IDIOTIC FASHIONS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 461, 20 March 1909, Page 11

IDIOTIC FASHIONS.

We do not clothe ourselves properly, and have pretty much the same garments as in summer, simply adding a heavy furred mantle, sealskin, or sable (sa.vs a writer from Paris ill tho "Lady's Field")'.' But then, without any reason, on some frivblous excuse or other, we, cast off this cloak, pretending it is too hot for walking! A light, skimpy, cloth costume alone protects the form,, while the linen blouse is but a slight shield for tho chest against .the icy blasts of January. Mothers and husbands protest in vain. Their arguments aro answered by a smile or a shrug, and tho impudent coquette sallies out to meet influenza and its train of disease and worry. Then the rage for skirts so narrow that they almost impede walking forbids us to be properly petticoatod. It is impossible to wear tho thinnest of undergarments beneath such a clinging skirt. Tho exaggeration of fashion in this line seems to mo absolutely grotesque. I cannot sufficiently deplore the despotism of the couturiers guilty of it, and of the ladies who follow blindly ihe outline it gives is ugly, neither natural nor elegant, and aesthetic taste condemns it accordingly. On a basis of the slenderest and unsteadiest balance- aro raised tho broadest of shoulders that are heavily laden with furs and ornaments, and in their turn are topped by-a still broader' expanse formed by the coiffure and hat. Add to this tho volume of an enormous muff, which is a monument in itself, then ask yourself whether such a figure can bo graceful. You will answer as I do—it cannot. I am inclined to think tho mode came in because somebody wanted something new; without any thought or inspiration, without any reason, without an\ pleasure in tho invention, our artists just prodqeed what we wear now. Let us hope spring will bring them and us an idea. The soft air of reviving Nature will awaken their inventive brains perhaps.