GERMAN WOMEN AND DRESS REFORM.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume xxix, Issue 7350, 3 December 1907, Page 1

GERMAN WOMEN AND DRESS REFORM.

At tho basis of the reform dress movement in Germany is the aim on the part 1 of the reformers to eradicate the corset as a feature of women's clothing. The movement to introduce shoulder-strapped skirts was tho natural outcome of this desire. Some German dress reformers state that many of the deaths from cancer of the stomach occur in the case of women, and this is attributed directly to the evil effects of the corset. "Nerves', 1' anaemia, general debility, internal diseases of all kinds, and even rheumatism areput down to the compression caused by the corset. Ninety per cent of the women of the twentieth century, it is further argued, possess only a fractional proportion of their normal ca- j pacity for accomplishment in their various lines of activity owing to their "unreasoning worship of das Corsett." The well-known statue of the Venus J of Milo is brought forward by the anti- j corset agitators as a convincing proof of the soundness of their arguments. The magnificent Venus figure, as is well known, shows no trace of anything in the 1 nature of a waist. There is no

suggestion in her ■» case, it is pointed cut, or "that fatal compression of the. 1h0r..;: find internal organs which spells the beginning of all disease." It is one or' the cardinal beliefs in the doctrine of the corset antagonists that tho physical capacity of the . individual woman is in inverse proportion to the' smallness of her waist —this naturally leaving out of account those women whoso figures are abnormally corpulent. It is further pointed out; that the narrow-waist phenomenon, due to a tapering thorax, is not infrequently observed in men, in whom it .is an hereditary evil. The men afflicted with this particular physical defect usually, it is stated, prove to be those least capable of endurance when called upon to servo their term of military training in the "German qystpm or universal conscription. "Even the loosely-made I "waistless" corset is condemned by the German leaders of the anti-corset movement. The mere fact that it servos, as an c-xcusg to wear clothing bound to the li,Qc]y qi the waist immediately establishes its harmful effect upon the system. They also declare that the steel busks which form the forepart of the corset_ create continual irritation in the region of the stomach.

Many of the refcrm-dress advocates have abandoned • their original claim that the entire weight of the dress and of the clftthinK lit geneva j must be borne by the shoulders. This proved to be impracticable, inasmuch as the entire weight of, for instance, a winter costume of heavy material, with lining and accessories, proved to be a burden which the shoulders were incapable of bearing." The pressure qn the shoulders, besides nan-owing the chest, produced muscular pains in the neck and arms as well as in the shoulders, It was found that, in order- to make the reform-dresa a truly hygienic garment, its weight must be equally imposed upon shoulders and hips. As a result, the reform-dress hiis devoloped into the now well-known garment consisting of two pieces—namely, ]pose}y-cut bodice, high-fitting skirt, as a rule with shoulder straps, with, for the street, a loose light jacket terminating just above -the waist.