Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-22
THE BEST-DRESSED.
HELEN CAMPBELL ON THE AMERICAN
WOMAN AND DRESS.
Is the Average woman 0vsrdressed i-Es-
sontials OF Feminine Dress
Proposed Reforms.
For the Neutrality-suspicious.. 1851


Proposed Reforms.
For the Dlspatch-Copyrighted 1881
The woman OF society demonstrates
with fury that, as rule, she has nothing
TO wear. and that if, ut the moment OF
speaking. few rags not quite unworthy
OF consideration may be found in her
wardrobe it is a mere accident, life as
whole resolving itself into hand-to-
hand conflict with dressmakers, who
always provide the wrong thing. The
reformer, armed with her divided skirt
and its accompanying necessities, waves
them wildly in the face of society, affirm
ing that till women have accepted these
garments as the only solution OF the dress
problem, the only road to the higher
moralities, there can be no salvation.
Between these two extremes marches the
great army of the middle class, an army
made up OF the leverage woman,
whose title has become the synonym for
the worst-abused class in America. The
fashionable woman finds absolution be-
cause she has money and forms part OF
the spectacular life daily more and more
dear TO the rich American. The ardent
reformer is forgiven little over impetu-
osity. because 1t is at least amusing, and
we must make the most of such amuse-
ment as is left for a weary generation.
The average woman comes under
neither head. She is simply the en-
bodiment OF original sin, responsible di-
rectly or indirectly for all evils in Church
or State preached at, and TO, and Tor,
until if she followed one-hundredth part
of the precepts laid down for her eui-
dance not one short life, nor ten. would
suffice for the undertaking. Yet even
now she cannot be spared. and it is in
the house OF her own familiar friend
that the new blow is struck,
and her defender and advocate
asks and must answer, "ls the
average woman overdressed ?" 1t IS
to this form that the question comes st
last. For it is impossible to deny that
the fashionable woman sins beyond re-
| demption on this score as impossible
as it is to affirm that the energetic re-
| former can ever be counted ssone Of tho
offenders, and thus once more the bur
| den rests on shoulders well accustomed
to such load, and it is the patient, long
suffering. most teachable, most enduring,
average woman who must serve as Illus
tration and afford such reply as can be
drawn from the facts before ones eyes.
THE ESSENTIALS or DRESS.
What are the essentials Of dress The
question began with time, yet the an
swer, from the old Greeks down, re-
mains the same-beauty, comfort, suit
ability. No dress that fails to unite
these three can be- counted as fulfilling
the mission of dress, and no woman
who has not studied in minutest detail
each one, her mission as a woman.
Beauty leads by divine right, snd will
lead, no matter what batteries are
brought against it but one must first
learn what constitutes beauty. In these
borderlands one restricted to reply in
fixed lines cannot wander. But when
one seeks TO understand what over
dressing may mean q certain necessity
arises for palpable measurements. and
these are given when the three requisites
of any dress are laid down. 1t is be-
cause the love of beauty is inherent in
all humanity that instant protest is made
when angles are offered us in place OF
curves and all flowing lines and grace Of
drapery denied. The fashion-plates may
seem to hold denial OF this statement,
but the fashion-plates are happily not
the sum Of growth in this knowledge Of
beauty. We are learning it in spite Of
fashion-plates, aud gradually evolving the
costume, that. with slight notifications, is
likely to holdit ground, this being no fixed
and unchsDging form, but combina-
ton best adapted to the wearer's sense OF
what is most fitting. Women have
learned to study their own figures and
their own coloring to settle definitely
on what harmonlzes and best emphasizes
both and thus it has come TO pass that
the American woman is now. if high
authority may be trusted, the best
dressed woman in the world. Her skirts
may still be too heavy, her waist too
small, her sleeves too tight, but this is
the tyranny OF a fashion from which
she more and more emancipates her
self as time goes on. The day
will come when every child will be
taught the laws Of form and color in
their application to dress, and any
violation be held as an offence against
society, to be instantly frowned
down. When that day comes
the three essentials We have speci-
fed will enter INTO every dress. 1t is
equally certain that for many that day
is already here. CommOn-sense is one
portion of the average American woman's
Inheritance. 1t may be seriously overlaid
with prejudices, but it may be hampered
in its action by fear of Mrs. Grundy, yet
every community has to-day its repre-
sentative women, leading more and
more in their train. and calmly
ignoring the merely conventional These
women are not overdressed, whatever
glory OF color or richness Of material
may enter into the composition OF their
costumes, for with them it is no question
OF something to be worn twice or thrice
and then TUNED over to the dealer in Sc
cond-hand garments 1t is only for eve
ming festivity or gay lunch or afternoon
tea that any deviation from an almost
fixed uniform is allowed, and here the
very woman pronounced sverdressed
may have worn the same costume, with
the slightest variations, two. three-nay,
even hall dozen years.
TAMoR-MADE GOWNS.
Tailor-made gowns have brought about
the revolution sighed for many years ago
by sensible women, and it is only here
and there that one sees silks aud velvets
on the street, their appearance there in
dicating that the vearer is either under
bred aud ignorant, or is wearing ont her
old dresses preparatory to coming into
her real kingdom and tasting the delights
OF q simple, compact, well-made suit
The shop-girl who follows always close
behind is learning this, and chooses
now suit of cheap material, because
nothing but cheapness is possible for
her, but modelled on the severe simplicity
she sees in the dress of her best custom
eis. English fashions may have led us
astray at times. but We owe to them GER
tain emanciparions that could hardly have
come in any other way. Sensible women