CAN YOU REMEMBER THESE?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 8

CAN YOU REMEMBER THESE?

FIGURE IMPROVERS. MUSICAL SNUFF-BOXES. The old French saying that, “The more a thing changes, the more it’s the same thing,” would seem to have a grain, or two of truth in it. At any rate, the hats and bonnets which were for sale in Masterton sixty years ago are not so very different from some we are wearing now.

Other things, however, were so different we laugh at them. Who, for instance, would dress a little boy these days in what was then called a “hussar”? Worn with black kneelength stockings that met the tight little trousers, this outfit showed a square-cut coat nicely trimmed with vertical bands of braid! It would be quite an experiment to send our ten-year-old sons to school in one of these.

But we needn’t stick to children’s clothes for oddities. There were large advertisements in Press and catalogue advising ladies to select only “fashion-ably-cut” chemises. Pictures of these show the garments lace-trimmed and fashionably (?) designed on the lines of our flannel shirts for outdoor workmen.

It was seemingly the custom, too, to buy underwear by the dozen, as prices are always given for dozen lots ■ and never for a single article. Thus, nightgowns at a big emporium (date 1884) here are listed at from 27s 6d to 59s 6d per half-dozen. And what nighties to be sure! Wide frills of net with frills of lace over that all the way round the neck as high as the ears, on the sleeves, at the wrists, and falling in cascades, like a jabot, to the waist in front. Then there were articles for sale which we would not recognise at all. What would we do with a tennis apron —even as low in cost as Is?

And muffs. One catalogue shows a summer model, spoken of a “particularly chaste” in design. Not unlike a large tea-cosy with lace, ribbon, and frills all round, and a huge spray of artificial roses on top. It must have been a diabolical arrangement on a summer day, and, being a la mode, quite an ordeal for our elder relatives. Horsehair Improvers.

About this same period shop displays also featured an affair called an “improver,” and nothing could more completely demonstrate the difference between beauty ideals then and now. The best of these obsolete fashion notes seem to have been made of horsehair, and in appearance, when not in use, they were like curved aprons, with stiff coils of horsehair one after the other down to a lace-trimmed edge. They were worn tied on behind under the dress. Nowadays we would prefer to tie on a device that would take a few inches off in the same place—but there is nothing on the market for that. Some of the wording used in the advertisements strikes a strange note in modern ears. One shop asserts that they have no less than “twenty different materials for dresses and two hundred shades to choose from, with trimming to match.” Adding, with reference to the trimming, no doubt, “Admirable contrivances.”.

Just about the time when Victoria was contemplating her role in history, as “The Widow of Windsor,” the English journals also featured a few advertisements that would cause a sensation in our own dailies.

Judging by the announcements in some of the best-known London magazines, mourning must have been quite an outstanding note in the fashionable world. There were types and makes of crepe, notably from Parisian modistes’ establishments, that seem to have set the ladies all agog. Mourning muslins held the stage, and shops prided themselves on the “most beautiful and extensive variety of mourning muslins and bareges.” “Bareges” must have disappeared from life along with the mourning.

Another announcement declares that a certain shop can supply “handsome cashmere babies’ cloaks, trimmed with plush.” and “real balbriggan stockings” of stout quality for walking. Ladies’ riding trousers of chamois leather “with black feet” must have been charming, and so must the gentlemen’s trousers not purchased from the shop that assured its customers of “a good fit in a garment which can seldom be obtained satisfactorily in this respect.” Beauty Culture.

Other advertisements in the public Press almost a hundred years ago have a strange ring in 1938. Leaden combs for slowly-darkening the hair, 2s 6d each. At Cornhili one could obtain 1 '“large-size” musical boxes playing airs from the best composers, and musical snuff-boxes playing two tunes for 14s 6d. We may think it was an age when women were without enterprise and preen ourselves on having initiative, but, according to public notices, we are wrong. What woman today would embark on a career like this: “Navigation. Mrs Janet Taylor’s nautical academy offers superior advantages to young gentlemen preparing for the sea. References can be given by all large steam companies.” Or, how about this for a ladylike business? —“Mary Wedlake’s chaff-cut-ters, oat bruisers, and implements for emigrants.” Oddly enough, this notice has a cryptic addition which reads, “Book on feeding, Is.” There is no way of knowing whether Mary Wedlake was an authority on babies as well as a specialist in chaff-cutters, or whether she merely advised on the care of young farm stock. At any rate, we have changed since then. We do' a spot of commercial flying, perhaps, but we have given up training young men for the navy. And lady manufacturers of emigrants’ implements are working in strict secrecy —if they are still on the job. But the French may be right from another angle. Women are still the prey of the same driving force, the same desire for the beautiful and the new. It is only the externals that alter.