Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-07-18

FR6QCn
Modistes Display Dresses In tho Bois de- 10.
iogne-The Place OF Worth--Why are tho
French 80 Politei-Oas Door Social Attritiou.
From our own Correspondent
20 RUE CAUMARTIN, July 3.--Paris
has, for generations, or since the time
OF Louis the XIV, at least. been the
Mecca to which the gay and fashion
able OF all lands have turned in their
devotions, and when they have not
been able to present themselves at
the shrine, or stand in this gilded
temple, they have evinced a pious
faith in following the oracles of taste
and style that originate here. Amer
leans IN Paris express surprise at the
perfect similarity in the attire of
we'll dressed people here and in our
own country. Here style is the out
growth of taste and invention, with
Us it is merely successful mimicry.
This similarity of fashion is, to DO
sure, just what we have heard and
read it was, but it nevertheless i'm
presses one as incongruous that peo-
Piles so diverse in antecedents, re>
ligion, irreligion, morals, habits-in
everything that embraces life, should
present TO the external eye the same
appearance. The world s model in
Paris is specifically so precisely
like her counterfeit in New York or
st. Louis that one is surprised to
find that she cannot speak English.
The difference is in tho mass not in
the individual. Hero a larger num-
Der dress with taste, and there is
more that is characteristic in their
attire, more exquisite adoption of
colors and drapery to special types
than we sec in America. Then
again there is wider spread ele-
gance of dress here on account
of the finer qualities of cloth that
may be had OF lower price than
with us.
Ofthe precise localities from which
styles issue in Paris 1 have no spec
ial knowledge, but it would be alb
surd to suppose that woman so
stout and uncomely as Madame
Mcmahon has assumed the dictator
ship that the ex-Empress so long
held In America it is very gen.
orally supposed that, IN female at
tire, Worth is the umpire, but with
American ladies who have long re
sided in Paris he has no very high
reputation, except for exorbitant
charges. His notoriety is almoSs
exclusively on our side the water !;
but this is just as be would prefer to
have it, since his American custom
ers are silly enough to pay him a
third or half more than he could get
from Parisians. He is no more sue.
cessfnl as designer or filter of CO.'S
tunes than scores of modistes here
and in other cities. Among the hun.
dreds of women that one sees in the
Bots de Bologne. at receptions, or in
the Jardin Mabills, probably very
few have ever heard of Worth. But
if there is doubt as to the precise
salon from which fashion originates,
there need be very little as to the
medium employed by modistes to
introduce their styles, to the fair
public. The Partisan modistes are
| adopts in advertising, as every fire.
quenter of the beautiful drives of the
Bots de Balogne knows. Not all
those easily approachable, painted,
diStingue, beauties, driven in elegant
low open cabs own the paraphornalia
that excites such envious admiration
in the hearts OF the more virtuous of
their sex. They are simply dummies
for the display of fashions. parasian
ladies seem to know it, for they
look at the dresses with almost as
much freedom as they would ex.
anime the drapery that covers a
frame in q shop window. But, as
work of art, the dress lis we'll worth
inspection, for it is the result of q
patient study and cultivated taste
that, when displayed on canvas or
marble; has won for its author the
reputation of genius. What harmo-
ny of colorsl What rare adaptation
to the complexion and style of the
wearer, to tho upholstry of the car
riage, and even to the livery and
horsesl 1t is a fact that the dem;-
monde of Paris are the medium for
the introduction OF the styles that
sooner or later are seen on Fifth
avenue, Wabash avenue, Pennsylva-
MIA avenue, in fact everywhere that
the fever of fashion RACES.
In all matters of taste and decora-
ton I; in all the wide and versatile
province of art, from the oonstruc-
ton ola grand opera house to the
manufacture of q sleeve-buttoD, the
French excel oil other people. For
generations they have been "the
glass of fashion and the mold of
FORM" Their wretched little cham.
bers, salons, restaurants, and shops,
are full of mirrors not little glasses
like ours, casting distorted refiec-
tions OF womnn's head and shout.
ders, but large beautiful mirrors in
which the femanine form divine
may easily be glassed, and by means
of which years of self criticism has en-
abled them to attain an elegance of
dress, Of pose, and an ease Of manner
that can be found in such perfection
and nowhere else. There was wis.,
dom in the advice of Emerson to the
diffident young man -" Have your
clothes cut by the best traitor. 1t
will relieve you of much embarrass-
ment;" and the woman who said
that "the consciousness of being per.
fectly well dressed gave her serenity
of mind that religion had never been
able to bestow," expressed no doubt
the impious sentiment of many of her
sex. No one will be at his hes. while
handicapped with the consciousness
of q mean appearance. But, while
| the elegance of the dress of this PEG.
pie may be attributable to their use
of mirrors, as well as to the insensible
influence Of works of art, ESQ abundant
that they may be seen from every
window much of their elegance OF
manner is the result Of their social
life. No people live in such incessant