RULES OF DRESS NEEDED.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XVIII, 31 October 1896, Page 578

RULES OF DRESS NEEDED.

A leading London newspaper pleads for an authoritative set of rules ‘ for the guidance of gentlemen who wish to appear suitably attired at fashionable race-meetings. It is so awkward to be light-suited, brown-booted, and billy-cocked when everyone else in the inclosure is in a high hat and frock coat. It is equally unpleasant to stand out against the sky in a high hat and frock coat when everybody else is in a straw hat and serge. ’ The necessity for such rules is shown by the experience of a leading American statesman just concluding his first visit there. He went down to Ascot (writes a correspondent) the day after his arrival, in his customary lounge coat, tanned shoes, and straw hat. ‘ I would as soon have found myself at the opera in that guise,’ he said ; ‘ there was not another man in the grand-stand who was not dressed as if for a garden party.’ A little later he went down to Newmarket, this time in full garden-party anay, but every man, from the Prince down, was in tweeds, billycocks and all. He was invited to a famous horse sale, with preceding luncheon, at the private country seat of a noted Englishman. Surely, he counselled with himself, lounge dress will be in order here. He found again every man in Ascot garb, the ladies in fullest summer styles, and he and the stud grooms alone in tweeds and billycocks. He was invited to a houseboat at Henley ; he informed himself that there was to be an elaborate luncheon, with many lady guests, and he complacently donned his frock coat and silk hat. Even the negro minstrels contemptuously grinned at him as he tried to hide himself there behind the flowering plants on the boat. He did not know that Ascot is a ‘ royal function ’ and full afternoon dress, therefore, absolutely necessary. But he could not know why it was equally de rigueur at the horse sale, nor can anyone not in ‘ the know.’ It is the mystery of the club autocrats who set such fashions, communicate them to the world, and thus, perhaps, deliberately use their power to make the outsider feel that he is one.