Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-11-01
Womau,s Business Dress.

A woman's paper said the other day: 1.-THE
heed of a convenient dress for work IS strong
| " felt by business women. Ono of the largest
working girls societies in New York has
adopted the blouse waist and straight gath
cred skirt as club dress for the members.
The dress of young American women would
be improved by simplicity and cheapuess.
They dress too extensively and too much, as
a rule.n Interviews with some twenty or
more women engaged in making their own
living resulted in the discovery that eighteen
of them believed there was crying need of
some dress designed distinctively for business
women, in which they might have more COM
fort and convenience than in the garments
they now wear Said one of them:
"A friend of mine, just home from Paris,
is very much interested ia something she saw
there in the way of a reformed dress for bust
ness women. There is no doubt that some re-
form in that direction must and will come,
though it is slow, because women are not
ouly very conservative, but very much
afraid of wearing anything that makes them
conspicuous or ridiculous. 1t is not women
tter arn afraid of SO much as the men. who,
ever since the days OF Jeremiah the prophet,
have been inveighing against the follies of
women's dress, but who are the first to jeer
at and persecute her if she dare attempt to
emancipate herself from those folLes in any
way. Now, in my own case, for example,
my work requires that l should be out of
doors great deal, no matter what the state
Of the weather may be-
MY condition when it storms is positively
pitiable. l must hold up7ny umbrella, grasp
my skirts with one handNb try to keep them
out OF the wet-which, by the way, never
does succeed In keeping them out of it entire
ly-and whatever books, papers or parcels
may have to carry must be tucked insecurity
under the arm. have passed men Flooding
about in the rain and almost wept from
envy. Their trousers are turned up quite out
Of the danger Of wet, their long mackin-
toshes have deep pockets that will hold all
their parcels and papers, and they have both
hands free for their umbrellas and they can
step into their Office, lay aside their outside
wraps and be as neat and dry as when they
left home. Let any woman walk through a
windy rain and see If she can say the same
thing when she arrives at her destination
1.-The new French dress which my friend
saw at Paris seems to me the best suggestion
have heard yet. The trouble has been to
find something that would, while being con-
venient be also graceful and modest, and
TINS seems to come near it, 1t is modelled on
the uniform of the Zouave regiments and
consists Of trousers and gaiters-the neatest
thing, by the way, for walking that has ever
been invented. This makes no exposure of
the person at all, while leaving the limbs per-
fectly free. Over it is skirt that comes al
most to the ankle, but it is only slightly gath
cred and is slit up on each side to the hip, so
that while it answers all purposes Of modesty
it does not interfere in the least with loco
motion. The waist can be either blouse
with a sash, or a waistcoat and coat with
plenty of pockets. / hear that number of
French women who manage their own farms
or have work to do out of doors have adopted
it and find it both comfortable and becom-
ing. Nine Dieulafoy, the great explorer,
who wears an entire male costume on her
travels, is great admirer Of this new dress,
and says it is, she thinks, the solution of the
problem of a working dress for working
women