Gilded Age Parasol Fashion Etiquette

 

While something on the order of the old coaching parasols, they rank very far ahead of those striped and plaided monstrosities, and are in every way dainty enough for afternoon use on the village street, or for morning at the resorts whore more elaborate dressing prevails.
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Everything is gored this season, or is to be gored if it is not already. Even the spring capes share the mania for gores. New parasols are out with twelve-gore canopies, and very big parasols they are, quite big enough for umbrellas in case of need. The materials, though, would be in a sorry plight if exposed to a good hard shower-chiffon and embroidered net, with tulle and lace, fancy china silk, and equally fancy sateen.

The draping of plain transparent material over brightly-flowered net or other goods is one of the new ideas. These double canopy parasols can be made specially effective by having the under, or lining, canopy to match the Summer gown with which the parasol is carried. A conceit of this sort is carried out, and most tastefully too, in the silk and sateen parasols made up to match dress patterns. The sateen parasols are so pretty that every woman will want to buy the dress pattern for the sake of the parasol.

These parasols are made without ruffles or furbelows. The canopy is single and unlined, with no trimming about the edge. The body of the canopy is flowered, and there is perhaps a wide floral border. Bamboo handles of medium length, with big crook, are ornamented with a large bow of ribbon the color of the ground in the sateen. While something on the order of the old coaching parasols, they rank very far ahead of those striped and plaided monstrosities, and are in every way dainty enough for afternoon use on the village street, or for morning at the resorts whore more elaborate dressing prevails. – The New York Times, February, 1893

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