The Ordway New Era

Concerning the Story of Wraps

The story of winter wraps has reached its climax, as it always does, with the arrival of the opera season. It begins early in the fall with a recital of the affairs of the stalwart coats that must bear the brunt of real service throughout the winter, and progresses through many an engrossing chapter dealing with more pretentious garments. Finally comes the resume of the brief and splendid careers of evening wraps, some of them wholly frivolous. But each season witnesses certain coats that are as rich and as useful as any; they are the best efforts of the couturiers, and include the incomparable coats of fine furs. In the same class with these, so far as beauty is concerned, are the two impressive wraps that the camera has reported with such fidelity, shown above. They are made of the handsomest fur fabrics and completed with collars of natural fur of the best grades. Each is worthy of the other.

The coat at the left is made up of a lustrous and very beautiful material which is a replica of broadtail. It is ample and enveloping with lines that are managed with wonderful skill, so that it seems to cling to the figure. The sleeves have deep, flaring cuffs that partly cover the hands. There is the simplest of narrow girdles at the front and a big, luxurious shawl collar of fox fur. No brocade, however rich, or cloth of gold can outclass magnificent furs or do more than vie with as perfect a semblance of them as appears in this coat. The textile fur in the coat at the right is like sealskin, but more supple. It has a cape-like and sleeves cut in one with the body. Its lining is a silk crepe and the wide collar and deep cuffs are of martin fur. The design is especially becoming to slender figures and the coat is so excellent in style and rich in appearance that it belongs in the class with sealskin. Like coats of natural fur, these may appear day or night at any sort of function.