The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 24, 1904, Page 10

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. - T A BUITTER CQIQRED LINFV Y WI TP CRRI COT OUZ OF FLECE LACE. - o o~ 3 o —— B =, 3 Y Handsome dresses for \tlantic City and New- port and wonderful cos- tumes for inland and mountain — The glori- ous gowns which will blossom out during the London season—Marvel- ous preparations made | by Queen Alexandra to | give London styles the touch of chic which they have always lacked. Augusta Prescott. By gowns were as chic " sighed Queen exandra to Mrs. Arthur Pa- and more,” said Mrs. Pa- n calling her maid she bring from her brough- large package which, carefully ed her » wrapping cloths, lay un- Mrs. Paget displayed to he Q s delighted eyes a gown which, Paris, could not be beaten chic skirt,” said Mrs. Paget of embroidery running around it—s And there is a cunning f half length, just over the There are cuffs and pockets and But here words rth ladies were lost in ad- f one of the prettiest gowns that will be seen this season. Its material was only a butter col- linen. ,But it was embroidered in white. A w band of butter colored insertion wae let into the skirt and the white embroidery made a border at top and bottom of the insertion. The coat was made of piece lace. It was tight fitting at the back and the sides. The front hung open and loose in a fappy which carries a certa‘n grace with it. The pockets and the cuffs were deep and beautifully embroidered in white and the collar was done in the same way. Of course the sleeves had their lace frills. Mrs. Paget, who is the Queen's con- fidante and favorite, went shopping with her Majesty the other day. They shopped afoot and nearly bought out a shop where handsome tubbable summer goods are sold, her Majesty purchasing gowne for herself, the Princess of Wales, the Princess Kar] of Denmark and the Princes Loulse. Mrs. Paget bought a turquoise, a dove colored and a sage green gown, in linen, batiste and lawn. And all the gowns were trim- med with lace. This fashion for lace trimming Is leading ite devotees along odd paths. The spectacle of & woman of fine taste and of very exclusive fashions in dress purchasing light green lace by the yard §s mo unusual one. And, If you follow her, you will see her pass from the “with a row lace coat hips there is a deep collar.” failed, for ored manner, o0 piece lace counter to the batiste coun- ter and buy green bastiste to match. It is then that you begin to appreciate the great changes which have taken place in dress. You may follow her further and see her buy silvered green buttons and, later, you may watch her purchase a light straw hat with long green feather. All the purchases are in the height of style, but so extreme that one must get used to them grad- ually. “How will you make your sleeves?” asked one woman of another after both had been out shopping for styles. Shopping for styles, by the way, is a fashionable pastime. No goods are bought, but you go from window to window making notes and jotting down your selections. Theén you pay a visit inside. AL the different modes are noted and you take full stock of every style in the shop before buying. This arduous task over, the rest is easy. The fair shopper goes out next day and purchases the materials to make the gown which best suits her style and her purse. Or she selects, after she has dreamed about it over night, the gown which is most becoming to her. But the making of the sleeves is the most important thing of all, for a gown is judged not by its materials, but by its sleeves. There are ten new styles of sleeves and each of the ten styles has its own vogue. The bagpipe and the leg o' mutton lead in point of populerity unless ex- ception be made in favor of the sleeve, which is very loose and large and which gradually grows looser and larger toward the wrist, where it falls away in a sleeve suspiciously like the old- fashioned Sowing sigeve, But there '~ a sleeve which is more popular than either the leg of mutton or the bagpipe, and this sleeve is the one which js very full, but 1§ finished at the wrist with a wide band which resembles a cuff. This cuff-like ar- rangement, far from being tight at the hand, is very loose, and inside of it there is set a very wide lace frill. This wide lace frill is a feature of the new sleeved and there are a great many kinds of frills. The most every- day one is the lace ruffle, which is very full, and which can be set in the wrist by any one. It should be graduated in width, with the widest part falling on the under si¢ of the arm. + The wrists of nearly all the new sleeves are very wide and into them there are set lingerie cuffs. These lin- gerie cuffs are made of lace, as their name suggests, and are knife plaited. They are very elaborate and come at all prices up to $50. A very good pair can be bought made in the shops, ready to be sewed in the sleeves, for less than five dollars. A Those who do not want to pay as much as that for the finish of their wide sleeves can purchase some wide lace rufiiing and can sew it in the wrists. It should be three or four fingers deep ahd should fall over the knuckles in a deep, full, pretty lingerie cuff. Old-fashioned sleeves are charmingly finished by cutting them off just below the elbow, where the sleeve is widest. A very deep band of ribbon is now sew- ed to the sleeve, and below this there 1s set the wide lingerie lace ruffie. This makes & thoroughly up to date finish for any pair of sleeves, 8o much interest centers in the sleeve that it is difficult to pass to any other part of the gown. Yet ope must not -colored 3 look dumpy, but be becoming forget the coat, for this Is of supreme importance this year. The coats offer as wide a variety as the sleeves, yet all have certain points of redemblance. All are beautitully made, all are exquisitely trimmed and all are finished with gorgeous sleeves which fall away from the arm in splen- did style. The popularity of the BEton coat is unquestioned. This little coat, which Is cut off at the belt line, is made this season in a wide variety of ways, one of the neatest of which is with the postillon .back. This postilion back consists simply of a couple of hand- some tabs, but they form a finish far the back of the coat, which is very in- teresting. The postilion finish utterly takes away any of the bobtail look which is the unhlpp'y lot of so many Eton jackets. Yet one cannot criticize the Etons of this season, for they are too perfect for criticism. The girl who is a little too shor can make for herself a suit of cream colored cloth. She can make the skirt in & round length and she can cut the upper part as an Bton. She will want to slash it off short enough to show a handsome belt. But the front she can face with a band of turquoise blue Louisine and next to this she can which will not make o season and will hold its style until fall, Many of the Etons are cut In such a way that you scarcely recognize th as Eton jackets. They have deep cap. around the shoulders and there are three capes, one falling over the other and each one edged with & Alencon lace. Another Eton is made with a very deep shoulder. A cape falls over the upper part of the arm. This shoulder cape,which extends only over the arm, is trimmed with a band of colored silk, with a lace frill attached. “And still another Eton is cut in such a manner that you cannot find {ts open- ing, which is really down the middle of the back. But it is concealed with bands and there are lace ruffies around the shoulders and the sleeves. At the dressmakers’ convention in New York it was decided that all skirts should be cut round length. This is a short length, but {8 not pedestrian. All skirts for the streets must be just es- their beauty, But not so now, The 180 skirt, a8 one pees it to-day, <o Is trimmed with a great many rufflings and is loaded with decorations of all kinds. It is elaborate from the hand- somely embroidered skirt yoke right down to the deep ruffle, which is bor- dered with lace and used to trim the foot of the skirt. The extent to which skirt trimmings are used can hardly be overstated. There are skirts so covered with trim- ming that the material of the skirt is scarcely visible. And over all there is a deep fall of fringe which nearly con™ ceals the entire trimming of the skirt. The fringes of the seasbn are very interesting and their uses are continu- ally on the increase. There are now whole coats, in three quarter lengths, made of fringe. These fringed coats have a lining of taffeta and the fringe is plt on over the taffeta in a curious way. It js fastened at the neck, where it 18 put on very full. .It falls to the bottom of the coat and is fastened in piace here and there with bands of rib- bon, Fringe as a trimming upon summer dresses will be popular and will be seen upon all the light goods. It makes an admirable trimming for ruffles and is quite delightful in a pale shade of cream color upon skirts and coats of the same shade. Parls has come out emphatically for white and never since the days when the white flag waved above the Tulle- ries has so much white been seen. In 1815 the fine dames wore gowns all of white and they carried white fans. Their heads were dressed with white feathers raised to an enormous height, apd their underwear, trimmings, ho- slery, shoes and all were i{n white. The drawing-rooms were shining with lus- trous white and Paris fairly gleamed as the beauties of the city moved as though enveloped in clouds of white. Again white will be quite as much ‘worn 3s in 1815 days and there is,really no limit to the number of materials that can be obtained in white. hite chiffon velvet makes a gorgeous even- ing gown and, trimmed with white taf- feta and white lace, it becomes alto- gether ‘charming. It is so soft that it adapts itself readily to drapery, and it is so fine in its texture and so deli- cately becoming that all can wear it. This is a season that is specially for the thin woman, but the fat woman need not despair. Many of the gar- ments are designed peculiarly for her and are cut and hung with her full outlines specially In mind. Indeed, there are dresses that are made in such a manner that one cannot tell whether a women be fat or lean, for her propor- tions are ‘hidden underneath the long lines, the full fronts, the voluminous sleeves and the abundant ruffies until not even she herself can say accurate- ly whether she.be a stout woman or not. A fashionable vom-u desiring a handsome cloth suit for spring sought her modiste. “I desire an 1830 dress,” The skirt, which was enormously full, was shirred around the hips in such a manper thet it added pothing to the T ZIVey BRI SR ST TR SULDIEF WIEAE . 2= oo fullness of the hips and back. The front was plain and hung straight i one wide, unbroken papel. The skirt, which was for evening wear, swept away long in what is called dip length. It was three inches too long in front and at least six inches too long in the back. This skirt was cut with straight gores which were sewed together straight up and down and shirred around the top. The band of the skirt, instead 6f being pulled down in front, was buttoned straight around the waist. L] The bodice was cut like a shirtwaist with a point which was pulled down low *in the middle of the front over the skirt band. There were ruffles around the shoulders, which were put on to look like shoulder capes. One fell well over the shoulder and down over the arm. The result was charming, for the woman, instead of gaining flesh by put- ting on this gown, seemed to grow thinner. She actually gained in grace as she walked in this gown, and that sausagesque likeness which afflicts the fat woman in a tight fitting skirt dis- appeared entirely. hs The stout woman can wear the 1330 lines if she will study them a liftle. She can really add to her inches not a little and can make her hips less prominent by treating them in a suitable way. A great change is taking place in shoulders. They are now cut very long indeed and are ten inches and even a foot deep. One pair of shoulders hung way down over the arm and made u' sort. of shoulderette. The epaulette is now old-fashioped and the shoulder- ette, made by cutting the shoulder very deep, has quite taken its place. In addition to this, the sleeves are being slit. The sleeves, especially of coats, are cut on the outside almost up to.the elbow and through this open- ing d wide lingerie cuff is pulled. This hangs down long and can be as elegant- ly decorated with lace as the purse of the wearer will permit. An entire cuff, all of the most delicate lace, was pulled out of the slit at the back of a sleeve worn by one of the most elegant women of society. A woman who wears the prettiest lin- gerie cuffs of the season is Mrs. Clar- ence Mackay, who dresses in black, with only the wide lace cuffs to relieve the monotony of the gown. Her laces are the finest and her sleeves are marvels i hanging, dangling ruffles, which are 80 arranged that they fall far below the waist line. The kimono coats are lovely. They are trimmed with Persian, with bands A of insertion, with wonderful applica- tions and with lace, There are very elaborate embroiderfes upon them. And one kimono coat was trimmed with ro- settes of ribbon, while in the middle of each rosette there, a little biush rose, surrounded a ruffle of It s impossible to deny the faet that dresses are becoming more and more riotously extravagant and where gowns once cost a moderate sum Q;iwl. now . soars skyward at an alarming rate. The woman who was content with a cloth suit last spring, itely trim- med, must now have one of light colors, decorated in the most lavish manner. It must be covered with bands of ap- plique, with ruffies. It must have a trace of soutache separating the bands and there must be swirls of ribbon and rosettes of lace, with a tiny button in the middle. Great button molds, cov- ered with a crocheted outside, stana sentinel up the front of the waist. And this is the way the cloth gowns of the f seagon are made,