The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-06-15

weight should be supported by the shout
ders, and the skirt attached to the waist
should be sufficiently short to escape the
ground in walking and stairs and steps
in descending. 1t should furnish the
maximum of warmth, with the mini
mum of weight, should be suitable and
becoming to the wearer, comfortable,
graceful and picturesque, forming har-
monious whole, at the same time con-
veying to the observer some idea of the
personality of the individual. Need
less to add that the ideal business and
street dress has yet to materialize. Its
realization depends upon the individual
woman. The nearest approach to this
ideal is the Syrian or the rational dress +
Unhappily the women who have most
need of abbreviated skirts, loose bands.
low heels and square toes-in short, the
great army of shopgirls and general
readwinners-have little or no indie
pendence in matters of dress They fol-
low blindly wherever fashion leads. The
world of society and fashion cannot nee
essarily feel the necessity of radical
change, since wealth and leisure largely
supplement for them the inconvenience
of the conventional dress. There is some
thing radically amiss in the woman who
wantonly antagonizes men by her dress.
Society women, mothers with marriage
able daughters, will certainly be the last
to countenance dress that evokes mas
culine disapproval To please men is one
of the chief dnds of their existence. Ey-
cry sensible mother has a laudable ambi-
ton to marry her daughter to advantage.
Knowing that there is nothing more re-
pulsive to the average man than the un-
feminine woman, no sensible matron Will
countenance in herself or her daughter
style of dress that offends masculine
taste, if it does not make the wearer
guy. These facts accepted, however hui
initiating they may be, fashions approx
| al of dress reform is not imminent.
ST would not have the courage to wear
it, said Miss Jeanette Glider, whose
| severe tailor costume is familiar to New
Workers. IT do not like ii, - said Chaun-
cey Depew. st have associated women
so long with flowing draperies that if L
| should call on a girl in that garb
| would feel that must bring her box
| of cigarettes instead of bonbons. -
| Men like in women everything as re-
/ mote from their own individuality as
possible. This is why the vests, chemi-
| settles and severe neckties of the tailor
made girl repel them, and, since the latter
| style does not add to a woman's comfort
or femininity, why adopt it, especially
when fluffy shirt waists, elusive, delu-
/ sive fedoras and comfortable coquettish
Jackets are accepted fashions? A skirt
that escapes the ground and is suspended
from the shoulders by loose waist; a
silk shirt, with fluffy front to conceal
defects or overdevelopments that the alb
sence of corset might emphasize and a
jacket that may be opened or buttoned
up at will are street or business suit
that answers every reasonable purpose
while it delights the eye.
By sewing two rows of hooks two or
three inches apart inside the skirt near
the band and lacing same with a shoe
string by putting the hand under flap
ON either side of the skirt, it may easily
be shortened evenly all around for
''rainy day. service. The coat, falling
over the fold made in shortening the
skirt, conceals it, and the problem of dry
skirts is thus secured without the leg
expose that gives under some circum-
stances so much masculine offense.
Ida ROSE MCCABE.