"What to Wear in June" (Cassell's Family Magazine, June 1888)

It has been a while since we last looked at Cassell's Family Magazine, so let's dive into its pages again and see what the well-dressed woman was wearing in June 1888.

First from Cassell's Paris correspondent:

 Parisiennes have adopted the blouse belted bodice for ordinary gowns, which is good news for the home dressmaker, as they are easily carried out, but to set well they require a foundation beneath that really fits; and any fulness should be drawn into as small a space as possible—consistent with comfort—at the waist...

... Millinery is undergoing a radical change.  The bonnet shapes are smaller, but the trimmings are placed so as to give them exceeding height...

And illustrated are two women wearing these "highly" decorated bonnets.

Our little group show's a child's frock simply made in brown and fawn striped woollen, trimmed with brown velvet... The hat has all the trimmings placed at the back.  Her mother is entirely clothed in the new blue nun's-veiling, made with the full pointed bodice, having revers and the basque outlined by an applied band... Her friend has a handsome grey cloth coat laced with gilt cord, and opening over a white cloth waistcoat... Both ladies wear bonnets which form a point above the face.

Our London correspondent informs her readers that "Braiding is universal, as well as fabrics woven to resemble braiding" and that

Smocking is finding general favour, and is not confined, as it once was, to the few who dressed in aesthetic styles.  A great many gowns have smocked yokes, and full sleeves,  smocked below the shoulders at at the wrists.

Our illustration shows a new mode of combining lace and silk.  The skirt has perpendicular folds of lace insertion laid over a colour, the back arranged with a graceful drapery of lace, the vest composed of lace laid over the same colour.  The accompanying figure is clothed in a striped woollen gown, with the fashionable cascade of pinked-out silk forming the panel.  The mantelette is made of black silk and has bell sleeves attached... The hat has a high crown and is turned up high in front, with feathers peeping over the brim...