Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-22

analyZe Bernhardt's Her BACK petuet.
dress and see by what means its beauty is
produced.
This is the way it is done: In the first
place she has assumed that the Creator can
make more beautiful form than the dress
maker can. This is her ground principle or
starting point. No garment is permitted to
alter or disguise the shape Of her figure.
The corset she does not wear either on the
stage or of; the conventional corseted waist
is as far from suggesting Nine. Sarah's form
as wheelbarrow is And just here an in
teresting observation is to be made. The
dress reformers also have discarded the cor
set, but the difference between theirs and
Nine. Sarah's results is very great and it
for fashion and evolved dress in harmony
with the natural form they have retained
the conventional forms of fashion modified
and uglifed.
The Use of the Plain Basque.
An example will make this clearer The
plain basque, with its darts and back side
forms, is the piece de resistance-I speak
advisedly-of fashionable dress This
waist, which was designed to wear over the
corset and which fits the corset and not the
figure, is persisted in by the reformers.
But Bernhardt's ideal of form is that of the
artists and the artists is that of perfect
nature and this waist, therefore, has no
place in her wardrobe.
Again, the construction Of her garments
obeys absolutely the law of fold centers,
which have formulated as follows: Folds
may legltimately be fastened only where,
by the form of the body, they would be gath
cred naturally together. Wherever the body
offers support to the weight of the garment
there is natural fold center.
The points furnished by nature for sus-
pending the garments are the shoulders and
hips; therefore to attain the maximum of
beauty in its hanging the garment must have
all its parts depend, or appear to depend,
from these two sources, but principally
from the shoulders, as they, from their posi-
to gravity. Bernhardt's dress hangs en-
tirely from the shoulders Her gowns are
composed of yoke, to which a skirt is
gathered, precisely like child's gown, and
confined at the waist with girdles.
Some of Bernhardts Costumes.
Following is a description in detail of
some of the costumes in her private ward
robe at this moment:
A house dress is of brown and white hair
line stripe shot silk, gathered into rounded
yoke of brown velvet. Brown velvet sleeves,
full to below the elbow, over close sleeves
of the silk. The skirt is simply hemmed.
This slip is confined at .the waist with two
silver girdles, one Of them loose and droop-
ing in front.
A charming gown is entirely of black
velvet The skirt is attached to heart
shaped yoke. These yokes simply round up
to the top of the shoulder, instead of ending
in the armhole. The yoke and mutton leg
sleeves are embroidered with small stars of |
gold bullion and thread. It is aguste in the |
back-that is to say, it fits close to the
bottom of the waist, and it is fastened by a
lacing behind. It is confined by gold belts
Another has the skirt of brown velvet.
Madame makes great use of velvet. The
yoke and sleeves are of silk, of lighter
fawn color, and are richly embroidered with
gold and silks 1t is fastened under the
arm. For this gown there is q long tan
colored cloak of soft camePs hair, sprinkled