The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-03-26
ANNIE JENNESS-MILLER.
Some of Her Ideas on the Subj ect of Dres
Ter Women.

Some of Her Ideas on the Subjec of Dress
fer Women.
Mrs. Annie Jenness- Miller arrived in this
city yesterday. and is staying at The Palace.
In conversation with a representative OF
THE CALL she said: please do not call
me 'dress-reformer.' l am not. l wish
to improve, not to reform. The term re-
former carries with 1t an idea of rather
belligerent person, which 1 am not My
idea is health above all, but beauty also.
and artistic dress that will permit free and
graceful movement is my aim. l wish to
simplify dress, not to destroy its beautiful
and womanly characteristics"
"What do you think of the trained skirt,
Mrs. Miller?"
'Wnat do / think of it? l think 1t is
dreadful. II is not beautiful because it is
not suitable, and incongruity is ALWAYS
ugly. Besides, the idea is disgusting. To
drag long skirt through the mud and filth
of large city and then go home and deposit
all that dust aud dirt on the carpet and
have it lodge in the curtains ana furniture
and then inhale IL, as we must, is most
deleterious to health. | am confident that
many cases of typhoid fever could be traced
TO this evil, but l am sure, ephemeral
fashion.
"Of course it may be said that the train
can be held up, but what is more ungraceful
than the way most women raise their train?
And a more serious objection is that as
many ladies carry something in the right
hand, a parasol or cardcase, perhaps, the
train is always held in the left hand. and
the constant leaning 10 one side produces
unequal development. For the house the
trained dress is beautiful because it is suit
able, and OF course the objections urged
against it for street wear can have no eX-
isience."
In answer to a question Mrs. Jenness
Miller said:
Yes, often copy ana adapt costumes
| from the pictures OF the old masters, for, as
/ said before, my great aim is to preserve
| the beauty and dignity OF woman's dress,
while at the same time rendering it abso-
lutely heaIthful."
At her lecture this afternoon Mrs. Miller
| will wear beautiful combination dress
made by the women of Bulgaria. 1t Is
worked in floss silk and gold bullion on
| black net, and the pattern though bold is
artistic 1t has only two seams. The back,
| which is uf pale green satin br0cade with
shaded figures in other tintS of the same
color, falls in a full vatican piait to the
floor and is slightly trained.
| DO you approve OF lowcut dresses and
short sleeyes?"
Yes, 1 do, provided, Of course. thai
they are not so low as TO be immOdest.
wear my own evening dresses curved out
| round the neck just sufficiently to show the
| beautiful line where the throat Joins the
body. And in regard to this l would like
TO remark that in this as in most things
| much depends upon custom. An English ol
| European lady wears evening dress that i:
| low cut and with short sleeves every nigh
| when she sits down to dinner. She wear.
it easily and unconsciously and those abou
her are unconcerned. And so, as there Il
| no consciousness of any especial display
| there is no immOdesty. But If a woman
| who has never before worn such dress
| assumes it among people who are unaccus
toned to il, both she and they feel con
scious of display and she attracts atten
ton by her very embarrassment and wisi
to avoid it,"
Mrs. Miller's Ideas extend not only TO thu
| remodeling of wOmen's clothes, but even t
that worn by babies. Most young children
she thinks, are oyerdressed. that is wear to,
much clothing. She also thinks they shoult
not wear anything that is In the least tight
no tight bands or binders.