ARTISTIC DRESSING.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2166, 13 December 1875, Page 4

ARTISTIC DRESSING.

The Saturday Review says:—To a country gentleman accustomed to see his womenfolk in fresh muslins and clean prints it is not a little surprising- to be taken to the homes of some of the literary and semi-artistic families living in and near London. An atmosphere of mouldy decay pervades the house, which is painted in dark green or blue. The walls are hung with every conceivable absurdity —sconces where no candles are ever lighted, gongs which are not to sound, curtain 3 which have no purpose and give the air of an old clothes shop. Whole dinner services of china are strung on the staircase, and everything is covered thick with a black oily dust made by smoke, smuts, and fog. Perhaps one of the sons of the house has taking to painting as a profession, and brings his studio friends home with him. His sisters bear a constant jargon about the beauty of " tone," which they gradually discover to consist in old age with a judicious addition of dirt. They see their brother and his friends go into ecstacies over pieces of stuff which they pick out of the rubbish of a neighboring pawnbroker. Copsequently the poor girls try to dress in a way which they fondly believe to be artistic, and end in looking like rag dolls. They tie the refuse of Cairo round their waists, and wisps of strange fabrics round their necks. Peacocks/ feathers eye us from unaccountable situations, and frills of old lace, so dirty as to be almost nasty, garnish throats which would look much better in clean linen collars. But clean linen collars and cuffs have unfortunately no tone; they are incompatible with artistic dressing. Then, too, tidy hair is inadmissible. It should give the impression that it is subject to being torn whenever its owner is carried away by the tumult of feeling.produced by a passionate poem of Rossetti's or the tragic ending of a three-volume novel. It must never be fastened up securely, but must; be ready to fall down at the slightest provocation. It must be free to the four winds of heaven, and like well tossed hay. There is another style of artistic dressing which, when badly done, is almost as offensive as the whithered style. We may call it, for want of a better name, free classic. It is generally adopted by short fat people with high shoulders. It consists for the most part; of shapeless < cream colored cotton or wollen robe, with a gold girdle. On stout figures the effect is by no means attractive. A model attired in a nightgown which has been properly damped and draped no doubt looks very well, but a night-gown over a reasonable amount of under-garments is merely ungainly and shapeless. Dresses of this pattern must be either ugly or indelicate. Still freedom to live as we like and dress as we like is such a desirable thing that we may rejoice to think • a lady can go to a dinner party in a white flannel dressinggown without any doubts being raised as to her sanity. „ Indeed we must be glad of every nail that can be put in Mrs Grundy's coffin. It is opening up a way for the varieties of individuality which she so sternly represses in anyone under the rank of a countess.