FOLLY OF CLOTHES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 22

FOLLY OF CLOTHES

A REFORMATION OF WOMEN. There were no clothes in Paradise, writes a lady contributor to a London dailv • That solemn truth should ne ever present to the minds of the wise. You may object that your surroundings are in no way like Paradise, and you have good reason for adopting methods pave booci worldly society and a suited to a m ° re ig w t * U6 f but when you chilliei air. o ciate bliss too closeare tempted to •„ WG ii to ly Wi VXt I TaSfness existe/before remember that , g rea9tm to be _ clothes, and wil » worn out. An lieve, last after they a pagt(m » has in!?given to the wSrld a new philosophy Put a dowdy woman into of bathes. an d foolish men smart clothes, says sn > , , feetwill tumble over each other to ner ieet, Wl r w hack to dowdiness again and E“* who is not a fool will still bo J h -+-idbfl The theory is so reasonable ttat you wonder it should sound now. But the fact is, most reasonable statements about clothes amaze the ear with n T V n l the humbler walks of creation, if vou for instance, had been horn a bird, vou would not, being, feminine, trouble about your clothes. Erne feathers belong to the male. Dowdiness is the badge of the female. It would, perhaps, be going a little far to say that the wisdom Jf man has entirely, reversed this order We think of the waistcoats, the ties and thl socks, and eke the blazers which decorate the human male, and observe that he is not wholly without the cock phaa-

sant’s desire to be gaudy. But m tlia main the man is content to be sombre, ilia customary suits are solemn black or subfusc. Their form varies little from year to year. They may not be comfortable; they are certainly not beautiful, but at least they are not gay. The woman only is allowed to be gaudy and respectable. Man, you observe, is more modest than the beasts. Somewhere in this happy world there are no doubt people who enjoy the bliss of leading the fashions. The vast mass of humanity, being asleep, follow. It is this ovine desire to do the same as somebody else that makes the world ugly. The first instinct of natural woman when she sees someone in a pretty dress is to go and do likewise. It is very stupid. The fact that a dress looks well on Mary is the very reason why it will look hideous on Ann. The true object of human endeavour is to be unlike everybody else. If you have an individuality of your own —the suggestion is, perhaps, flattering—it is plain that you want clothes for it wholly unlike other people's. To develop your own private self is well known to be your dutv. All the new plays say so. Therefore the whole duty of woman is not be in the fashion, but out of it. The most curious thing in this elaboration of clothes, the most obvious point of their folly, is that no one has any regard for comfort. Long and long ago all attempt to make clothes comfortable was abandoned. \Vo all do a life-long penance on the altar of fashion. Hence people have from time to. time been moved to devise new styles of dress. Eveiy quarter of a century or so we hear of what were once called bloomers, a while after were rational dress, on their next revival will doubtless have another name, and be as hideous as ever. This is not tho way to joy. It is desirable that we should not make ourselves more ugly than is inevitable. YVe wear clothes out of consideration for other people, and our consideration should be as kindly as possible. There is however, a way to reform, and that is that every woman should do that which is right in her own eyes. If it were only a criminal alienee to be in the fashion, conceive what an interesting world we should live in. Imagine all tho styles of all tho ages, with a thousand new ones evolved by the unaided suburban brain, parading the streets of this town. It would be like living in a fancy dress ball or a nation of lunatics—which must certainly be very exhilarating.