Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-09-19
THE BEND.

4oG 11GSAx
-
The las, female folly is the Grecian
wo believe tho "Grscian bend"
has not yet reached the Pacific Coast,
but it is raging at Saratoga and other
fashionable watering places, and may DO
expected in the cities this winter. 1t is
not the cattle plague or any new cpl
demic Of that sort, but is, in its way,
quite as much to be feared. Our read
ers do not know what a Grecian
bend" is. II is o very disagreeabie
thing to describe, but the journalist IS
bound to watch V e the physical and
moral welfare of the community, and TO
warn his readers against whatever
threatens the peace of their homes or
the health and reputation of any class
of the people.
The "Grecian bend" is the last fe-
male folly in the fashionable world. It
is a side growth Of the Black Crook and
White Fawu system OF social morals,
inasmuch as it springs from a tendency
toward an open disregard Of that femin-
inc delicaey and decency which we're
once the universal rule Of American
society, but which have beon SO pain
fully invaded by the importation of the
nude drama, with all its d~emoralizing
effects. A Saratoga correspondent thus
describes this new monstrosity
In the frst place, a toilet is affected.
which Of itself suffices to turn a woman IN
full dress into q caricature. The body ana
waist of the dress are remarkable in only one
respect-the last is exceedingly tight, and
the former rather loose at the top and ex.
cecdinply low. It 10 below the waist that
what il monstrous in the costume first at
tracts and repels the eye Of man. A hoop
of moderate dimensions, overspread with an
upderskirt or two, and q dress Of whatever
fabric, are worn. Underneath the rear Of
this hoop, Just below the waist Of the person
Designated, 10 bound a coil Of wire from two
to three inches in diameter, which throws
out and ~eleyates the upper portion OF the
dress behind, and forms the foundation, so to
speak, Of an exterior protuberance called the
panier. The pdnier is a hustle, more or less
enormous, upon which, in successive folds
! or LAYERS gathered up, or confined BY a band
encircling the dress from the stomach Of the
wearer around and beneath, an extra skirt,
reaching Just below the hips, hangs, or rather
Mobiles" to and fro. The dress has a train
from four to six feet in length.
This dress, in itself, might not be
more unsraceful or loud than many
another tina: has preceded it. That it
violates the frs. canon of good taste.
which makes any woman badly dressed
who is conspicuously dressed, is true,
but we have all long ago sur.
rendered that point at discretion.
But the "Greciau bend" consists
not so much I'm tho popularity
of the costume as in the fashionable
method Of carrying it of, which is thus
graphically described by the same
writer:
The posture affected in order to set off this
attire is called he,"Grecian bend" a contor.
ton Of the body which, as it is highly i'm
proper in itself, I find it difficult to describe
with ~propriety. Hish-heeled boots dispose
the wearer 10 incline forward, and high
heeled CATERS arc therefore adopted BY the
"belle Of the season." She is thus the more
readily enabled to elevate her hips unnat.
urally behind, enhancing the aspect OF the
panier, to contract her s.omach, and to form
an S-like curvature OF her upper shape oy
~ -k -, nhaek 1ro wing hoek her
shoulders and bending forward her head. So
bent and deformed, the belle constrains her
elbows against her sides, and with horizontal
forcarms and little gloved hands dangling
from limp wrists, tits painfully along. The
profile OF such n figure, and its ungraceful
gait, are irresistibly suggestive Of a lame
kangaroo. When il 10 whirled and tossed
about in n dance By one Of the fashionable
iumping.iacks in black broadcloth who are
here 90 numerous and so much alike that
YOU can hardly tell one from another, the
| sirht-vhat with the bobbing up and down
Of the woman's panier and the agile sidelone
leaps Of the i~umping.jack across the i'm
mense trail piled on the foor-is too exas'
peratinSly ridiculous for laughter.
Perhaps the greatest outrage about
this odious fashion is giving it the title
of " Greciau." We are so in the habit
of sssociatiug the word with the noble
simplicity of drapery which character
lied the earlier Greek sculptors, and
with the exquisite grace and natural
dignity of the female form which con-
stitute the glory of the undraped Venus
dc Medici, that we protes. instinctively
against the use of the word TO describe
this modern a%bomination of dress and
posture.