, many of them elaborate. We have seen a very tasteful walking-dress, of violet and white plaid—a "quadrilled" silk, the manufacturer calls it—made with three flounces as above, the basque trimmed with fringe (alternate white and violet, instead of being mixed, as was the style) three inches deep. This was, in turn, headed by violet satin ribbon an inch wide, box-plaited on, and continuing around the front of the corsage. The sleeves were flowing, with three rows of fringe much narrower, but exactly corresponding, also headed by the plaiting, and fastened on the inside by a knot of rich brocaded ribbon with flowing ends. This, of course, had an exceedingly elegant effect, and could only be worn by a tall, full figure. We describe it to show how elaborate and costly the trimming of dresses are made the present season, while the materials, silks, tissues, barèges, etc., remain much the same as the past year. Box-plaited ribbons, whether plain, pearl-edged satin, brocaded, or plaided, are much used. It is usual to allow twice and a half the desired length of the trimming in purchasing them. Bows of broader and more expensive ribbon are still used for the sleeves and front of the corsage.
For thin materials, as barège, tissues, etc., in all the fanciful names by which they are called, most of which are manufactured by the importers' clerks, there is every variety of trimming in the shape of gauze ribbons. They have usually a coarse thread in the plain edge, by which they can be drawn up into quillings, ruches, and even box-plaitings. So many yards are used in a full trimming, and it is so expensive, never less, and usually more than a quarter of a dollar a yard, that the trimming and making often cost as much, and even more than the original material.
No city dressmaker, with any pretence to a good style, will undertake to make a dress for less than three dollars. In the really fashionable shops, $4 75 is the charge for making a basque waist, apart from the skirt—silk, buttons, all trimmings charged separately in the bill; so that you have from seven to nine, and even fifteen dollars, to add to the cost of your two yards and a half of silk, the quantity usually purchased for a basque.
We have seen no more tasteful bonnets at any establishment than at Genin's bazaar, which, as most of our readers know, has been elegantly fitted up, and so arranged as to be nearly double the original size, thus leaving plenty of room for a large millinery and dressmaking establishment, carrying out more fully the first design of Mr. Genin. The workwomen have two large and cheerful apartments assigned to them, and the show-room adjoining is always thronged. The nursery department has been removed to this more spacious suite, and the space below the dome is now filled by rows of industrious workers, with the silks and muslins they are manufacturing for the juveniles expressly.