The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-01-07
ART or WEARING
.=.s . A GOWN

From tho New York Press:
Il wish l knew" said the girl with
the chiffon muff, why stage gowns,
like stage love-making and stage sem
timents, are always so much more
beautiful than those in real life"
They are not" said the other girl.
Half the gowns one sees on the stage
one wouldn't wear in a drawing room
or on the street for anything in the
world. Do you know that lots of act
resses buy their imported gowns from
the secondhand dealers? Well, they
do!
1T is not the gown, but the way in
which an actress wears it that makes
1t so attractive. She knows what sort
of frock to buy, just how to put it on
and just how to carry it. THAT is what
nine women out of ten in private life
don't know. The average woman Sc
lects frock without any reference to
herself whatever. She just buys it be-
cause 1t is pretty and puts 1t on ex-
actly as it goes. Usually she looks like
an animated clothes rack, with her gar
ments hanging on her.
AN actress gets into the feeling Of
her gown. The moment she slips into
1t she feels her role. If the gown is
long and clingy and filmy and dap
hanous, she simply floats every minute
that she has it on. If it has yards and
yards OF train she learns how to man.
age 1t: how to sit down so that it will
wind itself around her; how to sail
across the room as though she were
trailing wings after her; how to turn
without stumbling all over her skirts.
She feels every inch of the dignity that
a train gives, and she puts on her
q ~ 001y
But the woman in private life always
looks AS though her trailing skirts were
just hooked on behind. They are not
part of her. Every bride I have seen
this autumn looked as though she felt
the weight and enormity of her train.
She actually shrunk into insignificance
beside 1t and shriveled up under her
enormous tulle veil. She was entirely
subordinate to her, clothes.
did you ever see Nine Rejane in
| one Of her chiffon CONNECTIONS? I did.
pink chiffon falling from her Shout
! ders and almost completely enveloping
her. Well, that was floating dress,
| and don't remember once having seen
Nine. Rejane walk a step while she had
| the dress on. She just seemed to float
onto the stage like a cloud to float
from chair to divan and to float out
| again. She didn't sit, she didn't stand
she didn't kneel; she just moved and
that was all you knew. When she
changed that frock for short, girlish
one with baby waist, you wouldn't
have recognized her. She looked 10
years younger. Her chin had been
! lowered, her eyes had grown big and
| innocent looking, and she seemed sud-
denly to have acquired feet and to have
lost 10 years and gained 10 pounds.
It was all in the feeling induced by
| the frock.
! can actress makes her frocks a part
Of herself. If they are frilly, she fiut-
ters and f1irts in them; If they are
hobby she becomes at once jaunty
and debonair; if they are magnificent
she takes on a new dignity. She trails
them, bangles them, sweeps them, holds
them, clutches them, f1utters them, or
hugs them, just as they seem to need
it. She makes them subordinate to
herself, while at the same time she
brings into relief their most striking
feature and displays to advantage their
slightest suggestion.
EVERY gown has some sort OF motif,
and unless you are able to discover Its
artistic significance, you will appear as
badly in it as though YOU should quote
d bitsof poetry without knowing what
IT meant"