Robe

“ Robe upon robe she puts on, robe upon robe she puts on. When she puts on the robes of the sons of salvation, she laughs and rejoices, leaps and jumps, is proud and cheerful about the glorious honor ... ”

“ Woven into a robe of genuine cheerfulness the soul possesses rich adornment. These are the individuals whom children love, men seek to honor, and all the world respects. A king’s robe is commonplace compared with the attractive vesture of a healthy, cheerful disposition which anyone may weave out of sunbeams, with which God crowds even the most secluded, humble lives. ”

“ Veil'd in a simple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; ”

“ Her dress is a large square robe of bright colours, often of fine material, wound around her, immediately below her arms, reaching to her feet and kept in place by a roll around the top of it—a peculiar twist of leger de main which only a black hand can perform. ”

“ The lower part of the robe is like a lady's skirt, as it is made in folds, and will spread out into a large circle when the wearer whirls rapidly. They are the most respectable of all the orders of dervishes, and some of them are men of education and former high position. ”

“ Robes.—The outer garment of woman is, and has been for centuries, the robe or gown, and upon the proper choice, make, and disposition of this, and its concomitants, depends the elegance or inelegance of the wearer. ”

“ The dress of the men like those above on the Columbia river Consists of a Small robe, which reaches about as low as the middle of the thye and is attatched with a String across the breast and is at pleasure turned from Side to Side as they may have an occasion to disincumber the right or left arm from the robe entirely, or when they have occasion for both hands, the fixture of the robe is in front with it's corner loosly hanging over their Arms. they Sometimes wear a hat which have already been discribed (See 29th Jany.) ”

“ Another species of garment, in their estimation equally sumptuous with the blanket, is the cloth robe, which is of ample dimensions, simple in form, one half red and the other blue, thrown loosely about the person, and at a little distance, excepting the singular arrangement of colours, resembling a Spanish cloak. ”

“ All you will want will be a long white robe coming over the head and down to the eyebrows, and falling to the feet; and a white cloth coming across the face below the eyes, and falling down over the throat. There is no occasion to buy other garments. ”

“ Thy skirts indeed the foe may part, Thy robe be pierced with sword and dart, They shall not touch thy noble heart, Carolina! ”

“ Around his form his loose long robe was thrown,
And wrapt a breast bestow'd on heaven alone; ”

“ It would, however, 'be perhaps going too far to assume that, e.g., peers' robes were originally the king's livery, for there seems to be no proof that this was the case; but it is curious that in most early cases where robes are mentioned, if not of cloth of gold, &c., they are of scarlet, furred. A robe is properly a long garment, 'and the term “robes” is now applied only in those cases where a long garment forms- part of the official costume, though inf ordinary usage it is taken to include all the other articles of dress proper to the costume in question. ”

“ Shoes, and head-dresses of a definite style, belong to a much more modern period, as also do the many varieties of female dress, which have been known at all times and in all countries under the general name of robes. ”

“ Turning from the aspects of houses to humans—take modern dress—in our search for the beautiful! Well National if not distinctive costume—except of the working and sporting sort, court dress, collegiate robes and uniforms—has practically disappeared, and, apart from working dress in working hours, one type of ceremonial, or full dress, is common to the people at large, and that of the plainest kind, with whatever differences of cut and taste in detail. ”

“ Yes, I greatly admire the clothing worn by both men and women. The Robes worn by those gentlemen add much to the grace and dignity of their appearance, but the Robes worn by the women, to my mind, are still more admirable. They are not so voluminous as to conceal the outlines of the form, and at the waist line they are loosely confined by beautiful girdles of various designs and materials. As to fabrics, style of cut, and ornamentation, there is much diversity, but all are more or less attractive, and certainly they must be comfortable. ”

“ In the drawing of the "human form divine" there are many things to deceive the eye and make the task difficult. Clothes are the greatest offenders—skirts, wide trousers, full sleeves, thick leggings, large bonnets, baggy tunics, cloaks, robes, hats, wigs—anything, in short, which is bulky is deceiving. ”

“ We saw many young men engaged at these diversions, who had thrown aside their robes, leggins, and all superfluous articles of dress, displaying a symmetry of proportion, and beauty 215 of form, which we have rarely seen surpassed. ”

“ Amongst the wise saws of ancient instance was the advice in the Romance of the Rose, "that ladies should let trailing robes hide the feet of those too large and unsightly, but that the more beautifully gifted could hold up their skirts and proceed in comfort." ”

“ Those points found to be desirable, becoming, beautiful, comfortable, appropriate, séduisant—what you will—are taken as the foundation of the next wardrobe order, and with this inside information from women who know (know the subtle distinction between daring lines and colours, which are good form, and those which are not) , the men or women who give their lives to creating costumes proceed to build. ”

“ And then he could not see her come into a room without a sense of the flowing of robes, of the flowering of blossoms, of the purple waves of the sea, of all things that are lovely and mutable on the surface but still and passionate in their heart. ”

“ Rags, which are the reproach of poverty, are the Beggar's robes, and graceful insignia of his profession, his tenure, his full dress, the suit in which he is expected to show himself in public. ”

“ I have an evening dress, pink mull over silk (I'm perfectly beautiful in that) , and a blue church dress, and a dinner dress of red veiling with Oriental trimming (makes me look like a Gipsy) , and another of rose-coloured challis, and a grey street suit, and an every-day dress for classes. That wouldn't be an awfully big wardrobe for Julia Rutledge Pendleton, perhaps, but for Jerusha Abbott—Oh, my! ”

“ There is one distinction between ours and all other books on dress that have come under our observation, and that is, that we are dealing with the necessary and not the ornamental part of clothing. Most authors who have written upon this subject have confined their attention to the history of costume, or the absurdity or elegance of some particular fashion, or of the harmony of the colours and relation of the dress to the figure of the individual, and hence have dealt only with the exterior. ”

“ There was an emptiness about the heart of life; an attic room. Women must put off their rich apparel. At midday they must disrobe. ”

“ Gathered his robes around him as he fell. ”

“ The dress of high-born ladies was very similar to that of the men, for it, too, consisted of rucked trousers, of brilliantly-coloured silk, decorated with embroidery and confined at the feet with plain gold bangles or jewelled anklets. ”

“ How well each in its way is calculated to serve the purpose for which it is designed, the simple cloth, tweed, or serge costume moulded to the lines of the figure, adapted to our changeful climate, and giving a cachet to the wearer, not always found in much more costly apparel, a rational costume in the best sense of the word, and one which women of all ages may assume with satisfaction to themselves and to those with whom [Pg 11] they come in contact. ”

“ As soon as dress became an art, and not merely an acknowledged necessity for warmth and decency, I see no reason to deny that the same decorative genius that embroidered the garment might at the same time have imagined the carving of the chair and the inlaying of the sword and bow; but as regards the precedence of the arts, we can only guess at what is probable. Beauty in dress is certainly a universal instinctive passion. ”

“ There is also a manner of dressing and of wearing, a certain elegance that distinguishes people of taste from the vulgar, which gives each portion of the dress its due importance, and imparts a harmony to the whole, as in the composition of a picture, which weaves every detail into one design and impresses the beholder as a masterpiece. ”

“ As a rule, it must be admitted that the finest fancy dress looks the best, and however charming may be the effects arrived at with muslin, cotton, crêpe, and calico, she who stands out in the vast crowd will be she who has the most magnificent clothes. The glories of brocade and satin and velvet will always hold supreme sway, allied to some distinctively grand head-dress elevated from the head on a frame and banded with jewels, with a long diaphanous veil flowing into a sumptuous length of train. ”

“ It is an easy and well-worn metaphor to talk about people's character as their dress. We speak about the 'habits' of a man, and we use that word to express both his customary manners and his costume. Custom and costume, again, are the same word. So here, without any departure from the well-trodden path of Scriptural emblem, we cannot but see in the glorious apparel the figure of the pure character with which the bride is clothed. The Book of the Revelation dresses her in the fine linen clean and white, which symbolises the lustrous radiance and snowy purity of righteousness. ”

“ All these people wore garments of exceedingly fine material, mostly white, richly trimmed with elaborate embroidery in colours or gold, the women’s dress being a long, sleeveless garment reaching from the throat to the feet and confined at the waist by an ornamental belt, handsome sandals, much jewellery, and the head bare, the heavy masses of dark hair being wound upon the head very becomingly, and intertwined with ribbon or strings of coloured beads. ”

“ It is always such colours that are chosen for what is properly called dress, or for that species of apparel in which something more than mere convenience is intended. When we speak of such dress, accordingly we generally describe its beauty by its character, by its being delicate, or rich, or gay, or magnificent, or in other words, by its being distinguished by some pleasing or affecting expression. ”

“ And when the folk of that ward sighted such mighty fine sight and marvelous spectacle, all stood at gaze and they considered the forms and figures of the handmaids, marveling at their beauty and loveliness, for each and every wore robes inwrought with gold and studded with jewels, no dress being worth less than a thousand dinars. They stared as intently at the bowls, and albeit these were covered with pieces of brocade, also orfrayed and dubbed with precious stones, yet the sheen outshot from them dulled the shine of sun. ”

“ In taking up the question of ceremonial dress among civilized peoples, we find that we have a very wide field in which to wander. We have the Court, which might alone occupy our whole attention; we have naval, military, ecclesiastical, and legal dress, the garb of the universities, the costume of pantomime [137] characters, of the acrobat, of the athlete, and the liveries of servants, besides the costumes adopted for special ceremonies and in connection with particular institutions. ”

“ Indeed, nobody can tell what is the real dress, there are nothing but dress fragments, piled one upon the other, each successive one shaped and draped more idiotically than the other, and, perhaps, of a different color, so that the ideal costume seems to be the one made up of the most senseless accumulation and mixture of rags and colors imaginable. ”

“ Your dress (as insignificant a thing as dress is in itself) is now become an object worthy of some attention; for, I confess, I cannot help forming some opinion of a man’s sense and character from his dress; and I believe most people do as well as myself. Any affectation whatsoever in dress implies, in my mind, a flaw in the understanding. Most of our young fellows here display some character or other by their dress; some affect the tremendous, and wear a great and fiercely cocked hat, an enormous sword, a short waistcoat and a black cravat ”

“ As we approach the fourteenth century--an epoch of the Middle Ages at which, after many changes of fashion, and many struggles against the ancient Roman and German traditions, modern national costume seems at last to have assumed a settled and normal character--we think it right to recapitulate somewhat, with a view to set forth the nature of the various elements which were at work from time to time in forming the fashions in dress. ”

“ In the foregoing pages we have been concerned chiefly with individual parts of costume, and while showing how various garments have reached their present form, we have busied ourselves with discovering the origin of many important survivals. We have not however hesitated, in dealing with these details, to touch on all kinds of costumes, and here and there we have left civilians’ dress for a moment to take an illustration from that of the soldier or the member of some other profession. ”

“ Their dress is that common to the humbler classes of the country—a linen frock extending the full length of the person, loosely gathered at the waist, and a veil or wimple broad enough, after covering the head, to wrap the shoulders. ”

“ Nevertheless, we may suppose that the dress of the men in the lowest ranks of society has always been short and tight, consisting of braies, or tight drawers, mostly made of leather, of tight tunics, of sayons or doublets, and of capes or cloaks of coarse brown woollen. ”

“ How was Fashion created, you ask? To answer thoroughly, we must once more go back to those distant cave-man days when dress itself had its inception. At first one simple costume for both men and women distinguished each tribe. There was nothing different in the way the skins were thrown over the body, no embellishments to render any one costume different from those worn by the others. ”