Artistic Dressing.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 914, 6 September 1889, Page 4

Artistic Dressing.

The days of what was miscalled aesthetic dressing have passed away for the present. At the private views of the Grosvenor, or of its younger rival tbe New Gallery, people appear more or less in the same kind of garments as other folk-—Philistines they would have been called a few years ago—and, though now and then one still comes upon the limp, trailing garments, and the disproportionate puffs and humps of some lady who believes herself to be dressed artistically, she is decidedly the exception, and no one admires her very much. There is a curious and deep-seated affection in the female mind —which has never yet been scientifically explained—for something which drags behind. A little girl of three years old vvill maljbe herself perfectly happy if she can put on her mother’s shawl and drag it after her about the nursery floor. She feels, no doubt, just the same supreme satisfaction when she is grown to woman’s estate, and goes to Court with three or four yards of silk or velvet train behind her. Nay, is not the Court train bat the acknowledgment of the dignity and happiness to be obtained from jffiis curious amusement of dragging something after one—the realisation and glorification of the instinct of the baby girl ? Another curiosity of dress is the wearing of humps. people, as they called ' themselves a while ago, or artistic people, as they call themselves now, like them on their shoulders, and Philistines elsewhere. To the uninitiated it is impossible to conceive what artistic virtue is supposed to lie in exaggeiations, which have the effect of destroying all the natural proportions, and obliterating the beautiful natural lines of a woman’s figure. "£et thg fov? yffiq still adhere to j;He etylq of dress which has gone by the pame of artjstiq are never so well pleased as when they have hit on sorqe costurpe which heightens or widens the shoulders out of all proportion to %b.Q vegt of tho figure and waists, Dress which is perfectly adapted to the needs of tha wearer cqq he none *** these thing,, not WD that Vrhich Leaps ornament (it gigantic puffs can be considered ornament) in places where it runs counter to all the lines of construction, be artistio, Yet there surely is such a thing as artistio dressing, and it )s a subject which is really worthy cf a woman’s attention and study, for qvepy woman mjy bq supposed to wish toTook'hor bfest; to dress so as to bring out all her good points, and, as far as possible, conoeal those whioh are. defective in grace.

So much, too, may ha done by clover dressing ; the arms may be apparently lengthened or shortened, made to look fuller or according as the rest of the figure may need it. Too sloping or too narrow shoulders may be raised or broadened, too high ones lowered by the cut and style of the bodice. Either height or width may be giveu to the figure by the material chosen, or by its arrangement. fetcut- people may be made to look comparatively slight, and very thin people may be given, more generous proportions, not by pinching in the one case, or padding in the other, but by the mere study of form and of proportions, and a careful attention to each individual. The fatal habit of choosing a dres3 because it is ‘new,’ or because "some one else looks well in it, must, however, be got.rid of before any possibility of artistic dressing can come in. > Then comes in the all-important question of colour, extremely difficult to theorise about, but much less difficult to settle satisfactorily in practice, because one can always try the effects practically, Here are whole possibilities of making the most of nature’s gifts, and the least of lier unkindnea.ses, which women do well to study. Art in dress comes in also nowhere more thau in the use of draping, that it shall have a mean, ing, that it shall fall in natural folds, not artificial and impossible ones ; and lastiyj" that it shall follow iho lines of the figure, not conceal them, nor yet be prolonged until all grace is lost, and it becomes mere trailing wisps of materia! hanging about just where they are least wanted. A woman who dresses artistically is never in the extreme of any fashion, her own individuality is always preserved, her o\vn figure and complexion studied, and the result generally is that it is impossible to say what makes her look so well dressed, while everyone acknowledges that she is so.—Queen.