The Portland daily press., 1880-04-22
The Science of Dressing.
Mrs. Florence Gives the Results ofiH er
Experience on the Stage.

To please the women Mrs. Florence declares
to be her aim in dressing. Men in general,
she says, know little about the subject. They
are pleased with this or that appearance, but
it is as often poor taste as good, while women
appreciate the value of materials, the refined
taste of appropriate combinations and all the
indications of the newest modes. "Why
shouldn't dress for the ladies?" Mrs. Flor
ence exclaimed. ''They often form two-thirds
of my audiences. At the matinees especially
can often see signs of the interest excited in
my costumes, and 1 confess it pleases me-"
The secret of her dressing, she SAYS is this:
She dresses as for the drawing room, with the
corsage, perhaps, rather lower, and with the
arms less covered, which changes are de-
manded by the tendency of the stage to dwarf
and diminish effects. The old time tinsel and
glitter of stage apparel has given way before
such costumes as these introduced by Mrs.
Florence. The observance of certain rules,
however, is no less obligatory if a successful
result is to be obtained. All dresses beautiful
in the drawing-room will not appear equally
so on the stage. A miniature may be an artis-
tic gem, but its beauties are only revealed on
close examination. Hang it ON distant wall
and, as for effect, it might as well be colored
photograph. So with dress delicate in ma
terial and combination. 1t looks tame behind
the yellow gas glare, and looks as a pretty
face would without the shadows and lines of
eyes darkened, or the complexion heightened
to counteract this terribly paling influence of
gaslight.
"Then there is the overlooking of trim
ming" continued Mrs. Florence, "of which the
French say, with shrug of the shoulders,
de trop! But the most difficult feature of
stage dressing is combining colors. 1 have
seen many beautiful dress ruined by single
color" OF course one can expect no rules to
guide Judgment in this matter. An eye for
color is natural, and you can no more make
one person see with the eyes of another than
you can make a colorist of an artist who has
no feeling for harmony. Combinations in
color far exceed in variety those of the "fifteen
puzzle" and so do the bad combinations, it is
painful to say. Mrs. Florence makes the
form of dress scarcely less important point
than its cOlors. Her own dresses, which fit so
perfectly, have the advantage, and it is no
slight one, of being worn by a well-rounded
and finely proportioned figure. The French,
she says, pay particular attention to the curve
of the darts and under-arm seams. These
mould the dress to the figure so as to define
clearly the waist and bust. The shoulders are
cut short to give play to the full arm and a
proper curve to the sleeve. The back is made
as narrow as possible, and great care is
taken in regard to the gradual sloping
OF the seams of the back. There
should be no fullness or bagginess in
these seams below the waist line, which, Mrs.
Florence says, is terrible defect, and one too
often seen in ill-made basques and polonaises.
She says one way to prevent.this fullness is to
be careful when trying on dress to stand per-
fectly erect 1t is natural when one is tired,
as is apt to be the case in dress fitting, to allow
the shoulders to droop. They are thus thrown
forward. The back is in consequence slightly
rounded and the spine thrown out. These
changes, though slight, make a great differ
ence in the shape of dress An ill-ftting
dress is not only an ugly sight but it is great
discomfort to the wearer. You cannot forget
it, you cannot be at ease in it, and you can
never appear at your best in it. That this is
very true the many women who have been in
subsection to badly cut gowns can attest.
The corset should be a good one, and good
fitting one, Mrs. Florence said, to ensure
nicely formed corsage. Her own is of Partisan
manufacture, and the whalebones and steels
are so light and pliable as to lend themselves
readily to the movements of the body In
ordering her dresses inlParis, Mrs. Florence
uses her own judgment and taste, and does not
submit 70 that of Worth entirely, as most
American women do, and as the great dicta-
tor Intends if possible, they shall. She has
learned that his dresses are not always salts
factory, are often too heavy to be carried by
large women, to say nothing of one of medium
size with great deal of fatiguing stage work
to do beside supporting them. She also
vonches for the statement that American
women are dreadfully swindled by French
m9a5sts & who sh9T @ o fheir M Gharaeteristie inge
goods whether in the mode or not. In dealing
with them, a knowledge of the language and
some independence and decision are absolutely
indispensable.