Okolona messenger., 1903-01-14
AS TO REFORM" IN DRESS.


.[Esss5FNEFORE woman's club in Chicago
IfffHNS the other day Mrs. Daniel M. Lord
advocated certain reforms in the
8i 4 dress Of men, says the Kansas
t3SND City Journal She declared that the
@ fSa Rembrandt style Of dressing the
53!!SsS hair and the lace neckwear and knee
49, breeches of the time Of Thomas JEFF
iersOn would make men particular
" attractive The topic OF her address Dress "
and she ranged over the subject from the time
when Adam and Eve wore no clothes at all down
through the ages to the present day. "WOmen," /"
she said, t'are more sensible than men. They wear
practical shoes, skirts and shirt waists. They have
discarded the tight corset the hoop skirt the dis
figuring hustle, and the useless pantaette. And
new turn to mems dress-their unventiated hats,
producing badness, and those terrible stiff shirts.
They should wear negigee shirts in business hours,
and at dress affairs they could do no better than
try to look as much as possible like Thomas Jeffer
son, who was always beautifully and becOmingly
arrayed."
Mrs. Lord says that when she suggested this re-
form to her husband be was delighted and received
it with enthusiasm. We may suspect, therefore,
that Mr.. Lord has been bOunteOnsly supplied by
nature with calves, and that he could shine in the
art Of what in the days Elizabeth was called "mak'
ing leg" But what would knee breeches do for
some of the handy legged brothers whose avOirdu-
pOis runs to stomach, or doesn't run at al Or for
the gentry whose neither extremites give one fine
circular view Of the scenery the other sdei Has
Mrs. Lord taken bOwlegs into consideration Is she
altogether certain that the things concealed by
trousers the objects OF beauty which she tries to
described
We shall not attempt to cOntrovert Mrs. Lords
statement Of the reform accomplished in wOman's
appaUeI We may silently doubt, perhaps, If it is
quite as complete as she alleges. Beyond question
the hoop skirt has departed, and thanks to windy
days or the muddy condition Of our thOToughiares
We may nearly believe that pantaettes are no longer
IL fashion. But ere those undulating and occasionally
dispOrtonate hips beneath an hOurglass waist con-
vincing evidence OF the departure Of corset and
bustlef And what about the "practical" heels on
which our fashionable danes now mince alOngi
But that is not the serious question. Is man
dressed less sensibly than he was in generations
which have gone befOref Mrs Lord cOniesses to an
admiration for the ancient She has a wOman's love
for iris and furbelOws. She dOtes on the robes Of
silk and satin with which our manly ancestors Of
the middle ages adorned their persons. II she had
lived in the time Of Cato she would have been fore
most in the crusade against the Roman lass which
forbade the wearing Of ornaments. In the time OF
DiOletiOn she would have reveled in the sumtuous
fashions which put jewelry on the toes. We may
even suspect that she would have passed iOyfully
from the Asiatic pomp Of DiOcetan to the sOftness
and effeminancy of Constantine who is represented
with false hair arranged in different cOOrs by the
artists Of his time or to the regime Eagabalus, who
forced his mobiles to initiate the dress and
OF the female sex, aud who himself preferred the
distaf to the scepter.
The emancipation OF man from gorgeous raiment
began in the eighteenth century, when parlamenthad
to legisate in restriction Of the masculine things who
lived for damask, perfume, powder and linen alone
Since then mems fashions have gone stedily in the
direction of simplicity. We might even say that
they are approaching the primative. Perhaps some
day we shall again array our forms in the costume
Of the abOrigine. And we are free to confess that
Mr. Lord, said by his wife to be a good American,
would appeal TO as more in bare torso and breech-
ClOut than in the hummery dress Of the time Of Hen
Ty VIII.
Mrs. Lord opened wide scope Of thought in her
Chicago essay. We may regret that she did not
pay some attention to the disposition Of her own
sex to ape the dress and Of their husbands
and brothers. The telegrams the other day told Of
g high born dame In London who went to q fancy
dress ball in the character Of Prince Charley and
disclosed her bare knees In order not to be unhis
tOrical. In truth, though, this dame Wasexpress-
ing only the trend to primitive conditions. Men
started the movement and women are following them.
There Is today in America and England distinct
getting away from the shy modesty which concealed
Ali that was possible Of the human form. Some
people call it recrudescence Of the shameless days
of medieval Europe. We call it 3 return to the
guileless natural reaction from the artificial
pressed in clothes. But whatever one cares to call
IL, It is here. The magazines Of today are filed
with nude pictures which could not have found
place in any family publication fifty years ago. A
middle.agdd man can easily remember back to the
time when any opera trOup now on the road would
have been arrested and jailed for lack Of apparel
And that which Mrs. Lord mistakes for 8 tendency
to return to the fashions Of only century ago may
be an uneOnciOus movement that will land as spang
up against the styles Of the Garden Of Eden.
Seriously though, q committee ought to be ap-