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

MODERN COSTIIME."—Sneh is the title given to a brochure recently issued by E. Moses & Son, of the Mineries. The great object of its gratuitous publication will at once suggest itself to the mind, but the author has so ingenio-asly 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 curtosities of the age, at all events it is an advertising curioOne thing is also certain, that its pages—which are elegantly with lively anecdote—cannot Romans, thes, Egyptians, &c.,a tswbhle.rteyilatitan'e'dfnoe:vaametnnadatiinnwoylitehlselheoiollynpvet eeagry year 64. eap'd6teilirl d The essay commences with a notice of the nataionnaalcocmosetsunadoews of th very best specimens of whio h may, of course, be seen in the Mincries. The following brief extracts will convey an idea of the style and scope of the pamphlet :—‘, Our modern a to oure Greeks,o wn time; fashions always run into extremes% At the beginning of thii; cen!ury an amorous swain Was delighted to see the waist of ii ;.y lady love almost on a level ,v,:h her shoulders ; and now the I:aist a a young lady of 18 is long as that of her great-grans. The vast bonnet CnC° projected so far in front t,;• at it was like peeping down k.: lane if you tried to see the face, Then came the little bonn...t, like a small cap, on the back of t,l'e head, threatening to By away at the first puff of wind. Now ,1:11e bonnet is brought . more forward, loaded with ornacients, azd raised like a helmet with a sharp peak. The fashions changed just as rapidly with our ancestors as they ydo with us," Again. "Sometimes the fashion that is obstinately independort of Kings and Queens gives way before some trivial incident, or changes in a moment under some sudden impulse of disgust. Mrs Turner, a physician's widow, invented the yellow starched ruff; but as she had a hand in the murder of Sir Thomas Overburyrand went to the gallows with a yellow ruff round her neck, the fashion died with the inventress. Black satin was once in vogue; but, as Mrs Manning wore it on the gallows, tie lady of fashion has worn it since. 4, ti on what apparent trifles the whole I,character of a costume—nay, the very charter of the wearer —may depend, when good taste is wholly departed from! Fashion is regarded as the sole 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 co,:t be too neighbourly or too distant, or if the coat be too swallow-L.' filed, er have too broad a termination, we at the wearer.tom That which to-day is laugh incontinently . is to-morrow the perfection of propriety purely ludicrous. or hero becomes a pitiful ' Guy,'—a figure The greatest sage for a pantomime,—if his dress be Ott of fashion, How necessary it is, then, to be careful in the L'Noice of one's tailor!" Several apt anecdotes are given of Gen,;:leman. George IV. and Brummell, and the following from Lh,"ly Morgan— we don't know which to admire the most, the cOting sarcasm of the lady or the use to which it has now been I:ut : Lord Anglesea was once as great a toilet-model to tn.? Princeßegent (afterwards George IV,), as Beau Brummell. ' Lady Morgan records an amusing Conversation with his lordship. "Lord Anglesea," said her ladyship, " some admire yon as Lord Lieutenant, some for your heroism ; but I admire you for—" Lord A.—" For what, Lady Morgan ? ' Lady M.-46 for the cut of your coat. Who is your tailor l'' In these days this question put to any remarkably well-dressed man is pretty sure to be met with but one answer—which we leave to the sagacity of the reader. A very pleasant half -hour, however, may y be spent in the perusal of this brochure front the Minories,