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Show -f -f -t- -t--t -V - i Of Interest to, Ead$tsder I JUNE IS FASHION'S WHITE k MONTH. I " ' Wedding Gowns, and Handsome Af- k ternoon Dresses all of White in J Many Materials. jj : . ; , . j Paris, June 14. June is the -white month, the month of brides and gradu-!j gradu-!j ation drses, the month of the queen's f drawing room and of garden parties! ;.j All the art that once was spent upon l colored fabrics has been put upon white 1 this season. White silk mouseline de if sole, as delicate as a mosquito wing, and encrusted with sparkling scales, or painted until it is finer than a Watteau group. The plain webby substance is used for veiling and for draperies, while I' the painted breadths are used for tunic and body. They tell over here of the efforts made to satisfy certain wealthy American; Ameri-can; girls whose bridal gowns have been made here this spring. One of the s-tor-j ies is of the wonderful dress fashioned for a California heiress, a sweet-faced girl who wanted something entirely new for her wedding gown. After a long consultation they finally designed a dress with point lace sleeves and yoke i-J so delicately joined at the shoulders that there seemed to be no seam and no break in the pattern of the lace. The body was of white satin, very a plain and tight about the waist. Below 1 .the waist the skirt widened into a very 1 elegant satin tunic, whose long, narrow I points spread over an underskirt all of J point lace, with a long lace train. Un- I derneath all the point lace there was I the most elegant white satin lining, I making a gown that was a dream of I beauty as well as in price. Little won- I der that the cost of the materials was I 520,000. I MISS PORTER'S (-OWN. 4 Miss Porter, daughter of the Ameri- I :an ambassador, is a very pretty young j woman and a vast favorite with Presi- 1 dent Loubet, -who admires American i cleverness, evidently thinking it super- ' ior to French chic. This young -wom- f an recently attended an afternoon oc- j casion all dressed in a painted dress of I white silk lawn, the latest improve- l ment upon India muslin. The flowers were pansies, very delicately painted to form a panel down one side of the tunic with a continuation of the flowers along the hem. The yoke was a mass of silver sil-ver tulle, brought across the waist from shoulder to shoulder in fine folds. An Immense picture hat was turned up at one side to shelter a big white rose. In the art students' colony there was a wedding a few days ago. Miss French, a dear little English girl artist, married a young American a newspaper news-paper man who is employed by one of the big American papers at its Par's correspondent during the exposition. The wedding was' .-. delicious affair, all roses and good times, with a merry 1 little feast served from Marie's queer little restaurant in the art students' quarter. Marie, wishing to -please "la belle Americaine" outdid herself and served, along with the ices, a large dish of corned beef hash and another of codfish cod-fish cakes, the secret of whose manufacture manu-facture she had learned fro a New England En-gland girl, years ago. But the bride's wedding dress was a thing to be noticed. It was so modish yet so unambitious. "White poplin was the material, that new poplin no heavi- er than satin, but Just as lustrous and n much more durable. To begin at the i ground and go up, the skirt was made ; with a deep flounce of chiffon around I - the foot; and over the chiffon flounce I fell a broad piece of Eugenie lace, of I the soft Spanish web. The flounce was I so cunningly set under the lace that it I gave a tunic effect. 1 A Princess tunic of poplin was bor- dered with lace and trimmed with a panel of the same'. The yoke was of taffeta, fulled across the front, while the shoulders were finished with I I bunches of chiffon falling in a gentle i cascade, j A wedding gown of this description f I can be made for about $25, the chief f expense being the lace, which can be purchased for much or little, as may please the purchaser. THE LOOSE GOWNS. All the tendencies are toward a return re-turn to the loose flowing lobes of the days when high art flourished and before be-fore the corset was abused. The long, graceful lines, the flowing outlines, the lack of the dividing line at the waist, as noticed in the new models, indicr.le that a change is taking place for the better in dress. Just as a house must rest upon its foundation, so must a woman's gown depend upon the garments which she wears underneath. As the (lowing robos come in a change takes place in the articles that are worn underneath the dress. The greatest change lies in the corset; cor-set; the box front , corset, taking the place of the tight-waitei one. The box front presents an unbroken line from the bust to the abdomen, but is tight upon the hips. This gives a large waist, but it is very comfortable, and, when you get used to it, you consider it very artistic. The -lip at the waist line, right in the middle of th" front, is one that is admired by artists and without which no artist ever draws a picture of a woman in, conventional dress. Examine, if you will, all the fashion plates, study all the society pictures, search where you will among the ideals, and you will find that sm artist always draws a woman's belt in such a manner that there is a downward down-ward curve from the back to the front, while the line from the bust to t'.ie abdomen ab-domen is straight. This ' busk" line not bust line as it is called, is one of the marks of beauty in any figure, for never was it considered goal form to curve the figure inward below the bust. Many of the new models show straight sides, as well as the straight front, though the back is always tight-closed tight-closed ones are the exception. Tunics, jackets and all bodices Fhow the open front. Little laDels Hare open and big fronts fly apart to disclose handsome vests of lace and silk. Long tunics are made with open front, the entire tunic handsomely lined with brocade, and underneath this is a slip of lace gradually grad-ually widening into a wide skirjt with train. PAINTED FABRICS. The painted muslins are much worn, particularly in the light shades. If not hand-painted they are stamped, and the stamping is almost as good as the hand-work, and in some cases, where an artist is not employed to do the work, it is better. An exquisite painted muslin was made for Miss Swann, one of the beautiful beau-tiful American debutantes. The yoke" and sleeves were of muslin, painted in pink clover, but the body and tunic were in pure white. The underskirt was of the painted' muslin with a great flounce of lace around the foot. But the most beautiful feature of .the bodice bod-ice was the body, which had a row of painted medallions as a border extending ex-tending entirely around the yoke. There were sixteen of these lovely painted figures, eight in the front and eight in the back. The figures selected were Watteau shepherdesses with their lovely pink and blue gowns. The Ladysmith hat is the latest. It is a big' flat hat, picturesque to the last degree and trimmed not so much with plumes as with flowers. The Ladysmith may lie flat upon th.? head, or one side of it may be lifted with a single rose set underneath, where it will touch the hair. This is the picture hat of the summer, the very latest Mid most .elegant thing out. Since it was discovered that President Presi-dent Loubet takes his morning stroll in the Exposition grounds, it has become be-come -the fashion-to visit there early. The Eiffel Tower .contains many a fair breakfast party; and the second tier is the one that is moat fashionable. The president took an early walk there one morning and chanced to come across Miss Porter and a party of girl friends, who pounced upon him and took him a willing captive. The entire party breakfasted in the tower, and the president pres-ident left only -when it 'was time for a cabinet meeting of state. ', Some of the' morning' dresses are pretty beyond description. The faint delicate muslins and the -deep .foulards mingle well together. In light1 goods ! - ft m 1 ' DRESS OF THIN MUSLIN AND' EMBROIDERY FOR 'A SUMMER s ' EVENING. i ' a the transparencies are more pronounced pro-nounced than ever. Your gown must positively show its lining, and the lining lin-ing must be quite as . fine as the outside out-side gown. Perhaps the latest fad, in this season of fads, is the making of a plain gown over a lining of brocade. This is carried car-ried to such a great extent that it has become a wonderful vogue. A garden party gown for the Princess of Wales was of pale gray mousseline de soie aluminum gray, almost silvery in its whiteness! Underneath this was a lining lin-ing of gray taffeta brocaded in blush pink roses. The lining was in two pieces, bodice and skirt, with a heavy ruffle of renaissance lace around the foot. The mousseline de soie bodice had a perfectly plain yoke and shirred sleeves; the body being of shirred mousseline with a light fall of lace at the bust line. GRADUATING DRESSES. A French girl graduates so simply that there is nothing made of it, even though her course may have been "academic," as we say at home. Truth to tell, the life of a woman of France before her marriage is as secluded.as can be, but after her wedding, she blossoms blos-soms forth as a butterfly of the most brilliant hues. The frugal minded mother, in preparing pre-paring her daughter's gown for graduation, grad-uation, has in mind, maybe, the butterfly butter-fly state, that is to follow, and, anticipating antici-pating her daughter's early marriage, plans her gown for the after events. One young girl has a graduating dress of Chinese muslin, very thin and silky to the fingers. This is- made in simple fashion over a lining of imitation imita-tion silk, the dress being fit together independently of the lining. After the dress has done its appointed appoint-ed work, it wil be worn over the linings lin-ings of figured .taffeta and over satin faced cottons, thus making it an altogether alto-gether different gown. A very useful novelty in dresses for young girls is the looked skirt. A pretty pret-ty lawn is made up with its ruffles and lace, its tucks and its insertion. Around the foot the dress is looped so as to BRIDAL GOWN OF POPLIN WITH RENAISSANCE LACE. I make a draped flounce, under which sets a lace ruffle. When the maid has graduated, and wishes to don a longer gown than the dress which is barely to the ankles, the looping3 are removed, and, behold,, the girl has a dress as long as that of her sister who is "out." In fact, the prudent French mother not infrquently makes one kown do for the two events of graduation and introduction introduc-tion in society; and, if the point were pressed further, perhaps it is remodeled remod-eled for her wedding gown! The two largest orders of the summer sum-mer have been for gowns for Miss Crocker, or as she wil be when you read this article, Mrs. Burton Harrison; and for Miss French, who will be Mrs. Alfred Al-fred Vanderbilt very soon. SOFT WHITE GOWNS. Miss French, the couterieres say, is not at all a pretty girl, but very charming. charm-ing. "Charm" is the word that describes de-scribes her, and, like the Princess Can-tacuzene, Can-tacuzene, she possesses a beautiful 'figure. 'fig-ure. All her dresses are made with soft lines around the face to take away anything of hardness. Quite different are the gowns that are made for that London beauty, Miss Paget, whose mother,, .on.ee Miss Stevens . of New York, now leads London society. Miss Paget is a great belle" and one of the most exquisitely dressed girls in London. Lon-don. One of her gowns, a white dress, deserves de-serves mention. It was made upon the shirt and bolero model. The shirt, n, white silk affair, was buttoned with' turquoise set in heavy gold buttons. The bolero, a heav white satin one, was brocaded in forget-me-nots with paillettes set between the flowers. The skirt was a white muslin over white taffeta, and underneath ths foot was set the loveliest flounce of turquoise silk. Many of the models serve as suggestions sugges-tions to the modistes who carry out the same ideas, even to the tones, in cheaper materials. For example, a white muslin shirt waist might have its little coat of blue figured challie, while the overdress could be of the challie, with a deep ruffle of white muslin around the foot, set under the tunic in a way to make it flare. The straight tunics are the fashion, but now and then you see a draped tunic. The side is caught high and drawn through a buckle of silver. This is very becoming to slendor figures, and was most graceful when worn the other day by Mrs. James prown Potter, but let the heavier figure beware of it. For stoutness there is no argument outside out-side the long straight lines. |