The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-02-14
The Passion for Dress.

It used to be said that women dressed
to please the men. At the bottom oi
their passions for snowy and costly cos
tunes is the desire TO win the favor and
praise of the other sex. If they are ex-
travagant, it is the fault of the men who
admire and praise their splendid and
expensive attire, and who demand con-
slant changes in the fashion to gratify
their changing tastes and fancies.
But one of our fashion papers explains
this problem in another way, aud one
Tar less complimentary to the sex. II
says women dress to shine each other
down. They spend their lives and for
tunes to out-dress each other. They un-
dergo all sorts of torture for the sake OF
making each other jealous and misera-
bic. The one aim Of every woman i'm
society is to dress better than all other
women if she can, but better than some
other woman at any rate.
This is a hard doctrine. 1t hardly
agrees with our observation and knowl-
edge of women. There may be a few
ladies" of this vulgar type, but, for
tunately, we do not know them. The
majority OF women do not care enough
Tor each other to harbor q settled hatred,
much less to commit martyrdom for the
sake of making them miserable. They
care ten times as much for the notice
and admiration of the other sex as for
the good or i'll will of their own. Some
women are fanatics on the subject of
iasnlon, as Others are on religion. Here
ana there we find woman who has a
mania Tor dress as decided rs any men
tai disease Will even be. The majority
OF women yield to the force of public
tel 4
dress as they do because it is the fashion;
because they are expected TO dress i'm
certain styles, and would be considered
ill-bred or eccentric were they not 10
conform to the rules of their sex. Dress
is one means of influence. It has been
the chief means through which women
have addressed the public. They have
spoken TO the worlds mind and heart
through the beauty and splendor of their
attire. They put their poetry upon
their persons. They wear their elo-
quence as garment, and oftentmes the
tasteful and elegant costume is more eX-
pressive IN its silence than any words
the wearer could utter.
1t is the fashion of men to rail at and
satirize wOmen'S love for dress; but il is
worthy of notice that those who con-
denim this passion most and most
severely are opposed to every measure
and step that promise its reformation.
We may rail against its follies until
doOmsday, and without avail unless we
find an antidOte therefor. Women must
have some outlet for their energies,
some appropriate field for their activi-
ties, some expression for their taste, re-
finement, love of appreciation and OF
art. Finding most other avenues closed
against them they have made dress
their business, language, passion, art.
Ii WAS their only resource. Blame them
not for doing what is really an honor to
them, an other illustration of the
genius and nobility and wealth of a
nature which, repressed on one side,
overiiOws upon the other, and denied an
outlet i'm utilities blossoms into beauty
and converts the beauty of the globe
into material for its decoration. The
tyranny of fashion and its fOllies will
cease when other and nObler things
than dressing invite woman To do them,
and the public sentiment of the world
sustains them in the doing. When
women are called TO do the grand and
fine work of the world, and feel the at
traction of its rewards and prizes and
honors, the enrichment of culture, the
nobility of art, the glory of charity,
they viii cease dressing themselves like
dolls. The mania for millinery will
cease when q nobler ambition takes its
place in woman's mind. Give the
women of America something grand to
live for, something noble TO aspire to,
something worthy and inspiring to do,
and they will break the silken chord of
fashion and set men an example worthy
of imitation.-7Tlton's Golden Agc.