The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-02-28

WHAT is FASHION?
An Invisible Tyrant Who.
Rules With a Rod
of Iron.
THE ANrI-CRINoLlNE LEAGUERs.
They SAY They Wont, But If
Fashion Says They Will.
They Will.
THE ANTI-CRINoLlNE LEAGUERs.

hwy UtiAt
There is great need at the present
moment of some patient and industrl-
Gus philosopher who will make it his
busin 4ss to trace to their source II
varying fashions of female dress, and
so inform a long-suffering race of the
secret origin of a despotism whose OPP
pressive mandates they seem quite
unable to withstand. No man, who
happily wears the same kind of
clothes today that he did some thirty
years ago, can have the least concep-
ton of the weary tyranny exercised
over the other sex by fashion. Year
after veal ne goes to his tailor, II
orders suits of clothes ito be made as
usuaI,n with a cheerful disregard of
the almost imperceptible changes
which have taken place in the dress
oil his more fashionable contempor ar
les. But with a woman the case is far
different; she must conform to the
law of change, and the changes in her
dress are as strongly marked as they
r frequent. During the last two or
three weeks We have been treated to
a striking illustration of the utter
helplessness of womankind in the
matter of fashion.
A rumor was recently started to the
effect that all attempt would shortly
be made 10 reintroduce the ~crlnoline.
1t would appear, from the letters that
appeared in all the newspapers, that
the wearers of petticoats were unan1-
nous in their condemnation OF the
hateful ~contrivance, and one might
have reasonably expected that they
would have been contented with that
expression of their feeling and have
assured themselves that their milliners
and dressmakers would speedily re-
nounce an idea which was SO evidently
distasteful to their customers. That
comfortable assurance, however, was
very far from their thoughts. They
have not the slightest confidence in
the weight of their wishes, and firmly
believe that. whether they desire it or
not, they will have to wears crinoline
If only fashion bids them.
WHAT IS FASHION?
Who S fashion? What is she that
all women should obey her? They
frankly confess that they do not
know. When one considers how
blindly and implicitly they have
obeyed her every within for years
nay, for centuries-surely the con
fession should be a notifying one.
All they can say is, that they have
nothing to do with fashion themselves
aud have no part OF share in the max
ing of her laws; and now that they
are confronted with a law hat
threatens their comfort too much,
all they can do is to band themselves
together in a "No-Crinoline League"
as if they were so many revolutionists
conspiring in a desperate cause.
We cannot seriously suppose that
the ''No-Crinoline League" will be
looked upon blythe majority of woman
kind otherwise than as a kind OF joke;
but, for all that, the panic that was
occasioned by this threatened revival
of an exploded fashion seems to have
been very real, and the apparent help
lessness of women in a matter which
entirely concerns themselves is GER
tainly curious. The leagne-which,
we are told, numbered, within a few
days OF its foundation, several thou
sand municipalities itself not to
wear OF to encourage the wearing OF
crinoIines, and, by way Of taking more
dCl1N0 SlCDo quill viz
invasion of its foe, has addressed an
appeal to Her Majesty and to the
Princess of Wales, begging that tine
great weight OF their influence should
be exerted in it's behalf. The cause is
an excellent one, no doubt, but the
manner of the crusade is somewhat
bewildering to the male mind.
WHO LEAD FASHIONS?
We have always heard a great deal
about the leaders of fashion; now We
learn that those powerful personages
are more or less mythical. Through
the mouth of Sir Henry Ponsonby we
hear that Her Gracious Majesty does
not consider that fashion is a subject
upon which she can give an opinion.
Evidently, therefore, the leaders OF
fashion are not to be found in the pre-
cincts of the Court, or, we may also
suppose, among the great ladies of
society.
Common report assigns some of the
most startling changes in woman's
attire to Paris. In the days of the
Second Empire there was, without
doubt, a good deal of reason for i'm
agining that our fashions came from
our neighbors across the chan
mel, and that the French stage,
controlled to a certain extent by the
Court of the Tuilleries, was response
BILE for each fresh innovation. Today
we do not fancy that our French
neighbors are more disposed TO lead
us than to follow us; at any rate they
themselves no longer possess a SUI
preme arbiter of fashion, and, as far
as one can judge, are every whit as
much at the mercy of some unknown
inventor as we are ourselves. Who is
it, then, who is responsible for the
constantly varying modes of women's
frocks? Some n must invent them;
and. it must also be some one who has
power to enforce the adoption of his
invention, for, whether it be ugly or
not, the world of womanhood meekly
submits to his dictation.
BLAMING THE MEN.
One is almost disposed to believe in
the fanciful theory set forward by the
lady who has been most eloquent on
the side of the"No Crinoline League"
Woman's fashions she says, are not
due to-the invention of women; they
49,. 10 c.,,l1 oltCr7n rF