Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-03
THE FOLLY OF WoMAN'S DRESS
"a MANS VIEW OF FASHIONABLE
HATS AND GOWNS.
Millinery Constructions That Cost
Big Money and Give No Com
fort-Eel Skin Dresses.

From the Westminster Gazette.
Your correspondent Mr.. r. Tucker, l
take to be bachelor OF wldower Were he
otherwise he would scarcely venture over
his own name to offer battle in a field
upon which all OF us who are welded
have been worsted again and again.
Womans dress is folly. from the point
ed SHOES which cramp and deform the
delicate foot to the wide-spreading cree
ton decorated with some half-cooked
fowl which crowns the head. But for
domestic peace it is wiser not to say these
things. Woman has chosen for her own
happiness Of mind to distort and deform
her body and to wear clothes which serve
practically none of the useful purposes
for which clothes have been designed.
and no woman of spirit will dare, though
she spend her last penny in some absurd
and short-l1ved gimcrack of the moment,
70 be out of that great procession Of fash
ion which does honor to the gods of Re-
gent street or the Rue de la Paix
Hatpin, Weapon.
The use Of the hatpin, dangerous as it
is alike to the wearer and to all whom
she approaches. is not going to be dis
couraged by the invention of CARLOAD
of bandeaus or other devices. The har
pin is an ornament: the self-fixing ban
deau is merely unitarian. What woman
compelled to a choice would hesitate for
d moment which to select? I do not be-
lieve that one could find a lady to declare
that the vast hats, bearing almost a poul-
try farm In themselves, which have been
the fashion OF the present summer, are
comfortable or anything but an annoy
ance to the wearers
Yet all women have worn them,
and men have met the huge bills with
what complacency they can summon.
Which is merely to say that women, and
in their turn men, are the subjects of
known-the tyranny of the dressmaker
and the milliner.
Within the last few days / have seen
a hat with half a dozen white birds
placed on it's crown, and the only thought
it suggested was of St. Paul's churchyard
when the pigeons are feeding. There are
other hats to be seen in all the shops
which recall nothing so much as inverted
wastepaper baskets with some curious
outgrowth of feathers or ribbons. Nor
Is 1t enough that the hats should be Of
ungovernable dimensions. The hair must
be built up to them, and SO great guam
titles of false curls, of transformations
and Of artificial coils are added to the
ma tural hair to produce designs which
seem to have carica tured all nature In
their efforts to be strange and wondrous.
With these hats and these masses of hair
women have chosen dresses clingng with
almost eelSkin tightness to their forms,
until general effect has been obtained
of walking mushroom or attenuated
pegtOp. These dresses can give neither
comfort nor even ease to their wearers.
Up-to-Date Gowns.
A week or two ago 1 read in al article
intended for ladies the account OF
scene In a Paris cutting room in which
an English lady clamored to have her
skirt made even more attenuated than
1t was. But it will be SO tight, madame
will not be able to sit down. exclaimed
the dressmaker. "Then Ill stand al
ways was the answer from firmly COM
pressed lips. There Is probably very little
exaggeration in the tale: certainly some
of the dresses seen today would never
allow their wearers TO bend sufficiently
to sit down. So one could write endless
ly OF the abSurdities of the clothing of
women, with whom warmth ease of
movement, cleanliness and simple ele-
gance are one and ali sacrificed to some
fad of the moment. If change is to be
brought about IL will be by men Women
are probably conscious enough that all is
not we'll, but they have not the courage
to alter their ways Men have the power
of the purse. AS soon as they firmly de-
termine that they will not have the
money. which is SO hard in the earning,
sduandered by their women folk on gew-
gaWs which have no recommendation but
fantasy and cost, then a change will be
brought about. 1t is useless to appeal to
wOman'S intelligence in these matters;
one can only alter the extravaganza of
taste and of waste by withholding the
funds which maze it possible.