The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-01
ART OF SKIRT HOLDING.
UngracefuI Methods Practiced by En-
gIish and French Women.

London Letter.
All the women are holding up their skirts
after a particular fashion just now that
has recently become the rage. II has its
origin, as have most fashions OF the day
fin London at any rate, from theatrical
source In that funny farce that Mr.. Charles
Erohman has just brought over here, "On
and on, in the last act woman walks walks
across the stage. She is clad in a SHIN
mering gown of black sparkling with en-
broideries of jet and steel. She wears a
large black hat with black plumeS ana
diamond buckle, and she has black gloves.
She carries a tightly rolled en-tout-cas OF
white silk with a fiamingo-red handle In
her right hand she grasps all her glimmer-
ingly black draperieS into countless num-
Der of agant folds, held slightly above the
right knee. The skirt is so drawn up al
round as to fully expose mass OF delight
full white lace fittings and fiouncinSs,
while the lining of the black skirt is also
plainly visible, its white Silken interior be-
ing likewise frilled about the edge. Her
right elbow is slightly crooked, and the
curve of the wrist and the bend of the arm
is d study in itself Her shoes-patent
leather, laced and neatly tied at the instep
have low heels and sharply pointed toes.
Under her left arm, held so that the tiam1n-
go-red handle comes at the back of the left
shoulder while the hand grasps the sflken
cover near the ferrule, Is the white UNI
brella and as this woman walks very
slowly across the stage she is a study for
Van Beers, and an example for every wom-
an who wants 10 learn the perfection OF
prOpriety in the lifting of her skirts. All
the women are going to see 'On and Off
(and all the men, too, for that matter), but
the women are DuSlly employed IN studying
with absolute eXactness the precise method
in which Miss Elliot Page manages her
petucOats To-day on Regent street saw
a variety of smart-lOol1ing women who had
evidently been copying her methods with
more or less happy results, and certainly
even this effort in the right direction is re-
freshing
The ordinary Englishwoman has no sort
of idea of managing her pettcoats she
either does not worry about them at all
and wears knckerDOckerS and a short
skirt on a muddy day, or else she grasps
them at precisely the wrong angle, so that
her figure looks lumpy and absurd, and her
skirt lollops about her heels or flaps at
the sides 1t is the FTenchwoman who
middle of the back, so that her arm forms
a sort of awkward angle of 40 degrees
from the shoulder TO the elbow. This lump
of stuff she holds in a tight bunch, at an
obviously ungTaceful portion of her anat-
Omy, and very often the slight lift thus
given TO her skirts is of little service. An
other French idea is to be noticed In the
woman who takes her skirts on either side,
drawing the breadths very tightly across
the back, as we'll as across the front, and
holding the folds thus gathered high on
either side. over the hips. Very seldom is
this method OF skift-lifting success, and
unless Il is done WIN a certain dash and
Parisienne. such a method results in total
failure. Under these circumstances one halls
with a good deal Of unaffected delight these
muddy days the new ION and on" fashion
OF lifting the skirt. Long may it flourish,
and also with its arrival comes the revival
Of the lace-trimmed muslin petticoats that
are the delight Of ones eyes till they return
from the fervent minstrations of laund-
dress. who, in London, is more often hend
than angel.