The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1872-02-01
American Absurdities In Dress.

How shocked would these ladies of oul
"frst society" be, if they knew that the tor
turing and i'll forming shoe on whose silt
like heels thoy tilt and suffer, no Paris shop
keeper would offer to a lady. To suffer the
excruciating pain of the inquisition, to be
crippled for life for the sake of playing the
French lady, would be hard enough; but af:
ter such r,artyrdom, to be only like, the dsbaa
monde of the boulcvards is too bad: Fer
more than two years, American women; :esr
pecially young girls have walked the public
streets, with conspicuous chains and lockets
or Haunting bows and ribbons attracting the
attention.of every passing .gazer to their
bare throats and dresses ereR-a eeuer, solae-
ing themselves for the exposition by the
thought that it was perfectly French" If
so it was a costume which no French lady
would wear on the public pavement. The
dress of the French lady is artistic, simply
faultless-faultlcss often because of its SIM
plicity itself. She may wear brilliant colors
in her drawing room and in her carriage
never on the Street. When she walks she
wears black or grey, and it never drags on
the ground. When she goes to church she
wears the same colors and is always attired
in the simplest manner 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 except vail Of the
same hue. What contrast to the church
attire Of American women They are ac-
customed to consider themselves as. perfect
saints compared with Italian and French
women, yet they enter the house of God as
they would theatre They don their gay
est plumage, hang on their chains and lock-
cts, take off their kid gloves to show their
diamond rings in the sacred temple just as
in the academy of music. Worse: they
stare and comment on each others costumes,
and absolutely make the house of worship a
place in which to study the fashions-this
is not French. The same lack Of fitness in
dress is seen in,t the utter disregard to age as
as well as occasion in the adaptation ofdress.
The woman of 80 or 40 may be as beautiful
as the woman of20 by her own right, if
there is no incongruity between her years
and her attire. 1t is only when the woman
of 40 dresses like the girlof twenty that she
looks absurd. We despise her not for what
she is but for trying to be that whiehso pal
pably she is not. A French married lady
never wears round hat, an English maid
en- never to church. Yet. every where,
American matrons may be seen with faces
lined and scared xeariag their flaming Jock
ey hats, set on their grey heads like helmets
befowered and befeathered, and more fan.
tastic than the ones worn by their little
daughters of 10, while the little girls Of ten
may be seen dancing at Dodsworth's in bro.
kade silk and point-lace collars, old and
grand enough for their grandmothers. Elan
mel and linnen and muslin are worn by little
princes and princcses abroad, ,'but are by no
means fine enough for the little princes and
princcsses of America All of which is not
French, though to be perfectly French has
been the alpha and omega of our alphabet
in dress. Plainly we must begin to learn it
over again,