The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-10-25
DRESSES OF ACTRESSES
Some of Them Wear Pretty
and Tasteful Gowns,
But Others Do Not.
HOW THE STAGE SETS THE FASHION
tombstone Benefits Handsome Co.'S
tumes-Sadle Martinez as a
Bit of Dresden China.

In a New York letter to the Nea0Grk
Erenang NepS, Bah speaks very en-
t~ertainingly of the way prominent
actresses dress. She says
You go to a dressmaker and you ask
her something about her clothes
that is, those she has for sale, for l
never saw a good dressmaker who
wore anything decent herself; and
when you talk to her about we'll
dressed women. she will simply speak
of the women of the stage. l asked
an intelligent one the reason for this,
and she said
well, any tailor OF dressmaker will
lay herself out to make their cos
tunes successes in every sense of the
word, for, though the conservative
people may deny it, though the fash
ionable ome may laugh at it, it is
the women of the stage who make
fashion. 1t began when Worth
created all those 1.-the, clinging
draperies for Sarah Bernhardt. He
understood her figure and plays, saw
her possibilities, and he dressed her
as he never dressed any other oma
before or since. All the. world--that
is, all the slender women of the world
had frCcks made after this style,
wore them for tea gowns and looked
charming in them; but did he make
The mistake of putting such dresses
on Jane Hading or Mrs. Langtry?
Certainly not. He realized that they
were women of their time, and he
made them the most magnificent
gowns of their time. For Hading's
brown hair. steel-blue eyes and French
face he used wonderful shades of blue,
odd tones of pink and soft browns
that delighted. For Langtry's per-
feet complexion, bronze hair and eyes,
never of the same color, he used dead
whites, pure yelIows, clear pinks,
blues as pure as the skies, and all the
clear tones; both women having their
costumes after the of today.
Each one has a beautiful neck and
arms, and so they were revealed, and
not a suggestion in the fit was given
of the loosenesS that pervaded the
frocks of the divine Sarah.
"JATE'S" HANDSOME GOWNS.
1.-THE handsomest dresses in New
York today are worn by tombstone
Bennett in Jane One is a magnif-
cent heavy silk, a bright red, that has
a coat bodice with high, fanciful
sleeves, and a broad belt of red velvet,
through which is stuck a diamond
dagger. The perfect fit of this frock,
the lines of the figure so modestly yet
sc perfectly displayed, are a lesson to
any dressmaker. The other one which
l particularly admire is a white dotted
muslin made up owe white silk, with
a low bodice of white and gold bro
cade laced with gold strings just in
front. By the by, | van to tell you
something about them. A French
dressmaker always believes in show
ing as much as possible of the neck
and bust. And this bodice was cut
accordingly, but Johnstone Bennett
refused to wear it, although her neck
is white and lovely, until a modest lit
tie tucker of chiffon had been
inserted. 1t wasn't anything so
ridiculous as prudishness, it was
simple modesty; she wouldn't expose
that much of her neck to her own
friends, and she didn't propose to do
it on the stage. And tombstone Ben
nett is n of the best dressed
on the street in New York. because
she is SO quietly gotten up that the
highest compliment possible is paid
her-nobody seeing her off the stage
would w think she was an actress.
George Drew Barrymore is an
other woman who knows how to
dress, and her clothes fit her. She
doesn't make the dire mistake of
wearing her jewels to breakfast, as is
SO often done by actresses-I mean on
the stage-nor does she come on in a
walking suit with satin slippers. Mrs.
Barrymore off the stage is a good
dresser-that is. she dresses like a lady,
and she is n of the most delightful
women That anybody ever spent half
an hour with.
George Cayvan dresses well both
or and off the stage. and so does
Maud Harrison. Neither of them
makes mistakes about the characters
they are to assume and they don't
gown a country gentleman's daughter
in an elaborate costume such as the
Princess of Wales wouldn't wear at a
family dinner. Sadie Martinez is ex-
quisite in her choice of clothes. Look
ing like a bit of old Dresden china,
she affects, properly enough, a rather
elaborate style, and as | don't think
it has ever entered anybody's
head that dainty Sadie Martinez
walked, SO one always thinks of her
as gotten up most ~gorgeously, and
reclining IN a victoria. Virginia
Harmed is a good dresser at times,
but in the part she is playing at pres
ent, she overdresses and is rather too
matronly. I have never seen her but
once off the stage, and then l had the
same mpression-she was too much
dressed. A good dresser of the day
time on the streets is the woman
whose clothes are perfectly fitting,
quiet and yet not noticeable.
LILLIAN RUSSELL oFF THE STAGE.
Il think Lillian Russell dresses bet
ter off the stage than she does on, for
she never looks SO pretty as when she
is in aplain blue cloth dress and sailor
hat. In La Cigale" she wore a vel
low costume that might have been g
dream. of sunshine, but whoever
made it chose a yellow with a tint Of
sulphur, rather than a perfectly pure
tone, so that the good effect, at least
from the front of the house, was lost,
Rose Coghlan is always magnificent
in her stage clothes, and is really a
superb advertisement for whomever
makes them. She always suggests a
great damask rose at its best, filling
the air with perfume. Of the stage
she is quiet in her gowning and
would never attract attention.