Dress reform

“ In point of fact, this is a good reason why average men and women cannot understand the object of the contention of dress reformers—they like that to which they have grown accustomed. Of course sensible people of all ages can and do make modifications in their dress, which render it both comfortable and healthy, and this is done quietly and without attracting any public attention. But if dress reform is to effect any material good for the community, it must be radical. It is no good to oppose the iron rule of custom ”

“ The world was not ready for this innovation. There were no gymnasiums or bicycles to plead for the appropriateness of the costume and it was worn chiefly by women who preached doctrines for which the public was no better prepared than for dress reform. The outcry against it extended from one end of the country to the other; the press howled in derision, the pulpit hurled its anathemas and the rabble took up the refrain. ”

“ When such a body begins to murmur of a reform, that reform is almost certain of accomplishment. And such a murmur, concerning dress, can be heard to-day among those women who are banded together by the fight they are making for freedom.
Dress seems, at first glance, to be one of the least important of the questions which modern women are taking up: but the smallest examination into its practical aspects reveals the fact that it affects all their other interests—not as a mere expression of vanity, but as a serious economic factor. ”

“ Dress reform in two directions needs to be impressed upon them, as the uncouth garb of the girls from the woods, and the thin slippers, cheap finery, powder, paint and corsets laced to the last verge of human endurance donned by the city girls, bear testimony. ”

“ I think that dress reform for women—which seems to mean ugly clothes—must always originate with plain women who want to make everyone else look plain. That is not the right process. Start with an article that suits and then study to find some way of eliminating the entirely useless parts. This applies to everything—a shoe, a dress, a house, a piece of machinery, a railroad, a steamship, an airplane. As we cut out useless parts and simplify necessary ones we also cut down the cost of making. ”

“ Trall says, “If he were asked what one agency stands at the very head of morbific influences, in causing frailty and malformation, he should answer woman’s dress.”
The present movement in dress reform, or correct dress, combines art, health and utility. One of the most notable features is that each lady is free to construct her own styles, and in no wise feels bound to conform to fashion. This movement is wide-spread and seems to have a firm foothold among women of all classes. ”

“ Dress-reform at that time had not been incorporated in fashionable ethics, but the departure in costume, though requiring considerable courage in the introduction, soon became popular, and has been influential in establishing in the college a more hygienic dress regime. Since that time, though she has not sought recognition among FRANCES FISHER WOOD. the agitators of dress-reform, she has been a strong advocate of a rational dress for women. During her college life she held several important offices, and was graduated with high honors. ”

“ Every spring and autumn let an advance step be taken, and in order to do this an American fashion commission or bureau should be established, under the auspices of the dress reform committee 426
427of the Women's Council, which at stated intervals should issue bulletins and illustrated fashion plates. If the ideal is kept constantly in view, and every season slight changes are made toward the desired garment, the victory will, I believe, be a comparatively easy one, for the splendid common sense of the American women and men will cordially second the movement. ”

“ Some of [pg 378] these strenuous advocates for the "rights" of the sex gave themselves over to the question of dress reform, and their diverse views represented the whole range of the question, from the sensible and sane declaration for the abolishment of the tyranny of style to the adoption of male attire. Others discussed the injustice to women from the physiological viewpoint, and affirmed that motherhood was not an honorable office, but a type of feudalism to men and a subservience to their wills that was highly dishonoring to womankind. ”

“ It is clear that either paying or receiving a compliment under such circumstances must of necessity have had an inferior excitement; yet we can have no difficulty in grasping the fact that between the primitive dress reform situation presented in the wilds of Paradise, and the highly evolved subtleties of modern dress, lie infinite ethical complexities, a pyramid of riddles, a Mammoth Cave of doubt. ”

“ She is the most prominent of all the leaders in the movement for reform in the matter of woman's dress. Before her marriage she had won considerable fame in Massachusetts as a woman of letters. She is a young and beautiful woman, highly cultured, who has taken up with energy and with a great deal of taste and good judgment the question of dress reform, or "the principles of correct and artistic dressing." ”

“ And now it is dawning upon the consciousness of a number of women that the way to reform clothing manufacturers, textile manufacturers, etc., the way to cut down insane speeding, overwork, underpay, is to change our insane conception of clothing—to strive to make it a normal, useful thing, instead of a hampering, exotic, extravagant thing, which works one group of women to death at a miserable wage, because a far smaller group of parasitic women wish to be arrayed like peacocks! Knowing this to be true, one naturally turns to the fundamental question, and asks—what is dress—what is fashion? ”

“ Liverymen have cyclometres to help customers to tell the truth, and the Australian ballot is invented to help men to be manly enough to vote the way they think. And when, in the course of human events, we came to the essentially moral and spiritual reform of a woman's right to dress in good taste—that is, appropriately for what she is doing, what did we proceed to do to bring it about? Conventions were held year after year, and over and over, to get women to dress as they wanted to; dress reform associations were founded, syndicates of courage were established all over the land—all in vain ”

“ Hitherto, dress reform has always proved a failure. And this is because dress reform has usually been only the effort of a few scattered individuals to force their personal taste upon the world. And while social consciousness is often awakened by the daring examples of such pioneers, all real social growth comes from a collective consciousness, which is born in a body of people, by reason of some economic or moral pressure which affects them all. ”

“ If a sedate or fastidious caller is announced, a beautiful tea-gown, which is at hand, is slipped into, and the young lady is appropriately clad to suit even conventional requirements. The bicycle and lawn tennis costumes now becoming so popular also exercise a subtile but marked influence in favor of rational dress reform, not only giving young ladies the wonderful comfort and health-giving freedom which for ages have been denied her sex, but also by accustoming them to these radically unconventional costumes. ”

“ Lynn Linton’s loathing, who smoke cigarettes and ape the dress and deportment of the ladies of the Alhambra or the Empire promenades.
It is at once singular and amusing to notice how surely all women’s dress-reform agitations move in the same groove—that of a more or less close 40 imitation of man’s attire. Even fashions which are not ostensible ‘reforms’ have a decided tendency to make for masculinity. ”

“ Its success depends on "making it fashionable to adopt the uniform," on making simplicity of dress among maid-servants the sole avenue to the "best situations." Now, as it is conceded that the "present disgraceful style of dress among servant girls" is the result of their ambition to imitate their superiors, it is worth while, in order to estimate both the amount of their [267] responsibility for the said disgrace and the chances of success of the proposed reform, to glance from the style of dress in vogue in the kitchen to the style of dress in vogue in the drawing-room. ”

“ It is equally as essential and is just as desirable a reform, that the dress should be so constructed that the natural activity of any part of the body is not hindered. To accomplish this the skirts must be shortened and all bands abolished. Is there any reason why a child’s clothes should be so long that they are a burden to him and an inconvenience to all who handle him? ”

“ These things should form the study of the dressmaker.
As society is now constituted, however, the dressmaker has not, as we have already observed, leisure to devote to studies of the necessity and importance of which she is still ignorant. The reform must be begun by the ladies themselves. They must acquire a knowledge of form, and of the principles of beauty and harmony, and so exercise a controlling influence over the dressmakers. ”

“ Finally, as regards drawings of this kind, I would point out that there is absolutely no limit at all to the amount of ‘passably picturesque’ costumes which can be either revived or invented for us; but that unless a costume is founded on principles and exemplified laws, it never can be of any real value to us in the reform of dress. ”

“ Afterwards came the Bloomer movement, when it was boldly affirmed that European ladies should take a lesson from their sisters in the East, and adopt Oriental trousers; but the feeling against the Bloomer costume was very strong, for though it had many good points about it, it represented too violent a change from the fashion of the time, and ladies would not adopt it for fear of appearing ridiculous. Reform, as I have said before, to be effective must be gradual, and it takes some time for the public to become accustomed to a new idea even in dress. ”

“ There are two classes of critics who still waste their vital forces in a futile attempt to reform feminine dress. The first class cherish artistic sensibilities which are grievously wounded by the caprices of fashion. ”

“ The end of clothes, so far as we are concerned, is in warm weather to cover people without overheating them, and in cold weather to keep them sufficiently warm. Hence, as clothes to be beautiful must be perfectly adapted to this end, we must have no garments fitting so tightly as to impede the vital processes, none so heavy as to weary the wearer, none cut in such a way as to cramp her movements, and none dyed with poisonous substances.
What we want is reform, not revolution. We want in dress to obtain the maximum of health with the maximum of beauty. ”

“ The pernicious influence of fashionable dress in occasioning this disorder cannot be doubted.
Reform in Dress Needed.—The remedy for these evils, the only way to escape them, is reformation. The dress must be so adjusted to the body that every organ will be allowed free movement. No corset, band, belt, or other means of constriction, should impede the circulation. Garments should be suspended from the shoulders by means of a waist, or proper suspenders. The limbs should be as warmly clad as any other portion of the body. ”

“ Seeing our friend’s grave face, we asked her what she was thinking of, and she replied, “I am thinking of the men who wove that silk to be trodden on, and the girls who sewed those beads to be smashed. Poor things! I would rather be the grimiest maid-of-all-work toiling for real human needs, or the roughest tailor or cobbler, working to cover honest human nakedness.”
Let all dress, therefore, always be as durable as can be, both in material and mode. As to “fashion,” even that has a root of necessity and common sense, because dress must change as social habits and customs change. ”

“ How much better, how much more rational, how much more becoming, such head-dresses as these, than the gay but useless ribands, feathers, and chapeaux of the one class, or the misshapen, uncomfortable, untidy-looking bonnets of the other! According to the present system, it is almost impossible to infer the rank of a lady from her external costume—many a milliner's girl has passed for a duchess before now—whereas by the adoption of articles of dress, founded on principles like those of the hood, some decisive marks of distinction might be obtained. ”

“ But as yet, no woman here is compelled to engage in labor that involves the necessity of dressing like a man. The law itself forbids such change of dress; and when it was proposed, some years ago, to so alter our costume as to make it half male and half female, not for working purposes, but for mere personal convenience, the public sentiment of the nation ridiculed and frowned it down. ”

“ And is it “a wadded hem” or a padded room that should “finish off” these people who spread the madness of clothes far and wide till it becomes a positively dangerous and immoral infection? One wonders! For there is no more mischievous wickedness in society to-day than the flamboyant, exuberant, wilful extravagance of women’s dress. It has far exceeded the natural and pretty vanity of permissible charm, good taste and elegance. It has become a riotous waste,—an ugly disease of moral principle, ending at last in the disgrace and death of many a woman’s good name. ”

“ The forbidding rules and regulations relating to the varied and elaborate forms of women's dress--and of men's attire as well--would never have been issued unless such prohibited apparel had been common and universally longed-for, and unless much diversity and elegance of dress had abounded. ”