The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-17
OBESITY AND ART.
IL Was the Thin Woman on Whom
Worth Put His Best work.
From Kate Feld's Washington.

From Kate FIELDS Washington.
a friend calls my attention TO an ar
tlcle in the London Daily News. wherein
Worth is described as detesting thin wo-
men for adornment, and being greatly
dV7rse TO padding. / am asked to cor
roborate these statements. What Worth
may have said TO others and what were
the rules OF his establishment, 1 don {
know. As an artist, however, he could
not hesitate to prefer skeletons 10 ODE
sity- or course we all want that happy
medium which covers the human frame
with enough flesh TO make 1t attractive IN
the nude, but when there must be choice
between two evils, bones are better than
rat, l remember Worth's saying once:
very little can be done with a fat fig
ures. You can't take a reef in them,
whereas you can build up skeletons"
This remark was apropos Of a woman who
had Just babe Worth good-by, after thank
ing him for her great success at a fete
ia Great Britain. So signal had IL been
tnat the husband accompanied this wo-
man to express his qualification at the
sensation created by his Worthy wife.
In the name of all that is possible,
what did you do with that beanpole?'
asked, after the departure of these de-
lighted Britons. She's the thinnest wo-
the least attractive in face"
DO? | made her over-that's what
did. / put her into a Marie Stuart cos
tune, with ruffs and puffs. ] padded her
WhereNr padding was needed, even to
her hips. You wouldn't have known
her. 1t was a complete transformation
and don't wonder she created a sensa-
ton"
This incident shows wherein worth's
greatness lay. He was quick to supply
with art the defects Of nature, and, like
any other artists, utilized whichever means
led TO results. Unlike half-baked mo-
dlstes, he never used padding, to my
knowledge, when the natural figure looked
well without it. He aimed al individual
~, not fashion-plates. He despised Job
lots, and had little liberation for women
WING wanted to look like other women
rather than be themselves. Padding has
It's uses. and Worth would not have been
Worth had he failed to use 1t in eXtrem-
tiles. The average dressmakers employ
II to cover their own imperfections. Not
knowing how to mt, they stuff insists and
OFTEN make their patrons look like trussed
fowls.
Whatever Injuries facial expression and
sentiment detracts from decoration. As
an Illustration, take Sara. Bernhard. She
won her great reputation when called a
living skeleton and made the butt Of
many a cariCature. Picture her as fat
woman and what becomes of Phedre, and
La Dame aux Camelias, and Frou- f rou
and the many herO.nes she personifies?
The grand passion and adipose do not
agree, and a cultivated public disdains a
fat juliet. mature woman may die of
love provided she makes up well behind
the footlights, but obesity is fatal to trag-
edy
on general principles, therefore Worth
must have been much less averse to lean
and hungry frames than to Falstaffian
mOlds. While both demand great in
genuity in dressing che former creates
far more sympathy without which there
can be no poetry. Who has seen Worth's
best creations" knows that he was a
poet in color and design.