The Republican journal., 1873-12-11
Modern Dress.

Not so BAD AS IT SEEMS When we see
Nilsson and kellogg acting Margaret in
simplest, finest Grape whose white folds fall
and sweep with statuesque grace. we are
charmed with the garb, and would fain dis
pense with panners and rulings and doub-
lings But presently lady appears in the
drawing room splendid with sheen of satin,
the fairy frost-work of lace, the white re-
pose of pearls or the dazzle of diamonds
the little country girl fits among her
flowers, fresh as they, with the morning
red upon her cheeks, the heavens blue in
her eyes, and every puff of her fluttering
ribbons modelled upon the last fashion
plate, and at once the anclents 90 down be-
Tore the moderns The flowing lines of
Grape and muslin you say, may answer for
the stage-may have answered well for
Helen. with a maiden to every fold for As
pasta enhancing the youths and philoso
piers OF Athens but they would fare but
hardly IN the scrlmmage of modern life in
the daylight of gardens or the glitter of
evening splendo4s We can hardly find
words strong enough to express our disap-
probation Of the cramping bodies of mod
ern dress. Our ladies would be disguised,
saws the fashion denouncer, to see their
Venus, their Psyche, their Clytie, tricked
out the notwithstanding corsage. But
no more, imagine, than would the critics
10 see the nineteenth-century ladies dress
fd in Nenus's array. Clytie's mantua-mak-
ing is perfectly hygienic, but her loose
robe,
'Slipping down, leaves bare
Her bright breast. shortening into siglls.
Yet Clytie followed the fashions of her
day and sinned not, and Annie Maria fol-
lows the fashions of her day, "close-but-
toned to the chin" with equal innocence
If the close waists fits well, it is health
tul waist. 1t may be clumsy and uncom-
Portable, pinching here and bagging there,
and then it is a trial to health and tenn
per. But the master of arts among dress
makers knows that dress too tight is a
misfit; that to be perfect it must be COM
Portable. The really elegant dress admits
full play of all the muscles that woman
has any occasion to use while she is wear
ing it; and surely the American woman
of our age would be no better equipped
for her work by adopting the costume of
Helen 1t is to be said, moreover, thai in
our day fashion is, to the last degree, &C
commodating. If one has constitutional
objections to the plain waist, the polonaise
is ready with every degree of ullness. If
corsets are repugnant, they can be dis
pensed with, and no one be the wiser but
the dispenser. If skirts are 100 long,
what doth hinder that they be shortened2
If they ought to hang from the should ers,
so hang them. None of these things move
the world from its equipoise. One can
accomplish them all, and yet live and
move and have her being without rebuke
nay, even without notice from fashion.
Some of our prophets predict a return to
the sandal OF antiquity, and if fashions
were matter of will we might perhaps
advocate the change If sandals could be
so arranged as to Keep the feet warm and
dry in winter they would be cool and
charming in summer, and neat and pleasant
all the wear around to the foot, which they
would protect without confirming. But our
various little side issues of foot drawings
and broad soles avail but little. In shoes,
as in gowns, neither the large nor the
small has any advantage, but the shoe that
fits you is the right shoe. You make much
ado with models and measurements, and
weeks of waiting are put to pedal torture.
You step into the next shoe shop, and in
ten minutes are shod with suppleness and
strength. Bazaar.