The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-09-01

The study of the evolution of dress,
above all of Greek dress, might paral-
we the genius of a Darwin. Just
when a man thinks that he IS. at
last, on the level of scientific opinion
he finds that he has drifted leagues
,astern of it, or far away to the left
or right. The subject is so difficult
because, naturally, we have no an
,cient costumes before us in linen or
wool. while the early artists who de-
met them are not always trustworthy
persons. They have a strong tenden-
CIV, from the dateIess period Of the
artists contemporary with the NAM
moth and reindeer in France to the
bushmen in South Africa, to draw
men with wasp's waists, and to repre-
sent people as naked who were GER
.tainly clothed. Nobody was likely to
go naked in a climate that suited the
mammoth and reindeer, especially II
he was we'll supplied with bone
needles to sew his raiment, as he GER
tainly was. Yet palaeolithic man
usually drew his species without a
stitch or a clout. But yesterday were
his paintings on rock-walls discoV-
cred, in which his women wear skirts
with a half moon cut out at the lower
end to give play to the ankles.
1t is difficult to say whether, In
warm climates, dress was invented Tor
the sake Of decorum or of decoration.
If we take the ase Of Egypt the old
Egyptian paintings show that for men
the ordinary loin cloth was usually
sufficient. If we pass from Egypt to
Crete the art of the mysterious white
men who founded and achieved
(about 2500-1200 B. c. its civiliza-
ton, shows in early periods men in
loin cloths, perhaps first worn by
them in Northern Africa. The wo-
men, in the opinion Of DR.. Macken-
zie, were originally no better clad.
On one side the ladies developed the
ioin cloth into "a belted panier of
polonaise," without any skirt or bod
Ice las also did the mem, and then
the women went on frightening the
panier by overlapping additions till
they had a compound skirt" like a
bounced skirt in outward appearance,
and finally fashion revealed in skirts
with regular founces and low bod
ices above.
Having, perhaps, two thousand
years to devote to costume and fash
lon, these ladies of Crete evolved al
most every sort of dress known to us
In Western Europe, from the Eliza
Fbethan ruff and pufed sleeves to the
dress of England at the end of the
eighteenth century, to early Victor
ian, to gaudily colored and trimmed
"zouve Jackets" with light hounced
skirts, and even to the Tam-o'Shan-
ter cap, tailor made coat, fitting tight
ly to the figure and tweed skirt.
There is a bronze statuette of a
rCretan lady thus attired photo
.graphed in DR.. Mosso's account of his
.Cretan tour.
Ladies ever forsook sandals and
wore bottines; in fact, some of them,
in the ancient Cretan pictures, are
known as Lies P~arisiennes," very
gay little persons Of about 1900 B.
c. The men, on the other hand,
chung to their loin cloths, or to bag
gy short skirts like loose knicker-
bockers, or wore tight, brief bathing
drawers embroidered or embossed,
and only wore long robes on Sundays,
or at least when present at religious
functions. The one fashion that the
ancient Cretan women never adopted
was the familiar Greek peplos, so
graceful in it's drapery, which has no
"body" or bodice, no separate skirt,
"but is, in fact, no mor than a
square wooden blanket folded" Gin
a way which l do not understand
and taken up round the waist by
a girdle." 1t was pinned up by
safely pins or fbulae over each
shoulder, and as much of 1t was
pulled up through the girdle, to fall
over it in graceful folds, as the
wearer pleased. The dress depended
for its effect, and, indeed, for its
permanence above the shoulders, on
these safety pins. If n Of them
ceased to be safe" down came the
dress. When the Tale of Troy" was
acted many years ago by ladies whom
Sir Frederick Leighton directed, the
pins caused great s~earchings of
hearts. However, they never failed
to do their duty.
This fashion alone the Cretan lad
les Of 25O0-140O B. C.. never evolved,
and no safety pins are found in the
older sites of Cretan civilization.
They come in at the end of that per
iod. AS they are also found fa
away in the north in Bosnia anC
Austria and all over Eastern Central
Europe it is probable that they were
brought south from these quarters
by the prehistoric ancestors of the
Greeks, the Achaeans, Dorians, and
so forth. The women would wear
the peplos, the men a belted smock
or Chiffon, with a cloak over it, also
fastened with a safety pin, in cold
weather.
We have in Homer a full descrip-
ton Of the smock, cloak and elab-
crate gold safety pin Of Odysseus;
and his swineherd belts his smock
before he goes on a journey. This is
the dress that Homer describes. In
r,t ~, oo,colot IN AVA.