The Sun. — 1864-08-09 (London, England)

MODERN COSTUME."—S uch is the title given to a brochure recently issued by E. Moses & Son, of the _Vineries. The great object of its gratuitous publication will at once suggest itself to the mind, but the author has so ingeniously blended the literary element with his commendations of the firm and its manufactures, that if it may not be pronounced to rank among. the "literary curiosities of the age, at all events it is an advertising curiosity," even in the year '64, One thing is also certain, that the information conveyed in its pages-,which are elegantly written, and well interspersed with lively anecdote—cannot be had at any shop gratis. The essay commences with a notice of the national costumesof the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, &c., and comes down to our own time; the best specimens of which may, of course, be seen in the ver y back LIZ Mincries. The following brief extracts will convey an idea of the style and scope of the Pamphlet :—" Our modern fashions always run into extremes. At the beginning of this century an amorous swain was delighted to see the and now the waist of a young lady of 18 is as long as that level with her shoulders ; --.0 vast bonnet once projected so far in front that it was like peeping down a lane owfahisetrofghreiastl.agdrya lnodvmeaanalmmoas,st.onrrak came the little bonnet, likeifyoaa stmricadllhead, threatening to fly away at the first puff of wind. Nov— the bonnet is brought more forward, loaded with ornaments, and raised like a helmet with a sharp peak. The fashions changed just as rapidly with our ancestors as they de with us." Again. "Sometimes the fashion that is obstinately independent of tcoaps,eoenthteheface. Kings and Queens gives way before some trivial incident, or changes in a moment under some sudden impulse of disa physician's disgust. Mrs Turner, widow, invented the yellow starched ruff; but as she had e hand in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury, and went to the gallows with a yellow ruff round her neck, the fashion died with the in. ventress. Black satin was once in vogue; but, as Mrs ManniLg wore it on the gallows, no lady of fashion has worn it since." "On what apparent trifles the whole character of a costume—nay, the very character of the wearer --may depend, when good taste is wholly departed from I Fashion is regarded as the eole test of Propriety, If a coatcollar be the eighth of an inch too broad or too narrow for the latest mode, or the two waist buttons on the back of the coat be too neighbourly or too distant, or if the coat be too swallow-tailed, or have too broad a termination, we laugh incontinently at the wearer. That 'which to-day is the perfection of propriety is to-morrow purely ludicrous. The greatest sage or hero becomes a pitiful ' Guy,'—a figure for a pantomime,—if his dress be out of fashion. How necessary it is, then, to be careful in the choice of one's tailor I" Several apt anecdotes are given of Gentleman George IV. and Brummell, and the following from Lady Morgan— we don't know which to admire the most, the cutting sarcasm of the lady or the use to which it has now been put : Lord Anglesea was once as great a toilet-model to the Princeß egent (afterwards George IV,), as Beau Brummell. Lady Morgan records an amusing conversation with his lordship. "Lord Anglesea," said her ladyship, "some admire you as Lord Lieutenant, some for your heroi la ; s but I admire you for—" Lord A.—" For what, Lady Morgan ? ' Lady M.—" For the cut of your coat. Who is your tailor ?" In these days this question put to any remarkably well-dressed man is pretty sure to be met with but ono answer—which we leave to the sagacity of the reader. A very pleasant hall .hour, however, may be spent in the perusal of this brochure from the Minories,