WOMEN AND DRESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1393, 20 March 1912, Page 9

WOMEN AND DRESS.

MADAME BEIiXII.iKDT'S VIEWS. The celebrated Sarah has civen her verdict on dre.-.s. Jt onjjlit, from all artMilc point of view, to he final, savs tlis I'.iris correspondent of an English rnpiM-. lldlle. Leyalliore, a music-hall actrvsn, Rave lis, <i lew ilavs afi», her ideas about: the dilliculty of (Irc.ss, which makes a woman appear liko 11 11 i;in, .Madame t'ecile Sard, ol tho Comcdie I'rancaise, lias told us how every woman ou>:lit to have u contempt lor the fashions of the present day. ■Madame Sarah Bernhardt now tells ns how women should dress, so as not to appear what: they «ire if they are not quite pretty, and she has added a dozen oilier things in her interview in the "New l'ork Herald," which makes us think that she might successfully take over the management of the whole Jiuo <le la l'aix.

Let us save that charming thing, the feminine carnival of dress. We have too many uniform and monotonous tilings in other spheres. Let ns avoid monotony in dress. Everything is permitted to-day. The decollete of the Secund Empire may, without appearing absurd, be matched with a Directoire gown, just as the. bird ol I'aradise, so dear fo Madame de Stael, can perch on the hat of a Gibson girl. A lady should have the last word in her dress. She should not be subject to the dressmaker as to a tyrant. She has the right to have her say, and she ought to say it. She should not simply be an expensive doll in the hands of the container, obedient to all his freaks and whims. Fortunately, there is such an eclecticism in dress just now (hat every liberty is tolerated. All kinds of innovations and anachronisms are permitted. The opportunity, therefore, is splendid for every women to suit her own fancy and person, and to select from every style the elements that will make her dress appear both original and befitting.

Hut we must: not altogether dospise modern fashions. Even Hie recent ones were inspired by a fundamental idea that was right and beautiful, it. was to restore to the feminine figure all the charms nf her native outlines. There was an effort to suppress rigid structures and to replace them by simple draping, which, by clinging to the form, accentuated if« aesthetic value. Tile whole object of fashion should bo in that. I!ut what about figures that are not so well made? Lot them. 1 say. simply so arrange llmigs that it is not seen. 'J'liey will discover the way fo do it. A traveller said that in France there were no ugly women; there are only some women who do not know how to bo pretty.