Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-29
The BEST-DRESSED WOMAN.
Helen Campbell on the American
Woman and Dress.
THE AMERICAN WOMAN LEADS.
Her Skirts Yet Too Heavy and Her
Waste Toe Smali-Common-
Sense Gowns - Plain
Gowns tho Rage

NEW YORK. April 26.---[Correspond-
ence Of the BEE---Copyrighted. 1.-The
woman of society demonstrates with
fury that, as a rule, she has nothing to
wear, and that If, at the moment of
speaking, few rags not quite unworthy
of consideration may be found in her
wardrobe, 1T Is a mere accident, life as
u whole resolving itself into a hand-to-
hand conflict with d~ressmakers, 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,
affirming 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 sal
vation. Between these two extremes
marches the great army Of the midGie
class, an army made up of the average
woman" whose title has become the
synonym for the w~orst-abused class in
America. The fashionable oma finds
~absolution because she has money and
forms part of the spectacular life daily
more and more lear to the rich Ameri-
can. The ardent reformer is forgiven
a little over-impetuosity, because it is
at least amusing, and we must make the
most Of such amusement as is left for q
weary generation.
The average woman comes under
Mother 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
for, till if she followed one hundredth
part of the precepts laid down for her
guidance 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 in struck, and
her defender and advocate asks and
must answer, us the average Woman
overdressed?" 1t is to this form that
the question comes at last. For it is
impossible to deny that the fashionable
woman sins beyond redemption on this
score; as impossible as it is to affirm that
the energetic reforner can ever be
counted as one of the offenders, and
thus once more the burden rests on
shoulders we'll accustomed to such load,
and it is the patient, long suffering,
most ~teachable, most enduring, average
woman who must serve us illustration
and afford such reply as can be drawn
from the facts before ones eyes
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, suita-
bility. No dress that fails to unite these
three a be counted rs fulfilling the
mission of dress, and no oma who has
not studied in minutest details each one,
her mission as a woman. Beauty leads
by divine right, and will lead, no mat
fnr upn hnt mi NC orn hpnt,n6f npntrct
it; but one must first learn what consti-
tutes beauty. In these borderlands one
restricted to reply in fixed lines cannot
wonder. But when one seeks to UNDER
stand what over-dressing may mean, a
certain necessity arises for palpable
measurements, Inc these are given
when the three requisites of II dress
are Laid down. 1t is because 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 de-
MED. The fashion-plates may seem to
hold denial of this statement, but the
fa~shion-plates are happily not the sum
of growth in this knowledge of beauty.
We are learning it in spite of fashion
plates, and gradually evolving
the costume that, with slight
notifications, is likely to hold
its ground, this being no fixed
| and ~unchanging form, but q combina-
ton best adapted to the wearer's sense
of what is most fitting. Women nave
learned to study their own figures and
their W coloring; to settle definitely
on what harmonizes and best empha-
| sizes 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 q fashion from which she
more and more emancipates herself 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
oilense against society, to be instantly
frowned down. When that day comes,
the three essentials we have specified
will enter into every dress. 1t is equally
certain that for many that day is al
ready here. Common sense is one por-
ton of the average American woman's
inheritance. 1t may be seriously over
laid with p~rejudices, it may be ham
pered in its action by fear of Mrs.
Grundy, yet every community has to-day
its representative women, leading more
and more in their train, and calmly
Ignoring Jne merely COuNelIiOHdl'
These women are not overdressed,
whatever glory of color or richness
of material may enter in into the com
position of their costumes, for with
them it is no question of something to
be worn twice or thrice and then turned
over to the dealer in secondhand gar
ments. 1t is only for evening festivity
or gay lunch or afternoon tea that any
deviation from an almost fixed uniform
is allowed, and here the very woman
pronounced overdressed may have worn
the same costume, with slightest varia-
tions, two, three-nay, even half adozen
years.
Tailor-made gowns have brought
about the revolution sighed for many
years ago by sensible women, and it ii
only here and there that one sees silk:
and velvets on the street, their appear
ance there indicating that the wcareI
there is either underlined and ignorant
or is wearing out her old dresses pre-
paratory to coming into her real king
dom and tasting the delights of a sim
Pile, compact, well-made suit. The
shop girl, who follows always
close behind, is learning this
and chooses now a suit of cheap mater