The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-11-01

their value as great historical works Of art.
The Paris Fashions-The Grecian Bend.
In our sprightly Paris letter will be found
happy view Of the current gayeties, beauties
and oddities in the world of dress and mantua
makers within. Our correspondent gives US Q
glimpse Of the anatomy and philosophy OF that
latest provocative of poetic and other frenzy
the Grecian bend. Considered anatomically,
the Grecian bend is no more poetical than the
English bend that all the artists in leather
assure us is to be found in the soles of our ten
dollar shoes The anatomy Of the bend deals
with steel, starch and silk In silk there is
poetry enough. Is not the very rustic of that
article associated in all thoughts with the pre-
senoe and the advent Of beauty, with the move
ment before human eyes of that particular
composition of qualities that each man has
fallen in love WITH and therefore looks upon as
the type of all feminine grace and glory! Silk
will do, but as for steel and starcb-faugh
pah! pish! Fortunately all men do not know
that there could be absolutely no beauty with
out starch, therefore they do not respect that
white and uninteresting commodity. Oh, ar
dent lover of the damsel with round, white
arms, let us assure you in quiet way that the
roundness is all due to starch. But for starch
those arms would be angular and scrawny
For further particulars see Bantings treatise,
written to show how he got rid of his tat by
going without starch. (Note--Banting Is
probably as fat as ever now.) Now, the lover
has an additional reason for admiring starch.
He owes to it in part also the latest charm OF
his sweetheart-the Grecian bend. We are not
80 sure even that steel can be ruled out OF the
realm of the romantic. Once upon a time
beautiful lady asked her doctor what she might
eat and he said anything but the shovel and
tongs. In these days the doctors would not
except even those, but give them in all sorts
and sizes of iron pills and steel mixtures.
They say that rosy cheeks are the result, and
thus but for steel there might be much less
kissing. We are not sure, therefore, that the
materials of the bend are so bad.
But the philosophy of it is good. Consid-
cred in this order the bend is simply Camargo.
What is Camargoa Marie Antoinette. What
is Marie Antoinette9 Eugene. This is
milliner's catechism. All these names are for
mule that stand Interchangeable for the
same idea. They indicate the reigning divin-
ity. Camargo was dancer whose sense of
art and perception Of the possibilities Of the
human form gave her ideas currency in the
world of fashion. Marie Antoinette was a
~, oha M
women dressed the same way to flatter her.
With Eugene it is the same. But what has
all this to do with the Grecian bend2 Every
thing. Camargo, says the chronicle, origi-
mated the notion of punching out behind the
dress, or sundry additions to the dress. Per-
haps poor little Camargo, or big Camargo,
whichever she was, needed it. In those dim
days of the past, when she danced for the
Paris that was gay before the Revolution, men
had, perhaps, the same ideas they have now
as to the feminine form, and Camargo, who
lived by pleasing the public, used the newt
able steel, starch and silk to compensate the
neglect of nature. Then other women, queens,
perhaps, in a spirit of ruse, not proud of the
superb abundance of their proportions, used
Camargo's device for quite the opposite object
to suggest other reasons than the real for the
extension of certain lines. Far he it from our
editorial politeness to hint that Eugene, as
middle age comes on, is losing that airy deli
cacy of form that she had in youth. Royalty
is eternally young, we know; but if an empress
should get stout and broad, and wanted to hide
4 hny In,h tha lar ha
art enough to contrive Camargo suited to her
years, and to make that seem all Camargo Of
which, perhaps, the great part is more sub
stantial stuff and we have quito as little
doubt that any fashion adopted by an empress
would become as current as the bend is.