Bridal Dresses.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 992, 6 March 1891, Page 4

Bridal Dresses.

For many long years society has decreed that brides upon their wedding day shall be dressed in white. The origin of the idea was that white denoted purity, a very pretty romantic idea and one upon which poets and dreamers have wasted reams of paper and gallons of ink. There is always a touch of romance in most of our lives, and when that romance has the tinge of antiquity, how olosely we cling to it. I don’t feel inclined to argue against u certain amount of romantio irnaginative associations ; they aot as a Bpioe, stimulating, comforting, and mildly exciting the humdrum existence we have to endure. They are the colours which please upon the very plain pictures of our lives. But to return to the white robes of a bride. In these days of cruel keen criticism, when we seek for solutions of everything not clearly understood the question arises, Why should brides be compelled to wear white when in many cases It is a moßt unsuitable colour? This is not all. Putting the artistic point on one side, one very important question crops up, and perhaps the most important of all, * Are not the present bridal oostumes both expensive and useless ?’ Let us look at the question from the latter point of view first. A woman is preparing for her marriage. The husband to be is busy providing for the equipment of the prospective home. The bride elect has to worry over that bridal dreaß. Iu tho majority of cases the parents provide the cost A series of visits to the draper’s shop results in the purchase, let us say, of a rich ottoman silk, expensive satin, or other white material at a great cost. Then there is the orange wreath and bridal veil. The total amount of this finery is a substantial sum of money. The bride of course is supposed to look charming in her dress of white and all her single friends are envious. She makes a sensation and she is satisfied. An hour or two later on in the day she lays aside all her white finery for her sober, sensible travelling dress. Her wedding gown is in many oases never worn again, save at a reception or some fashionable ball. If she is a clever woman she can possibly take the gown to pieces and with the material form something useful. I am speaking now of the class of people to whom money is an object, not to those who can afford a new dress every week of their lives. That bridal dress, in the majority of cases, is worn for the one occasion only and then becomes useless lumber, kept iu lavender for sentimental recollections. Is it sensible to waste so much money over elaborate bridal costumes ? The same amount of money would buy at least three pretty house dresses which would be really serviceable. Young couples in their first start in life should try to be as economical as possible. Their friends always give them this advice and yet they encourage extravagance at the onset by the expensive wedding garments. A man is not put to this useless expense. He buys a pair of grey trousers, perhaps a white waistcoat, and a black frock coat. These are garments he can wear on almost any occasion, but his wife’s white dress and other adornments are frequently the evidences of so much money wasted. I hear some of my readers say, ‘ Oh, this is fearfully heterodox to speak of abolishing white costumes for weddings, and it is all nonsense to talk of the expense as so much money wasted. Why, I can contrive a very useful gown out of my wedding dress.’ Possibly so, my young friend, I am not writing this especially for clever people like you, for you are an exception to the general rule. I am writing for the benefit of those who are not so clever, and to whom money is a serious consideration in the early days of married life. I am of opiniou that the money spent on elaborate wedding costumes is only so much money wasted, which could be spent to better advantage in other ways. Let us look at it from the artistic point of view, my clever young friend. Let us suppose you are a bride ; you have light fair hair, pale eyes, and pale onu plexion. The excitement of being a bride has given a very sallow tint to ycur !acs. You are married on a dull day in a church not over endowed with light. Do you know that a dead white costume makes you look a ‘perfect fright.’ Instead of looking charming you resemble an animated corpse. There is not a scrap of * colour ’ on you from your head to your feet. You are a dull monotone, a most wretched conception. To an artistic mind your whole appearance is as harsh and as unlovable as a discord in music. You set one’s teeth on edge, and everyone wonders what on earth possessed your husband to propose to you. Now my clever young friend how do you like the true picture I have painted. Oh, perhaps, you are a brunette and think that my remarks do not apply equally to you. Well, your face will be pale at the altar, and your ’dead white gown makes it even more sallow and unhealthy looking. You appear to have no life, no energy. You look simply —insipid. . I grant that a bride should wear a pretty dress on her wedding day, the day of all days when she should appear charming to her husband and all the world. Do people, I wonder, about to be married ever consider that dead white is the most trying colour any type of woman oan wear, and except in Yofy t very few cases dead white, unrelieved by colour, is a most unbecoming costume. Why will women so slavishly follow oustom, especially when that custom is antago? nistic to them. There is no earthly reason why a bride should not wear a pretty dress, and there certainly is no reason why that dress should not be a sensible one. If you want something really stylish why not have a ball or opera dress for that auspicious day. In some partß of the Continent of Europe and in select circles in America young couples are always, married in evening dress. That is a sensible idea. An evening costume, although, perhaps, expensive, is always really useful in after days. In cases where you are not in the .habit of wearing low light dresses in the evening why not be strong minded enough to be married in a pretty travelling or outdoor dress. With your pale face— for brides are invariably pale—you will look far prettier in colours suitable to your complexion, and besides you will not be wasting money, which would bo better kept for the ■ rainy '

days when little troubles creep in and money is wanted for no end of necessities. Let us try if we cannot bring about a reform in bridal costumes. Tho dead white dress is expensive, frequently useless, and above all inartistio ; nay, it is positively ugly in tho majority of cases. Dora.