Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-09-15
TALE OF THE SHIRT.
Changes Made IN the Fashions tne
Last Five Hundred Years.

| Changes Made I'm the Fashions the
Last Five Hundred Years.
The youngster who rebels against the
starched shirt has much to learn of the past
saws the New York Graphic The plain linen
/ front, glossy and stiff, is no monument Of the
usage of centuries, as he may imagine. 1t lie
| really result of the conventional law pre-
scribing the stern simplicity OF the evening
dress. This itself is :he result of elimination,
every color and extraneous ornament which
formerly adorned the exquisite having been
discarded and lines of rigid severity being
adopted as the extreme effort OF elegance.
1t is not many years-only about twenty
tlve-since 1t became common for men to have
their shirts made up away from home. Cntn
then the women Of every economical house
hold made the shirts for the men. and it may
be said parenthetically, wellfitting shirt
was in those days a curiosity. The taste and
fancy Of their seamstress had every oppor-
tunity for display in the way of variety.
Ruffies had at that time nearly gone out of
use, but plaits, tucks, and gathered fronts
were common enough. The tendency toward
simplicity brought about reduction In the
number of these plalts, until three broad
plaiss, the last touch Of fancy work that was
allowed, gave way to the plain front that has
been the style for dozen or more years. This
last is the only thing that really harmonlzes
with the "dress suit" so called, or evening
dress
1t is not surprising that the fashion should
begin TO change and that new materials
should take the place, as they are now taking
it, OF linen and muslin of day wear and for
neglige garments. The very decided move
ment toward white flannel that began last
summer is likely to be stronger this summer,
but every other available kind of wooden
goods is now employed, Silken, wooden, cot
ton, and linen cloths of numerous kinds find
place and the taste that finds expression in
colors and even embroidery Is no longer con-
sidered outre.
These changes, however, are trifing com.
pared with those that have taken place since
$40 years ago, when the shirt became thing
OF common use. Before that men had not de-
veloped the undergarment plan of dressing
and wore their clothes IN very different fash
ion from that now in vogue. A writer in the
San Francisco ChroGicls recently sketched In
outline the various radical changes that have
been introduced since the birth OF the shirt
Habits of personal cleanliness. he intimates,
were not as rigid in the fourteenth century
as IN the nineteenth, and for long time the
shirt was worn like the modern undershirt, in
eoncealment, partly because 1t was seldom in
condition to bear inspection The length
varied in different periods according to the
fashion of the other garments, but IL was
kept hidden until at length an oTnamented
band, the precursor Of the modern collar, be-
gan TO show at the neck. Then display was
in vogue OF the lower part, between the dOub-
let and the long hose. Then portions of the
doublet sleeves.
In the seventeenth century the collar was
all that was generally shown, and this assum-
ed at some periods enormous proportions and
fantastic shapes From 100 to 1900 A. ID.
there seemed to be general desire to display
as much as possible Of the useful garment
The wsistcoat worn over 1t was only caught
together by loops at the waist and showed
more than modern observers would consider
decOrous. The reaction from this was the
closing in Of the walstcoat aud the growth Of
the cravat, which latter, at first as big as a
shawl gradually subsidized to the 'sstock'' Of
our grandfathers and then TO the modern tie.
The various changes, narrated carefully and
in detail, would fill vo ume but these few
outlines show the general character of the
change. How soon another revolution In
dress NAV come IL is impossible to guess, but
that 1t will come some time is certain. and
that the starcned shirt will suff,r change
with the other garments admits of no ques-
tIOn.