St. Paul daily globe., 1893-05-21
STYLES AND FACES.
The Dead Girl Of the Past
Whose Virtues Are EX-
aggerated.
The Live Girl Of the Present
Whose Vices Are EXag-
gepated.
Comment Upon the Styles Of
1880 and the Faces OF
1893.
Snecial Letter to the Globe.

New YORK, May 90 1693.-Unable to
invent an altogether new style the noble
army Of modistes have contented them
selves with copying as faithfully as
very eXtravagant and audacious age
will permit the modest and quaint styles
of 1880. Fichu, poke bonnet, leg of
| mutton sleeve, the voluminous skirt (nid-
ing the form of the modern Venus that
short time ago was almost nodded In
the tight-ftting cover, also called
skirt, but oh, how differently! deep,
dainty lace collars, neat ruchingS and
trim waists, extremely feminine capes,
and even the graceful scarf of the past
I see these all reproduced in the rich
est of modern materials. TO me there
| is something incongruous in seeing
these Dickens and Thackeray-lke cos
tunes worn by these extremely modern,
up-to-d date young ladies' whose daily
walk is Fifth avenue and whose talk
savors of Oscar Wilde, minus the wit,
but with smartness for substitute.
am not going to abuse the girl OF
| today, or add one to the big crowd OF
| com planning essays against her. Poor
| thing She is always being compared
| Will SOUl0 Olllel Slll VI nOiiC OIilOl uoJ,
and always to her own disadvantage.
| The girl Of some other day to whom she
! is compared is dead thing altogether;
| her faults are dead, as we'll as her vlr-
! tues. We never hear that she had any
| faults, whatever date she belonged to.
! In literature we are particularly true to
that classic advice which tells us, "Of
| the dead speak no evil" The modern
young woman is very much alive, and
| her faults seem to be be very much
alive, too. Meanwhile her virtues are
| not even called by the name of virtues;
| they are her good points"
! One of her "good points" is that she
dresses well, and good dressing has
been worked up to such perfection, ard
| lauded up so of late. that | have even
| heard it said that woman prefers to
! hear herself designated as the "beSt
| dressed woman" rather than the pref
J test.
Smart and intelligent young women
dress themselves with great taste in
these quaint and simple, yet costly COS
| tunes of the 1880 era. There they go
| down Broadway, and up the avenue
with wide skirts trimmed with satin
| and demure little capes and cape
lets. They know how to dress full
we'll. So perhaps it is only
fancy of mine that the dress IN some
way doesn't suit them. But | cannot
rid myself of the idea, all the same. At
| the back, if it were not for certain ''in
de steele" SWING that they walk with,
they might be number of Little
Dorrltts" or merry Pecksniffs' or
Amelia Smedleys" or Jane Eyres;"
and one looking at their quaint forms
almost expects them to have Beauty
! Albums" to occupy great portion of
their lives Oh intricate fancy work, to
| look at the moon at midnight, and to be
+, contented with one young man apiece.
1t is a sort of shock to hear them ex-
| press their concise. clear, sharp views.
| They didn't hola those sort OF views, you
know, when those kind of dresses were
| worn before. And the prettiness Of
their faces is not at all the same kind OF
| prettiness that used to 90 with poke
| bonnets and fichuS. am sure of this.
| There are none of those kind-rather
provokingiy innocent, demure, shy,
| sacrificing, gentle, yieldlng-and yes.
I must say it, milk pudding faces
| left.
And there will never be one again,
unless some very backward little chllo
is captured and educated by one of the
| old-fashioned type of governeSS, not al
| lowed to read newspapers or modern
novels. fed on mutton and rice pudding,
| never sent to boarding school or allowed
| to 90 to hen parties or to hear sermons
by fashionable preachers. l doubt II
even with all these precautions the vic
tim would have the kind of expression
| have tried to describe. We have got
to know quite a deal now, and knowl-
edge will show itself somehow.
The latest Redfern freak is-lf L may
speak so ire verently OF what believe
| have already mentioned-the COM
bination OF brown holland and black
satin. Black satin is everywhere. Even
the simple blouse is decorated with it,.
But. although the combination of a
washable material and an unwashable
one seems foolish, and only possible for
those who can afford to be capriclous, l
could not help admiring the neat and
stylish costumes which | saw at Red
ferns made in these materials. One
costume, which l give short sketch of,
consisting of short Eton, doublebreast-
ed vest and skirts, was just slightly fin
ished with the satin, and was beyond
criticism.
The collars of both Elton and vest
were faced with the satin, and there
was ruche on the skirt, and band at
the bottom of it. With this, as you will
see in the sketch, was worn jabot OF
fire lawn.