HE fashion outlook for autumn and winter was never so bewilderingly complex as at the present moment. Never were there so many absolutely diverse styles to choose from, each and every one bearing the hall-mark of the very latest design, and also being indescribably "smart."

Crinoline is more than hinted at, for there are underskirts made to wear with street and house gowns that have two and three pieces of featherbone inserted in tucks or cordings, so that the skirt stands out almost as did the crinoline skirts of the olden time. In truth, some aid is necessary to hold out such width of skirt as is required in the fashionable gown intended for late autumn or early winter wear.

Cloth costumes will be extremely fashionable, so also will velvet and velveteen costumes, while among the new materials are many so-called velvets and velveteens that bear the strongest possible resemblance to plush-but with rather a shorter nap than was fashionable when plush was last in favor. Silk, satin, brocade, all are in demand for evening gowns, and also there are gauzes, nets, laces, and tulles that suggest ball gowns when seen first in the material itself.

Many of the fabrics are quite too handsome and elaborate in design to require much trimming; but in these days trimming plays such an important part in dress that apparently it is impossible to in any way get along without it, so the pattern of the brocade is outlined in embroidery stitch or with paillettes of gold, silver, jet, or steel. Gowns of striped gauze elaborately trimmed with lace medallions are made

Copyright, 1904, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

All materials may be included in the choice of winter gowns. For the street both rough and smooth cloths will be fashionable, as well as the velvets already referred to. In the home not only will silks and satins be worn, but many new varieties of voile, chiffon cloth, and the same light-weight fabrics as were used this last summer, and even batiste and chiffon will find a place in theatre and house

gowns.

With so many different styles of gowns as are now considered requisite, the color question has a wide field, and not for many a season have there been so many different colors displayed. Clothes this winter are bound to be more or less conspicuous, either from the vivid color, or, if some dark color be chosen, from the contrast in the trimmings employed, or, smartest of all, from the exquisite braiding or embroidery that is so exceedingly popular. An entire costume in a light shade of yellowish brown is further lightened by touches of orange, and so on indefinitely throughout the whole gamut of color.

Yellow, orange, red, and a pastel blue are the favorite colors used in trimming, and what may be termed modified shades of these same colors will be seen in cloth, velvet, and velveteen. Mole color or stone gray, an exquisite shade of prune, a new red, an odd brown, are the colors for the moment chosen for entire costumes. Black or white and black and white will be extremely popular for house as well as street gowns, but, as a rule, will be made up in most elaborate designs that have a totally different

BACK OF RECEPTION GOWN; café-au-lait taffeta, with fichu and frills of Alençon lace; buttons of black velvet embroidered in gold, and down either side of the front an inch-wide black velvet ribbon run through a band of embroidered écru linen.

effect from anything seen for some time. An extremely dark blue, generally becoming, is also to be fashionable, but will not be worn all winter, so it is said.