The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1908. A QUESTION OF "FROCKING."

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1908, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1908. A QUESTION OF "FROCKING."

An amusing discussion, which, is not without its instructiye side, is just now going on in the correspondence columns of the N.Z. Times upon the subject of wpmen's dress. The ball appears to have been set rolling by a feminine correspondent descanting upon the expensive character of her brothel's wardrobe. She argued with sweet, womanly inconsequence that, because Harry spent eleven guineas upon a dress suit which would last him the greater part of an average life, he was more extravagant in the matter of clothing than she who only expended 22s 6d upon an evening blouse, designed probably to be worn but once. She also made a point of his buying a shaving set, which of course she did not need, but she overlooked the fact that Harry had no use for hair pads; vriets, pins, and all the other indescribable etceteras that are needed Jor the female coiffure. In fact, she'wasted a great deal of newspaper space and endured quite a considerable amount of mental strain in the effort to compare things that are not comparable. Of course, she was not allowed to have things all her own way. Where angels tread but softly, or even fear to tread, wo are told that fools do not hesitate to rush in; so mere man came with the proverbial impetuosity, and had no hesitation in stating his sid« of the question with brutal frankness. One has a sister Mary, whose dressing costs double that of Harry, and if Harry were* to marry Mary ono of them would have to go short, and from what he knows of his sister, it would be Harry! Another writer objects to women being dressed partly in malo attire. The effect, he con- j siders, is not pleasing, and he pro- ■! ceeds:—"l would rather see tho gayer dress more properly belonging to woman. After all, it is not every female who strives to outdo the rainbow m the variety of the colours that scintillate from her headgear and as ror those who do—well, poor foolish things: they may get sense in time. But if women will dress so much, l6t them do it as women, and not ape the unlovely habiliments of their too sober brothers." Tho "ab-

surd decorations under which women stagger in ■ the shape of hats" are not allowed-to pass unnoticed. Ono man confesses to liking to s&o women look well .in their clothes, but thinks they too often forget that tho simplest dresses are the most effective. " They pile dresses on to their backs, and the most garish hats on to their heads, -aping-the iashions, and making themselves spectacles for gods and mmi.'\ The same writer expresses th© opinion that while agreeable and tasteful costumes are worn in places like Palmerston or Napier, Auckland women always dress in excellent taste, and those lof Christclvurch are the best dressed in New Zealand, "Wellington women are the worst dressed in the wliolo Dominion. They spend a lot of their husbands' and their children's money in dolling themselves up, but are a lot of dowds."H© never goes to a public function without seeing the most glaring incongruities in female attire. '" Wellington women, he says, "simply do not know how to dress, arid the people who advise them seem to be persons ot-very questionable taste.' The root of the whole matter is reached by two correspondents, ono.cf them a. woman, who states her case as follows: — Women have to oonfprm to the times in which tlioy live, and the fashion that Society sets. " Society may have a mistaken conception of things, but if in the matter of .dressing woman is drawn into the vortex or finery to an inordinate degree,, shall we blam© her? If Society decided to suddenly dres3 in a less expensive fashion, and ' live down' to things instead of ' up to them ' in the highest sense, as at present, by precept, every woman would possibly conform to the change in notions. Her husband would doubtless be pleased, but then there would be expenditure in other directions, created by new conditions, that would not tend to decrease the expenses in any way. Finally, and this sums up the whole situation, " If women are buying too many clothes and overdressing, it is because of the senseless ri\alry induced by tho stupid fashion of publishing dresses and their wearers in the daily newspapers. To read the inanities which appear in print, one would suppose that women, instead of being living, sentient beings, were moro drapers' models, to hang clothes on. . The result is that the poor mortals who plumo themselves on being in the social swim are compelled to keep on buying ' new frocks ' to prevent the remorseless society paragraphist from repeating the same old haberdashery catalogue ad nauseam. Women no longer pride themselves on intellectual attainments. They are becoming more and more useless dolls, and the newspapers encourage this competitive' foolishness by employing presumably intelligent persons, to .follow, the rounds of these hypocritical poppy* shows and gather up tho poor despicable crumbs of gossip for the public delectation. As everything in. this country is dealt with* by Act of Parliament, I should liko to see a Bill brought down making it just as much an1 offence to publish particulars of a female's attire as to furnish the details of racecourse gambling." There is doubtless a great deal in the views expressed by this correspondent. It ought to be just as much in "bad form" to describe a woman's attire as to descant upon the shape of her nose, the colour of her hair, or the size of her feet. To repeat a timehonoured joke, "it is not what women wear, tut what they are, that matters." The |aot that Mrs So-and-so was at a. Sporty function is somehow regarded as "pf minor importance to the engrossing question, " What \ did she have on ?" It is a poor conception of glorious woman that she should be regarded as a lay figure upon which to display fashion's latest achievements, in- order that the Society writer may be able to describe them for the edification (?) of feminine readers, who gloat over these paltry details as they would over the account of a wedding, the thrilling. story of a ghost, or the blood-curdling narrative of a tragedy. It is playing it altogether too low downj and -it is time self-respect-ing women ceased to lend themselves to this sort of thing, and reputable newspapers to pander to the questionable practice. As for the other sorb—well, .they reed not be considered.