Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-04-11
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lBsUDTrTEs IN DRESS.

How shocked would these ladies of our
.frst society" be if they knew that the
torturing and Informed shoes on whose
sfilt-ljke heels they tilt and suffer, no Paris
shopkeeper would ever offer lady. To
suffer the circulating pain, to be crippled
for life for the sake OF playing the French
lady, would be hard enough; but, after
such martyrdom, to be like the demi-monde
of the b0ulevards, is too bad.
For more than two years American wo-
men, especially young girls, have walked
the public streets with conspicuous chains
and lockets, or flaming bows of ribbons, at
tracing the attention of every passing gaz-
er to their bare throats and dresses open
coenr, solacing themselves for the expo
sition by the thought that it was perfectly
French II so, it was costume which
the French lady would wear on the public
pavement.
The dress of the French lady is artistic,
simple, faultless-faultless often because
it is simplicity itself. She may wear bril-
liant colors in her drawing-room and in
her carriage, never on the street. When
she walks she wears black or gray, and it
never drags on the ground. When she
goes to church she wears the same colors,
and is always attired in the simplest man.
ner. This is true also of Italy. In the
Sistine chapel, Rome, no lady can enter
unless attired in black, with no covering
on her head but a veil of the same hue.
What contrast to the church attire o.
American women! They are accustomed
to think themselves perfect saints compar
ed with the Italian and French women, ye
they enter the house of God as they would
theatre. They don their gayest plum
age, hang on their chains and lockets
take off their kid gloves to show their dia
mond rings in the sacred temple, just a.
in the Academy of music-worse the,
stare and comment on each others cos
tunes, and absolutely make the church o
worship place in which to study fash
ions-this is not French.
The same lack of fitness in dress is see
IN the utter disregard of age as well as OF
casions In the adaptations Of dress. Tn
woman Of thirty or forty may be as bea,
tiful as a woman of twenty, by her ow
right. if there is no incopgruity hetwee
her years and her attire. 1t is only whe
the woman OF forty dresses like the 81
of twenty that she looks absurd. We d.
spise her, not for what she is, but for Try
ing to appear that which so palpably sh
is not.
A French married woman never wea,
round hat; an English lady only
travelling: an English maiden never a
church. Yet, everywhere, American mai
rous. with faces lined and Scared, may b
seen with staring jockeys set on their gra,
heads like helmets, befowered and be
feathered and more fantastic than the one
worn by their little daughters of ten
while the little girls of ten may be seel
dancing at balls in brocade silks, and poin
lace collars, old and grand enough 70
their grandmothers. Flannel and line
and muslin are worn by little princes an
Processes abroad, but are by no mean
fine enough for the little princes and prr
cesses of America. All of which is nc
French, though to be perfectly French
has been the alpha and omega of our a
phabet in dress. Plainly we must begi
to learn it over again.