The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-05-29
Women's Dress and its Tendencies

The London Spectator, having heard that
private view week at the academy was the
best time for seeing the fashions, sent liter.
ary expert there with this result, in part;
"Trying, after while, to systematise his
Impressions, he notices that the general snip
pettiness is less than he has formerly observed
1t to be; and he is glad, because he has preyi-
ously bethought himself in humble way
that the best use to which rich silk sheeDy
satin, soft woolen stuffS, and majestic velvet
can be put is not the cutting of them I'D into
small pieces, and the sewing of those small
pieces together in huddled masses, to the total
destruction of the idea of lines and drapery.
This irritating popularity of recent custom is
replaced, he percelves, by sweeping lines and
curves, by simplicity allied with richness, and
sensible abatement-for which mankind can
not be too grateful, in the interest of feminine
testable fashion of "tying back" The fair
beings who inspect the pictures "on the line''
frequently with the audible comment of
'Aow awlul?o do not hop, or stumble, or
garment, with knees threatening to protrude
and manned feet hobbling in imitation of the
"TotteriDg Lily of Fascination" as they
hoped and stumbled last year, their skirts
fall decantiy and softly round them, and unless
the 'horrid male creature" be more than COM
monty idiotic, there are surely in few in
stances symptoms of CIinoline-real crnoline
not wiIe, not the bird cage or balloon of John
Leech's palmy days, but the finely modulating
horse-hair of the far past, which lifted the
heavy folds of the gown, and left the move
ments of the wearer free. Some Of the DOR.
traits on the walls of the galleries have their
gowns (or "frocks," as it is the correct thing.
our grand-daughters tell US to say this seasonj
tied back to what. in real life and any earthly
venture must certainly be the crack of doom;
and they seem quite .old-fsshioned after one
has been looking for while at the living pic
lures.
The hard and braz in stS1s has almost disap-
peared, and it Is replaced, for the most part,
by the soft, the timid, the appealing. One
does see monstrosities in tight satin, with ar
arrangements in crimson and yellow upon
them upon inquiry of good natured female
friends, one learns that these horrors are called
"plp11gs) which resemble costume advertise
ments of court plaster; and very terrible speci-
mems of bue.and- green embroidery of unsur-
passable sickness, do overcome US, to our
especial wonder; but these are passing affic-
tions. On the whole. dress at the private views
last week was thing OF beauty. and in most
instances, doubtless. joy, for a week or two,
to its possessors. Richness of material, COM
bined with simplicity of form, invariably
recommends itself to the inarticulate half of
humanity ION the subject of dress); and there
it was, Sin perfect heaps,' like the good sense
of Mrs. Toots; in purple velvet perlisse like
gowns, fitting without crease, and fastened
with plain buttons, worn with white ''baby"
bonnets, quite bewitching in form and express.
Sloni III ueau-ieai saeln, in uull Dack silk, with
folds which even Mr.. Millais would have to
study before he could paint them; in rrey
cashmere and camels' hair and homespun. so
trim and dainty, with the accoutrements of
hanging pouch and precise three-cornered
pelerine, that two-thirds of each assembly
might have been costumed By Mr.. Mulready
to help the future Mrs. Primrose iG the choos-
Ing OF her wedding gown, on their way to visit
MISS Aqsten's county families in Northampton
shire. 1t is evidently no longer the fashion for
young girls to look saucy, and in none OF the
typical assemblages of last week was the atfec-
tatlon of manishness that has recently grieved
the middle-aged. masculine breast, perceptlble.
There were plenty of other atfectations, but
not that -and any other kind is better.