1000 YEARS OF DRESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18197, 16 September 1922, Page 4 (Supplement)

1000 YEARS OF DRESS.

1 Tho Thousand Years of Dress Section 1 in the Woman's Exhibition at Olympia, ! England, is extraordinarily fascinating, , says an exchange. Clothes, say whao ; you will, are perennially interesting; bust they are more—they are history. A thousand years takes us back, nearly, to the period of the battle of Hastings, ; where,- at the first step we meet Edith, : sister of King Harold, to show us wUat ' women wore at that historic time. Primi- ' tive as the times were, woman, true to i the eternal feminine, had managed to , evolve for herself garments whoße beauty . and gracefulness are hardly surpassed even | to-day. Edith and her companion, a Norman and a Scottish girl, are charming, i and even extraordinarily modern. indeed the style of their costume is more pleasing to the eye to-day than the leg- , of-mutton sleeve which so many of us , still remember, or that "early tador- ■ made," with ita voluminous and almost ' trained skirt, and its indescribably comic , air, which is only about thirty years old. Between the battle of Hastings and the dawn of tho "tailor-made" what almost ' endless history do we find! England in ■ history and in fiction is represented. Wo pass from Mary Queen of Scots oadfaced and sweet in her black velvet and ; characteristic cap, to Queen Elizabeth, blazing with jewels, brilliant as gorgeous silks and brocades could make her, and, lot us whisper it, rather gaudy m her ' taste and slightly overdressed! Yet be it remembered that the value of the exhibition is that the attire reproduced, is historically correct. It is interesting to note about the Elizabethan group how ! the "farthingale," or wide wire hoop round the hip gradually developed into the crinoline of our grandmothers. _ Boaide tho Queens, which include Henrietta juaria, wifo of the ill-fated Charles I, exemplifving the early Stuart fashions, : wo have Beatrix Esmond, heroine of Thackeray's famous novel, and Nell Gwynn, with her basket of oranges, the orange vendor who lived to bo the idol of a Court and a King, and who induced Charles H to found the Royal Hospital at Chelsea for the benefit of disabled soldiers. She is hero with the Duchess of Devonshire, whose beauty inspired three of England's groat artists to paint her portrait. () ■ Tho dear ladies of " Cranford, Mrs. Gaskell's masterpiece of genre fiction, are represented also, to recall to us the days of Waterloo and "side curls" and "pattens." Mrs. Bloomer and her disciples are not forgotten, and one recalls the fierce battles which raged over the " immodesty " of reformed dress which horn- ' • fied women of tho early nineteenth cen- ': tury. I Every day thousands of wfmien are j studving the ethics of dress and beauty 'at Olympia. Not only are tho greatest creators of dress displaying their gowns, but trained mannequins demonstrate how to wear beautiful clothes. Beauty specialists and dress designers may be perfect in their work, but the whole effect may be spoiled if the wearer does not know how to put on her lovely garments, or errs in choosing the right colour etfect. Those and a hundred and one essential secrets of being well dressed, aro no longer secrets to the woman who visits the Woman's Exhibition. Beauty specialists, colour exports, and the world's greatest dress authorities unite in placing their expert knowledge at ber s%rvice.