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DRESS

AS A FINE ART

WITH SUGGESTIONS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.
BY MRS. MERRIFIELD.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON

BY PROF. FAIRHOLT.

BOSTON :
JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.

CLEVELAND, OHIO :
JEWETT, PROCTOR, AND WORTHINGTON.

1854.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853. by *

JOHN P. JEWETT & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts

PRESS OP OEO. C. BAND,
CORNHIU, BOSTON.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

PREFACE.

THE fact that we derive our styles of dress from the
same source as the English, and that the work of Mrs.
Merrifield has been circulated among the forty thousand
subscribers of the " London Art Journal," might perhaps be
deemed sufficient apology for offering it in its present form
to the American public. It has received the unqualified
approbation of the best publications in this country ; —
entire chapters having been copied into the periodicals of
the day ; this added to the above, and also to the high
standing of the author, has induced the publishers to offer
it to the great reading public of this country.

The chapter on Head-dresses, which commences the book,
is of much interest in itself, and affords an explanation of
many of the descriptions in the body of the work.

The closing chapter, on Children's Dress, by Mrs. Mer-

IV PREFACE,

rifield, will be deemed of more value by most persons than
the cost of the entire work.

A few verbal alterations only have been made in the
original ; — the good sense of every reader will enable him
to understand the local allusions, and where they belong
to England alone, to make the application.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

DESCRIPTION OF HEAD-DRESSES 1

CHAPTER II.
DRESS, AS A FINE ART, 10

CHAPTER III.
THE HEAD, 63

CHAPTER IV.
THE DRESS 61

CHAPTER V.
THE FEET 73

CHAPTER VI.
REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES, 84

CHAPTER VII.
ORNAMENT — ECONOMY, . , 95

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. — BY MRS. MERRIFIELD, 121

(v)

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE I.

Figure 1. Head-dress of Lady Ardene.

2. A kind of hat.

3. Steeple head-dress.

4, 6. Head-dresses of Lady Rolestone.

5. Heart-shaped head-dresses.

7, 8. Head-dresses of the time of Henry VIII.

9, 11. Hats of the time of George II.

10. Nithsdale hood.

12. Hat of the time of William III.

13, 14. Hats of the time of Charles I.

. 15, 16, 17. Head-dresses of 1798.

18. Head-dress of 1700.

19. Head-dress of the time of Henry VI

20. Combination of figs. 7, 8.
21, 22. Hats for ladies in 1786.

23. Style of 1785.

24, 25, 26. Style of 1782.

PLATE II.

Figure 27. Style of 1782.

28, 30. Head-dress of 1790.

(vii)

viii

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Figure 29. Head-dress of the French peasantry.

31. Fashion of 1791.

32, 33. Fashion of 1789.

36. Head-dress of the commencement of the present

century.

35. English housemaid.

37. Gigot sleeves, with cloak worn over.

38. From a picture in the Louvre.

PLATE III.

Figure 39. Dress, with short waist and sleeves.

41. Dress of the mother of Henry IV.
40. Dress of Henrietta Maria.

42. From the " Illustrated London News."

PLATE IV.

Figures 43, 44. From the plates of Sommaering, shows the waist

of the Venus of antiquity.
45, 46. The waist of a modern lady, from the above.

49. From the " London News."

50. Woman of Mitylene.

53. Algerine woman.

54. The archon's wife.

PLATE V.

Figure 47. Athenian peasant.

48. Shepherdess of Arcadia.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

IX

Figure 51. Athenian woman.

52. French costume of the tenth century.
62. Lady of the time of Henry V.

PLATE VI.

Figure 55.
56.
57.
59.
61.

After Parmegiano.
Titian's daughter.
Lady Harrington.
Roman peasant.
Gigot sleeves.

PLATE VII.

Figure 63. From Bonnard's Costumes.

64. Sancta Victoria.

65. Anne, Countess of Chesterfield, from Vandyck.
67. Woman of Markinitza.

PLATE VIII.

Figure 60. Lady Lucy Percy, from Vandyck.

69, 70. By Jules David, in " Le Mpniteur de la Mode."
68. The hoop, after Hogarth.

PLATE IX.

Figure 66. From Rubens's "Descent from the Cross.'

71. From a drawing by Gainsborough.

72. Woman of Myconia.
74. Queen Anne.

b

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE X.

Figure 73. Charlotte de la Tremouille.

75. After Gainsborough.

76. After Gainsborough.

77. Costume of Mrs. Bloomer.

PLATE XI.

Figure 78. From the embroidery on fig. 47, pi. 5.

79. From the sleeve of the same dress, above.

80. From the sleeve of the pelisse.

81. The pattern embroidered from the waist to the

skirt of ' the dress, fig. 51, pi. 5.

82. The border of the shawl, fig. 51.

83. Sleeve of the same, figure 51.

84. Design on the apron, fig. 48, pi. 5.

85. From the border of the same dress, fig. 48.

PLATE XII.

Figure 86. Pattern round the hem of the long under dress,

fig. 51, pi. 5.
87, 88. Borders of shawls.

89. Infant's dress, exhibited at the World's Fair in

London.

89, 90. From " Le Moniteur de la Mode," by Jules David
and Reville, published at Paris, London, New
York, and St. Petersburg.

CHAPTER I.

DESCRIPTION OF HEAD-DRESSES.

IG. 1 is a front view of a head-dress
of Lady Arderne, (who died about
the middle of the fifteenth century.)
|1 The caul of the head-dress is richly
embroidered, the veil above being
supported by wires, in the shape of a heart, with
double lappets behind the head, which are some-
times transparent, as if made of gauze.

Such gauze veils, or rather coverings for the
head-dress, are frequently seen in the miniatures of
MSS. Figs. 2, 3, are here selected from the royal
MS. In Fig. 3, the steeple head-dress of the lady is
entirely covered by a thin veil of gauze, which hangs
from its summit, and projects over her face. Fig. 2
has a sort of hat, widening from its base, and made

of cloth of gold, richly set with stones. Such jew-
i i

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES.

elled head-dresses are represented on the heads of
noble ladies, and are frequently ornamented in the
most beautiful manner, with stones of various
tints.

The slab to the memory of John Rolestone, Esq.,
sometime Lord of Swarston, and Sicili, his wife, in
Swarkstone Church, Derbyshire, who died in 1482,
gives the head-dress of the said Sicili as represented
in Fig. 6. It is a simple cap, radiating in gores
over the head, having a knob in its centre and a
close falling veil of cloth affixed round the back.
It seems to have been constructed as much
for comfort as for show : the same remark may
be applied to Fig. 4, which certainly cannot be
recommended for its beauty, being a stunted cone,
with a back veil closely fitting about the neck, and
very sparingly ornamented ; it was worn by Mary,
wife of John Eolestone, who died in 1485. These
may both have been plain country ladies, far re-
moved from London, and little troubled with its
fashionable freaks. Fig. 5 represents the fashion-
able head-dress of the last davs of the house of York.

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES.

It has been termed the heart-shaped head-dress,
from the appearance it presents when viewed in front,
which resembles that of a heart, and sometimes a
crescent. It is made of black silk or velvet, orna-
mented with gold studs, and having a jewel over the
forehead. It has a long band or lappet, such as the
gentlemen then wore affixed to their hats. Figs. 7
and 8 represent head-dresses worn in the time of
Henry VIII. These are a sort of cap, which seem to
combine coverchief and hood. Fig. 7 was at this
time the extreme of fashion. It is edged with lace,
and ornamented with jewelry, and has altogether a
look of utter unmeaningness and confusion of form.
Fig. 8 has a hood easier of comprehension, but no
whit better in point of elegance than her predeces-
sors ; it fits the head closely, having pendent jewels
round the bottom and crossing the brow. Figs. 9
and 11 are hats of a very simple style, such as were
worn during the reign of George II., when an affected
simplicity, or milk-maiden look, was coveted by the
ladies, both high and low. The hood worn by Fig.
10 was a complete envelope for the head, and was

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES.

used in riding, or travelling, as well as in walking in
the parks. These were called Mthsdales, because
Lady Mthsdale covered her husband's face with one
of them, after dressing him in her clothes, and thus
disguised he escaped from the Tower. Fig. 12 rep-
resents a hat worn during the reign of William III.
by a damsel who was crying, " Fair cherries, at six-
pence a pound ! " It is of straw, with a ribbon tied
around it in a simple and tasteful manner ; the hat
is altogether a light and graceful affair, and its want
of obtrusiveness is perhaps its chief recommenda-
tion. Figs. 13 and 14 are hats such as were worn
by citizens and their wives during the reigns of
James and Charles I. Figs. 15, 16, 17, were such
head-dresses as were in vogue in 1798. Fig. 15 was
of a deep orange color, with bands of dark chocolate
brown ; a bunch of scarlet tufts came over the fore-
head, and it was held on the head by a kerchief of
white muslin tied beneath the chin. Fig. 16 is a
straw bonnet, the crown decorated with red perpen-
dicular stripes, the front over the face plain, and a
row of laurel leaves surrounds the head; a laven-

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES.

der-colored tie secures it under the chin. Bonnets
somewhat similar to those now worn were fashion-
able two years previous to this ; yet a small, low-
crowned hat, like the one in Fig. 17, was as much
patronized as any head-dress had ever been.

Cocked hats, such as is represented in Fig. 18,
were worn by the gentlemen in the last part of the
year 1700. Fig. 19 represents one of the head-
dresses worn during the reign of Henry VI. It is a
combination of coverchief and turban. Fig. 20 is a
combination of the head-dress of Fig. 7 with the
lappeted hood of Fig. 8. In 1786, a very large-
brimmed hat became fashionable with the ladies,
and continued in vogue for the next two years ; an
idea of the back view of it is given in Fig. 21, and
a front view in Fig. 22. It was decorated with
triple feathers, and a broad band of ribbon was tied
in a bow behind, and allowed to stream down the
back. The elegance of turn which the brim of such
a hat afforded was completely overdone by the
enormity of its proportion ; and the shelter it gave
the face can now be considered as the only recom-

6 DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES

mendation of this fashion. The hat worn by Fig.
23 was the style of 1785. Feathers were then much
in favor, and a poet of the time writes of the
ladies, —

" No longer they hunt after ribbons and lace ;
Undertakers have got in the milliner's place ;
With hands sacrilegious they've plundered the dead,
And transferred the gay plumes from the hearse to the head."

Fig. 24 represents the head-dress worn in 1782.
At no period in the history of the world was any
thing more absurd in head-dress than the one here
depicted. The body of this erection was formed
of tow, over which the hair was turned, and false
hair added in great curls ; bobs and ties, powdered
to profusion, then hung all over with vulgarly large
rows of pearls, or glass beads, fit only to decorate a
chandelier ; flowers as obtrusive were stuck about
this heap of finery, which was surmounted by broad
silken bands and great ostrich feathers, until the
head-dress of a lady added three feet to her stature,
and " the male sex," to use the words of the " Spec-
tator," " became suddenly dwarfed beside her."

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES. 7

To effect this, much time and trouble were wasted,
and great personal annoyance was suffered. Heads,
when properly dressed, " kept for three weeks," as
the barbers quaintly phrased it ; that they would not
really "keep" longer, may be seen by the many
receipts they gave for the destruction of insects,
which bred in the flour and pomatum so liberally
bestowed upon them. Fig. 25 is another fashionable
outdoor head-dress. Fig. 26 represents one of the
hats invented to cover the head when full dressed.
It is as extravagant as the head-dresses. It is a
large but light compound of gauze, wire, ribbons,
and flowers, sloping over the forehead, and shelter-
ing the head entirely by its immensity. Fig. 27
shows how immensely globular the head of a lady
had become ; it swells all around like a huge pump-
kin, and curls of a corresponding size aid in the
caricature which now passed as fashionable taste.
As if this were not load enough for the fair shoulders
of the softer sex, it is swathed with a huge veil or
scarf, giving the wearer an exceedingly top-heavy
look. In 1790, the ladies appeared in hats similar

8 DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES.

to those worn by the gentlemen in 1792 ; these are
represented in Figs. 28 and 30. They were gayly
decorated with gold strings, and tassels, crossed and
recrossed over the crown. The brims were broad,
raised at the sides, and pointed over the face in a
manner not inelegant. Fig. 29 has the tall, ugly
bonnet, copied from the French peasantry; a long
gauze border is attached to the edges, which hangs
like a veil around the face, and partially conceals it.
A hat of a very piquant character was adopted by
the ladies in 1791, of which a specimen is given in
Fig. 31. It is decorated with bows, and a large
feather nods not ungracefully over the crown from
behind. A person with good face and figure must
have looked becomingly beneath it. Fig. 32 is an
example of the bad taste which still peeped forth.
It is one of the most fashionable head-dresses worn
in 1789, and is the back view of a lady's head, sur-
mounted by a very small cap or hat, puifed round
with ribbon ; the hair is arranged in a long, straight
bunch down the neck, where it is tied by a ribbon,
and flows in curls beneath ; long curls repose one on

DESCRIPTION OF THE HEAD-DRESSES. 9

each shoulder, while the hair at the sides of the head
is frizzed out on each side in a most fantastic form.
The hat of Fig. 33, shaped like a chimney pot, and
decorated with small tufts of ribbon, and larger
bows, which fitted on a lady's head like the cover on
a canister, was viewed with " marvellous favor" by
many a fair eye, in the year 1789. It was some-
times bordered with lace, as in Fig. 29, thus hiding
the entire head, and considerably enhancing its
ugliness.

2

10 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

CHAPTER II.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

N a state so highly civilized as that in
which we live, the art of dress has
become extremely complicated. That
it is an art to set off our persons to the
greatest advantage must be generally
admitted, and we think it is one which, under cer-
tain conditions, may be studied by the most scru-
pulous. An art implies skill and dexterity in setting
off or employing the gifts of nature to the greatest
advantage, and we are surely not wrong in laying it
down as a general principle, that every one may
endeavor to set off or improve his or her personal
appearance, provided that, in doing so, the party is
guilty of no deception. As this proposition may be
liable to some misconstruction, we will endeavor to
explain our meaning.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 11

In the first place, the principle is acted upon by
all who study cleanliness and neatness, which are
universally considered as positive duties, that are
not only conducive to our own comfort, but that
society has a right to expect from us. Again : the
rules of society require that to a certain extent we
should adopt those forms of dress which are in com-
mon use, but our own judgment should be exercised
in adapting these forms to our individual propor-
tions, complexions, ages, and stations in society.
In accomplishing this object, the most perfect
honesty and sincerity of purpose may be observed.
No deception is to be practised, no artifice em-
ployed, beyond that which is exercised by the
painter, who arranges his subjects in the most
pleasing forms, and who selects colors which har-
monize with each other ; and by the manufacturer,
who studies pleasing combinations of lines and
colors. We exercise taste in the decoration and
arrangement of our apartments and in our furniture,
and we are equally at liberty to do so with regard
to our dress ; but we know that taste is not an

12 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

instinctive perception of the beautiful and agreeable,
but is founded upon the observance of certain laws
of nature. When we conform to these laws, the
result is- pleasing and satisfactory ; when we offend
against them, the contrary effect takes place. Our
persons change with our years ; the child passes into
youth, the youth into maturity, maturity changes
into old age. Every period of life has its peculiar
external characteristics, its pleasures, its pains, and
its pursuits. The art of dress consists in properly
adapting our clothing to these changes.

We violate the laws of nature when we seek to
repair the ravages of time on our complexions by
paint, when we substitute false hair for that which
age has thinned or blanched, or conceal the change
by dyeing our own gray hair; when we pad our
dress to conceal that one shoulder is larger than the
other. To do either is not only bad taste, but it is
a positive breach of sincerity. It is bad taste, be-
cause the means we have resorted to are contrary to
the laws of nature. The application of paint to the
skin produces an effect so different from the bloom

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 13

of youth, that it can only deceive an unpractised
eye. It is the same with the hair : there is such a
want of harmony between false hair and the face
which it surrounds, especially when that face bears
the marks of age, and the color of the hair denotes
youth, that the effect is unpleasing in the extreme.
Deception of this kind, therefore, does not answer
the end which it had in view ; it deceives nobody
but the unfortunate perpetrator of the would-be
deceit. It is about as senseless a proceeding as that
of the goose in the story, who, when pursued by the
fox, thrust her head into a hedge, and thought that,
because she could no longer see the fox, the fox could
not see her. But in a moral point of view it is
worse than silly; it is adopted with a view to de-
ceive ; it is acting a lie to all intents and purposes,
and it ought to be held in the same kind of detes-
tation as falsehood with the tongue. Zimmerman
has an aphorism which is applicable to this case —
" Those who conceal their age do not conceal their
folly."

The weak and vain, who hope to conceal their age

14 DRESS, AS A FINE ART

by paint and false hair, are, however, morally less
culpable than another class of dissemblers, inasmuch
as the deception practised by the first is so palpable
that it really deceives no one. With regard to the
other class of dissemblers, we feel some difficulty in
approaching a subject of so much delicacy. Yet,
as we have stated that we are at liberty to im-
prove our natural appearance by well-adapted dress,
we think it our duty to speak out, lest we should
be considered as in any way countenancing decep-
tion. We allude to those physical defects induced
by disease, which are frequently united to great
beauty of countenance, and which are sometimes
so carefully concealed by the dress, that they are
only discovered after marriage.

Having thus, we hope, established the innocence
of our motives, we shall proceed to mention the
legitimate means by which the personal appearance
may be improved by the study of the art of dress.

Fashion in dress is usually dictated by caprice or
accident, or by the desire of novelty. It is never,
we believe, based upon the study of the figure.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 15

It is somewhat singular that while every lady
thinks herself at liberty to wear any textile fabric or
any color she pleases, she considers herself bound to
adopt the form and style of dress which the fashion
of the day has rendered popular. The despotism
of fashion is limited to form, but color is free. We
have shown, in another essay, (see closing chap-
ter,) what licentiousness this freedom in the adop-
tion and mixture of colors too frequently induces.
We have also shown that the colors worn by ladies
should be those which contrast or harmonize best
with their individual complexions, and we have
endeavored to make the selection of suitable colors
less difficult by means of a few general rules founded
upon the laws of harmony and contrast of colors.
In the present essay, we propose to oifer some
general observations on form in dress. The sub-
ject is, however, both difficult and complicated, and
as it is easier to condemn than to improve or
perfect, we shall more frequently indicate what
fashions should not be adopted, than recommend
others to the patronage of our readers.

16 DRESS, AS A PINE ART.

The immediate objects of dress are twofold —
namely, decency and warmth ; but so many minor
considerations are suffered to influence us in choos-
ing our habiliments, that these primary objects are
too frequently kept out of sight. Dress should be
not only adapted to the climate, it should also be
light in weight, should yield to the movements of the
body, and should be easily put on or removed. It
should also be adapted to the station in society, and
to the age, of the individual. These are the essen-
tial conditions ; yet in practice how frequently are
they overlooked ; in fact, how seldom are they ob-
served! Next in importance are general elegance
of form, harmony in the arrangement and selection
of the colors, and special adaptation in form and
color to the person of the individual. To these
objects we purpose directing the attention of the
reader.

It is impossible, within the limits we have pre-
scribed ourselves, to enter into the subject of dress
minutely ; we can only deal with it generally, and
lay down certain broad principles for our guidance.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 17

If these are observed, there is still a wide margin
left for fancy and fashion. These may find scope in
trimmings and embroidery ; the application of which,
however, must also be regulated by good taste and
knowledge. The physical variety in the human
race is infinite ; so are the gradations and combina-
tions of color ; yet we expect a few forms of dress to
suit every age and complexion ! Instead of the
beautiful, the graceful, and the becoming, what are
the attractions offered by the dress makers ? What
are the terms used to invite the notice of customers ?
Novelty and distinction. The shops are "Magasins
de Nouveautes," the goods are " distingues," " re-
cherches, " " nouveaux, " " the last fashion. ' ' The new
fashions are exhibited on the elegant person of one
of the dress maker's assistants, who is selected for
this purpose, and are adopted by the purchaser
without reflecting how much of the attraction of the
dress is to be ascribed to the fine figure of the wearer,
how much to the beauty of the dress, or whether it
will look equally well on herself. So the fashion is
set, and then it is followed by others, until at last it

3

18 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

becomes singular not to adopt some modification of
it, although the extreme may be avoided. The best
dressers are generally those who follow the fashions
at a great distance.

Fashion is the only tyrant against whom modern
civilization has not carried on a crusade, and its
power is still as unlimited and despotic as it ever
was. From its dictates there is no appeal ; health
and decency are alike offered up at the shrine of this
Moloch. At its command its votaries melt under
fur boas in the dog days, and freeze with bare necks
and arms, in lace dresses and satin shoes, in Jan-
uary. Then, such is its caprice, that no sooner does
a fashion become general, than, let its merits or
beauties be ever so great, it is changed for one which
perhaps has nothing but its novelty to recommend
it. Like the bed of Procrustes, fashions are com-
pelled to suit every one. The same fashion is
adopted by the tall and the short, the stout and the
slender, the old and the young, with what effect we
have daily opportunities of observing.

Yet, with all its vagaries, fashion is extremely

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 19

aristocratic in its tendencies. Every change ema-
nates from the highest circles, who reject it when
it has descended to the vulgar. No new form
of dress was ever successful which did not origi-
nate among the aristocracy. From the ladies
of the court, the fashions descend through all the
ranks of society, until they at last die a natural
death among the cast-off clothes of the housemaid*
Fig. 35.

Had the Bloomer costume, which has obtained so
much notoriety, been introduced by a tall and grace-
ful scion of the aristocracy, either of rank or talent,
instead of being at first adopted by the middle
ranks, it might have met with better success. We
have seen that Jenny Lind could introduce a new
fashion of wearing the hair, and a new form of hat
or bonnet, and Mme. Sontag a cap which bears her
name. But it was against all precedent to admit
and follow a fashion, let its merits be ever so great,
that emanated from the stronghold of democracy.
We are content to adopt the greatest absurdities in
dress when they are brought from Paris, or recom-

20 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

mended by a French name ; but American fashions
have no chance of success in aristocratic England.
It is beginning at the wrong end.

The eccentricities of fashion are so great that
they would appear incredible if we had not ocular
evidence of their prevalence in the portraits which
still exist. At one period we read of horned head-
dresses, which were so large and high, that it is said
the doors of the palace at Vincennes were obliged
to be altered to admit Isabel of Bavaria (queen of
Charles VI. of France) and the ladies of her suite.
In the reign of Edward IV., the ladies' caps
were three quarters of an ell in height, and were
covered by pieces of lawn hanging down to the
ground, or stretched over a frame till they resem-
bled the wings of a butterfly.* At another time
the ladies' heads were covered with gold nets, like
those worn at the present day. Then, again, the
hair, stiffened with powder and pomatum, and sur-

* Mr. Planche has shown, in his " History of British Costume,"
that these head-dresses are the prototypes of those still worn by
the women of Normandy.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 21

mounted by flowers, feathers, and ribbons, was
raised on the top of the head like a tower. Such
head-dresses were emphatically called "tetes." (See
chapter on Head-Dress.) Fig. 36. But to go back
no farther than the beginning of the present centu-
ry, where Mr. Fairholt's interesting work on British
Costume terminates, what changes have we to re-
cord ! The first fashion we remember was that of
scanty clothing, wThen slender figures were so much
admired, that many, to whom nature had denied
this qualification, left off the under garments neces-
sary for warmth, and fell victims to the colds and
consumptions induced by their adoption of this
senseless practice. To these succeeded waists so
short that the girdles were placed almost under the
arms, and as the dresses were worn at that time
indecently low in the neck, the body of the dress
was almost a myth. Fig. 39.

About the same time, the sleeves were so short,
and the skirts so curtailed in length, that there was
reason to fear that the whole of the drapery might
also become a myth. A partial reaction then took

22 DRESS, AS A FINE ART

place, and the skirts were lengthened without in-
creasing the width of the dresses, the consequence
of which was felt in the country, if not in the towns.
Then woe to those who had to cross a ditch or a
stile ! One of two things was inevitable ; either the
unfortunate lady was thrown to the ground, — and
in this case it was no easy matter to rise again, — or
her dress was split up* The result depended en-
tirely upon the strength of the materials of which
the dress was composed. The next variation, the
gigot sleeves, namely, were a positive deformity, in-
asmuch as they gave an unnatural width to the
shoulders — a defect which was further increased by
the large collars which fell over them, thus violating
one of the first principles of beauty in the female
form, which demands that this part of the body
should be narrow ; breadth of shoulder being one
of the distinguishing characteristics of the stronger
sex. We remember to have seen an engraving from
a portrait, by Lawrence, of the late Lady Blessing-
ton, in which the breadth of the shoulders appeared
to be at least three quarters of a yard. When a

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 23

person of low stature, wearing sleeves of this de-
scription, was covered with one of the long cloaks,
which were made wide at the shoulders to admit the
sleeves, and to which was appended a deep and very
full cape, the effect was ridiculous, and the outline
of the whole mass resembled that of a haycock
with a head on the top. Fig. 37. One absurdity
generally leads to another ; to balance the wide
shoulders, the bonnets and caps were made of enor-
mous dimensions, and were decorated with a profu-
sion of ribbons and flowers. So absurd was the
whole combination, that, when we meet with a por-
trait of this period, wTe can only look on it in the
light of a caricature, and wonder that such should
ever have been so universal as to be adopted at last
by all who wished to avoid singularity. The transi-
tion from the broad shoulders and gigot sleeves to
the tight sleeves and graceful black scarf was quite
refreshing to a tasteful eye. These were a few of
the freaks of fashion during the last half century.
Had they been quite harmless, we might have con-
sidered them as merely ridiculous ; but some of them

24 DRESS, AS A FINE ART

were positively indecent, and others detrimental to
health. We grieve especially for the former charge :
it is an anomaly for which, considering the modest
habits and education of our countrywomen, we find
it difficult to account.

It is singular that the practice of wearing dresses
cut low round the bust should be limited to what is
called full dress, and to the higher, and, except in
this instance, the more refined classes. Is it to dis-
play a beautiful neck and shoulders ? No ; for in
this case it would be confined to those who had
beautiful necks and shoulders to display. Is it to
obtain the admiration of the other sex ? That cannot
be ; for we believe that men look upon this exposure
with unmitigated distaste, and that they are in-
clined to doubt the modesty of those young ladies
who make so profuse a display of their charms.
But if objectionable in the young, whose youth and
beauty might possibly be deemed some extenuation,
it is disgusting in those whose bloom is past,
whether their forms are developed with a ripe luxu-
riance which makes the female figures of Kubens

DKESS, AS A FINE ART. 25

appear in comparison slender and refined, or whether
the yellow skin, stretched over the wiry sinews of
the neck, remind one of the old women whom some
of the Italian masters were accustomed to introduce
into their pieces, to enhance, by contrast, the beauty
of the principal figures. Every period of life has
a style of dress peculiarly appropriate to it, and we
maintain that the uncovered bosom so conspicuous
in the dissolute reign of Charles II., and from
which, indeed, the -reign of Charles I. was not, as
we learn from the Vandyck portraits, exempt,
should be limited, even in its widest extension, to
feminine youth, or rather childhood.

If the dress be cut low, the bust should be covered
after the modest and becoming fashion of the Italian
women, whose highly picturesque costume painters
are so fond of representing. The white drapery has
a peculiarly good effect, placed as it is between the
skin and richly-colored bodice. As examples of
this style of dress, we may refer to Sir Charles East-
lake's "Pilgrims in Sight of Kome," "The Grape
Gatherer of Capri," by Lehmann, and " The Dancing

4

26 DRESS, AS A FIXE ART,

Lesson," by Mr. Uwins, all of which are engraved
in the Art Journal. Another hint may be borrowed
from the Italian costume ; we may just allude to it
en passant. If bodices fitting to the shape must be
worn, they should be laced across the front in the
Italian fashion. Fig. 38. By this contrivance the
dress will suit the figure more perfectly, and as the
lace may be lengthened or shortened at pleasure,
any degree of tightness may be given, and the
bodice may be accommodated to the figure without
compressing it. We find by the picture in the
Louvre called sometimes "Titian's Mistress" that
this costume is at least as old as Titian.

We have noticed the changes and transitions of
fashion ; we must mention one point in which it has
continued constant from the time of William Rufiis
until the present day, and which, since it has en-
tailed years of suffering, and in many instances has
caused death, demands our most serious attention.
We allude to the pernicious practice of tight lacing,
which, as appears from contemporary paintings,
as general on the continent as in England.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 27

The savage American Indian changes the shape
of the soft and elastic bones of the skull of his
infant by compressing it between two boards ; the
intelligent but prejudiced Chinese suffers the head
to grow as nature formed it, but confines the foot
of the female to the size of an infant's ; while
the highly-intellectual and well-informed European
lady limits the growth of her waist by the pressure
of the stays. When we consider the importance of
the organs which suffer by these customs, surely we
must acknowledge that the last is the most bar-
barous practice of the three.

"We read in the history of France that the war-
like Franks had such a dislike to corpulency that
they inflicted a fine upon all who could not encircle
their waists with a band of a certain length. How
far this extraordinary custom may have been influ-
ential in introducing the predilection for small
waists among the ladies of that country, as well
as our own through the Norman conquerors, we
cannot determine.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the whole

28 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

of the upper part of the body, from the waist to
the chin, was encased in a cuirass of whalebone,
the rigidity of which rendered easy and graceful
movement impossible. The portrait of Elizabeth
by Zucchero, with its stiff dress and enormous ruff,
and which has been so frequently engraved, must
be in the memory of all our readers. Stiffness
was indeed the characteristic of ladies' dress at this
period ; the whalebone cuirass, covered with the
richest brocaded silks, was united at the waist with
the equally stiff vardingale or fardingale, which
descended to the feet in the form of a large bell,
without a single fold.

There is a portrait in the possession of Mr. Sey-
mour Fitzgerald of the unfortunate Mary Queen
of Scots, when quite young, in a dress of this kind ;
and one cannot help pitying the poor girl's rigid
confinement in her stiff and uncomfortable dress.
Fig. 41 represents Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of
Henry IV., in the fardingale.

With Henrietta Maria dresses cut low in the front,
(Fig. 40,) and flowing draperies, as we find them

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 29

in the Yandyck portraits, came into fashion, but the
figure still retained its stiffness around the waist,
and has continued to do so through all the gra-
dations and variations in shape and size of the
hoop petticoat, and the scanty draperies of a later
period, until the present day.*

If the proportions of the figure were generally
understood, we should not hear of those deplorable,
and in many cases fatal, results of tight lacing
which have unfortunately been so numerous. So
general has the pernicious practice been in this
country, that a medical friend, who is professor of
anatomy in a provincial academy, informed us that
there was great difficulty in procuring a model
whose waist had not been compressed by stays.
That this is true of other localities besides that

* The fardingale differed from the hoop in the following par-
ticulars : The hoop petticoat was gathered round the waist, while
the fardingale was without a fold of any description. The most
extraordinary instances we remember to have seen of the fardin-
gale, are in two or three pictures of the Virgin in the Spanish
gallery in the Louvre, where the fardingale in which the Virgin
is dressed takes the form of an enormous mitre.

30 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

alluded to, may be inferred from a passage in Mr.
Hay's lecture to the Society of Arts " On the Ge-
ometrical Principles of Beauty," in which he men-
tions having, for the purpose of verifying his theory,
employed "an artist who, having studied the human
figure at the life academies on the continent, in
London, and in Edinburgh, was well acquainted
with the subject," to make a careful drawing of
the best living model which could be procured for
the purpose. Mr. Hay observes, with reference to
this otherwise fine figure, that " the waist has evi-
dently been compressed by the use of stays." In
further confirmation of the prevalence of this bad
habit, we may refer to Etty's pictures, in which this
defect is but too apparent.

We fear, from Mr. Planche's extracts, that the
evil was perpetuated by the poets and romance
writers of the Norman period ; and we are sure that
the novelists of our own times have much to an-
swer for on this score. Had they not been forever
praising " taper waists," tight lacing would have
shared the fate of other fashions, and have been

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 31

banished from all civilized society. Similar blame
does not attach to the painter and sculptor. The
creations of their invention are modelled upon the
true principles of proportion and beauty, and in
their works a small waist and foot are always
accompanied by a slender form. In the mind of
the poet and novelist the same associations may
take place : when a writer describes the slender
waist or small foot, he probably sees mentally the
whole slender figure. The small waist is a propor-
tionate part of the figure of his creation. But there
is this difference between the painter and sculptor,
and the novelist. The works of the first two ad-
dress themselves to the eye, and every part of the
form is present to the, spectator; consequently, as
regards form, nothing is left 'to the imagination.
With respect to the poet and novelist, their cre-
ations are almost entirely mental ones ; their de-
scriptions touch upon a few striking points only,
and are seldom so full as to fill up the entire
form : much is, therefore, necessarily left to the
imagination of the reader. Now, the fashion in

32 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

which the reader will supply the details left un-
determined by the poet and novelist, and fill up
their scanty and shadowy outlines, depends entirely
upon his knowledge of form; consequently, if this
be small, the images which arise in the mind of the
reader from the perusal of works of genius are con-
fused and imperfect, and the proportions of one
class of forms are assigned to, or mingled with,
those of others, without the slightest regard to
truth and nature. When we say, therefore, that
writers leave much to the imagination, it may too
frequently be understood, to the ignorance of the
reader ; for the imaginations of those acquainted
wi£h form and proportion, who generally constitute
the minority, always create, well-proportioned ideal
forms; while the ideal productions of the unedu-
cated, whether expressed by the pencil, the chisel,
or the pen, are always ill proportioned and defective.
The most efficient method of putting an end to
the practice of tight lacing will be, not merely to
point out its unhealthiness, and even dangerous
consequences, because these, though imminent, are

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 33

uncertain, — every lady who resorts to the practice
hoping that she, individually, may escape the pen-
alty, — but to prove that the practice, so far from
adding to the beauty of the figure, actually deteri-
orates it. This is an effect, not doubtful, like the
former case, but an actual and positive fact; and,
therefore, it supplies a good and sufficient reason,
and one which the most obtuse intellect can com-
prehend, for avoiding the practice. Young ladies
will sometimes, it is said, run the risk of ill health
for the sake of the interest that in some cases at-
taches to ''delicate health;" but is there any one
who would like to be told that, by tight lacing,
she makes her figure not only deformed, but pos-
itively ugly? This, however, is the plain unvar-
nished truth ; and, by asserting it, we are striking
at the root of the evil. The remedy is easy : give
to every young lady a general knowledge of form,
and of the principles of beauty as applied to the
human frame, and when these are better under-
stood, and acted on, tight lacing will die a nat-
ural death.

34 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

The study of form, on scientific principles, has
hitherto been limited entirely to men; and if some
women have attained this knowledge, it has been
by their own unassisted efforts ; that is to say, with-
out the advantages which men derive from lectures
and academical studies. In this, as in other ac-
quirements, the pursuit of knowledge, as regards
women, is always attended with difficulties. While
fully concurring in the propriety of having separate
schools for male and female students, we do think
that a knowledge of form may be communicated
to all persons, and that a young woman will not
make the worse wife, or mother, for understanding
the economy of the human frame, and for having
acquired the power of appreciating its beauties.
We fear that there are still some persons whose
minds are so contracted as to think that, not only
studies of this nature, but even the contemplation
of undraped statuary, are derogatory to the delicacy
and purity of the female mind ; but we are satis-
fied that the thinking part of the community will
approve the course we recommend. Dr. Southwood

DRESS, AS A PINE ART. 35

Smith, who is so honorably distinguished by his
endeavors to promote the sanatory condition of the
people, strenuously advocates the necessity of giving
to all women a knowledge of the structure and
functions of the body, with a view to the proper
discharge of their duties as mothers. He remarks
(Preface to "Philosophy of Health") on this sub-
ject, " I look upon that notion of delicacy which
would exclude women from knowledge calculated in
an extraordinary degree to open, exalt, and purify
their minds, and to fit them for the performance
of their duties, as alike degrading to those to whom
it affects to show respect, and debasing to the
mind that entertains it."

At the present time, the knowledge of what con-
stitutes true beauty of form is, perhaps, best ac-
quired by the contemplation of good pictures and
sculpture. This may not be in the power of every
body ; casts, however, may be frequently obtained
from the best statues ; and many of the finest works
of painting are rendered familiar to us by engravings.
The Art Journal has done much in diffusing a

36 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

taste for art, by the engravings it contains from
statues, and from the fine works of English art in
the "Vernon Gallery." Engravings, however, can
of course represent a statue in one point of view
only; but casts are now so cheap as to be within
the reach of all persons. Small models of the
"Greek Slave" are not unfrequently offered by the
Italian image venders for one shilling ; and although
these are not sharp enough to draw from, the form
is sufficiently correct to study the general propor-
tions of the figure; and as this figure is more up-
right than statues usually are, it may be found
exceedingly useful for the above purpose. One of
these casts, or, if possible, a sharper and better cast
of a 'female figure, should be found on the toilette of
every young lady who is desirous of obtaining a
knowledge of the proportions and beauties of the
figure.

We believe it will always be found that the
beauty of a figure depends not only upon the sym-
metry of the parts individually, but upon the
harmony and proportion of each part to the rest.

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 37

The varieties of the human form have been classed
under the general heads of the broad, the propor-
tionate, and the slender.

The first betokens strength; and what beauty
soever, of a peculiar kind, it may display in the
figure of the Hercules, it is not adapted to set off
the charms of the female sex. If, however, each
individual part bears a proportionate relation to
the whole, the figure will not be without its at-
traction. It is only when the proportions of two
or three of the classes are united in one individual,
that the figure becomes ungraceful and remarkable.
The athletic — if the term may be applied to fe-
males— form of .the country girl would appear
ridiculous with the small waist, and the white and
taper fingers, and small feet of the individuals who
come under the denomination of slender forms.
The tall and delicate figure would lose its beauty
if united to the large and broad hands which per-
tain to the stronger type. A small waist and foot
are as great a blemish to an individual of the broad
variety as a large waist and foot are to the slender.

38 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

"There is a harmony," says Dr. Wampen, " between
all the parts in each kind of form, but each integral
is only suited to its own kind of form. True beauty
consists not only in the harmony of the elements,
but in their being suitable to the kind of form."
Were this fundamental truth but thoroughly un-
derstood, small waists and small feet would be at
a discount. When they are recognized as small,
they have ceased to be beautiful, because they are
disproportionate. Where every part of a figure is
perfectly proportioned to the rest, no single parts
appear either large or small.

The ill effects of the stays in a sanatoiy point
of view have been frequently pointed out, and we
hope are now understood. It will, therefore, be
unnecessary to enlarge on this head. We have
asserted that stays are detrimental to beauty of
form ; we shall now endeavor to show in what
particulars.

The natural form of the part of the trunk which
forms the waist is not absolutely cylindrical, but is
flattened considerably in front and back, so that the

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 39

breadth is much greater from side to side than from
front to back. This was undoubtedly contrived for
wise purposes; yet fashion, with its usual caprice,
has interfered with nature, and by promulgating the
pernicious error that a rounded form of the waist
is more beautiful than the flattened form adopted
by nature, has endeavored to effect this change by
means of the stays, which force the lower ribs
closer together, and so produce the desired form.
Nothing can be more ungraceful than the sudden
diminution in the size of the waist occasioned by
the compression of the ribs, as compared with the
gently undulating line of nature; yet, we are sorry
to say, nothing is more common. A glance at the
cuts, Figs. 43, 44, 45, 46, from the work of Som-
msering, will explain our meaning more clearly than
words. Fig. 43 represents the natural waist of the
Yenus of antiquity ; Fig. 45, that of a lady of the
modern period. The diagrams 44 and 46 show the
structure of the ribs of each. ',

It will be seen that, by the pressure of the stays,
the arch formed by the lower ribs is entirely closed,

40 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

and the waist becomes four or five inches smaller
than it was intended by nature. Is it any wonder
that persons so deformed should have bad health,
or that they should produce unhealthy offspring?
Is it any wonder that so many young mothers
should have to lament the loss of their first born?
We have frequently traced tight lacing in connec-
tion with this sad event, and we cannot help look-
ing upon it as cause and effect.

By way of further illustration, we refer our readers
to some of the numerous engravings from statues in
the Art Journal, which, though very beautiful, are
not distinguished by small waists. We may men-
tion, as examples, Bailey's " Graces ; " Marshall's
" Dancing Girl Reposing ; " " The Toilet," by Wick-
man ; " The Bavaria," by Schwanthaler ; and " The
Psyche," by Theed.

There is another effect produced by tight lacing,
which is too ungraceful in its results to be over-
looked, namely, that a pressure on one part is
frequently, from the elasticity of the figure, com-
pensated by an enlargement in another part. It

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 41

has been frequently urged by inconsiderate persons,
that, where there is a tendency to corpulency, stays
are necessary to limit exuberant growth, and con-
fine the form within the limits of gentility. We
believe that this is entirely a mistake, and that,
if the waist be compressed, greater fulness will be
perceptible both above and below, just as, when
one ties a string tight round the middle of a pil-
low, it is rendered fuller at each end. With ref-
erence to the waist, as to every thing else, the juste
milieu is literally the thing to be desired.

It has been already observed, that a small waist
is beautiful only when it is accompanied by a slen-
der and small figure ; but, as the part of the trunk,
immediately beneath the arms, is filled with pow-
erful muscles, these, when developed by exercise,
impart a breadth to this part of the figure which,
by comparison, causes the waist to appear small.
A familiar example of this, in the male figure, pre-
sents itself in the Hercules, the waist of which
appears disproportionately small; yet it is really
of the normal size, its apparent smallness being

6

42 DRESS, AS A FINE ART

occasioned by the prodigious development of the
muscles of the upper part of the body.

The true way of diminishing the apparent size
of the waist, is, as we have remarked above, by
increasing the power of the muscles of the upper
part of the frame. This can only be done by ex-
ercise ; and as the habits of society, as now con-
stituted, preclude the employment of young ladies
in household duties, they are obliged to find a sub-
stitute for this healthy exertion in calisthenics.
There was a time when even the queens of Spain
did not disdain to employ their royal hands in
making sausages; and to such perfection was this
culinary accomplishment carried at one period, that
it is upon record that the Emperor Charles V., after
his retirement from the cares and dignities of the
empire, longed for sausages "of the kind which
Queen Juana, now in glory, used to pride herself
in making in the Flemish fashion." (See Mr. Stir-
ling's "Cloister Life of Charles V.") This is really
like going back to the old times, when —

"The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts."

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 43

In England, some fifty years ago, the young
ladies of the ancient city of Norwich were not
considered to have completed their education, until
they had spent some months under the tuition
of the first confectioner in the city, in learn-
ing to make cakes and pastry — an art which
they afterwards continued when they possessed
houses of their own. This wholesome discipline
of beating eggs and whipping creams, kneading
biscuits and gingerbread, was calculated to pre-
serve their health, and afford sufficient exercise to
the muscles of the arms and shoulders, without hav-
ing recourse to artificial modes of exertion.

It does not appear that the ancients set the
same value upon a small waist as the moderns;
for, in their draped female figures, the whole circuit
of the waist is seldom visible, some folds of the
drapery being suffered to fall over a part, thus
leaving its exact extent to the imagination. The
same remark is applicable to the great Ital-
ian painters, who seldom marked the whole
contour of the waist, unless when painting por-

44 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

traits, in which case the costume was of course
observed.

It was not so, however, with the shoulders, the
true width of which was always seen ; and how
voluminous soever the folds of the drapery around
the body, it was never arranged so as to add to
the width of the shoulders. Narrow shoulders and
broad hips are esteemed beauties in the female
figure, while in the male figure the broad shoul-
ders and narrow hips are most admired.

The costume of the modern Greeks is frequently
very graceful, (Fig. 47, peasant from the environs of
Athens,) and it adapts itself well to the figure, the
movements of which it does not restrain. The pre-
vailing characteristics of the costume are a long
robe, reaching to the ground, with full sleeves, very
wide at the bands. This dress is frequently em-
broidered with a graceful pattern round the skirt
and sleeves. Over it is worn a pelisse, which
reaches only to the knees, and is open in front;
either without any sleeves, or with tight ones, fin-
ishing at the elbows; beneath which are seen the

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 45

full sleeves of the long robe. The drapery over the
bust is full, and is sometimes confined at the waist
by a belt ; at others it is suffered to hang loosely
until it meets the broad, sash-like girdle which
encircles the hips, and which hangs so loosely that
the hands are rested in its folds as in a pocket.

The drapery generally terminates at the throat,
under a necklace of coins or jewels. The most
usual form of head-dress is a veil so voluminous
as to cover the head and shoulders; one end of
the veil is frequently thrown over the shoulder, or
gathered into a knot behind. The shoes, apparently
worn only for walking, consist generally of a very
thick sole, with a cap over the toes.

One glance at the graceful figures in the plates
is sufficient to show how unnecessary stays are to
the beauty of the figure. Fig. 48, Shepherdess of
Arcadia.

The modern Greek costumes which we have se-
lected for our illustrations, from the beautiful work
of M. de Stackelberg, (" Costumes et Peuples de la
Grece Moderne," published at Rome, 1825,) suggest

4:6 DRESS, AS A FINE ART

several points for consideration, and some for our
imitation. The dress is long and flowing, and high
in the neck. It does not add to the width of the
shoulders; it conceals the exact size of the waist
by the loose pelisse, which is open in front; it
falls in a graceful and flowing line from the arm-
pits, narrowing a little at the waist, and spreading
gently over the hips, when the skirt falls by its
own weight into large folds, instead of curving sud-
denly from an unnaturally small waist over a hid-
eous bustle, and increasing in size downward to
the hem of the dress, like a bell, as in the present
English costume.

Figs. 42 and 49 are selected from the "Illustrated
London News." (Volume for 1851, July to Decem-
ber, pp. 20 and 117.) The one represents out-door
costume, the other in-door. Many such are scat-
tered through the pages of our amusing and val-
uable contemporary. For the out-door costume we
beg to refer our readers to the large woodcut in
the same volume, (pp. 424, 425.) If a traveller
from a distant country, unacquainted with the

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 47

English and French fashions, were to contemplate
this cut, he would be puzzled to account for the
remarkable shape of the ladies, who all, more or
less, resemble the figure we have selected for our
illustration ; and, if he is any thing of a natural-
ist, he will set them down in his own mind as
belonging to a new species of the genus homo.
Looking at this and other prints of the day, we
should think that the artists intended to convey
a satire on the ladies' dress, if we did not fre-
quently meet with such figures in real life.

The lady in the evening dress (Fig 49) is from
a large woodcut in the same journal representing
a ball. This costume, with much pretension to
elegance, exhibits most of the faults of the modern
style of dress. It combines the indecently low
dress, with the pinched waist, and the hoop petti-
coat. In the figure of the woman of Mitylene,
(Fig. 50,) the true form and width of the shoulders
are apparent, and the form of the bust is indi-
cated, but not exposed, through the loosely fitting
drapery which covers it. In the figure of the

48 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

Athenian peasant, (Fig.. 47,) the loose drapery
over the bust is confined at the waist by a broad
band, while the hips are encircled by the sash-like
girdle in which the figure rests her hands. The
skirt of the pelisse appears double, and the short
sleeve, embroidered at the edge, shows the full
sleeve of the under drapery, also richly embroi-
dered. In the second figure from the environs of
Athens, (Fig. 51,) we observe that the skirt of the
pelisse, instead of being set on in gathers or plaits,
as our dresses are, is "gored," or sloped away at
the top, where it unites almost imperceptibly with
the body, giving rise to undulating lines, instead
of sudden transitions and curves. In the cut of
the Arcadian peasant, (Fig. 48,) the pelisse is short-
ened almost to a spencer, or cote hardie, and it wants
the graceful flow of the longer skirt, for which the
closely fitting embroidered apron is no compensa-
tion. This figure is useful in showing that tight
bodies may be fitted to the figure without stays.
The heavy rolled girdle on the hips is no improve-
ment. The dress of the Algerine woman, (Fig. 53,)

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 49

copied from the " Illustrated London News," bears
a strong resemblance to the Greek costume, and
is very graceful. It is not deformed either by the
pinched waist or the stays. In the tenth century,
the French costume (Fig. 52) somewhat resembled
that of the modern Greeks; the former, however,
had not the short pelisse, but, in its place, the
ladies wore a long veil, which covered the head,
and reached nearly to the feet.

The Greek and Oriental costume has always been
a favorite with painters: the " Yernon Gallery" fur-
nishes us with two illustrations ; and the excellent
engravings of these subjects in the Art Journal enable
us to compare the costumes of the two figures while
at a distance from the originals. The graceful fig-
ure of " The Greek Girl," (engraved in the Art Jour-
nal for 1850,) painted by Sir Charles Bastlake, is not
compressed by stays, but is easy and natural. The
white under-drapery is confined at the waist, which
is short, by a broad girdle, which appears to en-
circle it more than "once, and adds to the apparent
length of the waist; the open jacket, without a

50 DRESS, AS A FINE ART.

collar, falls gracefully from the shoulders, and con-
ceals the limits of the waist ; eveiy thing is easy,
natural, and graceful. M. De Stackelberg's beauti-
ful figure of the "Archon's Wife" (Fig. 54) shows
the district whence Sir C. Eastlake drew his model.
There is the same flowing hair, — from which hang
carnations, as in the picture in the "Vernon Gal-
lery,"— the same cap, the same necklace. But in
the baron's figure, we find the waist encircled with
a broad band, six or seven inches in width, while
the lady rests her hand on the sash-like girdle,
which falls round the hips.

Turn we now to Pickersgill's " Syrian Maid," (en-
graved in the Art Journal for 1850:) here, we see, the
artist has taken a painter's license, and represented
the fair Oriental in stays, which, we believe, are
happily unknown in the East. How stiff and con-
strained does this figure appear, after looking at
Sir C. Eastlake' s beautiful " Greek Girl; " how un-
natural the form of the chest! The limits of the
waist are not visible, it is true, in the "Syrian
Maid," but the shadow is so arranged, that the

DRESS, AS A FINE ART. 51

rounded form, to which we have before alluded, and
which fashion deems necessary, is plainly percep-
tible; and an impression is made that the waist is
small and pinched.

We could mention some cases in which the girdle
is omitted altogether, without any detriment to the
gracefulness of the figure. Such dresses, however,
though illustrative of the principle, are not adapted
to the costume of real life. In sculpture, however,
they frequently occur. We may mention Gibson's
statue of her majesty, the female figure in M'Dougall's
"Triumph of Love," and " Penelope," by Wyatt,
which are engraved in the Art Journal, (the first
in the year 1846, the others in 1849.) But the
drapery of statues can, however, scarcely be taken
as a precedent for that of the living subject, and
although we mention that the girdle is sometimes
dispensed with, we are far from advocating this in
practice; nay, we consider the sash or girdle is
indispensable; all that we stipulate for is, that it
should not be so tight as to compress the figure,
or impede circulation.

52 DRESS, AS A FINE ART,

In concluding our remarks on this subject, we
would observe, that the best means of improving
the figure are to secure freedom of motion by the
use of light and roomy clothing, and to strength-
en the muscles by exercise. We may also observe,
that singing is not only beneficial to the lungs,
but that it strengthens the muscles, and increases
the size of the chest, and, consequently, makes the
waist appear smaller. Singing, and other suitable
exercises in which both arms are used equally, will
improve the figure more than all the backboards in
the world.

THE HEAD. 53

CHAPTEE III.

THE HEAD.

HEKE is no part of the body which
has been more exposed to the vicis-
situdes of fashion than the head,
both as regards its natural covering
of hair, and the artificial covering
of caps and bonnets. At one time, we read of
sprinkling the hair with gold dust ; at another
time, the bright brown hair, of the color of the
horse-chestnut, so common in Italian pictures, was
the fashion. This color, as well as that beautiful
light golden tint sometimes seen in Italian pic-
tures of the same period, was frequently the result
of art, and receipts for producing both tints are
still to be found in old books of "secreti." Both
these were in their turn discarded, and after a
time the real color of the hair was lost in pow-

54 THEHEAD.

der and pomatum. The improving taste of the
present generation is, perhaps, nowhere more con-
spicuous than in permitting us to preserve the
natural color of the hair, and to wear our own,
whether it be black, brown, or gray. There is also
a marked improvement in the more natural way
in which the hair has been arranged during the
last thirty years. We allude, particularly, to its
being suffered to retain the direction intended by
nature, instead of being combed upright, and turned
over a cushion a foot or two in height.

These head-dresses, emphatically called, from their
French origin, tetes, were built or plastered up only
once a month: it is easy to imagine what a state
they must have been in during the latter part of
the time. Madame D'Oberkirch gives, in her Me-
moirs, an amusing description of a novel head-dress
of this kind. We transcribe it for the amusement
of our readers.

"This blessed 6th of June she awakened me at
the earliest dawn. I was to get my hair dressed,
and make a grand toilette, in order to go to Yer-

THEHEAD. 55

sallies, whither the queen had invited the Countess
du Nord, for whose amusement a comedy was to
be performed. These Court toilettes are never-end-
ing, and this road from Paris to Versailles very fa-
tiguing, especially where one is in continual fear
of rumpling her petticoats and flounces. I tried
that day, for the first time, a new fashion — one,
too, which was not a little genante. I wore in my
hair little flat bottles, shaped to the curvature of
the head ; into these a little water was poured,
for the purpose of preserving the freshness of the
natural flowers worn in the hair, and of which the
stems were immersed in the liquid. This did not
always succeed, but when it did, the effect was
charming. Nothing could be more lovely than the floral
wreath crowning the snowy pyramid of powdered hair! "
Few of our readers, we reckon, are inclined to par-
ticipate in the admiration of the baroness, so fan-
cifully expressed, for this singular head-dress.

We do not presume to enter into the question
whether short curls are more becoming than long
ones, or whether bands are preferable to curls of

Ob THE HEAD.

any kind ; because, as the hair of some persons curls
naturally, while that of others is quite straight, we
consider that this is one of the points which must
be decided accordingly as one style or the other
is found to be most suitable to the individual.
The principle in the arrangement of the hair round
the forehead should be to preserve or assist the oval
form of the face : as this differs in different individ-
uals, the treatment should be adapted accordingly.
The arrangement of the long hair at the back of
the head is a matter of taste ; as it interferes but
little with the countenance, it may be referred to
the dictates of fashion ; although in this, as in
every thing else, simplicity in the arrangement,
and grace in the direction of the lines, are the
chief points to be considered. One of the most
elegant head-dresses we remember to have seen,
is that worn by the peasants of the Milanese and
Ticinese. They have almost uniformly glossy, black
hair, which is carried round the back of the head
in a wide braid, in which are placed, at regular
intervals, long silver pins, with large heads, which

THEHEAD. 57

produce the effect of a coronet, and contrast well
with the dark color of the hair.

The examples afforded by modern sculpture are
not very instructive, inasmuch as the features
selected by the sculptors are almost exclusively
Greek, whereas the variety in nature is infinite.
"With the Greek features has also been adopted
the antique style of arranging the hair, which is
beautifully simple; that is to say, it is parted in
the front, and falling down towards each temple,
while .the long ends rolled lightly back from the
face so as to show the line which separates the
hair from the forehead, or rather where it seems,
as it were, to blend with the flesh tints — an ar-
rangement which assists in preserving the oval
contour of the face, are passed over the top of
the ear, and looped into the fillet which binds the
head. The very becoming arrangement of the hair
in the engraving, from a portrait by Parmegianino,
(Fig. 55,) is an adaptation of the antique style,
and is remarkable for its simplicity and grace.
Not less graceful, although more ornamental, is the

8

58

THE HEAD.

arrangement of the hair in the beautiful figure
called "Titian's Daughter." Fig. 56. In both these
instances, we observe the line — if line it may be
called — where the color of the hair blends so har-
moniously with the delicate tints of the forehead.
The same arrangement of the hair round the face
may be traced in the pictures by Murillo, and other
great masters.

Sir Joshua Keynolds has frequently evinced con-
summate skill in the arrangement of the hair, so
as to show the line which divides it from the fore-
head. For some interesting remarks on this sub-
ject, we refer our readers to an " Essay on Dress,"
republished by Mr. Murray from the " Quarterly Ee-
view." Nothing can be more graceful than Sir
Joshua's mode of disposing of the hair when he
was able to follow the dictates of his own good
taste; and he deserves great credit for the skill
with which he frequently treated the enormous
head-dresses which in his time disfigured the heads
of our countrywomen. The charming figure of Lady
Harrington (Fig. 57) would have been perfect without

THE HEAD. 59

the superstructure on her beautiful head. How
stiff is the head-dress of the next figure, (Fig. 58,)
also, after Sir Joshua, when compared with the
preceding.

The graceful Spanish mantilla, to which we can
only allude, is too elegant to be overlooked: the
modification of it, which of late years has been
introduced into this country, is to be considered
rather as an ornament than as a head-covering. It
has been recently superseded by the long bows of
ribbon worn at the back of the head — a costume
borrowed from the Roman peasants. Fig. 59. The
fashion for young people to cover the hair with a
silken net, which, some centuries ago, was prevalent
both in England and in France, has been again
revived. Some of the more recent of these nets
are very elegant in form.

The hats and bonnets have, during the last few
years, been so moderate in size, and generally so
graceful in form, that we will not criticize them
more particularly. It will be sufficient to observe
that, let the brim be what shape it will, the crown

60 THE HEAD.

should be nearly of the form and size of the head.
If this principle were always kept in view, as it
should be, we should never again see the monster
hats and bonnets which, some years ago, and even
in the memory of persons now living, caricatured
the lovely forms of our countrywomen.

THE DKESS.

CHAPTEE IV.

THE DRESS.

E shall consider the dress, by which
we mean, simply, the upper garment
worn within doors, as consisting of
three parts — the sleeve, the body,
and the skirt.

The sleeve has changed its form as frequently as
any part of our habiliments : sometimes it reached
to the wrist, sometimes to a short distance below
the shoulder. Sometimes it was tight to the arm ;
sometimes it fell in voluminous folds to the hands ;
now it was widest at the top, then widest at the
bottom. To large sleeves themselves there is no
objection, in a pictorial point of view, provided
that their point of junction with the shoulder is
so conspicuous that they do not add to the ap-
parent width of the body .in this part. The lines

62 THE DRESS.

of the sleeves should be flowing ; and they are much
more graceful when they are widest in the lower
part, especially when so open as to display to ad-
vantage the beautiful form of the wrist and fore-
arm. In this way, they partake of the pyramid,
while the inelegant gigot sleeve, which for so long
a period enjoyed the favor of the ladies, presents
the form of a cone reverted, and is obviously out
of place in the human figure. When the large
sleeve, supported by canes or whalebones, forms a
continuous line with the shoulder, it gives an un-
natural width to this part of the figure — an effect
that is increased by the large collar which conceals
the point where the sleeve meets the dress. Ex-
amples of the large, open sleeve, in its extreme
character, may be studied with most advantage
in the portraits of Yandyck. Fig. 60, Lady Lucy
Percy, after Yandyck. The effect of these sleeves
is frequently improved by their being lined with
a different color, and sometimes by contrasting
the rich silk of the outer sleeve with the thin
gauze or lace which forms the immediate cov-

THE DRESS. DO

ering of the arm. The figures in the plates will
show the comparative gracefulness of two kinds
of large sleeves, namely, that which is widest at the
top, and that which is widest below. If the outline
of the central figure of our more modern group,
(Fig. 61,) — consisting of three figures, which is
copied from a French work, — were filled up with
black, a person ignorant of the fashion might, from
the great width of the shoulders, have mistaken it
for the Farnese Hercules in petticoats.

The large sleeves, tight in the upper part, and
enlarging gradually to the wrist, which are worn by
the modern Greeks, are extremely graceful. When
these are confined below the elbow, which is some-
times done for convenience, they resemble somewhat
the elbow sleeves with wide ruffles which were so
common in the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sleeves
like those now worn in Greece were fashionable in
France in the tenth century, and again about the
beginning of the sixteenth century. They were also
worn by Jeanne d'Albret, the mother of Henry IV.,
and are seen in Fig. 41.

64 THE DRESS.

A very elegant sleeve, fitting nearly close at the
shoulder, and becoming very full and long till it
falls in graceful folds almost to the feet, prevailed
in England during the time of Henry V. and VI.
Fig. 62, copied from a manuscript of the time of
Henry V., now preserved in the British Museum.
On the authority of Professor Heideloff, it is said
to have existed also in Flanders in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, and in France in the
fifteenth century. In the examples of continental
costume, the tout ensemble is graceful, and especially
the head-dress ; while in England the elegant
sleeve is accompanied with very short waists,
and with the hideous, horned head-dresses then
fashionable. The effect of these sleeves much re-
sembles that of the mantles of the present day,
and from its wide flow is only adapted for full
dress, or out-of-door costume. The sleeves worn
under these full ones were generally tight. At a
much later period, the large sleeves were made of
more moderate dimensions, both in length and
width, and a full sleeve of fine lawn or muslin,

THE DRESS. 65

fastened at the wrist with a band, and edged with
a lace ruffle, was worn beneath. This kind of
sleeve has recently been again introduced xinto
England, but has given place to another form, in
which the under sleeve of lace or muslin, being
of the same size as the upper, suffers the lower
part of the arm to be visible. The effect of this
sleeve, which is certainly becoming to a finely-
formed arm, is analogous to that of the elbow
sleeve, which, with its deep ruffles of point lace,
is frequent on the portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The slashed sleeve, criticized by Shakspeare in
the " Taming of the Shrew," was sometimes very
elegant. The form in which it appears in Fig. 63,
worn in the fifteenth century, is particularly grace-
ful. Not so, however, the lower part of the sleeve.

In the preceding remarks, we have considered
the sleeve merely in a picturesque point of view,
without reference to its convenience or incon-
venience.

The length of the waist has always been a mat-
ter of caprice. Sometimes the girdle was placed

66 THE DRESS.

nearly under the arms ; sometimes it passed to the
opposite extreme, and was suffered to fall upon the
hips. Sometimes it was drawn tightly round the
middle, when it seemed to cut the body almost in
two, like an hourglass. Judging from what we see,
we should say that this is a feat which many ladies
of the present time are endeavoring to achieve.
The first and third cases are almost equally ob-
jectionable, because they distort the figure. The
hip girdle, which is common in Greece (as shown
in Figs. 48 and 53) and Oriental countries, pre-
vailed also in England and France some centuries
ago. The miniatures of old manuscripts furnish
us with examples of long-waisted dresses fitting
closely to the person, sometimes stiffened like the
modern stays, at others yielding to the figure.
The waist of this kind of dress reached to the
hips, where it was joined to the full petticoat,
which was gathered round the top — an extremely,
ungraceful fashion. The hip girdle, properly used,
is, however, by no means inelegant. It is not at
all necessary that it should coincide with the waist

THE DRESS. 67

of the dress ; it should be merely looped or clasped
loosely round the figure, and suffered to fall to its
place by its own weight. But to enable it to do
so in a graceful manner, it is essential that the
skirt of the dress should be so united with the
body as to produce no harsh lines of separation,
or sudden changes of curvature; as, for example,
when the skirt is set on in full plaits, or gathers,
and spread over a hoop. We have before noticed,
that this point was attended to by Rubens, (Fig.
66,) by Yandyck, (Fig. 65,) by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and by the modem Greeks. We refer also to the
elegant figure 64. The most natural situation for
the girdle, or point of junction of the body with
the skirt, is somewhere between the end of the
breast bone and the last rib, as seen" in front —
a space of about three or four inches. Fashion
may dictate the exact spot, but within this space
it cannot be positively wrong. The effect is good
when the whole space is filled with a wide sash
folded round the waist, as in Sir C. Eastlake's
11 Greek Girl," or some of the graceful portraits by

00 THE DRESS.

Sir Joshua Keynolds. How much more elegant is
a sash of this description than the stiff line which
characterizes the upper part of the dress of " Sancta
Victoria." (Fig. 64.) The whalebone, or busk, is
absolutely necessary to keep the dress in its proper
place. The resemblance in form between the body
of the dress of this figure and those now or recently
in fashion cannot fail to arrest the attention of the
reader. Stiff, though, as it undoubtedly is, the whole
dress is superior to the modern in the general flow
of the lines uniting the body and skirt. Long
skirts are more graceful than short ones, and a
train of moderate length adds to the elegance of
a dress, but not to its convenience. Long dresses,
also, add to the apparent height of a figure, and
for this reason they are well adapted to short per-
sons. For the same reason, waists of moderate
length are more generally becoming than those that
are very long, because the latter, by shortening the
skirt of the dress, dimmish the apparent height.
Besides the variation in length, the skirts of
dresses have passed through every gradation of

, THE DRESS. O^

fulness. At one time, it was the fashion to slope
gradually from the waist, without gathers or plaits ;
then a little fulness was admitted at the back;
then a little at the front, also. The next step
was to carry the fulness all round the waist. In
the graceful costume of the time of Vandyck, and
even in the more stiff and formal dress delineated
in the pictures of Rubens, the skirt was united to
the body by large, flat plaits, when the fulness
expanded gradually and gracefully, and the rich
material of the dress spread in well-arranged folds
to the feet. The lines were gently undulating and
graceful, and that unnatural and clumsy contrivance
called a "bustle" — a near relation of the hoop
and fardingale — was at that time happily un-
known. This principle of uniting the skirt grad-
ually with the body of the dress is carried out to
the fullest extent by the modern Greeks. In the
figure of the peasant from the neighborhood of
Athens, (Fig. 47,) the pelisse is made without gath-
ers or plaits : the skirt, which hangs full round the
knees, is "gored" or sloped away till it fits the

70 THE DBESS.

body at the waist. The long underskirt is, as we
find from the figure of the woman of Makrinitza,
(Fig. 67,) gathered several times, so as to lie flat
to the figure, instead of being spread over the
inelegant "bustle." It is only necessary to com-
pare these graceful figures, in which due regard
has been paid to the undulating lines of the fig-
ure, with a fashionable lady of the present day,
whose " polka jacket," or whatever may. be the
name of this article of dress, is cut with vio-
lent and deep curves, to enable it to spread
itself over the bustle and prominent folds of the
dress.

Not satisfied with the bustle in the upper part
of the skirt, some ladies of the present day have
returned to the old practice of wearing hoops, to
make the dresses stand out at the base. These
are easily recognized in the street by the " swag-
ging " — no other term will exactly convey the
idea — from side to side of the hoops, an effect
which is distinctly visible as the wearer walks
along. It is difficult to imagine what there is so

THE DRESS. 71

attractive in the fardingale and hoop, that they
should have prevailed, in some form or other, for
so many years, and that they should have main-
tained their ground in spite of the cutting, though
playful, raillery of the " Spectator," and the jeers
and caricatures of less refined censors of the ec-
centricities of dress. They were not recommended
either by beauty of line or convenience, but by the
tyrant Fashion, and we owe some gratitude to
George IV., who banished the last relics of this
singular fashion from the court dress, of which,
until his time, it continued to form a part. Who
could imagine that there would be an attempt to
revive the hoop .petticoat in the nineteenth cen-
tury ? We invite our readers to contrast the lines
of the drapery in the figures after Vandyck,
(Figs. 60 and 61,) and those in the modern Greek
costume, (Figs. 51 and 54,) with that of a lady
in a hoop, after a satirical painter, Hogarth, (Fig.
68,) and two figures from a design by Jules David,
in "Le Moniteur de la Mode," a modem fash-
ionable authority in dress. (Figs. 69 and 70.)

72 THE DRESS.

There can be no doubt which is the most grace-
ful. The width of the shoulders and the tight
waist of the latter, will not escape the notice of
our readers.

THEFEET. 73

CHAPTEK V.

THE FEET.

HE same bad taste which insists
upon a small waist, let the height
and proportions of the figure be what
they will, decrees that a small foot
is essential to beauty.
Size is considered of more importance than form ;
and justly so if it is a sine qua non that the foot
must be small, because the efforts that are made to
diminish its size generally render it deformed. We
have before mentioned that to endeavor to diminish
the size of the human body in a particular part,
is like tying a string round the middle of a pillow ;
it only makes it larger at the extremities. It is
so with the waist, it is so with the foot. If it be
crippled in length, or in width across the toes, it

spreads over the instep and sides. The Italians
10

74 THE FEET.

and other nations of the south of Europe have
smaller hands and feet than the Anglo-Saxons ; and
as this fact is generally known, it is astonishing
that people of sense should persist in crippling
themselves merely for the reputation of having small
feet. Here again we have to complain of poets and
romance writers ; ladies would not have pinched
their feet into small shoes, if these worthies had
not sung the praises of " tiny feet."

"Her feet, beneath her petticoat,
Like little mice, stole in and out,
As if they feared the light."

Nor are painters — portrait painters, we mean,
and living ones too — it is needless however, to men-
tion names — entirely free from blame for thus
ministering to vanity and false taste. They have
sacrificed truth to fashion in painting the feet
smaller than they could possibly be in nature.

But it is not only with the endeavor to cripple their
dimensions that we are inclined to quarrel. We
object in toto to the shape of the shoe, which bears
but little resemblance to that of the foot. We have

THE FEET. 75

heard persons say that they could never see any
beauty in a foot. No wonder, when they saw none
but those that were deformed by corns and bunions.
How unlike is such a foot to the beautiful little —
for little it really is in this case — fat foot of a child,
before its beauty has been spoiled by shoes, or even
to those of the barefooted children one sees so fre-
quently in the street. Were it not for these oppor-
tunities of seeing nature we, in this country, should
have but little idea of the true shape of the human
foot, except what we learn from statues. According
to a recent traveller, we must go to Egypt to see
beautiful feet. It is impossible, he says, to see any
thing more exquisite than the feet and hands of
the female peasants. The same beauty is conspicu-
ous in the Hindoo women.

Let us compare now the shape of the foot with
that of the sole of a shoe. When the foot is placed
on the ground, the toes spread out, the great toe is
in a straight line with the inner side of the foot,
and there is an opening between this and the
second toe. The ancients availed themselves of

76 THE FEET.

this opening to pass through it one of the straps
that suspended the sandal.

The moderns on the contrary press the toes closely
together, in order to confine them within the limits
of the shoe ; the consequence is, that the end of the
great toe is pressed towards the others, and out of
the straight line, the joint becomes enlarged, and
thus the foundation is laid for a bunion ; while the
toes, forced one upon another, become distorted
and covered with corns.

One of the consequences of this imprisonment
of our toes is, that, from being squeezed so closely
together, they become useless. Let any one try the
experiment of walking barefooted across the room,
and while so doing look at the foot. The toes, when
unfettered by the shoes, spread out and divide from
one another, and the body rests on a wider and
firmer base. We begin to find we have some move-
ment in our toes ; yet, how feeble is their muscular
power, compared with that of persons who are unac-
customed to the use of shoes!

The Hindoo uses his toes in weaving; the Aus-

THE FEET. 77

tralian savage is as handy (if the term can be
applied to feet) with this member, as another man
is with his hands ; it is the unsuspected instrument
with which he executes his thefts. The country
boy, who runs over the roof of a house like a cat,
takes off his shoes before he attempts the hazardous
experiment ; he has a surer hold with his foot on
the smooth slates and sloping roof. The exercise of
the muscles of the foot has the effect of increasing
the power of those of the calf of the leg ; and the
thinner the sole, and the more pliant the materials
of which the shoe is made, the more the power
is developed.

Dancing masters, who habitually wear thin shoes,
have the muscles of the leg well developed, while
ploughmen, who wear shoes with soles an inch
thick, have very little calf to their leg. The French
sabot is, we consider, better than the closely fitting
shoe of our country people ; because it is so large,
that it requires some muscular exertion to keep it
in its place. We have frequently seen French boys
running in sabots, the foot rising at every step

78 THE FEET.

almost out of the unyielding wooden shoe. Wooden
clogs and pattens are as bad as the thick shoes of
the country people. When clogs are necessary, the
sole should be made of materials which will yield
to the motion of the foot. The American Indian's
moccasins are a much better covering for the foot
than our shoes.

If thick soles are objectionable by impeding the
free movement of the limb, what shall we say to the
high heel which was once so popular, and which
threatens again to come into fashion ? It is to be
hoped, however, when the effects of wearing high
heels are duly considered, that this pernicious cus-
tom will not make progress. It is well for their
poor unfortunate votaries, that the introduction of
certain fashions is gradual; that both mind and
body — perhaps we should be more correct in saying
the person of the wearer and the eye of the specta-
tor— are, step by step, prepared for the extreme point
which certain fashions attain ; they have their rise,
their culminating point, and their decline. The
attempt to exchange the short waists, worn some

THE FEET. 79

thirty or forty years ago, for the very long waists
seen during the past year, would have been unsuc-
cessful ; the transition would have been too great —
too violent ; the change was effected, but it was the
work of many years. The same thing took place
with regard to the high head-dresses which were
so deservedly ridiculed by Addison, and in an equal-
ly marked degree with respect to high heels. The
shoes in the cut, after Gainsborough, (Fig. 71,) are
fair specimens of what were in fashion in his time.
Let the reader compare the line of the sole with
that of the human foot placed, as nature intended it,
flat on the ground. The heel was in some cases
four and a half inches high; the line, therefore,
must have been in this case, a highly inclined plane,
undulating in its surface, like the " line of beauty"
of Hogarth. The position of the foot is that of a
dancer resting on the toes, excepting that the heel
is supported, and the strain over the instep and
contraction of the muscles of the back of the leg
and heel must be considerable ; so much so we are
told, that the contraction of the latter becomes

80 THE FEET.

habitual; consequently, those persons who have ac-
'customed themselves to the use of high heels, are
never afterwards able to do without them. It is said
that " pride never feels pain ; " we should think the
proverb was made for those who wear high heels,
for we are told, although we cannot speak from per-
sonal experience, that the pain on first wearing
shoes of this kind, in which the whole weight of the
body seems to thrust the toes forward into the shoe,
is excruciating ; nothing but fashion could reconcile
one to such voluntary suffering. The peas in the
shoes of the pilgrims could scarcely be more painful.

It was with some surprise that we found among
M. Stackelberg's graceful costumes of modern Greece
a pair of high-heeled shoes, (Fig. 72,) which might
rival in ugliness and inconvenience any of those
worn in England.

We have known an instance where the lady's heels
were never less than an inch and a half high. "We
were sorry to observe some of these high-heeled shoes
in the great exhibition, and still more so, to see
that shoes with heels an inch high are likely to be

THEFEET. 81

fashionable this season. Could we look forward to
this height as the limit of the fashion, we might rec-
oncile ourselves to it for a time; but, judging from
past experience, there is reason to fear that the heel
will become continually higher, until it attains the
elevation of former years. Not content with im-
prisoning our feet in tight shoes, and thereby dis-
torting their form and weakening their muscular
power, we are guilty of another violence towards
nature. Nature has made our toes to turn inwards ;
when man is left to himself the toes naturally take
this direction, though in a much less degree than in
the infant. The American Indian will trace a Euro-
pean by his footprints, which he detects by the turn-
ing out of the toes ; a lesson we are taught in our
childhood, and especially by our dancing master.
Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, " The gestures of
children, being all dictated by nature, are graceful ;
affectation and distortion come in with the dancing
master." Now, observe the consequence of turning
out the toes. The inner ankle is bent downwards

towards the ground, and the knees are drawn in-

11

82 THE FEET.

wards, producing the deformity called knock-kneed ;
thus the whole limb is distorted, and consequently
weakened ; there is always a want of muscular
power in the legs of those who turn their toes very
much outwards. It must be remarked, however,
that women, from the greater breadth of the frame
at the hips, naturally turn the toes out more than
men. In this point also, statues may be studied
with advantage. Where form only is considered, it
is generally safer to refer to examples of sculpture
than painting; because in the latter, the artist is
apt to lose sight of this primary object in his atten-
tion to color and form ; besides, it is the sculptor
only, who makes an exact image of a figure which
is equally perfect, seen from all points of view.
The painter makes only a pictorial or perspective
representation of nature, as seen from one point of
view only.

What pains we take to distort and disfigure the
beautiful form that nature has bestowed upon the
human race ! Now building a tower on the head,
then raising the heel at the expense of the toe ; at

THE FEET. 83

one time confining the body in a case of whalebone,
and compressing it at the waist like an hour glass ;
at another, surrounding it with the enormous and
ungraceful hoop, till the outline of the figure is so
altered, that a person can scarcely recognize her own
shadow as that of a human being.

84 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

CHAPTER VI.

REMAKKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

E must now offer a few brief remarks
upon certain costumes which appear
to us most worthy of our attention and
study, for their general elegance and
adaptation to the figure.
Of the modern Greek we have already spoken.
The style of dress which has been immortalized by
the pencil of Vandyck is considered among the most
elegant that has ever prevailed in this country. It
is not, however, faultless. The row of small curls
around the face, however becoming to some persons,
is somewhat formal; and although the general ar-
rangement of the hair, which preserves the natural
size and shape of the head, is more graceful than
that of the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds, we think it
would have been more pleasing had it left visible

REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES. 85

the line which divides the hair from the forehead.
With regard to the dress itself, it is apparent, in the
first place, tljat the figures are spoiled by stays ;
secondly, that the dress is cut too low in front ; and
thirdly, that the large sleeves sometimes give too
great width in front to the shoulders. These defects
are, in some degree, counterbalanced by the graceful
flow of the ample drapery, and of the large sleeves,
which are frequently widest at their lower part, and
by the gently undulating line which unites the
waist of the dress with the skirt. The Vandyck
dress, with its voluminous folds, is, however, more ap-
propriate to the inhabitants of palaces, than to the
ordinary occupants of this working-day world. The
drapery is too wide and flowing for convenience.
The annexed cut, (Fig. 73,) representing Charlotte
de la Tremouille, the celebrated Countess of Derby,
exhibits some of the defects and many of the beau--
ties of the Yandyck dress.

Lely's half-dressed figures may be passed over
without comment ; they are draped, not dressed.
Kneller's are more instructive on the subject of

86 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

costume. The dress of Queen Anne, (Fig. 74,) in
Kneller's portrait, is graceful and easy. The cos-
tume is a kind of transition between ,the Vandyck
and Reynolds style. The sleeves are smaller at the
shoulder than in the former, and larger at the lower
part than in the latter ; in fact, they resemble those
now worn by the modern Greeks. The dress is cut
higher round the bust, and is longer in the waist
than the Yandycks, while the undulating line
uniting the body and skirt is still preserved. While
such good examples were set by the painters — who
were not, however, the inventors of the fashions
they painted — it is astonishing that these graceful
styles of dress should have been superseded in real
life by the lofty head-dresses and preposterous
fashions which prevailed during the same period
and long afterwards, and which even the ironical
and severe remarks of Addison, in the " Spectator,"
were unable to banish from the circles of fashion.

Speaking of the dresses of ladies during the reigns
of James II. and William III., Mr. Planche, in his
" History of British Costumes," says, " The tower or

REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES. 87

commode was still worn, and the gowns and petti-
coats flounced and furbelowed, so that every part of
the garment was in curl ; " and a lady of fashion
" looked like one of those animals," says the " Spec-
tator," " which in the country we call a Friesland
hen." But in 1711 we find Mr. Addison remark-
ing, " The whole sex is now dwarfed and shrunk
into a race of beauties that seems almost another
species. I remember several ladies who were once
nearly seven foot high, that at present want some
inches of five. How they come to be thus curtailed
I cannot learn ; whether the whole sex be at present
under any penance which we know nothing of, or
whether they have cast their head-dresses in order
to surprise us with something in that kind which
shall be entirely new : though I find most are of
opinion they are at present like trees lopped and
pruned, that will certainly sprout up and flourish
with greater heads than before."

The costume of the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
as treated by this great artist, though less splendid,
appears to us, with the exception of the head-dress,

88 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

nearly as graceful, and far more convenient than
the Vandyck dress. It is more modest, more easy,
and better adapted to show the true form of the
shoulders, while the union of the body of the dress
with the skirt is effected in the same graceful man-
ner as in the Vandyck portraits. The materials
of the drapery in the latter is generally silks and
satins; of the former, it is frequently muslin and
stuff of a soft texture, which clings more closely
to the form. That much of the elegance of both
styles of dress is to be attributed to the skill and
good taste of the painters, is evident from an exam-
ination of portraits by contemporary artists. Much
also may be ascribed to the taste of the wearer.

There are some people who, though habited in the
best and richest clothes, never appear well dressed ;
their garments, rumpled and untidy, look as if they
had been pitched on them, like hay, with a fork ;
while others, whose dress consists of the most home-
ly materials, appear well dressed, from the neatness
and taste with which their clothes are arranged.

Many of the costumes of Gainsborough's portraits

REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

are elegant and graceful, with the frequent excep-
tion of the extravagant head-dress and the high-
heeled shoes. The easy and very pleasing figure,
(Fig. 75,) after this accomplished artist, is not
exempt from the above defects.

In our next illustration, (Fig. 76,) Gainsborough
has not been so happy. The lady is almost. lost in
her voluminous and fluttering drapery, and the dis-
hevelled hair and the enormous hat give to the
figure much of the appearance of a caricature.

Leaving now the caprices of fashion, we must
notice a class of persons who, from a religious mo-
tive, have resisted for two hundred years the tyran-
ny of fashion, and, until recently, have transmitted
the same form of dress from mother to daughter for
nearly the same period of years. The ladies of the
Society of Friends, or, as they are usually called,
" Quakers," are still distinguished by the simplicity
and neatness of their dress — the quiet drabs and
browns of which frequently contrast with the rich-
ness of the material — and by the absence of all

ornament and frippery. Every part of their dress
12

90 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

is useful and convenient; it has neither frills, nor
flounces, nor trimmings to carry the dirt and get
shabby before the dress itself, nor wide sleeves to
dip in the plates and lap up the gravy vand sauces,
nor artificial flowers, nor bows of ribbons. The dress
is long enough for decency, but not so long as to
sweep the streetsrasx many dresses and shawls are
daily seen to do. Some few years back the Quaker
ladies might have been reproached with adhering to
the letter, while they rejected the spirit, of their code
of dress by adhering too literally to the costume
handed down to them. The crowns of their caps
were formerly made very high, and for this reason
it was necessary that the crowns of their bonnets
should be high enough to admit the cap crown ;
hence the peculiarly ugly and remarkable form of
this part of the dress. The crown of the cap has,
however, recently been lowered, and the Quaker
ladies, with much good sense, have not only modi-
fied the form of their bonnets, but have also adopt-
ed the straw and drawn silk bonnet in their most
simple forms. In the style of their dress, also, they

REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES. 91

occasionally approach so near the fashions generally
worn, that they are no longer distinguishable by
the singularity of their dress, but by its simplicity
and chasteness.

We venture now to devote a few words to the
Bloomer costume, (Fig. 77,) although we are aware
that we are treading on tender ground, especially as
the costume involves a sudden and complete change
in the dress. Independently of its merits or de*
merits, there are several reasons why it did not
succeed in this country. In the first place, as we
have before observed, it originated in America, and
was attempted to be introduced through the middle
ranks. In the second place, the change which it
endeavored to effect was too sudden. Had the
alteration commenced with the higher classes, and
the change been effected gradually, its success might
possibly have been different. Thirdly, the large
hat, so well adapted to the burning sun of America,
was unnecessary, and remarkable when forming a
part of the costume of adult ladies in this country,
although we have seen that hats quite as large were

92 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

worn during the time of Gainsborough. Another
reason for the ill success of the Bloomer costume
is to be found in the glaring and frequently ill-
assorted colors of the prints of it, which were every
where exposed in the shop windows. By many
sober-minded persons, the large hat and glaring
colors were looked upon as integral parts of the
costume. The numerous caricatures also, and the
injudicious attempts to make it popular by getting
lip " Bloomer Balls," contributed to render the cos-
tume ridiculous and unpopular.

Setting aside the hat, the distinguishing charac-
teristics of the costume are the short dress, and
a polka jacket fitting the body at the throat and
shoulders, and confined at the waist by a silken
sash, and the trousers fastened by a band round the
ankle, and finished off with a frill. On the score of
modesty there can be no objection to the dress, since
the whole of the body is covered. On the ground
of convenience it recommends itself to those who,
having the superintendence of a family, are obliged
frequently to go up and down stairs, on which

REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES. 93

occasions it is always necessary to raise the dress
before or behind, according to circumstances. The
objection to the trousers is not to this article of
dress being worn, since that is a general practice,
but to their being seen. Yet we suspect few ladies
would object on this account to appear at a fancy
ball in the Turkish costume.

The disadvantages of the dress are its novelty —
for we seldom like a fashion to which we are en-
tirely unaccustomed — and the exposure which it
involves of the foot, the shape of which, in this
country, is so frequently distorted by wearing tight
shoes of a different shape from the foot. The short
dress is objectionable in another point of view,
because, as short petticoats diminish the apparent
height of the person, none but those who possess
tall and elegant figures will look well in this cos-
tume ; and appearance is generally suffered to pre-
vail over utility and convenience. If to the Bloomer
costume had been added the long under-dress of the
Greek wromen, or had the trousers been as full as
those worn by the Turkish and East Indian women,

94 REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES.

the general effect of the dress would have been much
more elegant, although perhaps less useful. Setting
aside all considerations of fashion, as we always do
in looking at the fashions which are gone by, it was
impossible for any person to deny that the Bloomer
costume was by far the most elegant, the most
modest, and the most convenient.

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 95

CHAPTER VII.

ORNAMENT — ECONOMY.

although not an integral
part of dress, is so intimately con-
nected with it, that we must devote a
few words to the subject.

Under the general term of ornament
we shall include bows of ribbon, artificial flowers.
feathers, jewels, lace, fringes, and trimmings of all
kinds. Some of these articles appear to be suited
to one period of life, some to another. Jewels, for
instance, though suitable for middle age, seem mis-
placed on youth, which should always be character-
ized by simplicity of apparel ; while flowers, which
are so peculiarly adapted to youth, are unbecoming
to those advanced in years ; in the latter case there
is contrast without harmony ; it is like uniting May
with December.

96 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

The great principle to be observed with regard
to ornament is, that it should be appropriate, and
appear designed to answer some useful purpose.
A brooch, or a bow of ribbon, for instance, should
fasten some part of the dress ; a gold chain should
support a watch or an eyeglass. Trimmings are
useful to mark the borders or edges of the different
parts of the dress ; and in this light they add to
the variety, while by their repetition they conduce
to the regularity of the ornamentation.

Ornament is so much a matter of fashion, that
beyond the above remarks it scarcely conies within
the scope of our subject. There is one point, how-
ever, to which the present encouragement of works
of design induces us to draw the attention of our
readers. We have already borrowed from the beau-
tiful work of M. de Stackelberg, some of the female
figures in illustration of our views with regard to
dress ; we have now to call the attention of our
readers to the patterns embroidered on the dresses.
These are mostly of classic origin, and prove that
the descendants of the Greeks have still sufficient

OKNAMENT ECONOMY. 97

good taste to, appreciate and adopt the designs of
their glorious ancestors. The figures in the plates
being too small to show the patterns, we have en-
larged some of them from the original work, in order
to show the style of design still cultivated among
the peasants of Greece, and also because we think
the designs may be applied to other materials be-
sides dress. Some of them appear not inappro-
priate to iron work. When will our people be
able to show designs of such elegance ? Fig. 78 is
an enlarged copy of the embroidery on the robe of
the peasant from the environs of Athens, (Fig. 49.)
It extends, as will be seen, half way up the skirt.
Fig. 79 is from the sleeve of the same dress. Fig.
80 is the pattern embroidered on the sleeve of the
pelisse. Fig. 81 is the pattern from the waist to
the hem of the skirt of an Athenian peasant's dress,
(Fig. 51.) Fig. 82 is the border to the shawl; Fig.
83, the sleeve of the last-mentioned dress ; Fig. 84,
the design on the apron of the Arcadian peasant,
(Fig. 48.) Fig. 85 is the border of the same dress.
Fig. 86 is the pattern round the hem of the long

13

y8 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

under-dress of the Athenian peasant, (Fig. 51;)
Fig. 87, the border of a shawl, or something of the
kind. Fig. 88 is another example. The brocade
dress of Sancta Victoria (Fig. 64) offers a striking
contrast to the simple elegance of the Greek de-
signs. It is too large for the purpose to which it
is employed, and not sufficiently distinct; and,
although it possesses much variety, it is deficient
in regularity ; and one of the elements of beauty in
ornamental design, namely, repetition, appears to
be entirely wanting. In these respects, the superi-
ority of the Greek designs is immediately apparent.
They unite at once symmetry with regularity, and
variety with repetition.

The examination of these designs suggests the
reflection that when we have once attained a form
of dress which combines ease and elegance with
convenience, we should tax our ingenuity in invent-
ing ornamental designs for decorating it, rather
than seek to discover novel forms of dress.

The endless variety of textile fabrics which our
manufacturers are constantly producing, the variety,

OENAMENT ECONOMY. 99

also, in the colors, will, with the embroidery pat-
terns issued by our schools of design, suffice to
appease the constant demand for novelty, which
exists in an improving country, without changing
the form of our costume, unless to adopt others
which reason and common sense point out as
superior to that in use. We are told to try all
things, and to hold fast to that which is good.
The maxim is applicable to dress as well as to
morals.

The subject of economy in dress, an essential
object with many persons, now claims our attention.
We venture to offer a few remarks 'on this head.
Our first recommendation is to have but few dresses
at a time, and those extremely good. If we have
but few dresses, we wear them, and wear them out
while they are in fashion ; but if we have many
dresses at once, some of them become quite old-
fashioned before we have done with them. If we
are rich enough to afford the sacrifice, the old-
fashioned dress is got rid of; if not, we must be
content to appear in a fashion that has long been

100 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

superseded; and we look as if we had come out
of the tombs, or as if one of our ancestors had
stepped out of her picture frame, and again walked
the earth.

As to the economy of selecting the best materials
for dresses, we argue thus : Every dress must be
lined and made up, and we pay as much for making
and lining an inferior article, as we do for one of
the best quality. Now, a good silk or merino will
wear out two bad ones ; therefore, one good dress,
lining and making, will cost less than two inferior
ones, with the expenses of lining and making them.
In point of appearance, also, there is no comparison
between the two ; the good dress will look well to
the last, while one of inferior quality will soon look
shabby. When a good silk dress has become too
shabby to be worn longer as a dress, it becomes,
when cut up, useful for a variety of purposes ;
whereas an inferior silk, or one purely ornamental,
is, when left off, good for nothing.

Plain dresses, that is to say, those of a single
color, and without a pattern, are more economical

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 101

as well as more quiet in their appearance than those
of various colors. They are also generally less ex-
pensive, because something is always paid for the
novelty of the fashion ; besides, colored and figured
dresses bear the date on the face of them, as plainly
as if it was there in printed characters. The ages
of dress fabrics are known by the pattern ; therefore
dresses of this description should be put on as soon
as purchased, and worn out at once, or they will
appear old-fashioned. There is another reason why
vari-colored dresses are less economical than others.
Where there are several colors, they may not all
be equally fast, and if only one of them fades the
dress will lose its beauty. Trimmings are not
economical; besides their cost in the first in-
stance, they become shabby before the dress, and
if removed, they generally leave a mark where
they have been, and so spoil the appearance of the
dress.

Dresses made of one kind of material only, are
more durable than those composed of two; as, for
instance, of cotton and silk, of cotton and worsted,

102 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

or of silk and worsted. When the silk is merely
thrown on the face of the material, it soon wears off.
This is also the case in those woollen or cotton
goods which have a silken stripe.

The question of economy also extends to colors,
some of which are much more durable than others.
For this we can give no rule, except that drabs and
other " Quaker colors," as they are frequently called,
are amongst the most permanent of all colors. For
other colors we must take the word of the draper.
There is no doubt, however, but that the most
durable colors are the cheapest in the end. In
the selection of colors, the expense is not always
a criterion ; something must be paid for fashion
and novelty, and perhaps for the cost of the dye.
The newest and most expensive colors are not
always those which last the longest.

It is not economical to have the dresses made
in the extremity of the fashion, because such soon
become remarkable ; but the fashions should be
followed at such a distance, that the wearer may
not attract the epithet of old-fashioned.

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 103

"We conclude this part of our subject with a few
suggestions relative to the selection of different
styles and materials of dress.

The style of dress should be adapted to the age
of the wearer. As a general rule, we should say
that in youth the dress should be simple and ele-
gant, the ornaments being flowers. In middle age,
the dress may be of rich materials, and more splen-
did in its character; jewels are the appropriate
ornaments. In the decline of life, the materials of
which the dress is composed may be equally rich,
but with less vivacious colors: the tertiaries and
broken colors are particularly suitable, and the
character of the whole costume should be quiet,
simple, and dignified. The French, whose taste in
dress is so far in advance of our own, say, that
ladies who are cinquante ans sonnes, should neither
wear gay colors, nor dresses of. slight materials,
flowers, feathers, or much jewelry; that they should
cover their hair, wear high dresses and long sleeves.

Tall ladies may wear flounces and tucks, but they
are less appropriate for short persons, As a gen-

104 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

eral rule, vertical stripes make persons appear taller
than they really are, but horizontal stripes have a
contrary effect. The latter, Mr. Eedgrave says, are
not admissible in garment fabrics, " since, crossing
the person, the pattern quarrels with all the mo-
tions of the human figure, as well as with the form
of the long folds in the skirts of the garment.
For this reason," he continues, "large and pro-
nounced checks, however fashionable, are often in
bad taste, and interfere with the graceful arrange-
ment of the drapery." Is it to show their entire
contempt for the~ principles of design that our man-
ufacturers introduced last year not only horizontal
stripes of conspicuous colors, but checks and plaids
of immense size, as autumnal fashions for dress
fabrics ? We had hoped that the ladies would have
shown the correctness of their taste by their dis
approval of these unbecoming designs, but the
prevalence of the fashion at the present time is
another evidence of the triumph of fashion over
good taste.

A white and light-colored dress makes the wearers

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 105

appear larger, while a black or dark dress causes
them to appear smaller than they actually are. A
judicious person will, therefore, avail herself of
these known effects, by adopting the style of dress
most suitable to her stature.

To sum up, in a few words, our impressions
on this subject, we should say that the best style
of dress is that which, being exactly adapted to the
climate and the individual, is at once modest, quiet,
and retiring, harmonious in color and decoration,
and of good materials.

We conclude with the following admirable extract
from Tobin's "Honeymoon," which we earnestly
recommend to the attention of our fair readers.

I'll have no glittering gewgaws stuck about you
To stretch the gaping eyes of idiot wonder,
And make men stare upon a piece of earth,
As on the star-wrought firmament — no feathers,
To wave as streamers to your vanity ;
Nor cumbrous silk, that with its rustling sound
Makes proud the flesh that bears it. She's adorned
Amply, that in her husband's eye looks lovely —
The truest mirror that an honest wife
Can see her beauty in!
14

106 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

Julia. I shall observe, sir.

Duke. I should like well to see you in the dress I last
presented you.

Julia. The blue one, sir?

Duke. No, love, — the white. Thus modestly attired,
A half-blown rose stuck in thy braided hair,
"With no more diamonds than those eyes are made of,
No deeper rubies than compose thy lips,
Nor pearls more precious than inhabit them,
With the pure red and white, which that same hand
Which blends the rainbow, mingles in thy cheeks ;
This well-proportioned form (think not I flatter)
In graceful motion to harmonious sounds,
And thy free tresses dancing in the wind,
Thou'lt fix as much observance, as chaste dames
Can meet without a blush.

We look forward hopefully to a day when art-
education will be extended to all ranks; when a
knowledge of the beautiful will be added to that
of the useful ; when good taste, based upon real
knowledge and common sense, will dictate our
fashions in dress as in other things. We have
schools of art to reform our taste in pottery, hard-
ware, and textile fabrics, not to speak of the higher
walks of art, painting, sculpture, and architecture.
The handle of a jug, the stem of a wine glass, the

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 107

design for dress silks or lace veils, will form the
subjects of lectures to the students of the various
schools of design ; disquisitions are written on the
important question whether the ornamental designs
should represent the real form of objects, or only
give a conventional representation of them; while
the study of the human figure, the masterpiece of
creation, is totally neglected, except by painters and
sculptors. We hope that the study of form will be
more extended, that it will be universal, that it
will, in fact, enter into the general scheme of
education, and that we shall hereafter see as much
pains bestowed in improving by appropriate cos-
tume the figure which nature has given us, as we
do now in distorting it by tight stays, narrow and
high-heeled shoes, and all the other deformities and
eccentricities of that many-faced monster, fashion.
The economy of the frame, and the means of pre-
serving it in health and beauty, should form an
integral part of education. There can be no true
beauty without health ; and how can we hope to
secure health if we are ignorant of the means of

108 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

promoting it, or if we violate its precepts by adopt-
ing absurd and pernicious fashions? Surely it is
not too much to hope that dressmakers will here-
after attend the schools of design, to study the
human form, and thence learn to appreciate its
beauties, and to clothe it with appropriate dress,
calculated to display its beauties to the greatest ad-
vantage, and to conceal its defects — the latter with
the reservation we have already noticed. We hope,
also, that the shoemaker will learn to model the
shoe upon the true form of the foot.

Manufacturers are now convinced of the impor-
tance and utility of schools of design ; and whether
the article hereafter to be produced be a cup and
saucer, a fender, a pattern for a dress, or for furni-
ture, for a service of plate or a diamond tiara, it
is thought proper that the pupil, as a preliminary
course that cannot be dispensed with, should com-
mence with the study of the human figure. Yet is
not dress an art-manufacture as well as a cup and
saucer, or a teaboard? Is there less skill and
talent, less taste required to clothe the form which

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 109

we are told is made after God's own image, than to
furnish an apartment ? Why should not dressmakers
and tailors attend the schools of design, as well as
those artisans who are intended to be employed in
what are called art-manufactures ? Why should not
shoemakers be taught the shape and movements
of the foot ? If this were the case, we are satisfied
that an immediate and permanent improvement
would be the consequence in our style of dress.
Would any person acquainted with the human
form, and especially with the little round form of
an infant, have sent to the Great Exhibition an
infant's robe shaped like that in our cut. Fig. 89.
An infant with a waist "growing fine by degrees
and beautifully less" ! — was there ever such a de-
formity ? We believe that many portrait painters
stipulate that they should be allowed to dictate
the dress, at least as regards the arrangement of
the colors, of their sitters ; the reason of this is, that
the painter's selection of dress and color is based
upon the study of the figure and complexion of the
individual, or the knowledge of the effects of con-

110 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

trast and harmony of lines, tissues, and colors,
while the models which are presented for his imi-
tation too frequently offer to his view a style of
dress, both as regards form and color, which set
the rules of harmony at defiance. Now, only
suppose that the dressmaker had the painter's
knowledge of form and harmony of lines and colors,
what a revolution would take place in dress ? We
should no longer see the tall and the short, the
slender and the stout, the brown and the fair, the
old and the young, dressed alike, but the dress
would be adapted to the individual ; and we believe
that, were the plan of study we recommend generally
adopted, this purpose might always be effected
without the sacrifice of what is now the grand de-
sideratum in dress — novelty.

The reasons why the art of dressmaking has not
hitherto received the attention which it deserves,
are to be sought for in the constitution of society.
The branches of manufacture which require a
knowledge of design, such as calico printing, silk
and ribbon weaving, porcelain and pottery, and

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. HI

hardware manufactures, are conducted on a large
scale by men of wealth and talent, who, if they
. would compete successfully with rival manufacturers,
find it necessary to study and apply to their own
business all the improvements in science, with
which their intercourse with society gives them an
opportunity of becoming acquainted. It is quite
otherwise with dressmaking. A woman is at the
head of every establishment of this kind, a woman
generally of limited education and attainments,
from whom cannot be expected either liberality of
sentiment or enlarged views, but who possibly
possesses some tact and discrimination of character,
which enables her to exercise a kind of dictatorial
power in matters of dress over her customers;
these customers are scarcely better informed on
the subject than herself.

The early life of the dressmaker is spent in a
daily routine of labor with the needle, and when
she becomes a mistress in her turn, she exacts from
her assistants the same amount of daily labor that
was formerly expected from herself. Work, work,

112 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

work with the needle from almost childhood, in the
same close room from morning to night, and not
unfrequently from night to morning also, is the
everlasting routine of the monotonous life of the
dressmakers. They are working for bread, and have
no leisure to attend to the improvement of the mind,
and the want of this mental cultivation is apparent
in the articles they produce by their labor. When
one of the young women who attends these estab-
lishments to learn the trade, thinks she has had
sufficient experience, she leaves the large establish-
ment, and sets up in business on her own account.
In this new situation she works equally hard, and
has, therefore, no time for improving her mind or
taste. Of the want of this, however, she is not
sensible, because she can purchase for a trifle all
the newest patterns, and the thought never enters
her poor little head, that the same fashion may
not suit all her customers. This defective edu-
cation of the dressmakers, or rather their want of
knowledge of the human form, is one of the great
causes of the prevalence of the old fashion of tight

OKNAMENT ECONOMY. 113

lacing ; it is so much easier to make a closely-
fitting body suit over a tight stay than it is on
the pliant and yielding natural form, in which, if
one part be drawn a little too tight, or the con-
trary, the body of the dress is thrown out of shape.
Supposing, on the other hand, the fit to be exact,
it is so difficult to keep such a tight-fitting body
in its place on the figure without securing its form
by whalebones, that it is in vain to expect the stays
to become obsolete until the tight-fitting bodice
is also given up.

This will never take place until not only the
ladies who are to be clothed, but the dressmakers,
shall make the human form their study, and direct
their efforts to set off their natural advantages by
attending to the points which are their character-
istic beauties. A long and delicate throat, falling
shoulders, not too wide from point to point, a flat
back, round chest, wide hips — these are the points
which should be developed by the dress. Whence
it follows, that every article of dress which shortens
the throat, adds height or width to the shoulders,

15

114 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

roundness to the back, or flatness to the chest,
must be radically wrong in principle, and unpleas-
ant and repulsive in effect. In the same manner,
whatever kind of dress adds to the height of a figure
already too tall and thin, or detracts from the ap-
parent height of the short and stout, must be
avoided. These things should form the study of
the dressmaker.

As society is now constituted, however, the dress-
maker has not, as we have already observed, leisure
to devote to studies of the necessity and impor-
tance of which she is still ignorant. The reform
must be begun by the ladies themselves. They
must acquire a knowledge of form, and of the
principles of beauty and harmony, and so exercise
a controlling influence over the dressmakers. By
this means, a better taste will be created, and the
dressmakers will at length discover their deficiency
in certain guiding principles, and will be driven at
last to resort to similar studies. But in this case
a startling difficulty presents itself — the poor dress-
maker is at present over- worked : how can she find

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 115

leisure to attend the schools of design, or even pur-
sue, if she had the ability, the necessary studies at
home ? A girl is apprenticed to the trade at the
age of thirteen or fourteen ; she works at it all her
life, rising early, and late taking rest ; and what is
the remuneration of her daily toil of twelve hours ?
Eighteen pence, or at most two shillings a day,
with her board ! * As she reckons the value of the
latter at a shilling, it follows, that the earnings
of a dressmaker, in the best period of her life, who
goes out to work, could not exceed fifteen shillings,
or, at the most, eighteen shillings a week, if she
did not — at the hazard of her health, which, in-
deed, is frequently sacrificed — work at home be-
fore she begins, and after she has finished, her
day's work abroad. The carpenter or house painter
does not work harder, or bring to bear on his em-
ployment greater knowledge, than the poor dress-
maker; yet he has four shillings sixpence a day,

* Of course it will ' be understood that these are the English
prices ; but does not the comparison hold good between male and
female labor in this country ?

116 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

without his board, while she has only what is
equivalent to two shillings sixpence, or three shil-
lings. What reason can be assigned why a wo-
man's work, if equally well done, should not be
as well paid as that of a man? A satisfactory
reason has yet to be given ; the fact, however, is
indisputable, that women are not in general so well
paid for their labor as men.

Although these remarks arose naturally out of our
subject, we must not digress too far. To return to
the dressmaker. If the hours of labor of these white
slaves who toil in the dressmaking establishments
were limited to ten or twelve hours, as in large fac-
tories, two consequences would follow : the first is,
that more hands would be employed, and the sec-
ond, that the young women would have time to
attend schools, and improve their minds. If they
could also attend occasional lectures on the figure,
and on the harmony of color and costume with ref-
erence to dress, the best effects would follow.

Those dressmakers who are rich enough, and, we
may add, many ladies also, take in some book of

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 117

fashions with colored illustrations, and from this
they imbibe their notions of beauty of form and
elegance of costume. How is it possible, we would
ask, for either the dressmaker or the ladies who
employ them to acquire just ideas of form, or of
suitable costume, when their eyes , are accustomed
only to behold such deformed and unnatural rep-
resentations of the human figure as those in the
accompanying plates ? Figs. 90 and 91. Is it any
wonder that small waists should be admired, when
the books which aspire to be the handmaids and
mirrors of fashion present to their readers such
libels on beauty of form ? Now, suppose that lith-
ographed drawings of costumes issued occasionally
from the schools of design, is it not reasonable to
suppose that, with the knowledge which the stu-
dents have acquired of the human figure, the illus-
trations would be more accurate imitations of na-
ture ? An eye accustomed to the study of nature
can scarcely bear to contemplate, much less to im-
itate, the monsters of a depraved taste which dis-
grace the different publications that aspire to make

118 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

known the newest fashions. Many of the illustra-
tions of these publications, although ill propor-
tioned, are executed in a certain stylish manner
which takes with the uneducated, and the mechan-
ical execution of the figures is also good. This,
however, is so far from being an advantage, that it
only renders them the more dangerous ; like the
song of the siren, they lead only to evil.

"We are told that many of the first Parisian artists
derive a considerable part of their income from
drawing the figures in the French books of fash-
ion and costume, and that, in the early part
of his career, Horace Vernet, the president of
the French Academy, did not disdain to employ
his talents in this way. We cannot, however, refrain
from expressing our surprise and honest indigna-
tion that artists of eminence, especially those
who, like the French school, have a reputation for
correct drawing, and who must, therefore, be so well
acquainted with the actual as well as ideal propor-
tions of the female figure, should so prostitute their
talents as to employ them in delineating the ill-

ORNAMENT ECONOMY. 119

proportioned figures which appear in books of
fashions. It is no small aggravation of their of-
fence, in our eyes, that the figures should be drawn
in such graceful positions, and with the exception
of the defective proportions, with so much skill.
These beauties only make them more dangerous;
the goodness of their execution misleads the unfor-
tunate victims of their fascination. What young
lady, unacquainted with the proportions of the
figure, could look on these prints of costumes and
go away without the belief that a small waist and
foot were essential elements of beauty ? So she
goes home from her dressmaker's, looks in the glass,
and not finding her own waist and foot as small
as those in the books of fashion, gives her stay-lace
an extra tightening pull, and, regardless of corns,
squeezes her feet into tight shoes, which makes the
instep appear swollen. Both the figures in our last
plates were originally drawn and engraved by
Jules David, and Reville, in " Le Moniteur de la
Mode" which is published at Paris, London, New
York, and St. Petersburg. Let our readers look at

120 ORNAMENT ECONOMY.

these figures, and say whether the most determined
votary of tight lacing ever succeeded in compressing
her waist into the proportions represented in these
figures.

We should like to hear that lectures were given
occasionally, by a lady in the female school of de-
sign, on the subjects of form, and of dress in its
adaptation to form and to harmony of color. We
have no doubt that a lady competent to deliver
these lectures will readily be found. After a course
of these lectures, we do not hesitate to predict that
illustrations of fashion emanating from this source
would be, in point of taste, every thing that could
be desired. We venture to think that the students
of the female school may be as well and as profit-
ably employed in designing costumes, as in invent-
ing patterns for cups and saucers or borders for
veils. Until some course, of the nature we have
indicated, is adopted, we cannot hope for any per-
manent improvement in our costume.

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 121

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.
BY MRS. MERRIFIELD.

AN any good and sufficient reason be
given, said a friend, as we were con-
templating the happy faces and lively
gestures of a party of boys and girls,
who, one cold, frosty evening, were
playing at the old game called " I sent a letter to
my love," why, when one of the party picks up the
ball which another has thrown down, the boys
always stoop, while the girls (with the exception
of one little rosy girl, who is active and supple as
the boys) invariably drop on one knee ? At first
we almost fancied this must be" a new way of play-
ing the game ; but when one of the seniors threw a
handful of bonbons among the children, and in their
eager scramble to pick up the tempting sweets we

16

observed the same respective actions, namely, that
the boys stooped, while the girls knelt on one knee,
we began to meditate on the cause of this diversity
of action. A little more observation convinced us
that the girls, though equally lively, were less free
in their movement than the boys. We observed,
also, that eveiy now and then some of the girls
stopped and hitched their clothes, (which appeared
almost in danger of falling off, ) with an awkward
movement, first upon one shoulder, and then on
the other, while others jerked one shoulder upwards,
which caused the sleeve on that side to sink nearly
to the elbow. "Now," we exclaimed, "we can
solve the problem : the different actions are caused
by the difference in the dress ; let us see where the
difference lies." So we continued our observations,
and soon found that the boys were all dressed in
high dresses up to the throat, while the bands
which encircled their waists were so loose as merely
to keep the dress in its place without confining it ;
in short, that their dress did not offer the slightest
restraint on their freedom of movement. It was

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 123

otherwise with the girls, excepting the little rosy
girl before mentioned : they were dressed in low
dresses, and their shoulders were so bare that we
involuntarily thought of a caterpillar casting its
skin, and began to fear, from the uneasy move-
ment of their shoulders, that the same thing
might happen to the children, when we observed
that this was rendered impossible by the tightness
of the clothes about the waist. The mystery was
now cleared up ; the tightness of the dress at the
waist, while it prevented the children from " slip-
ping shell," as it were, entirely destroyed their free-
dom of movement. We could not help contrasting
these poor girls — dressed in the very pink of fash-
ion, with their bare shoulders, compressed waists,
and delicate appearance — with the rosy face, quick
and active movement, and thick waist of the little girl
before alluded to ; and we sighed as we thought that,
induced by the culpable folly or ignorance of parents,

"Pale decay

Would steal before the steps of time,
And snatch 'their' bloom away."

124 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

"Whence does it arise," continued my friend,
" that the boys are clad in warm dresses, suited
to the season, their chests and arms protected
from the wintry air, and their feet incased in
woollen stockings, while the girls are suffered to
shiver at Christmas in muslin dresses, with bare
necks and arms, and silk or thin cotton stock-
ings ? Are they less susceptible of cold than boys ?
Is their circulation less languid, that their clothes
are so much thinner? Are their figures better,
their health stronger, for the compression of their
tender bodies by stays?" At this point our cogi-
tations were stopped by a summons to supper;
and after supper, hats and shawls were produced,
and we took our leave. Our young companions,
fatigued with their exertions, soon fell asleep in
the corners of the carriage, and we were left to our
own meditations. Our thoughts once more reverted
to the subject of children's dress, and gradually
assumed the following form: —

The subject of dress, which is so important both
to our health and comfort, is usually treated as a

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DEESS. 125

matter of fashion, and is regulated partly by indi-
vidual fancy, partly by the dictates of the modiste.
Fashion, as it applies to the costume of men, is,
with the exception of the hat, controlled by con-
venience and common sense ; but with regard to
the dress of women and children, neither of these
considerations has any weight. The most extrava-
gant and bizarre arrangements of form and colors
will meet with admirers and imitators, provided
they emanate from a fashionable source. The dress
of children, especially, appears to be exceedingly
fantastic in its character, and, with regard to that
of girls, is ill adapted to secure the enjoyment of
health and the perfect development of the figure.
We venture to offer a few remarks on this highly
interesting theme.

In discussing the subject of ' children's dress,
several points present themselves for our consider-
ation, namely, first, the adaptation of the costume
to the climate, the movements, and healthful devel-
opment of the figure; and secondly, the general
elegance of the habiliments, the harmony of the

126 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

colors, and their special adaptation to the age and .
individual characteristics of children. The first
are essential conditions ; the latter, though too fre-
quently treated as the most important, may, in
comparison with the first, be deemed non-essentials.
We shall remark on these subjects in the before-
mentioned order.

With regard to the adaptation of the dress of
children to the climate, this appears so evident that
any observations upon it might be deemed almost
unnecessary ; yet, in practice, how little is it under-
stood ! The great object in view in regulating the
warmth of the clothing, is to guard the wearer from
the vicissitudes of the climate, and to equalize the
circulation, which is accelerated by heat and re-
tarded by cold. Children are habitually full of
activity, which quickens the circulation and pro-
duces a determination to the skin ; in other words,
causes some degree of perspiration, and if this per-
spiration be suddenly checked by the application
of cold, illness in some shape or other is induced.
In order to lessen this risk, the clothing should be

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 127

light and warm ; sufficiently warm to shield the
child from the effects o-T cold, but not to elevate
greatly the temperature of the body. The latter
would only render the child more susceptible of
cold. Children are, by some over-careful but not
judicious parents, so burdened with clothes that
one is surprised to find they can move under the
vast encumbrance.

There is much diversity of opinion among medical
men as to the propriety of wearing flannel next to
the skin. The arguments appear to be in favor
of the practice, provided that the thickness of the
flannel be proportioned to the seasons of the year.
In winter it should be thick ; in summer it can
scarcely be too thin. Flannel is preferable to linen
or calico, because, although it may be saturated
with perspiration, it never strikes cold to the skin ;
whereas linen, under similar circumstances, always
does, and the sudden application of cold to the
skin, when warmed by exercise, checks the circu-
lation, and causes illness.

Parents are frequently guilty of much inconsist-

128 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS'.

ency in the clothing of their children. The child,
perhaps, has delicate lungs ; it must, therefore, have
warm clothing ; so garment after garment, made
fashionably, that is to say, very full and very short, is
heaped one upon the other over the chest and upper
part of the body, until the poor child can scarcely
move under the heavy burden with which, with
mistaken kindness, it has been laden, while the
lower limbs, in which the circulation is most lan-
guid, and which require to be protected as well as
the chest, are frequently exposed to the air, and the
foot is covered with a shoe which is too thin to
keep it dry. The consequence of this arrangement
is, that the child, oppressed by the weight of its
clothing, becomes overheated, and being cooled too
hastily, catches severe colds.

The habiliments of children cannot be too light
in weight ; and this is perfectly consistent with a
proper degree of warmth. Those parents are greatly
to blame who, influenced only by appearance, and
the wish to dress their children fashionably, add to

the weight of their clothing by introducing so much
unnecessary fulness into the skirts.

The next point for consideration, and which is
not inferior in importance to the last, is the adapta-
tion of the dress to the movements and healthful
development of the figure ; and, strange to say, this
point is almost entirely overlooked by those who
have the management and control of children, al-
though a few honest and sensible medical men have
raised their warning voices against the system now
pursued.

We hear every where of the march of intellect;
we are perpetually told that the schoolmaster is
abroad ; lessons and masters of all kinds are en-
deavoring

" To teach the young idea how to shoot ; "

while the little delicate frame which is to bear all
this mental labor is left to the ignorance of moth-
ers, and nurses, and the tender mercies of the dress-
maker, who seems to think that the human frame
is as easily moulded into an imitation of those

17

130 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

libels on humanity represented in books of fash-
ionable costume as the materials with which she
works. Would that we had powers of persuasion
to convince our readers how greatly these figures,
with their excessively-small waists, hands and feet,
deviate from the actual proportions of well-formed
women! Unfortunately, the pinched waist is too
common in real life for those unacquainted with
the proportions of the figure not to think it one
of the essential elements of beauty. So far, how-
ever, . from being a beauty, a small waist is an
actual blemish. Never, until the economy of the
human frame is studied by all classes, and a knowl-
edge of the principles on which its beauties depend
is disseminated among all ranks, can we hope that
just ideas will be entertained on this subject.

If there is one thing in which the schoolmaster
or the reformer is more wanted than in another,
it is in our dress. From our birth to our death
we are the slaves of fashion, of prejudice, and of
circumstances. The tender, unresisting infant, the
delicate girl, the mature woman, alike suffer from

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 131

these evil influences; some fall victims to them,
others suffer during life. Let us consider the dress
of an infant. Here, however, it must be acknowl-
edged that of late years much improvement has
taken place in some respects, although much still
remains to be done. Caps, with their trimming
of three or four rows of lace, and large cockades
which rivalled in size the dear little round face of
the child, are discontinued almost entirely within
doors, though the poor child is still almost over-
whelmed with cap, hat, and feathers, in its daily
airings, the additional weight which its poor neck
has to sustain never once entering into the calcu-
lation of its mother and nurse. Fine feathers, it is
said, make fine birds. This may be true with
respect to the feathered creation, but it is not so
with regard to children. They suffer from the mis-
placed finery, and from the undue heat of the head.
And yet the head has, generally speaking, been
better treated by us than the rest of the body.
When we look back upon the history of costume,
it really seems as if men — or women, shall we

132 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

say? — had exercised their ingenuity in torturing
the human frame, and destroying its -health and
vigor,

The American Indian compresses the tender skull
of the infant, and binds its little body on to a flat
board ; the Chinese squeezes the feet of the females ;
the Italian peasants, following the custom of the
Orientals, still roll the infant in swathing bands;
the little legs of the child, that when left to its own
disposal are in perpetual motion, now curled up to
the body, then thrust out their extreme length, to
the evident enjoyment of their owner, are extended
in a straight line, laid side by side, and bandaged
together, so that the infant reminds one in shape
of a mummy. In this highly 'cultivated country we
are guilty towards our infants of practices quite as
senseless, as cruel, and as contrary to nature. The
movements of the lower limbs, so essential to the
healthy growth of the child, are limited and re-
strained, if not altogether prevented, by the great
weight that we hang upon them. The long petti-
coats, in which every infant in this country has

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 133

been for centuries doomed to pass many months of
its existence, are as absurd as they are prejudicial
to the child. The evil has of late years rather in-
creased than diminished, for the clothes are not only
made much longer, but much fuller, so that the poor
victim has an additional weight to bear. Many
instances can be mentioned in which the long
clothes have been made a yard and a quarter long.
The absurdity of this custom becomes apparent,
if we only imagine a mother or nurse of short
statue carrying an infant in petticoats of this
length ; and we believe that long clothes are always
made totally irrespective of the height of mother or
nurse. Imagine one or the other treading on the
robe, and throwing herself and the child down !
Imagine, also, the probable consequences of such
an accident ! And when one ventures to express
doubts as to the propriety of dressing an infant
in long clothes, instead of arguments in their favor,
one is met by the absurd remark, "A baby looks
so grand in long clothes ! " We have for some
rears endeavored, as far as our influence extended,

134 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

to put an end to this practice, and in some cases
we have so far succeeded as to induce the mother
to short-coat the child before it was three months
old, and even previous to this period to make the
under garments of a length suited to the size of
the child, while the frock or robe, as it is called,
retained the fashionable length. The latter, being
of fine texture, did not add considerably to the
weight of the clothes. Children who have the free
use of their limbs not only walk earlier than others,
but are stronger on their feet.

Another evil practice, which some years since
prevailed universally, was that of rolling a bandage,
three inches in width, and two or three yards in
length, round the body of the child. The pain that
such a bandage, from its unyielding nature, would
occasion, not to speak of its ill effects on the health,
may be readily imagined. This bandage was, in
fact, a kind of breaking in for the tight lacing, the
penalty which most females in this country have
had, at some period or other, to undergo.

There is no end of the inconsistencies of chil-

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 135

dren's dress. If, in early infancy, they are buried
in long petticoats, no sooner can they walk than
the petticoats are so shortened that they scarcely
cover the child's back when it stoops. The human
race has a wonderful power of accommodating itself
to a variety of temperatures and climates ; but per-
haps it is seldom exposed to greater vicissitudes
than in the change from long clothes to the ex-
tremely short and full ones that are now fashion-
able. The very full ' skirt is not so warm in
proportion to its length as one of more moderate
fulness; because, instead of clinging round the
figure, it stands off from it, and admits the air
under it. The former is also heavier than the
latter, inasmuch as it contains more material ; and
the weight of the clothing is a great disadvantage
to a child. A sensible medical writer, Dr. John
F. South, in an excellent little work entitled " Do-
mestic Surgery," makes some very judicious obser-
vations relative to children's dress. Of the fashion
of dressing boys with the tunic reaching to the
throat, and trousers, which are both so loose as

13G THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

to offer no impediment to freedom of motion, he
approves ; but he condemns, in the strongest
terms, "the unnatural'1 — Mr. South remarks he
had almost said "atrocious — system to which, in
youth, if not in childhood, girls are subjected for
the improvement of their figure and gait."

It is fortunate for the present generation that it
is the fashion for the dresses of even little girls to
be made as high as the throat ; the old fashion of
cutting the frock low round the neck, which still
exists in what is called "full dress," is objectionable
on more than one account. In the first place, it is
objected to on the consideration of health ; because
the upper part of the chest is not protected from
the influence of currents of air, and by this means,
as Mr. South observes, the foundation is laid for
irritable lungs. In the next place, the dress is gen-
erally suffered to fall off the shoulders, and is, in
fact, only retained in its place by the tight band
about the waist. To avoid the uneasiness occa-
sioned by the pressure of the latter, the child slips
its clothes off one shoulder, generally the right,

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 137

which it raises more than the other; the conse-
quence of this is, that the raised shoulder becomes
permanently higher than the other, and the spine
is drawn towards the same side. It is said that
there is scarcely one English woman in fifty who
has not one shoulder higher or thicker than the
other ; and there appears but little doubt that
much of this deformity is to be ascribed to the
above-mentioned cause. In confirmation of this
opinion, it may be mentioned that the practice of
wearing dresses low in the neck is almost peculiar
to English girls ; French girls, nearly from infancy,
wear high dresses, and it is certain that deformity
is not so frequent among French women as it is
among English.

The discipline of tight lacing is frequently begun
so early in life, that the poor victim has little or no
recollection of the pain and suffering occasioned by
the pressure of the stiff and uncomfortable stays
before the frame has become accustomed to them.
Those of our readers who were fortunate enough to

18

138 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

escape this infliction in early life, and who adopted
stiff stays at a more mature age, can bear testimony
to the suffering occasioned by them during the first
few weeks of their use. " 0," said a girl who
put on stiff stays, for the first time, at the age. of
fourteen or fifteen, " I wish bedtime was come, that
I might take off these stiff and uncomfortable stays,
they pain me so much." " Hush, hush ! " ex-
claimed a starch old maiden aunt, shocked at what
she thought the indelicacy of the expression which
pain had wrung from the poor girl ; " you must bear
it for a time; you will soon get used to it." Used
to it! Tes, indeed, as the cook said the eels did
to skinning, and with, as regards the poor girls,
almost as disastrous consequences.

There are three points of view in which tight
lacing is prejudicial. It weakens the muscles of
the shoulders and chest, which rust, as it were, for
want of use; it injures, by pressure, the important
organs contained in the chest and trunk; and,
lastly, instead of improving the figure, it positively

THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS. 139

and absolutely deforms it. A waist dispropor-
tionately small, compared with the stature and
proportions of the individual, is a greater deformity
than one which is too large; the latter is simply
clumsy ; it does not injure the health of the person,
while the former is not only prejudicial to health,
but to beauty. Were our fair readers but once
convinced of this fact, there would be an end of
tight lacing ; and the good results arising from the
abolition of this practice would be evident in the
improved health of the next generation.

What a host of evils follow in the steps of tight
lacing ! Indigestion, hysteria, spinal distortion,
consumption, liver complaints, disease of the heart,
cancer, early death ! — these are a few of them,
and enough to make both mothers and daughters
tremble. It is an aggravation of the evil that is
brought upon us frequently by the agency of a
mother — of her upon whose affection and experi-
ence a child naturally relies in all things, and whose
lamentable ignorance of what constitutes beauty

of form, as well as her subjection to the thraldom
of fashion, is the prolific source of so much future
misery to her unsuspecting daughter.

Education is the order of the day; but surely
that education must be very superficial and incom-
plete, of which the study of the economy of the
human form, its various beauties, and the wonderful
skill with which it was created, form no part. A
girl spends several years in learning French, Italian,
and German, which may be useful to her should
she meet with French, Italians, or Germans, or
should she visit the continent; she spends three,
four, five, and sometimes six hours a day, in prac-
tising on the piano, frequently without having any
real talent for this accomplishment, while she is
kept in utter ignorance of that which is of vital
consequence not only to herself, but to her future
offspring, namely, a knowledge of what constitutes
true beauty, and contributes to the preservation of
health, and, we may also add, of good humor and
happiness ; for it is one of the evils attending ill

141

health, that it frequently induces a fretful and
irritable state of mind* Instead of the really useful
knowledge of the economy of the frame, and the
means of preserving health, girls are taught the'
constrained attitudes and the artificial deportment
of the dancing master. The remark of Sir Joshua
Reynolds on this subject has been often quoted.
He said, "All the motions of children are full of
grace; affectation and distortion come in with the
dancing master." To dancing itself there is not
the slightest objection ; it is at once an agreeable
and healthy occupation, and it affords a pleasing
and innocent recreation. Xhe pleasure which most
children take in it, in spite of the "exercises"
which they are compelled to practise, proves, we
think, its utility.

The treatment of the feet is on a par, with that
of the rest of the body. The toes are thrust close
together into a shoe, the shape of the sole of which
does not resemble that of the foot. It is generally
narrower than the foot, which, therefore, hangs over

142 THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.

the sides. The soles of children's shoes are, more-
over, made alike on both sides, whereas the inside
should be nearly straight, and the width of the sole
should correspond exactly with that of the foot.
Boots, which have been so fashionable of late years,
are very convenient, and have a neat appearance,
but they are considered to weaken the ankle, be-
cause the artificial support which they give to that
part prevents the full exercise of the muscles, which
waste from want of use. Shoes should be cut short
in the quarter, because the pressure necessary to
keep such shoes as are now worn on the feet will, in
this case, be on the instep instead of the toes, which
will, by this arrangement, have more room.

We shall conclude our observations on children's
dress, considered in a sanitary point of view, in the
words of Mr. South. " If, then, you wish your chil-
dren, girls especially, to have the best chance of
health, and a good constitution, let them wear flan-
nel next their skin, and woollen stockings in win-
ter; have your girls' chests covered to the collar

DRESS. 143

bones, and their shoulders in, not out of their dresses,
if you would have them straight ; and do not confine
their chests and compress their digestive organs by
bone stays, or interfere with the free movement of
their chests by tight belts, or any other contrivance,
if you desire their lungs should do their duty,
upon which so mainly depends the preservation of
health." — Sharpens London Magazine.

NOTE. — The Fig. 58, referred to on the top of page 59, is not
found in the plate ; but the same style of dressing the hair may be
seen in Fig. 57.

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