Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-04-01
Simplicity in Dress.

OF simplicity III dress. No young girl
looks as young or rs lovely in heavy VEL
vets ana loaded trimmings as in simple
muslins and soft cliDglng materials.
They detract from their own fresh
charms by calling attention to their
adornment. I should be inclined to
say that no jewels. unless single row
of pearls about the throat, no lace but
simple Valenciennes, should be worn
by any girl younger than twenty.one.
A dress perfectly fresh. light in color
(where the complexion permits),
beautifully cut, and almost entirely
untrimmed, can not be improved upon
for young girl. 1t is the sweet
rounded forms, the dewy bloom of the
cheek, the clear young eyes, the soft
tender lips, that we want to see. Where
silks are worn, they should not be Of
heavy quality, but soft. Our young
girls wear dresses like dowagers. It is
futile waste Of money; no beauty is
attained.
We would like to call attention to
the fact that the style Of dress inf1u-
ences the manners, the carriage. OF the
woman. The masculine style Of dress
has this objection. 1t is a little diff
cult to say what we conld substitute
for the Ulster that We have all adopted.
1t is surely q very convenient garment
for our streets, and for rain and mud
and snow; but there is difference in the
cut OF listers and they should be as
little like very bad overcoat as posi-
BILE. Where young girl has side
pockets, she is apt put her hands in
them, and where she adds Derby hat,
how often the swsgger followsl
The Derby hat appears to me to have
no excuse. It is uubecoming even to
man, and absolutely hideons upon q
woman. 1t is surprising to SEQ them
adopted by well-bred ladies. They
have had great countenance, to be sure.
but we think that if We should hand
ever all the younger generation to an
exclusive costume of the Derby hat,
the Ulster, the Jersey, and short skirt,
it would not take more than one gener-
alton to make us lose all grace of man
ner.
The short skirt deserves to I've COM
mended for the street, but in the house
it has neither beauty DOR eleRhLoe.
Even to shorten long skirt in. 'ront
for the better display, of pretty 'ot
is great mistake. Is is neither becom-
ing to the foot nor the figure. Itgivesan
Intentional look of display which is I'M
refined; and surely the dress that leaves
something to the Imagination is more
coquettish and more dignified.
The scarf for married moman is q
fashion that should never die. To wear It
we'll is proof Of grace, and it imparts
an elegance, especially to a-tall woman.
that is very desirable. In the old por-
traits by Sir Joshua Reynolds and
Gsinsborough, by Stewart and Copley,
the scarf has been very elegantly used
the long straight scarf drawn tightly
across the small of the back. passed
over the elbows, and dropping down in
front as low as the kree, or lower.
Nowadays one sees them occasionally
worn by ladies who have relatives in
the East, who send them scarfs Of
Grape or camel's hair; and occasionally
the French approach the scarf in the
style Of their light outer wraps for
spring or autumn. think that it
would only require half dozen ladies'
whose reputation for good dress is high,
to persistently adopt the scarf. for
otuoA0 " AccoShA9 1so hhoo0 ~Hu cAo
canoe.
The wearing of jewels is not often well
understood. One does not see many
handsome jewels worn in America, with
the exception of diamonds. 1t is said
that the value of diamond Auctuates
less than that If any other precious
stone, and that they therefore recon-
mend themselves to the practical mas
culine mind as an investment, and that
this is the real reason that our women
wear diamonds SO exclusively. This Is
to be regretted, az the diamond, from
its excessive brilliancy and hardness
of light, is not becoming to many wom-
en-. To the blue-eyed, the sapphire,
or even the inexpensive turquoise, is
often far more harmonious and decora-
tive. A little pale woman in flashing
diamonds is absurd; the silent pearl, the
dull, soft turquoise, the evasive, mys-
terious opal, even the little moon-stone,
green chalcedony, the topaz. an anne
thyst With a velvet surface for finish
(what the French call dsfacee), even am
Der, or pale tea-colored coral--all these
as ornaments are becoming to ninety
nine women, where the diamond is be-
coming to the one-huadredth. List as
emancipate ourselves from imagining
thing beautiful because it is costly, or
beautiful AS an ornament because it is
beautiful in itself, or ornamental in the
dress Of one person because it is 90 in
tia dress of another.
We knew once charmiy q little lady
who, being in very moo erat circum-
stances, dressed in such m lie mate
rails as she could easily procure-in
winter often in soft gray woolens, in
summer in light-colored muslins, with
white scarf, u straw bonnet, with the
plainest pale ribbon neatly tying it
down. Her complexion was like wild
rose, and with her soft fair hair and
blue eyes, her figure delicate even to
tue point of frsgility, no dress could
have been more coquettish and exquis-
itely appropriate. Later her husband
came into q fortune. She eagerly adopt
ed heavy velvets, beneath whose weight
she seemed to totter. diamonds Of great
size and brilliancy. They made her,at
once a plain woman; and as her fresh
ness began to fade. we wondered how
we could ever have thought her exquis'
itely pretty; and it seemed to Us that
with soft lace and the tender dullness
of pearls, with grapes of gray OF white