LADIES' COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 18, 22 January 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

LADIES' COLUMN.

OUIDA AS A DRESS REFORMER. The Lady's Healm for November has a characteristic paper by Ouida ou Dress. OUB 'ONLY BEAUTIFUL POKlt OF DRESS.' Her opinions are decided and oiitspoken. She says: — The only roally beautiful form of dress which is our own invention, and which is at once modern yet artiatio, and has close affinity to the Greek, is the teagown, whioh has in it many of the beat graoes of the Greek robe, with a brilliancy and adaptability of its own. There is a regrettable tendency now yifiible to make the tea-gown too tight ; if it loses its ease and its undulating lines, it loses with them all its individuality, and also all its comfort, in those physical conditions to whioh JLemaitre rightly considers the Greek gown was so favourable. Moreover, the stupid prejudicies which rulo society do not allow the tea-gowu^to be considered otherwise than a deshabille, and most unhappily excluded it from the dinner- table and the evening gatherings, whilst the extremely ugly and immodest decolttU is still conbidered as the lie phis ultra of elegance and etiquette. IN DISPBAISB OP THE TROUSEE. If only women would begin to dress gracefully, meu would, Ouida is certaio, copy :— 1 do not think that men would long resist a feminine effort on the part of women to introduce some better male costume than that which at present makes the streets and the drawing-rooms alike hideous , that is, if the effort were general, sustained, and persuasive. The trouper is the culminating poiut in modern mnle attire of ugliness, indecency, unsuitability, and anti-h) giouic stupidity. To be the least protection against cold its lower regions must be swathed in the gaiter, it« upper covered by the ulster or by borne other form of greatcoat. It is a garment whioh conceals all symmetry of proportion, yet must impudently suggest nudity. It is certainly a shapeless thing whioh may be pulled on in a minute or two, but there its sole merit ends. WHAT MEN OUGHT TO DO. It is pre-eminently necessary and desirable to see" in the streets and in the salono some male attire which shall combine utility and ease with laws and lines which do not offend the educated taste. • Tho cut of the George the Second coat should be renewed ; and made in black velvet it would be perfect for evening wear. The George the Secoud waistcoat, gold embroidered, was, if 1 remember riyhtly, revived by the late Duke of Clarence, and, had he lived, some improvement in male dress would probably have been seen in England. OLD ENGLISH COSTUMES BEST. Ouida hopes thfe democracy will not be so foolish as to follow the ludicrous and ugly fashions of ' the classps.' She seems inclined to reverse the tendency, for sho says : Turn over any volumes on costume that you will, and you will fiud that- the most suitable to work and weather were the costumes of peasant and artificer in the time of the rlantagenets aud Tudors, the Valois. They were not only pleasant to the eye, but they were sensible, adapted to work, and excellent for battle.