Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-09
WOMEN AND THEIR WEAR.
A Chance for American Indies 10
Follow Their Osrn sweet wills.


Follow Their Own sweet willis.
From the New York World.
Since the American war for indepen-
dence there never was season when wo-
men had it in their power to follow the
dictates of their own sweet wills SO en-
tirely in the matter of dress and fashion
as in the memorable year 1871, when the
recognized authorities have been demol-
ished, the landmarks destroyed, and
leadership left to whoever has sufficient
enterprise, courage and talent to seize
and hold it.
No one can assert what is fashion, for
there is no one recognized standard au-
thority; and on the other hand no one
can contradict the assertion that the cos
tune of the Feejee Islanders is the fash
ion, for there is nothing to stand in the
way of it but the willingness or unwilling
ness of women to accept it.
At present there is acceptation of cur
rent modes on the patti of soma, and
continued flutter of anxiety and delightful
state of uncertainty on the parts of others.
For the past twenty years we have been
undergoing series of incessant changes
and fluctuations i'll fashion. A new idea
was started, was heightened. exaggerated,
until it eliminated in some profound alb
surdity, and then vanished
Can women recall, without blush of
shame and modification at their folly,
the hoped skirt five yards round, four
and half moderated" the ''tilting"
hoop; the bonnet piled one story above
another, until it was lost in the other ex-
treme; the ''sanarn and the fanchon2
Do they remember the mass skirts, nine
to eleven no unusual number, which were
used to distend the straight, thick folds
and numerous hounces of the dresses
twenty years ago; the awkward cardinal
capes, the long cumbersome circular
cloaks, and the sudden change to one
skirt and Jacket
Do they want to commence and go
over again the same treadmill of apparent
variety and real monotony, the same
amount of work without result, the same
process of unreasoning destruction and
eternally building anew, which is SC sub
yersive of all the dignity, strength and
nobility in purpose or character
The present modes only want little
pruning, little simplifying, little har-
| monizing, to be, if not everything that
could be desired, at least a great improve
| ment, taking them for all in all, upon
anything that has gone before; but If the
uneasy behests of Continental mantua
makers are to be obeyed, we m lst relin-
quish our comfortable walking dress and
drag the old dirty trail upon the street, or
tie it up with strings sewed upon the
skirt underneath, and thus produce folds
which are not graceful, which are en-
tirely unnecessary, and which injure the
material.
confess am curious to see whether
sufficient number of American women
will do this, to make it obligatory upon
the whole; if they do, shall give them
up for bad job, as idiots past hope #
recovery, and let men put them in pri-
Vate iunatic asylums, without pity and
without protest.
THE LONGS AND THE SHORTS.
do not think, however, that they will.
wish that the attempt might be made
the signal for an uprising that would show
that women are alive to the extent of the
danger to their freedom, their comfort,
their convenience, their taste, their love
of cleanliness, to their possession of a
neat and useful street costume which
offers no obstacle to work, exercise OF
pleasure.
Already two parties are in existence,
which may be called the Longs and the
Shorts-the latter pledged to sustain the
walking-dress cut to clear the ground at
all hazards, and to wear it whether it is
| 81 H., fol
or not. This position has the support of
some of the most eminent and distin-
guished women in the country, the repre-
sentatiYes of the Oldest and most respect
ed families-families which furnished the
solid foundation upon which America
now stands, and who realize intensely the
dreadful vulgarity of the recent spirit of
perpetual change, extravaganza and dis
play.
One of the great reasons why the Shorts
ought to triumph is certainly in their
larger liberality. They do not impose
short dresses upon all women or upon all
occasions, they only ask that a length of
skirt shall be retained for the street which
will keep clear of the mud and dirt of the
streets. Apart from that there is no re-
suiction. The lady of leisure can still
trail her silken robe over the royal Wilton
in her drawing room, or enjoy the pleas
ure of seeing it lay upon the pavement as
she steps to and from her carriage; but
for sweet PHYS sake, let us be spared the
trail of the calico in the kitchen, of
alpaca up dirty Office stairs and over dirty
business floors, of rich silk and poplin in
orr muddy and dirty streets