Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1880-01-17
INDIVIDUALITY In DRESS.
Eccentric Manifestations of the
Esthetic Revival in London So
ciety.

We had been to a conversazlone
where we're congregated the repre-
sentntjves of fashion, science and
beauty in London. The reunion had
been held by high art association
and picturesque dressing was the
order of the day among the feminine
portion of the community. Fresh
from Paris, l felt at first somewhat
bewildered at the spectacle; then
became amused and interested. 1t
was a new experience to watch fair
DANES fitting past in garments that
belonged to no mode but that OF the
wearer's devising, side by side with
women decked in the hight of to-
DAVIS fashion. The contrast they
presented was as if the ideas ON cos
tune of clever dressmaker and
those of a confused, talented art stu
dent had been endowed with the
power to take shape and jostle each
other.
| shall not here describe the fash
ionables; they were as pretty and
conventional as could be. Marvel
Gus. however, were some Df the get
ups I beheld-women ia garments
that were the oldest mixture of the
picturesque and the untidy, the orig
inal and the bygone. saw high
wreaths piled upon masses of tor
mented hair; sleeves that were dis
tended like drapery blown by a
storm; queerly cut bodices, that did
not always fit; vast fans and i'm
mense peacock handscreens. They
were wholly unsatisfactory creations
in dress, but they had one and all an
apparent design, an intention, not a.
ways very clearly revealed by the
wearer and that sorely reminded me
of blotched sketches by tyro for
some picture. There were more i'm
pressive and thoughtful figures. A
magnificent dame wore high on her
bare arms an enameled snake; her
white cashmere. gold-embroidered
dress was draped with classic grace;
she might have been a Roman matron
arrayed for some antique festival. A
dark eyed woman wore on her
tangled black locks wreath OF
jessamine; her dress of crimson and
white fell in long folds about her;
it had wide, open, pointed sleeves
that nearly swept the ground, such as
might have been worn at the time
when good King Arthur reigned DER
the land. A wan, superb-br0wed
woman, with a throat like a Juno,
was dressed in loose, yellow gar
ment; in her hands she carried tiger
lilies; Egyptian ornaments, wrought
in gold, clasped her neck and arms.
There was concentration and still
ness in her movements, and in her re-
pose crouch and strange quietude;
under her wild hair, her dark eyes
seemed to be intensely questioning
everything. There were pretty maids
in clinging skirts who wore homely
sunfiower, the marigold,
the dainty daffodil or Lent lily. |
liked them for having found out
the winsomeness of thoselong. neg
lected flowers.
1t was amusing enough to watch
the gsits of all these fair apostles of
new creed in dress. They moved
about with gliding step. When
they sat down they assumed poses
whose stiffness suggested that thus
they had sat for hundred years and
thus they meant to sit for another
century. In the expression and bear
ing of all these women was lack of
abandon and freshness; there was a
self and melancholy. |
After a while, however, l began to
note that there were some charming
figures present that lowered on the
borderland of estheticism in dress,
who had very prettily adapted Its
peculiarities to something of the
fashion of the day. The result was a
pleasant individuality of costume.
noticed also delightful arrangements
IN color-symphonies is the proper
word-one tint passing
through all its shades or meditation,
as we see it pass in flowers, to vio-
lent contrasts subtly harmonized by
the massing and arrangement of the
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