The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-01-05
AS ed DRESSES.
Have They Been More Decollete
Than Usual This Year?
What the Ladies, the Club Men,
and the Dress Makers have TO
Say Of the Fashion, and
Where the Line Of De-
cency Should be
Drawn.

p" 00E0 tA0 ~
cency Should be d
Drawn. A
Tn. extremely decoliete dresses
worn by many ladies at the opera
halls. aid elsewhere in rociety circles
at evening gatherings this season M
attracted universal attention. While
last wear and the ear preceding cry
decojlets dresses were worn by some
ladies, they were the exception, and
not almost the universal rule, AZ Is
the case this year. The subject has
become q topic of conversation at the
clubs and elsewhere. and many d
various have been the reasons as
signed for the seemingly alI-prevalent
fashion. The young married LADIES
are the most conspicuous in this
matter of dress, or rather or undress'
and several who have occupied prom
inent boxes at the Metropolitan Ope-
"a House during the season just CLOS
ing have attracted public notice from
the u%nblnshing display of natural
but generally concealed beauty.
wear Iow-necked dresses used to DE
held in place by shoulder straps, but
this wear these have been discarded
and to the observer the arm straps
s.em entirely insufficient ard na''e-
auate to hold the corsage, and there
is q feeling of nlomeDtary expectation
lest the entire bodice fall down.
Several prominent society leaders
were questioned yesterday regarding
the reasons for this remarkable r.
indecent fashion and rs to its proba-
BILE results and tendencies. Owing
to the fact that the fashion is so I'M.
versal and that their opinions would
consequently reflect upon their 1850
cia es and fellows. they declined TO
give their names for publication.
A middle-aged society and club
man, who is we'll and widely known,
and who is q regular attendant at the
Delmopico balls, said when ques-
toned on the subject: "Pshaw, the
majority of dresses worn this year by
society women are not cut any lower
than usual. Women with pretty
necks and chests like to display them
and some q little more immOdest I'M
cover them as much as they dare,
Nv explanation of this whole cutlery
against decollete dresses is that the
boxes in the e opera house, where
the fashionable women sit, bring
them , carer to and render them
more easily seen by that portion of
the audience. which, while it may
understand q Flatbush sOciable is
not familiar with the balls and par
ties of our distinctively fashionable
set in the metropolis, where these
dresses rarely excite any comment.
even among the masculine sex"
An equally prominent society wO-
man said: at is a subject I do not
much care to discuss, but the whole
question rests on whether woman is
modest or imm0dest. The fashions
change in this respect every few
years, and-a year after dresses have
been cut lower in Paris they begin 10
cut them lower here, but as to where
q lady shall draw the line rests with
herself and her own ideas and feel
ings. Under the directory when
high WASTED dresses were worn, the
bosom, except in the case of young
girls, was often entirely exposed, and
I do not know that that period was
much more immoral than this. For
myself, I should never care to wear a
dress, or allow nv daughter to wear
one that could excite the slightest
suspicion or thought of immodesty
on our part in any observers mind.
Dresses, save by members of Roman
Catholic families, are cut quite as low
in England as here, and a certain
American society girl who married
an English lord, and who has been
making quite a long visit here recent
ly, created quite = senetatiOn by her
lOw-cut dresses when she returned
home last year. She may, to some
extent, have started the fashion,"
An old club man said: 1.-THE pres
ent fashion of lOw-cut dresses, is, I
think, carried to an indecent and
d~isgrsceful extreme. 1 cannot but
consider it demoraliziDg to young
men and girls to attend our balls and
mingle with and observe women
whose charms are often wholly uh-
covered. I know by personal expe-
rience when I have heard young men
in this club talk the day after q Del
monico ball that the husbands and
relatives of some of the ladies they
discuss could have nc possible ground
for resenting their imputatiOns did
they hear them. And yet 1 believe
these ladies to be pure, good women
otherwise, and in the majority of
cases excellent wives and mothers.
They do not stop to think how great
ly, in yielding to an indulgence in a
foolish fashion. they aid in lowering
the moral tone OF the community. 1t
seems to 90 from bad to worse every
wear, and I do not see where it will
stop unless we boldly adopt the en-
tire customs of the French Directory.
The dowagers are the worst, l think,
and there are two or three %conspicu-
GUS examples who display their
charms bedecked with diamonds at
opera, theatre. and ball, who ought,
for the sake of public decency to be
suppressed"
A fashionable dress-maker was
asked regarding the matter and
said: "The fashion is certainly this
year for slightly lower-cut dresses
than usual, but it is largely an indi-
vidual matter after all. Some of our
most ladylike and most demure look
ing customers order the lowest-cut
dresses, especially if they have hand
some necks, bOsoms, and arms. The
general rule is, in the cast of a debu-
tante, to so cut an evening dress as
to just suggest the contour: for an
older society girl we allow the bosom
to be we'll defined, and for a matron
or chaperone there is no particular or
decided limit. How are the dresses
supported by mere arm straps? Well,
these are made SO tightly that the
dress cannot slip, but If they should
happen to break-well, disastrous
consequences might follow. The
whole matter, after all, is a good test
as to whether q lady is modest OF
immodest, but I do not wonder that
some of the dresses this year have
raised an outcry.'-New York World
Judge French was called upon yes
1885, a. 1914 =