The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-05-13
ART AND SANITY IN DRESS.
1.-THE General Principles Which
Should Guide in Art of Dress.

SnOuIQ SuiQe IN NTI OF OiCSS'
Before proceeding to consider the
! question of costume the woman VINO
would understand her problem must
have certain general principles of the
subject firmly grounded in her mind
l. That the age has passed forever
when a woman's form may be used
| simply as lay figure upon which TO
! pile creations as groteSque as the hu-
| man imagination may create The IDLE
! coquettes of a French court, without
! education. with undeveloped minds,
with little knowledge of the real world,
without interest in affairs other than
the gossip of the court, might well de-
| vote their hours each to seeing how
! she might create more grotesquely and
more -extravagently than here nelgh-
Dor. But such conditions no longer
! exist. The woman of the twentieth
century. for whom this periodical is
| edited. is one of intelligence. who seeks
to bring herself in touch with al! that
| is most important in life. In design
| ing her dress. she has i'll mind to pre-
sent the most charming and agreeable
! appearance. at the same time conform
ing to the laws of health, which, after
all are requisites if beauty is to be
preserved.
2. The artistic world of today under
stands perfectly well what is beautiful
| and what is merely absurd.
3. Both men and women are COM
pretending each year more clearly
those things in costume which are use
full and necessary to health.
4, 1t should be perfectly well under
stood that with each year costume will
conform more and more closely to those
lines which are most artistic and use
full.
.. In proportion as a woman is clever
and in possession of good taste, she
will modify the existing fashions to
suit the requirements of her own style.
She will refuse to adopt those things
in the modes which are inartistic and
bizarre
g. In walking costumes, the young
woman possessing SAVIOR faire will at
all times have regard for the useful
and the simple formed upon graceful
lines. Dirt will be abhorrent to her.
The permitting of a skirt to sweep up
the filth of the street will be crime
equally against health and against good
taste.
Z In dressing her hair, the woman
of taste will determine the lines which
nature indicates as becoming her style
Of face and growth and color of hair
This will be reached by patient ex
pertinent. Having arrived at the prop
er lines, she will never thereafter very
far depart from them.
s. Every woman must decide for her
self this question: Do I prefer to look
well. or to appear in the preavillnS
modes regardless of grace and beauty
of outline?
9. Under the head artistic, may be
laid down the further general prin-
ciple: That the more nearly costume
e, Of ln
more perfect will be it contour.
Take. for instance, the prevailing
mode in sleeves-deep and pendant at
the wrist. conveying in every outline
the idea of siovenliness and careless
construction. 1t is a very good copy
of a cameIs knee. distorted ugly. out
of place-such, an inconceivable creation
as an artist would design at the close
of a drunken orgy. when. in spirit
of bravado. he might seize a sleeve
representing one of the old time abor-
lions and turn it upside down with
the exclamation:
II wonder if the world of fashion
will stand for that?''
That such thing could be impressed
upon the public at all shows the power
Of those inherited tendencies which our
American women are but in meas
ure now escaping. This sleeve must
have met with the protest of every
modiste of true artistic instinct-of
every woman whose natural refinement
revolts at distortion.
Should dress be to a woman of high
intelligence a matter of earnest study?
Unquestionably, she will do little with
out both study and persistent effort.
and she owes to the world that she
shall present charm of manner. beauty
of costume, the utmost loneliness of
face. feature and figure.
During the last ten years there has
beeen rapid growth of good Judgment
in relation to dress. 1t will be noted
that certain styles which conform to
the more graceful lines of the figure
maintain sort of vogue; that design
ers, intent upon creating a complete
change looking to the more rapid dis
placement of fashion, are less success
full. If temporarily disposed, that
which is useful and graceful soon re-
turns. One season there is cry that
there will be no more shirt waists:
the next, that the clinging skirt. sail
ing in graceful folds. is to be dis
placed by flounces, or hoops, or what
not
But it will be observed that eveFv
effort of this kind is followed by
reaction in favGr of that which con-
forms to what is best in art. The day
of the absurd hoop skirt is gone for
ever. The day of overlooking gowns
with ornament is rapidly disappearing. !
The evening gown itself tends more
and more to simplicity of outline.
An in the world OF ready made cloth !
ing those who manufacture are com |
ing to note this growth in the direc-
ton of what is true upon the part of |
even the least knowing of women. /
Year by year the firms who know their |
business best are choosing simpler lines. |
less OF elaboration, less of ornament, !
and it has been noted that those who |
have their stocks unsold at the end |
of the season are almost invariably |
whose poor taste does |
not permit them to understand this |
rinciPle.-Twentieth Century Maya |
zine.