BELOW LAUNSTOWN CASTLE.
The advent of new ideas in clothing has been later this year than usual, and we were well into the middle of November before we recognised many things as novelties in the shops, even though they were well filled with new dress manufactures as usual. Stripes are a great deal worn in all materials, but checked stuffs show signs of being rather more popular, and the fine-lined checks with which we began the autumn have grown into greater squares as the time has gone on. But these new checks are not at all in the direction of Scotch plaids, nor do they show any tendency to such garish colouring. Their hues are singularly well chosen, and even when the plaid is large it is neither ugly nor aggressively visible. They are never produced in more than two shades of colour, and they are mostly made up with velvet of a dark shade, nearly akin to that of the darkest shade of the plaid. These woollen materials are coarse and heavy-looking, and nothing seems more popular than serge and serge grounds to woollens of all kinds. Angola wools, with their long, untidy-looking, hairy surfaces, are also much liked; nor must I forget the new woollens, with stripes of braid in high relief on them.
There are great numbers of fancy silk materials to mix with fine woollens, such as chess-board designs in velvet and plush on a satin ground; plain and fancy stripes in plush and velvet; velvet, with crossbar designs in terry; brocaded silks, the brocade being in velvet, terry, or plush; and silks with stripes in imitation of lace. All these may be called trimming materials, and are used for underskirts for woollen materials as well.
There are several things in the winter fashions which are quite fixed. First, that there are no trains to any dresses, whatever people may say—save and except to court dresses and the evening gowns worn by a few dowagers who fancy old ways the best. The general idea with reference to all draperies, overskirts, panels, and skirts is to give length and height; therefore, those of my readers who are very tall will have to use some judgment in choosing a skirt that shall not make them look too gigantic. Most of the morning dresses are made of two woollen materials, a better kind of walking or afternoon dress with a woollen and silk material, such as I have described. There do not appear to be any really short tunics, but some dresses have the long overskirt more raised and bunched-up at one side than they have been. The skirts are generally rather wider, but are not distended, except by a moderate tournure. The collar, cuffs, and revers are of the same material as the underskirt, and bands of this material are put round the edge of the overskirt. When this is a plaid it is cut on the bias, and with plaids folds are very much used everywhere that they can be introduced.
The chief changes that one has to chronicle are to be seen in the sleeves of dresses, which, after remaining quite stationary and unaltered for a long time, have now quite blossomed out into new beauty of form, much of which, I think, is derived from Venetian portraiture. The sleeves of evening gowns are all of this class, and have puffs of thin material from the shoulders to the elbow; ending in a plain band of velvet, or a puff of transparent material at the elbow. Some sleeves have puffs inside the arm at the elbow, and end in a plain band or cuff round the arm. In the daytime deep cuffs are much worn; they are cut so as to stand away from the arm like the deep cuffs of a cavalier glove. Then there are puffs at the shoulder; and there is also a new sleeve that has no seam at the back of the arm. Shoulder-straps and epaulettes are very popular additions to the bodice; and we find shoulder-straps without epaulettes, and epaulettes without shoulder-straps, or both together. Some of the shoulder-straps to woollen dresses are of the material of the dress, which may be braided or embroidered.
One bodice which I have lately seen struck me as being both ugly and peculiar, and it must, I am sure, be a faithful copy of a railway porter’s waistcoat—with its front of corduroy, and its back of linen. In the copy, the fronts are of velvet, fancy or plain plush, and the backs are of plain silk to match it in colour, the sleeves being also of silk. One of the new fancies is to make the dress-sleeves like the waistcoat or plastron, the bodice being of a different stuff, and having a small epaulette on the shoulder. I have been careful to give all these changes in detail, as they will, I know, be very valuable to the home dressmaker, and to those on whom the burden rests of “doing up” half-worn dresses, and making themselves look well and ladylike on small means.
Bodices are a great deal trimmed at present. Waistcoats, plastrons, and full or plain plastrons with long revers that extend from shoulder to the point of the bodice, as well as braces, are all forms of trimming. The latter are now put on much higher than they were, and are carried close to the band at the neck, and they sometimes meet in the centre of the back. The sleeves are often trimmed round the shoulder-seams on the bodice—a very useful fashion indeed, as the sides, which are too well worn by the friction of the arms, can be made quite respectable for a longer term of service.
There is no change in the way of making dress bodices. The basques are all cut very short on the hips, and are generally ended in a square-cut tail at the back, with a fan of pleats, or even plain, and not with ornaments at all. The darts in front are cut very high, and are straight in form; and there are two side pieces—one quite below the arm; and the seam of the side piece at the back is as straightly cut as possible. The great fancy is still for a narrow and flat back, and all methods of cutting out tried to produce this effect.
