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Dressing--the Leading Idea Of The American Women

Dressing--the Leading Idea Of The American Women image
Parent Issue
Day
16
Month
April
Year
1875
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

An article in Harper's Bazaar says The leading idea in regard to dress - any dress, almost - in the mind of an American women, is that it shall be rich and costly. For many years uo black silka called gros grains uould find purchasers in this markot. Even now, in these our times of tightening of pursestrings, this heavy and costly t'abric is almost in universal use, and it is nothing uneommon to see girls not out of their teens wearing siiks of a heaviness oí texture fit for the pornpous apparel oi gray-haired dowagers. Many French women, whose attire has always been " as fmished as an epigram," have never owned so costly a dress as a gros grain. And just here is the point to note the basis of the difference between the Prench and the Americans, which is visible not only in dress, but in all other observances, and which contributes so greatly to the admirable ordering ot life in Prance, viz., the absence of pretensión, the avoidance oí' a desire to appear richer than they really are, which is the secret of the succeSs of the Parisian salon, the petite diners, other unattainable French luxuries. No respecta ble woman in France would consent to wear apparel not in strict accordance with her established position in life. For the wife of a clerk or any other small-salaried persou to appear wearing a lace flounce, or an Indian shawl, or any other expensive garment, would be to invite such comment as " no modest dame can meet without a blush." A Prench woman's dress must be in accordance with her nieans, buthowfrequently we hearthe exclaniationsin this country : " How do they do it 'f " Where does the money come from V" and when the wife and daughter of Jones, the banker's clerk, swell up and down Broadway in sealakin sacques, and flouncpd gros grains, and the last new thing in bonnets and five button pearlcoloied gloves, the least censorious person cannot but marvel how they afford such costly accoutrements. Are Jones' wife and daughters well dressed ? Are American women well dressed ? As to be well dreased is to be ïtly dressed and freshly dressed, I have small hesitation in replying that they are not. Perhaps even greater than her aversión to not being dressed as beoomes her situation in life, is the French woman's horror of wearing a garmeut that is passe,frane, fripe. It requires but a few woarings in the dirty streets of our towns to convert the handsoniest gros grain ïnto that understandable impropriety, " a sight to behold." Strictly.for carriage wear, a toilet of elegance and costliness inay be allowed, but no woman can be dressed when clothed in the costliest gown, the sweeping skirts of which had caught the iinpurities of the streets. The length of the street dress skirt of the present day, though far from being the disgusting " trail " of a few years ago, is sufficiently great to dip in the mud and snow, the dust'and water of the thoroughfures. The only meanB, therefore, by which a lady can preserve her neatness tolerably intact is by wearing dresses so inexpensive in their material and niake that she can afiord to lay thern aaide as soon as they are hopelessly soiled. Cortainly a halfdozen pretty dresses better adapted for street wear than a gros grain can be had for the cost of this latter material. Theextravagance of American women, so often the theuie of masculina retnark, is not so ruuch displayed at routs and parties - the proper scène of apparel - as in the street, where extravagence is not merely extravagance but vulgarity and folly. A daring attempt to escapo from Blackwells' Island was made by the prisoners last Sunday night, but was fortunately prevented. Tweed was not aniong the number being probably too Bnugly stowed away in his comfortable quarters. His prospect, howeíor, from his habeas corpus case are far from flattering.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus