The New York herald., 1851-11-18
The Erect OF the New COST ume In Egg


l.. ". II,
the Whittingtsn Club, whose Ccatury of Female
Costume" yesterday reported, is a more crsdita-
BILE advocate even for ore preposterousfolly than
that urged by the nameless females who have been
lecturing in the shabbier suburbs Of the City Road
Mile End, and Soho There is something ia the
proveib which connects smoke inseparaby with
fire; and BloOmer!sm would scarcely have attracted
its pres en amount of interest, however large an ia-
sredient in that interest may be mere scorn, had it
not something substantial to say for itself. Is
pabilities, however, like those of other clever
Desses, are rather destructive tnan constructive.
The lecturers Il ay confute, but they do not prove
1t is one thing TO triumph over hoops and bustes,
gigot sleeves and crinoline, and another to place
Mrs. Bloomer in Madame Maradan's dispossessed
throne. We accompany Mrs Foster in her not uC-
instructive review Of tho last century OF dress but
cannot forget that ii is easy to insult the relics
of dead traditons-far easier, as our Bloom mers
find, than to propagate novel and eontumaclouS
heresy.
Dress- fashion--costumc, is, after ALL an inter-
estirg subject; and what is historically so curious,
ifnot important, cannot safely be set aside merely
the trsnsitory folly Of Bloomerism has grown up
from this nettle may spring the And. what
ever eucidates high and truthful principles of taste
and utility Of general application, is never, howev
er groesoue its enunciation, altogether in vain.
So far as we have been able to learn, there was
something like an attempt to enforce principle
in Mrs Bioomer's own FIRST essays at conversion.
thy, dirty, and inconvenient as the original indct-
ment runs the ladies had better look to it. There
never can be real beauty where there is not Coz
stru,tive adaptation of to end, and the final
Of male dress is surely not to inure the re-
spiration to dirty the person, aud to prevent exer-
oise which shall be at once comfortable aud decent
Any discussion then, which is simply raised as 10
wbGt the actual results OF the present sIye OF
female dress, shonld never think OF dsconTaging;
for a subject which is interesting alike " the ply
sican, the artist, and the economist IL sooial one,
and cannot be other than Of large Importance.
There is something, too, to be said even on the
moral ground, for a long trailing gowr ia street
is on abect piece Of rretension, when resolved into
its origin. 1t ia the silly spectacle of drawing
room dress on o walking expedition, aud is anala.
gcus TO silk stockings and pumps in September
stubble 1t is the honest English morning wet or
windy or drizzng or dirty, affecting to be arrayei
should have one length Of petticoat-m may we add,
one thickness ofsolel-the drawing-room decidedly
another. A lady "doing her shopping" or pacing
in which she presides at her tea table, is mere
s'wasteful and ridiculous excess" and had Mrs.
Bloomer confined herself to this range Of subjects,
and worked the details Of trains and tight lecing
wbalebone and cane-horsehair and cushi ons-she
had, perhaps, dore some service.
But somehow the subject, oven If a serious one,
has come before US in a very unfortunate and
lndcrous way, for either in the lecturers, or in
their manner, in their associations, there
has ever been something that repelcd. Tne
scene of Boemer lectures has often been that Of
or or something worse. % Then, % our transs.iansis
cousins have lot an agreeable style Of pro-
pagandism, ard they seem determined to make no
allowance for our national reserve, stupidity, AMI
prejudice. Perhaps, too, the advocates Of this
reform forget that dress ,ely admits of philo
sophical and exact method. Like the British con-
stitution, fashion is plant Of slow growth DIE -
is an mperceptible formation geologically speak
ing it is rather of coraline growth than the result
of cataclysm. II admits no revolutions o. suddea
nterierences for neither we, the ladies, like to
have very violen! tamperiDgs with the established
order Of things. Mrs. Boomers mistake was that
ID
instead Of trying plots, factions, and internal
scbsms IL is too soon, at least for the Old cont-
nent, to expect that change in fashion Will ever
proceed from the lower ranks. Fashion is from
above AS society is constituted, Bioomerism
stands no chance until, like Almaek's, it has y
paTonesses 1t may be all very well to invite
contemplate the suceinct and Sabine usefune-
Boo nerism, or TO accept it for its oriental cor
tions, but We cannot forget that from the daJ
Hector
And Trsys proud danes vho'e garments sweep t.
a lady's train and the notion OF courtly breeding
have gone together
Still, although for the reasons jast stated, tss
auguries Of ecturing down the pese style OF dress
not altogether favorable, something may yet DC
gained by the Blcomer agitation; ana II our ladies
are only relieved ifon performing the duties OF ua
paid seaveugers, we snail not object toits results.
Bur, as to their construction schemes, we have
rot q word to say in defence oftbe American az
gressOnists-a Bleouer in iull costume is no im-
provenent upon hoop, and as the lecturers hays
ofihe new costume, we join issue at once Mrs.
Foster was her own most practical refutation;
ard the Bloomer ladies, generally, have no
right to complain Of the Ill success OF their agia
tion, for they have challenged public criticism in
that way which, in England, have not yet learned
to think other than offensive. Lady lecturers
are rare in Europe; and when they take up SUB
jtcls verging IN critical matters greater amount Of
deeorum, uod3sty and discreet. on is demanded than
has been presented 70 Us a. Miss kelly's Thel:tS,
or ip the HolseIp Hall, at prss,a, Mrs, E9i.sl
Is an exception 10 Der sect, bat even ia hGt
clever management the crucial experiment was
IL Is net the trivial wittcism about the wife wear
ing the breeehes, nor TIE unhappy suggestion Of
the George sand and De5aTdag school Of morals,
with which this dresJ has unfortunately been con-
nected, that will do all the mischief; but the cos
tune itself is its own condemnation. "Pllow5 un-
der al arm holes" are, perhaps, female abomiua.
ton; but then they may plead precedent. They
are old the Bible, AZ least in The English trans
lation-"ten or fifteen pounds Of pettieoat round
the body, and balloons in the sleeves" are neither
graceful nor reasonable, we admit-"sixteen SQUARE
yards Of skirt merely "depositing strata Of thicS
black slosh the ankles, and turning their vosrer
into walking mop is certainly feature sgggcs-
tive Of nothing agreeable-and English fashion,
which, without TRANSATLANTIC prompting, has en-
cased cur females In shaggy paletots with large
pearl buttons, has, we allow, little ground to
object TO the andro-gynous aspect Of the 'pel.
tiloon" OF "Tantalette." Nor indeed aay OF
uf, with any show Of pIopriety, object to tAe
novelty of costume which, anyhow, every Egg
lish gil undor fourteen has worn this many year.
But all these objections TO every existing fashion
fail utterly in demonstrating the propriety Of the
new enc. We do lot pretend to have been
initiated in the greater mysteries Of the gyngcwm;
and we therefore content ourselves with an
American lady's criticism on the Bloomer costume,
which We cite with the satisfaction Il is ex.
pressed in that rich verracular, which graphically
exceeds u powers OF any masc lline pen. ait
and the dilemma is TO US insuporable-"n," says
Mrs. Jane Swisthelm, "tbe trOwsers are loose at
the ankle, they 20 Zip Zap; If gathered to a band
and falling over in puff, they 60 slip slap rs ono
walks Ia there Is a FUile 20 fail down on the top
Of the foot il gets in the mud, aud is ugly the
longest skirt IL IL is drawn up to be convenient,
much Of the foot and ankle 10 exposed as need be
in moderately short skirt. Then the trowsers, all
ofthtm, give general appearance ofdropsicalegs."
An Aristotclian sortes Of dilcmmas-" either dip
nar, slip slap;" the division is exhaustive there
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