THE ART OF DRESS.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 170, 15 December 1883, Page 11

THE ART OF DRESS.

have read somewhere that some oldecclesias- ""■ -tic defined woman as "an animal which delights ■Idti finery." ' Bufif we are to believe authorities like Planch' e, Fairholt and others too numerous to mention, not one' single excess or caprice has appeared in the attire of woman but has at sometime' bad its counterpart on the person of man. „'.' They have had large sleeves, tight waists and full \ petticoats. They have worn long hair and earjt' 'rings, sported stays and stomachers, muffs and ; bewitching lovelocks. They have rouged and Datehed, padded and laced. Where we had svreathed lace ruffs round our slender throats, v-fchey had buttoned costly Brussels round their • legs. Where we carry mirrors openly in our fans, they slily conceal theirs in their waistcoat pockets In fact, wherever we look into the history of mankind, whether through" the annals of courtiers or the evidence of painters, or through the researches of one of our own sex, we find two animals equally fond of dress — men and women. ■ In these our own days, however, the male costume has gradually become reduced to a mysterious \ combination of the unpicturesque. and the inconvenient. Hot in summer, cold in winter, useless 1 -either for keeping off sun or rain : stiff, but not • always plain, neither durable nor becoming — not '■even cheap. Still, each one who attempts to alter* or embellish, only gets credit for more vanity -than his fellows, if not for ,|rulgarity. With -woman it is different. Shehas in all ages been a creature obviously intended for elegant wardrobes and brilliant adornments. Let no woman suppose that a man is ever indifferent to her appearance. 'The instinct may have been deadened in his mind by a slatternly mother or plain sisters ; but the -instinct for admiration of suitable dress in- the (Softer sex is alway3~ there. But let iis put aside the plain law of- instinct in such matters ; there remains another, -perhaps a still more striking one, for the {promotion of suitable , dressing- and well-cut clothes — the law of self-interest, a power- • traotive to 'most of us. It is all very well for "bachelors to be restricted to a cysfcume which expresses nothing ; but for pur spinsters to take the isame outward neutrality would be so obvious a mistake as hardly to need any further comment. "With those of habitual delicacy of xnind, dress becomes a kind of personal glossary, the study of which it would be madness to neglect. We have read in .some book of the past generation that an old "beau" of •.the period professed to " tell the humourof a woman from the colour »o£ her hood." We go further, and maintain that, to a proficient in the =science, every woman appears with jiier leading qualities marked, as it were, on her garments. Now imagine to yourself a' few „-such scenes as the following. You . .encounter a lady, she may be pale or LTOsy, stout or thin; She is -always for something singular .and outre in her dress. A hat with all the colours of the rainbow about it, or a new colour never before imagined ; a gown so badly cut or .■so badly trimmed that she cannot Alean back in it ; a cloak so fashioned ■that graceful walking is impossible in it ; a quilling that swatches her, and catches everybody else ; beads : : from Nova Zembla, or feathers from

she wears all with a pifceous, •dejected look, as if she were a tfnartjr in the service. She is ■-wretched ; she knows she is not "■booking well ; but she is so afraid of .Jbeibg out of the pale of "la mode' 1 'that -she plunges into the most isingular extremes to be perfectly -^ureehe is in it. 'Fashion, she considers an awful power, whom it is impossible to serve with any comfort to oneself ; and accordingly she is never satisfied that she is -*• fashionable," unless she feels herself perfectly miserable also. Another thing now appears before our mind's ■eye, equally extravagant in her way, only with this difference, that she has opinions of her own •of: the most prononce kind. She will wear the largest patterns and the gaudiest colours in tjhe most ordinary materials. She will have a quantity of sham lace, mock fur, or false jewellery. She is not rich enough to have real ones ; but tsiuart she must be ! Or she may be rich, and then she will mix up the best of everything together ; pearls on her head, cameos on her neck, and diamonds in her ears and on her arms. ' Her liair is disposed of in long curls or curious braids. Either her skirt covers an incredible circuui--i'erence, or, beneath a body that hardly covers vany space at all, you catch glimpses of sub-tex-?tures neither neat nor fine. You may easily .guess that this fair one is both, vain and vulgar, bold also. ' We will ,pass lightly over those who make a ipoinfc of having 710 rule of fashion, except to depart from the prevailing one. They have short jgowns when others wear long ones, and vice vtrsa. They wear their huir in a " crop," being forty ■years of age, or array themselves in innocent white for a party of two hundred. They call .themselves " strong-minded," but have, in fact, sno refinement of mind at all, have usually coarse 'manners, and loud voices. Behold another type, whoso ideas on " dress " .are, if possible, yet more eccentric. Either a powerful straw hat or a massive velvet bonnet "--'covers her head. The hair is drawn back tightly off the forehead, and fastened in a sort of round ■ball at the back of her neck. Xature has given " Jier a somewhat abundant supply of that crownling beauty to our sex, hair— hair, too, of a soft '■ 1 siiky texture, capable of much judicious .and bo--coming 1 arrangement. But that " would give too rmuch trouble;" she has "no time" for such . frivolties. A knitted shawl of coarso materials, ' or what was 1 once a black scarf j but has now a ■deep frillod.trimming added on to give the look of , a mantle', serves to cover her shoulders. A dress <■ of "no" describable cut, but of the shade best as " dingy," hangs in an empty manner -■ J £iibQut her, slop3ng,in" towards the feet. ]f it is ; wiritieiyprobably she has on a stiff squirrel boa '; ,and gl6,vj,s'l?uown as merino, or even it may be some kind,, of the' ?' cheap and nasty "

order. She is not an old wornari. * She is indeed one born with all the surroundings of a gentlewoman, and has received the ' education of such, but she is, superior to all petty vanities. She tellfe her dressmaker, " Make it as you will, don't ask me ; only let me be clean and neat, and I shall be quite satisfied." " She is in fact scrupulously clean but also hopelessly" dowdy.'? Par difforont from all the foregoing, is the dress of the real " gentlewoman," the truly refined and sensible of her' sex. Her first study is -to seek the, becoming, her second the good, her last what is merely " fashionable." She cleverly adapts the fashions to herself. She will not stoop to make herself a mere figure for £he modisle to hang her wares on. Whatever laws fashion dictates she follows laws of her ow-n, and is never behind the times. / She wears many nice things, but probably . the most becoming of them have been fashioned by her own taste, even perhaps finished by her •own deft fingers, or at least she has carefully supcrintentcd their manufacture. But for all this,' many a neighbour may have sneered at her, envying the tasty toilettes. "Her poor husband working so hard, 'and she spending his hardly earned coin in French fripperies." All this while her costume is rarely very -rich, often not even new, as she lovingly remembers the bread winner at home. But it is always prettily made, no tinsel, no trumpery lace, no sham gem. All is fresh and simple, good of their kind ; collars, cuffs frill's and gloves alike faultless. After all there is no great art either in her fashions or in the materials. The secret consists in her knowing the three grand unities of dress ; her own station, her own age, and her own good points. Above all, she takes care, that her plainest and cheapest dress shall be well cut. She need not be beautiful, nor oven accomplished ; but we will answer for her being even tempered, thoroughly sensible, and that very rare jewel in the present fast-going days, ,a complete " lady "—a " gentlewoman " in its fullest and best sense. In conclusion, we are much of the same opinion as the noble author of " Clrilde Harold :" Somehow the same good looks, Make nioro impressions than the best of books. " TJne laidevr intressante" as Balzac expresses it, may do very well for the sterner sex ; but ladies, be advised J Unless your beauty exceeds * the

wildest visions of the poefcs, do not be careless on the point of dress. If you consider with many that woman's province is to make herself pleasing^ in the sight et those popularly called "lords of . the creation," if you desire to become happy wives and mothers, then have a sensible regard for your personal appearance. The first Napoleon himself, even Groethe, that wonderful autocrat of German literature for nearly half a century, entertained, we are assured, the strongest opinions as to the .effects producible by good and suitable dressing. A well-dressed stranger would always have more chance of an interview with the veteran poet than an homely comer, no matter how learned he might be. Countrywomen, see whnt an array of reasons for a due and proper regard to the art of dress. No matter how rich and costly the material of your robe may be, if it is badly cut and planned without taste you will never look well in it. Your money will have been wasted, and, dare we hint it, perhaps even your sweet temper soured, like that of the Greek father of whom mention has already been made.