Smyrna times., 1872-06-26
MiSceIIu IL e o us.
Beauty VS.. Fashion.

nothing for beauty. Fashion as people say
now a.days, "goes in" for novelty. Not TO ac-
cept anything new for beautiful, stamps you as
an outside barbarian. The fashionable modiste
absolutely prefers block-a human block, be |
it understood-for which Nature has done |
nothing. "Elle n,Gnq,tdtt absolument de tout" |
said a famous Parasian dressmakcr to one Of the |
most illustrious of her clients under the late |
imperial regime. The lady who thus was abso- |
lutely without what every woman is supposed
to have, was considered to be the best-drassed
woman in Paris-if the Empress herself be ex-
cepted-owing nothing to Nature and every
thing to the modiste. Fashion sets aside in the
most summary manner all attempts of Nature
to interfere with, hinder, or battle her. 1t takes
no account of native beauties, native defects
1t is no respecter of persons; that, at least,
must be said ia its favor. Clara has rather a
long neck; Claribel a very short one. What
| does Fashion care about that? Deep collars or
broad ties are 'all the 60, and poor Claribels
head seems to start direct from her shoulders,
She looks absurd but all her friends would tell
her she looked still more so if she were out of
the fashion. Long bodies and short skirts sud-
denly come in, and woe to the women whose
bodies are longer than their members They
must exaggerate a natural defect In Difference
to the omnipotent edicts of Fashion. Skirts all
at once expand in every direction, and become
as long as they are broad. Ladies who never
! step from their carriages save into house or a
shop, carry a couple of yards of silky tail be-
hind them. Under the circumstances it does
not much matter, and occasionally it may look
rather graceful than otherwise. But forthwith,
t the ladies who must walk because they cannot
: afford to be always driving initiate their car
riage friends, and the pavement is swept by the
skirt of the period. Ii it were only swept
clean, that would be some consolation; though
! to think of all the dust and nameless dirt accu
(. mulated by those fair creatures in a morning
. walk But whilst half of it adheres to thei
petticoats, the other half is whisked into tht
i air for the benefit of those who follow in the
. footsteps.
y Why cannot individual women make a stanC
70 once for all, and say, each in turn, bav
d found out what suits me. | am tall, or short
q or middle-sized, slim, stout, or dumpy. Thi
- new fashion of yours makes me look fright.
Of have studied the matter now for some littl
80 time, and have hit off to a hair the style O
2. dress which most becomes me, which sets m
q, off to the best advantage, which does me mos
h; justice, and all the modistes in the world sha
,.- not persuade me to make guy of myself
d, Just look at the advantage of such course
'i- Three gloriousy good things would at once fo
o, from it. We should have beauty, variety, an
Of economy. For fitness is always more or les
KS Es beautiful and unftness never can be even pa
p; TALLY beautiful. Really pretty women al
"D many, and really uncomely women are few
sni ssS The former would be yet more numerous, an
&c. the latter rarer, if fitness instead of fashio
Int were her habitual study. Women are win
Ind enough to recognize that there are certa
ty- colOrs which everybody cannot wear. One gi
I5s cannot don yellow another must eschew gree
ihs a third must beware of purple. Is color, the
uu' a relative matter? and is form an absolute on
the Most people look, perhaps, equally we'll
three or four different coors; and it is possib
rec though not probable, that three or four diffe
rs ent styles of costume will equally become thel
eSs 5SS Here, surely, is choice enough. Depend up,
as it, however, some women never do themselv
dol justice save by adhering to one fixed style al
siS .ni even fixed color Why, then, try dangero
: q experiments? The modistes may be delighte
ana and female friends, enamored Of novelty al
for too kind to wound, may extol the dazzling
lars novation; but they all in their hearts know f
SaT Sne well that if woman is to be looked at as
rer. woman, and not clothes-horse, the old IA
sra. n was the comeliest and the most becoming
sat strict fidelity to the rule we are insisting
ugly costumes would be banished from sigl
dsI sa and every woman might walk the world feeli
i1g. ing that she was obeying the dictum of b
ms. Jonson:
sxes cit was for beauty that the world made"