The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-15
WORTH'S DRESSES.

| buI - "A. \ il. IL
Buras, La.
WORTH'S DRESSES.
HOW THE PARIS WOMEN DREss-THE DRESS TIA
COST ALMOST NOTHING.
| [Arsene Houssaye in the Tribune.l
But what terrible games the women o
fashion play when they go to the Museum
Worth to choose the armor wherewith to daz
z!e their lovers and exasperate their rivals
| The quotations of dresses rise without the
least reaction. have seen the time when 6
dress cost O hundred francs I was fright
ened the day saw those securities" at five
hundred francs. At thousand francs,
made up my mind-for you can make NJ
your mind about any thing. At two Thousand
francs grew uneasy for France; the women
we're SO pretty that | pardoned them, Ike
everybody else. But at five thousand francs
$4,000 1 stopped following prices, and
washed my hands of the matter.
| The silk-makers will say am dreaming.
For after all twenty-five yards of silk al
twenty francs make only five hundred francs.
Yes, but the dressmaker knows very well tina.
I am not dreaming. She compares herself
modestly with that great painter who, with
q
francs. The material is nothing, says the dress
maker, it is the art of fitting, the science OF
suiting, the marvels OF bows and of Lees.
And besides, when you calculate twenty-five
yards, 1t is because you do not know how to
count. half yard is enough for the waist
and arms in fact you need allow nothing for
that, for the dress really begins at the belt
But a dress cannot really be said to be becom-
ing unless it follows you for quarter of an
hour. People calle! it an exaggeration when
the fair Drouard occupied the entire stage in
Mile. Thirty six Virtues. With that incom-
parable tr in she was only day or SO ahead
Of the fashion.
Yesterday at the masquerade ball of Emile
de Girardln, the beautiful Countess de la
Valette, disguised as haute gomlneuse, set a
dangerous example to all the women there,
her dress was such wonder of pomp and
emphasis. Before such dress Louis XIV
would have cried: "She who wears it shall be
princess"
1t is not only for the train that great deal
of material is required-it is for the tire
touching" A dress does not make itself; the
best cutter, even if she designs like Raphael,
must allow herself, as the artists say, ''space
for repentance" She cuts boldly into the
cloth. feeling that her genius has the right to
sacrifice everything that does not succeed.
At the opening nigh. of the opera the Mar
quise Anferti wore miraculous dress, made
Of an ancient Venetian brocade. It was wor-
thy of the wife of Doge. As people were
going into ecstacies over it, she said, "And
think l got it for nothing, only fifty francs q
yard" In fact, at the prices at which dresses
go, one might calculate that this only cost
1850 francs, counting twenty-five yards for
the dress. But the marquis added, 81 want
ed to give one like it to one of my friends.
but Worth used the whole hundred yards.
And when we cried out, she said, "What
could you do? At the first and at the second
cut he was not inspired, but at the third he
had recovered all his genius.
CATER all, said man of figures, laughing
~, ''the dress only cost 5000 francs"
''Ies. said the marquise, "but you forget
the making.
''Hush,' said the admirer. Il don't want
to hear any more"
':That is not all, she pursued. 81 spent
$4,000 on my journey to Venice. was so
happy at having found this stuff SO cheap that
l VAS prodigal in everything else"
''Come, now," said the man of figures, ''tell
US at once that the dress cost as much as the
opera"
And the finer the dresses are, the less they
are worn. A woman would consider herself
if it were said that she had been
oCoA t"lCo III Iuc Stluc OTcsS. uc uby Glt6E
q ball they send the dress back to the dress
maker, telling her to make it over. The max
ing over costs more than the material The
other day lady of fashion-of this fashi on
asked me to dine.
YES" said, con condition that your
dressmaker does not come ON that day."
You think, she said, smiling, ''that the bet
ter am dressed the worse you will dine, as
it Is with most women. Be of good cheer.
My table is as we'll dressed as l am" The
dinner was charming. She had invited one
Of her friends, asking her to come in an Ash
Wednesday dress. She followed instructions
and both appeared in dresses made
Tor the occasion, which had only cost 1000
rancs each-less than nothing, as they COM
placently observed.
All these follies recall the saying of Louis |
NV and Nine. Dubarry: cater US, the end
If the world" 1t we were under the royalty
he great "organs of public opinion" would |
1ot fail to cry out against the depravity of
he court; but We are under the republic, and |
% suppose we must dress our austere prin-
,iples as well as possible.
m