The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-03-08
Monday, March 8, 1920.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DRESS

five years ago, we stumbled on an
article by Oscar Wilde, the Britisher,
on "The Philosophy of Dress" This
article appeared a short while after
Wilde's visit to America and before
his popularity waned.
While Wilde is usually thought of
by Americans for his affectations of
masculine costume, his knee breeches
and wearing the large chrysanthe-
mum, yet as his article of years ago
shows, there was the soundest artia-
tic philosophy in his general theories
of dress.
While we do not deem ourself
authority on everything a woman
wears, we do pride ourself on the
fact that we believe we know when
woman is sensibly dressed and when
her costume is becoming and especl-
ally when it requires no distortion OF
the body to wear the costume. 1t IS
the fact that the new style of feml-
nine fashions seems to us to conform
considerably to what Oscar Wilde
plead for years ago that we are
giving extracts from his "Phllosopny
of Dress"
In his plea against any distortion
of the figue by pinching in the
waist or cramping foot he says
"a waist is a very beautiful and
delicate curve-the more delicate,
the more beautiful; and not, as the
mill;ner fondly imagines, an abrupt
right angle suddenly occurring in
the middle of the person. Size has
nothing to do with beauty. This, |
dare say. seems a very obvious prop
osition. So it is. Ali truths are per
fectly obvious since one sus them.
Size is 4 mere ACCIDENT Of existence; !;
it is rot a quality of beauty ever. A
great cathedral is beautiful, but so IS
the bird that flies around its spin
nacle and the butterfly that settles
on its shaft. A foot is not necessarily
beautiful because it is small. The
smallest feet in the world arc thc2c
of the Chinese ladies, and they are
the ugliest also"
Wilde next argues for vertical
lines in dress, as long as possible, as
against horizontal lines. The waist
should be placed high. Broad putted
sleeves should be avoided because OF
the dwarfed effect they give the
figure, such sleeves as were disliked
by Petruchio in The Tanning of the
Shrew," who questioning the tailor,
says:
"What's this? sleeve? it's like q
demi-cannon;
What, up and down, carv'd like an
apple-tart?"
Wilde again referring to the gener-
al structure and the human figure
lays down this principle:
"That first and last rule to this,
that every separate arCile ol appaf-4
is to be suspended from the shoul-
ders always, and never from the
waist. Nature, it should be noted,
gives no opportunity at all of sus-
pending anything from the waists
delicate curve. Consequently, by
means of a tight corset regular
artificial ledge has to be produced,
from which the lower garment may
be securely hung.
Where there are pettlcoats there
must be corsets. Annihilate the form
er and the latter disappears. And l
have no hesitation in saying that
whenever in history We find that
dress has become absolutely mon
strous and ugly it has been partly,
of course, through the mistaken idea
that dress has an independent exist
ence of its own, but partly, also,
through the fashion of hanging the
lower garments from the waist.
"In the sixteenth century, for cv-
ample, to give the necessary COM
preston Catherine de Medici, the
high priestess of poison and petit
coats, invented a corset which may
be regarded as the climax of career
of crime. 1t was made of steel, had a
front and back to it like the cuirass
of O fire bripade man and was Sc