San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-11
ENGLISH COURT DRESSES.
Probable Reason Why Bare Shoulders Have
So Long Been the Rule.

So Long Been the Rule.
The "decolletee" style of dress which has so
long prevailed at the English court probably
originated from the fact that the court of
George " was destitute of queen, and that
his majesty was too r-uch occupied by the
minutia of his own wardrobe to pay atten-
ton to the toilets of the ladies who rendered
their obeisance to him on drawing room days.
The reign of William " was too brief to al
low Queen Adelaide to do much toward the
modification of court dress; while when our
present gracious sovereign assembled the
throne she was too young and too inexperi-
enced to formulate a new code of ceremonial
costume She did not devise a court dress,
but she found one 1t was essentially Of the
bare shouIdered sort, but the "nudite DIES
gorges" which prevailed in 1888, and for sew
eral years afterward had a perfectly limo
cent motive Few ladies who follow the
fashions" or who consult the hundred and
one fashion periodicals poured out from the
press every month and every week, nave any
idea of the extreme simplicity of the patterns
of female attire which were In vogue ntty
and even forty years ago. 1t is sufficient 10
say that the bodice and the skirt of dress
were generally in one piece; that the gown
fastened by hooks and eyes behind; that the
skirts were never "draped," and that their
sole ornamentation was founces. The only
practical way in which lady could show
that she was in full dress was to wear low
necked dress and to bare her arms More
over bodiceS were, when made low, unlVer-
sally cut horizontally instead of on bias,
and the female novelists of the last genera
ton found unfailing material of fun In de-
picting the torments undergone by growing
girls at evening parties in their endeavors to
prevent their low necked frocks from slipping
off their shoulders
When q lady went to court she glorified
herself with train, a tall "panache" OF
plumes, and as many diamonds as fortune
had favored her with; otherwise the cut OF
her gown did not materially differ from that
of the school girls low necked muslin frock.
Nowadays everything in this direction Is al
tered The bodice of fashionable ball or
dinner dress has as many angles and curves
as the diagram of an advanced problem in
Euclid; while the skirt, with or without
train, is an elaborate and delightful puzzle of
puffs. panels, folds andfurbelows. The charm
of modern female dress lies chiefly in the fact
that, if a lady so chooses, she can go as bare
neckedkas Nell Gwynne at Hampton court, or
as dscreetly yelled up to the throat as Mary
Tudor, and be still in evening dress; that she
can exhibit her shoulder blades to the utmost
by wearing bodice cut behind IN shape,
and that, in front, she may open or close her
corsage depress it, or make it ascend, just as
she likes. At court, hitherto, no such lati-
tude has been allowed. Low necked dresses
have been adhered to year after year, to the
generation of innumerable colds and coughs
among the ladies who have had to sit SILVER
ing in their carriages in the Mall, and in the
bleakest early spring weather, before they
could reach Buckingham palace on drawing
room days To these sufferers from the grim
exigencies of etiquette the new high court
dress" rescript will come as a most gracious
and graceful boon. Health, common sense
and good taste will alike benefit by this timely
concession, which is modified only by the
harmless requirement that the 'fichu" of the
bodice shall pass under a stOmacher such as
was worn in the Eighteenth century" The
Eighteenth century" is an elastic term and
the court dress makers may be depended upon
to make it suit their own notions of a tasteful
high court dress. london Standard.