The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-20
THE TYRANNY OF FASHION
INDIVIDUALITY In DRESS A THING
MUCH TO BE DESIRED.
But Few Should Undertake 1t without
Gufdnncc-Utilify on the Road to
Beauty - Lines of Study.
New York Evening Post.

Nowadays, we are a machine-made world.
| and increasingly so in every department OF
| life. The houses we live in, our furniture,
| the clothes we wear. are turned out In
| batches and often in patches of cheap ugli-
ness. Even literature is manufactured for
u.s. and books, too, are turned out in
| patches that every one feels constrained to
| read at exactly the same time. Everything
| tends to uniformity of dullness; and our
| debt is incalculable to the few eccentric,
| progressive, reforming spirits who rebel
against conformity and keeps US from utter
| stagnation.
| 1t was Oscar Wilde who defined fashion
| as something so ugly that it has to be
| changed every six months. Circumstances
| warrant the sarcastic epigram, though 1t
| does not hit the bull's-eye. The truth is
| even less fiattering. Those who talk Of the
| tyranny of fashion are nearer the mark.
| For though it is true that the fashions are
mostly ugly, and that they are often
| changed, ii is not because we have the wit
| to see their defects nor the wisdom to grow
| weary of them, but because We are at the
| mercy of the leading manufacturers and
dressmakers of the world. Indeed, under
! the present system, every obstacle is
| thrown in the way Of the person OF In
| dividual taste. If she should happen to
| want a hat of last years shape, or stuff
| of last years design, it is impossible to
| find it. The dealers do not choose that last
years patterns shall be worn; they want
| fresh orders for the fresh designs they
t-have chosen to make-and We have simply
| to obey. Any woman who has ever tried
| to have dress made to suit herself, and
"out of fashion," will be able to bear wit
ness to the wrestling that was necessary
| with her dressmaker's conventional ideas
before even a compromise could be effected.
| The eve so easily becomes accustomed to
| deformity and absurdity, is so easily nyp-
| Noticed by fashion. that in the reigning
mode it can with difficulty detect anything
wrong But we need only glance at an
| illustrated magazine of a few years back.
| at fashions OF costumes well within our
| own recollection, and we are astonished TO
think that we ever could have been so
| foolish as to wear things so ugly. Think
| of the days of the hustle, of the days of
| the skirt pulled back tightly above the
knees till walking was almost Impossible.
of the days of the lumpy pannier, and SO
| forth. Any fashion that is so hideous In
the retrospect must have been equally hide
Gus at the time 1T was worn
BEST SHOULD BE KEPT.
There have been graceful fashions that
remain enduringly graceful; and We shall
find that the fashions that endure the test
of years are those in which the lines
follow, and neither exaggerate nor conceal
the natural graceful lines of the human
| body, and that do not go contrary to the
dictates of ordinary common sense. 1t has
been suggested that congress of artists
should be appointed to arrange the fash.
ions for the year. This would undoubted-
ly be an Improvement on present methods,
| but though it might be a benefcent tyran-
ny, it would be tyranny still. And, II
the artistic congress were TO hit upon IAN
artistic dress, there is no very good reason
why the fashion should ever be changed
"a thing of beauty is JOY for ever
| Whereas, in the present condition o,
| things, a woman's solace during period
| of unbecoming fashion is the hope that
next years array will better suit her par
| ticular style. But, as matter or fact. In
| order that the fashions should be truly
artistic and satisfactory, an infinite var .ety
| of costumes would have to be designed TO
! suit an infinite variety or types, and the
artistic congress would find its hands more
| than full The only workable substitute for
| the present dictatorship of fashion would be
| the increased exercise Of individual taste
| so that every woman's dress would be to
| some extent the expression OF her own ma
| ture-
The mention of individuality I'm dress at
| first aupalls ones mind by conjuring before
| II the vision of weird and dowdy and &C.
centric costumes, such as are won't to ex-
press the aggressive Municipalities OF some
| of our strong minded women of to-day.
| But we look forward at the same time to
| a cultivation of the artistic taste in every
| body which shall insure that our costumes
| he delightful to look at as we'll as conven-
| lent to wear At present our artistic sense
| has been so perverted by the inartistic
ia shions we have for SO long been accus-
| toned to see around US that II VIII take
| time before we can struggle out OF the
| slough of depravity in matters of taste 1t
| is much that our strong-minded sisters
| have made a protest in favor Of comfort
and good sense with regard to clothing
| Utility lies on the road to beauty.
LINES OF STUDY
| Two lines of study might be suggested:
| Oh of ourselves as we leave the hands Of
| natures CD of the appropriateness OF our
dress to the occasion. To this may be added
| a third, the study OF nature for suggestions
| as 10 color combinations. 1t may be taken
as an axiom that nature knows what she Is
| about and that IL she sends US into the
world with straight hair, for instance. IL is
probably because that harmonizes better
with the cast OF our features and the gen.
eral Significance of our expression than
would curly hair. But we are constantly
seeing instances where all that Is charac-
feristic and OF spiritual signtficance in
| Dhysiognomy has beer obliterated, and all
that is ordinary and even vulgar brought
ment- We first must appreciate that beau
~ nhovvn ffae1f In many fvuon ana <ker,