Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-03
Modern Dress-Not SO Bad as 4, Seems


When we see Nilsson and Kellogg acting Mar
garet in simple, finest muslin or Grape. whose
white folds fall and sweep with statuesque grace,
we are charmed with the garb, and would fain
dispense with psnniers and rulings and doab-
liDgs. But presently q lady appears in the
drswing-room, splendid with sheen of satin the
fairy frost work OF lace, the white repose of
pearls or the dazzle of diamonds; the little
country girl hits among the flowers fresh as
they, with the morning red upon her cheeks,
the heavens blue in her eve, and every seam in
her cambria gown and every puff of her flut-
tering ribbons modelled upon the last fashion
plate, and at once the ancients 90 down before
the moderns. The flowing lines of muslin, YOU
say, may do for the stage-Ihay have answered
well for Helen with maiden TO every fold: forAs-
spa-ia, enhancing the youths and philosophers OF
Athens; but they would fare but hardly in the
scrimmage of modern life, in the daylight OF
gardens or the glitter OF evening So e ndors. We
can hardly find words strong enough to express
our disapprobation of the cramping bodies OF
modern dress. Our ladies would b. disguised
says the fashion denouncer, to see their Venus
.helr Psyche, their Clytie tricked out in the
nlneteenth century corssge: But no more,
teenth century ladies dressed in Venus array
Yet Clytie followed the fashion of her day and
sinned not, aud Annie Marie follows the fashions
OF her day, "close- bGttoned to the chin" with
equal innocence. II the close waist fits well, il
is healthful waist. 1t may be clumsy and
uncomfortable, pnching here and bagging
tnere, and then IL is q trial TO health and
temper. But the master of arts among dress
makers knows that a dress too tight is = misht:
mat 10 be perfect IL must be comfortable.
The really elegant dress admits full play OF all
the muscles that q woman has occasion TO use
while she is wearing it: and surely the Ameri-
can woman of our age would be no better
equipped for her work by adopting the custom
OF Helen. Ii is to be said, moreover, that in our
day fashion is, TO the last degree accommoda-
ting. If one has constitutional objections to
the plain waist, the polonsise is ready, with
every degree of fullness. If corsets are repug-
nant they can be dispensed with, and no one
be the wiser but the dispenser. III skirts are
too long, what doth hinder that thew be short
ened? If you think they ought to hang from the
shoulders, so hang them. None OF these things
move the world from its equipose. 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 fashion were matter of will,
we might, perhaps, advocate the change. III
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 pleas
ant all the year round to the foot, which thew
would protect without combining. But our va
rious little side issues on 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 after 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.-Bdsdr.