Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-07-11
THE SWAGGER SHIRT.

The whims and capers of the makers
of shirts and shirt fashions are as change
able as a coquette's affections, says the
New York World. You can never tell
what these prolific geniuses are going to
do next. When Tom Reed discovered the
flannel shirt or rather, when he brought
it out of its plebeian hiding-place and set
1t up to be idolized in the Speakers chair
of the House of Representatives every
body said the flannel shirt was the pink
of form, and the most comfortable thing
on top of the earth. The Shirt-makers
grinned and were silent. Presently the
flannel shirt began to shrink, and it
shrank SO swiftly and symmetrically that
the very garment in which the Maine
giant had awed and electrified the nation
wouldn't have fitted his 3-year-old
nephew, after it had been washed twice.
Then the plague of foreign madrases,
cheviOts and mattelasses set in. They
were uncOuth and hot as pepper, but the
shirt men said you would have to wear
em or swim out beyond the life lines
of fashion. Many a good citizen went
down to his grave from heat-stroke while
attempting to Stagger under the burden
of a madras shirt. This season the shirt
men have shuffied out an entirely new
deal. 1t is the percale negligee. 1t is as
light as a dudes intellect and as multi
form and enhancing as a summer girls
dream of love. Sweat won't spoil it
and the damp breezes of the sea will not
plaster it fast to the cuticle of your ribs.
1t comes in all the colors of the rainbow,
and a lot of other colors.
There are pink, blue and heliotrope,
corn, lilac, purple and cinnamon and as
many combinations of these as there are
hairs on a dog. The ultra-swagger thing
is light pink or electric blue. either in
some contrasting hue. These tints are
loud, to be sure, and boisterous if worn
by plain dreSsers, but for the screaming
swells, who will pilot the professions at
the Outposts of summer gayety, they are
as noiseless as whispers.
Next to percale, which is so called
because the colors are printed upon the
cloth after it is woven in the loom, ranks
the zephyr weave as Il fabric for outing
shirts. The zephyr shirt, as the name
implies, is as light as feather and as
dainty as a spiders web. 1t is shown
in every conceivable hue and tint. The
although the American mills have been
producing it in enormous quantities.
Except in wool and silk mixtures there
is no such thing as a negligee shirt. in the
sense i'll which the term was originally
employed. Percale and zephyr shirts are
Numbered as white shirts are, the collar,
cuffs and bosom being stiffened with
starch. What is known as soft bosom
is in use. however, but in reality only a
portion of the bosom is left unstarched,
the middle plait and collar being stiffened
and CLOSED. Most of the negligee shirts
have collars and cuffs attached, and, as
matter OF prOpriety, that is the only
kind of Il shirt a smart dresser should
wear, but in hot weather habiliments
the niceties are easily dispensed with and
not a few of the noted fashion leaders
have ordered a portion of their sum
mer shirts with the collars separated.
Since percales have come into vogue
outing shirts may be worn day or evening
at all but formal functions. Men at
business may wear them, they may be
worn i'll the mountains or at the seaside,
and they are not out of place at pickup
stag dinners or smoking parties. Even
when ladies are present in travelling or
outing costumes, the outing shirt is not
only permissible, but is in a sense obliga-
tory. The predominant idea and only
apology for an outing shirt is personal
comfort.
Since the women have begun to wear
vests and percale shirt fronts the privi-
legeS of the stern sex in that regard have
increased a hundred fold. Formerly it
was held to be compulsory to don swal-
lowtails at 6 o'clock at the summer re-
sorts as well as in town. This summer
that piece of folly will be dispensed with,
and women and men will meet and min
gle, without sustaining or imparting the
slightest shock, after dinner as well as
during the day, in negligee attire Of
course, a standing collar should be worn
in the evening, and also a Waistcoat and
cutaWay or sack coat. At hops and so
cial functions full dress is demanded
During July and August most of the
fashionable matrons and bellies will be
then, poor things? Will it be lawful for
them to wear negligee shirts to the thea
ter? No, it will not. Outing shirts might
be worn to Eldorado with perfect pro-
priety, but to the theater-never.
Several important details are to be OBJ
served in ordering outing shirts. Only
link cuffs are recognized by fashion
Roll collars with points more than two
inches deep are vulgar. There should be
two or three eyelets in the bosom; no
less. no more. Two eyelets are the more
fashionable. Solid colors are safest.
Blondes may wear light blues and light
pinks. but brunettes should adhere to
deep blues and other heavy shades.
The proper neckscarf to wear with a
soft-bosom percale is one made from the
same material as the shirt. With light
tinted shirts a white collar may be worn,
although this, Notwithstanding it's popu-
larity, is in questionable form.