The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-16
Women's Fashions Under Victoria


London World says: With startling sud-
denness, the crinoline collapsed. No one
could give any satisfactory answer to the
question, which formed the title OF an
amusing though anonymous magazine art
Gle of the period, Who Killed Crinonne!
Many theories were suggested; it was cur
| rentIy reported that leading dressnakei
had sent tSo of her work-girls. shorn Oh
crsnoline. into the park, and that the hint
was taken by society. Whatever the proxf-
mate cause might have been, the crinoi.ne
| died the death it merited. and for while
\ a sane moderation ruled. In certain
/ passage In Foul Play" Charles Reade
gave his opinion that the feminine dress OF
J this period was the most graceful ana APP
propriate OF any in recent times Bod1ces
! fitted closely, skirts were plain and UMPIRE
| tent.ous. the hair was worn parted m ~
| middle, and brushed back into simple COL;
| the whole gives an impression of virtuous
dowdiness. and IN year or two the mos,
extraordinary excrescences began to show
themselves upon the fashionably dressed
woman AT the back of the head buleef
| the chieon, with coil upon coil Of false hair
which fitted the hat over the nose OF the
weareer. The Jacket, loose and formlese,
was cut short to exhibit the enormous bus
| tie behind. Round the skirt were hideous
polonaises with stiff folded hounces OF
killed frills. With with hands encased IN
| tight one-button gloves. and feet encompass
ed into high-heeied shoes, the women foik
| of 1870 and the succeeding year or two tot
4 tered about with their bodies distorted
into the curve Of uglness which was known
| az the "Grecian bend Probably no age
and no nation has ever devised dress SO
l 49, - opn
! the "kiss-me-quick" curls which tralled
from the chigon to the last flounce Of the
skirt, there is not a line which does not
torture the eye.
But the reastion was speedy. While the
hustle was refined, the skirt was drawn
more and more tightly from the front, I'M
til Mr.. du Maurier was able without exag-
geration to exhibit the CONSERVATION OF
lady in fashionable ball-dress who found
herself unable to mount her hostess stairs.
BY 1878 the hustle had disappeared as COM
pletely as the crinoline, and the woman
who would be in the mode wore dress
| which fitted as tightly to her figure as the
skin of an eel. As morning wear she dons
ned close-ftting jersey. which was trying
to those whose erred on either side of mod
Grafton. It was at this period, too, that
the fringe appeared again upon the femin-
inc forehead, for the first time for about a
couple Of centuries. Mrs. Grundy, how
ever, had something to say against the
eel-skin dress, buttoned down the back
which disclosed every line of the figure;
4 and the aesthetic craze came to the rescue
Of the good lady. There was much thai
was ridiculous in aestheticism; but it mus'
be admitted that, apart from its eXaggera-
tons, 1t provided our women-folk with the
most graceful dress that the Victorian era
has known. Not all women, however
were aesthetics, and side by side with the
loose bodice and sleeves the hanging skirt
and the towzled hair, you may trace con-
current development Of the hustle and the
crinolette. which later reached its zenith IN
1855. But the aesthetic movement marked
the first breaking away Of women from
tine tyranny of the fashion-plate, nor has
its influence by any means passed away. II
has at least left behind il certain individu
atty in dressing, and in every drawing
room you may distinguish between the wo
men who dress to suit their dressmakers
and the women who dress to suit them
selves.
From 1885, when the crinolette and the
kited skirt were burden, to the presen,
day the fashion has changed continually
but with general trend towards simplicity
and ease. A year or two ago there was a
cray that the crinoline and the chigon were
again imminent, and a certain increase in
the circumference of the fashionable skirt
gave ground for apprehension. But the
bicycle came as stedying influence. Coll
and the cycle together have done a great
deal to curb the extravaganza of fashion
Women must either dress simply, or they
must renounce the bicycle and forsake the
golf-links. There is nothing so serviceable
for exercise as the plain skirt and the. I'M
pretentious blouse; and the combination
which has held it's own for half-a-dozen
years already will probably, with sigh,
notifications of outline. maintain its post
ton at least to the end Of the century,"