FRENCH LADIES AS CYCLISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10908, 12 November 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

FRENCH LADIES AS CYCLISTS.

Of all cyclists French girls appear to least advantage on wheels. Lint there seems at lust sign- of a change in the fashion, and for once, we may claim 'says the Daily News) for our English girls that they are giving their syle to the French. And it is ' not a question of Anglomania. That exists 1 in France, but only for the male sex. if j French women are beginning to copy us, there j is no compliment intended. For the "style correcte dts Anglaises" they have generally a feeling of wonder mind a little with cmtempt. A tailor-made gown finds no favour with a French dressmaker, and the simple reason is that the French have not tin* figures lor them. They had their chance to try ii when cycling came in. They threw themselves wildly into the new spurt, and boldly adopted the zouave bloomers. One knows the result, and this year they have begun to know it themselves. The French figure ! makes the costume ugly, and the French dressmaker makes it imbecile. Last week at Troiiville there were two actresses whose dress was really not much more exaggerated than others, only it was easier, as they shot bv on the sea road, to note the colours. They had divided skirts, ballooned out; one lady wore pale pink, the other pale blue; the material of both was foulard, and the texture the slightest; their stockings were of a tartan which no clan in the Highlands has yet ventured to adopt. They had white jackets with enormous sleeves, and on their beads, which were sunk down in the swollen sleeves as the wind took them, they wore yachting caps the whole effect extraordinarily incongruous and ugly. A llight of English girls followed on the same road—lithe, slippy figures, erect, or bending slightly with the movement, the suggestion of them rather of the kilometres they could cover than of the kilogrammes that they weighed. There was tvi doubt at all about the admiration thev excited, and it was by no means confined to their own compatriots. The French ladies are finding this out. They are not much influenced by male opinion, when the male is not of (heir own country, and Frenchmen have hitherto been loyal enough. Hut the tide has commenced to turn, and we may look for it to flow fast. It is curious how trade mixes up with the fashion, and what unexpected causes settle for us the dress we wear. hi France, its in England, bicycles change their vogue. There is always some new maker some new fashion. Tjhe French girls having from the first adopted knickers, have ridden the male bike. If you see a row of these velos stacked up outside a cathedral in some country town, or a museum, or an hotel at lunch hour, you might fancy all the tourists inside were men and boys. Of course, with the walking skirt these machines cannot he used. And now the makers are supporting this new move, and I he lady's bike with its guard is coming into fashion rapidly. The change is good for trade, no doubt, what is more important is it is good for the reputation of French taste. ft will be interesting to see to what it will lead. The French dressmakers won't take over our patterns; that would hint their amour propre ; and besides, the French figure would scarcely stand them. The French cycling woman is older than the English girl, and stouter. But we shall have skirts on cycles very soon the rule in good society, and in the winter the liois will be full of them. When the new mode comes out it won't be quite the simple, close-fitting English —there will have to be some concession to the fantasy of the modiste; but the change all the same will be due to English taste, and probably an improvement upon it.