White clothing

“ In the later times the finer grades of linen for handkerchiefs, table-cloths, napkins, bedding, and suits were all imported. Cotton and cotton fabrics were introduced from the far East into Greece and thence into Rome. Silk began to be used by the women toward the end of the republic and by men under the empire.
The color of clothing was originally white, which was prescribed by law for the toga. Poor people, slaves, and freedmen had their clothing of the natural brown or black color of the wool. The mourning garments of the upper classes were of dark color—black or dark blue. ”

“ The usual dress of a coolie in summer is a loose fitting pair of cotton trousers and an equally loose jacket; but the same man in winter will be seen wearing quilted cotton clothes, or if he should be an inhabitant of the northern provinces a sheepskin robe, superadded to an abundance of warm clothing intermediate between it and his shirt. By the wealthier classes silk, satin, and gauze are much worn in the summer, and woolen or handsome fur clothes in the winter. ”

“ Some of the women are nearly white. They show much taste in the manufacture of their clothing, and make every thing durable. With their reindeer trousers, sack, shirt, and sealskin shoes they bid defiance to the most extreme cold. ”

“ Discarded clothing in which the prevailing colours are red, when made up into woof threads and woven on a white warp, gives a charming effect which may be strengthened or toned down by a border combination as desired. Dyes may, of course, be used if the colours of the weaving threads made up from old cloths and discarded clothing are not suited to the design that is to be worked out. ”

“ I haven’t the least doubt that a man, a stranger in fact, walking hatless in a fellow’s premises about dark, is an occurrence not quite of the common order. It was gratifying to me to know that night had set in enough to hide from him the clay-washed clothing I wore and the abundance of hayseed and dust that did anything but adorn my hair. ”

“ The afternoon breeze would incite to a weird and flabby activity all that crowded mass of clothing, with its vague suggestions of drowned, mutilated and flattened humanity. Trunks without heads waved at you arms without hands; legs without feet kicked fantastically with collapsible flourishes; and there were long white garments that, taking the wind fairly through their neck openings edged with lace, became for a moment violently distended as by the passage of obese and invisible bodies. ”

“ He held his hat in his hand; there was no disorder in his clothing; his coat was carefully buttoned; he was very pale, and he trembled slightly; his hair, which had still been gray on his arrival in Arras, was now entirely white: it had turned white during the hour he had sat there. ”

“ Their gown is long in the sleeves and short in the skirt—short as a Highlander's kilt, which it very much resembles, and is in most instances of a carpet-like texture. Plum-colour, blue, pink, and green, dotted with bright flowers or crossed by stripes, are the prevailing patterns; their gay tints relieving the sombre blue and black of the men. The skirt is made to fit pretty closely, much more so, indeed, than the men's breeches, and as it descends no lower than the knee, you can see that if Nature is niggard to the men she is generous to the women. ”

“ BLEACHING
217. The beauty and the commercial value of uncolored fabrics depend upon the purity and perfection of their whiteness; a man's white collar and a woman's white waist must be pure white, without the slightest tinge of color. But all natural fabrics, whether they come from plants, like cotton and linen, or from animals, like wool and silk, contain more or less coloring matter, which impairs the whiteness. ”

“ White, however, which is obtained by bleaching, may be worn with great advantage, both in summer and winter; and no dyed garment should ever be allowed to come in contact with the skin. An objection is generally raised to white clothes, that they have to be changed too often, as they get dirty so soon. ”

“ The wardrobe of the upper classes consists of the ceremonial and the house dress. The former as a rule is of fine silk, and the latter of coarser silk or cotton. They are of pink, blue, and other rich colors. The official robe is a long garment like a wrapper, with loose baggy sleeves. There are few tailors’ shops, the women of each household making the family outfit. The underdress of both sexes is a short jacket with tight sleeves, which for men reaches to the thighs, and for women only to the waist, and a pair of drawers reaching from waist to ankle. ”

“ If the weather is warm, white duck, pique or linen skirts with white shirts are worn mornings; afternoons, foulard, or some of the fine and dainty fabrics suited to the season. For evening, nothing is prettier than white for the young—and, indeed, "everybody wears white." ”

“ The Englishman, dressed in black trousers, broad sash-belts of black or red silk, which seems to make more pronounced the smooth shirt bosom, with a spotless white pea-jacket, forms a refreshing costume. Ladies almost invariably are in low-neck black dresses, with a broad piece of white lace which droops gracefully as a bertha, with bright flowers in their hair, while a band of stringed instruments makes the scene enlivening. ”

“ Trimmed suits are not yet worn, and the most usual dress is in summer, a short white waistcoat, black breeches, white silk stockings, and a frock, generally of very dark blue cloth, which looks like black; and the English seem in general to prefer dark colours. If you wish to be full dressed, you wear black. ”

“ Shooting coats that had seen better days, a dozen shabby overcoats-worn proudly through the hottest noons-raggety breeches and trousers made by some London tailor, queer baggy homemades of the same persuasion, or quite simply the square of cotton cloth arranged somewhat like a short tight skirt, or nothing at all as the man's taste ran. ”

“ The white inhabitants generally dress with great neatness in linen clothes of spotless purity. Some adhere to the black cloth coat and cravat, and look most uncomfortably clad with the thermometer from 85° to 90° in the shade. The men’s dress, whether Negro or Indian, is simply a pair of striped or white cotton trowsers, to which they sometimes add a shirt of the same material. The women and girls on most gala occasions dress in pure white, which, contrasting with their glossy black or brown skins, has a very pleasing effect ”

“ Just an edge of gray blue and silver ribbon showing beyond the neck edge of a navy blue frock will tone it attractively.
For street wear you have quite a variety from which to choose. Navy blue, gray, henna and neutral shades such as taupe.
If your skin is clear and you have good color you can wear black well.
In cottons, there are lovely flower sprigged dimities in gray and blue tones which are becoming to an older woman. Gray swiss dotted in blue is another good choice for the gray haired woman. Black and white effects too in voile, dimity, and swiss are considered very smart. ”

“ A débutante should always wear white, made as becomingly and elaborately as possible. For her assistants, white or very light-colored gowns.
For Men.—When calling, at afternoon teas, receptions, etc., during the fall and winter, the correct dress is a double or single breasted frock coat of black or very dark gray, soft cheviot or vicuna, with double or single breasted vest, either to match the coat or of fancy cloth. Trousers of gray; white linen; a broad, folded tie of light-colored silk; top hat, gray gloves, and patent-leather shoes. ”

“ Some bring in clothes, to be sure, because the white man asks it; but why no sensible man could say. They are hung from one shoulder, flap merrily in the breeze, and are always quite frankly tucked up about the neck or under the arms when the wearer happens to be in haste. As a matter of fact these savages are so beautifully and smoothly formed; their red-brown or chocolate-brown skin is so fine in texture, and their complete unconsciousness so genuine that in an hour the newcomer is quite accustomed to their nakedness. ”

“ In the summer seasons, when comparatively idle, the clothing traded from the whites is preferred on account of its superior texture and color, but in their usual occupations, in winter, at war, in the chase, or any public ceremonies among themselves, very few articles of dress thus obtained are seen, if we except some blankets, undercoats, scarlet cloth, and ornaments. 585 Their own dresses of skins fancifully arranged, adorned with feathers, beads, shells, and porcupine quills, are much more highly prized by them than any article of dress of European manufacture introduced by the traders. ”

“ At no period in the history of costume were the styles so offensive to those with a true conception of colour and form than in the first half of the nineteenth century. We have only to turn to the sketches of Leech and contemporary artists to find bare necks and arms, conspicuous underwear, very short skirts distended by a stiffened petticoat or crinoline, white cotton stockings, low shoes fastened by a strap and single button, mushroom hats, aprons and pinafores devoid of elegance and grace, and the hair cut close to the head or arranged in rows of stiff ringlets. ”

“ Over this, a veil or shawl of coarse white cotton is thrown, which hangs down to the waist, serving to cover the mouth, while the bosom is left exposed, for Eastern and Western ideas of decorum differ in some things.... In a country where nothing changes, through age after age, the dress of to-day is very likely, in most respects, the same as it was two thousand years ago, though the prevailing color of the Hebrew dress, at least in the better classes, was the natural white of the materials employed, which the fuller made even whiter. ”

“ Settling down to ease, in the case of the African porter, consists in discarding as many clothes as possible. While on the march he wears everything he owns; whether from pride or a desire to simplify transportation I am unable to say. He is supplied by his employer with a blanket and jersey. As supplementals he can generally produce a half dozen white man's ill-assorted garments: an old shooting coat, a ragged pair of khaki breeches, a kitchen tablecloth for a skirt, or something of the sort. If he can raise an overcoat he is happy, especially if it happen to be a long, thick WINTER overcoat. ”

“ The universal white "waist" is very pretty and trim on the American girl. It is one of the distinguishing marks of a land of the free, a land where "class" hardly exists. The girl in the store wears the white waist ”

“ May we not learn from hence that black clothes are not so fit to wear in a hot, sunny climate or season as white ones?" That all summer hats, particularly for soldiers, should be white, and that garden walls intended for fruit should be black, were suggestions put forth as a result of this experiment. ”

“ At gentlemen's furnishing stores, you could buy shirts cut and made in the latest style, the neckbands of which always seemed to fit, or else the men discreetly refrained from grumbling when they had spent so much money. And women began to find it eased their burdens.
No one wanted home-knit stockings, the English and French and Germans sent us such perfect ones. White was still all the style, unless you wore black, or blossom-coloured silk. Of course there were common people who put slate-colour on their children, because white made so much washing. ”

“ He decided to wear white flannel trousers—white flannel trousers and a black jacket, with a silk shirt and his new peach-coloured tie. And what shoes? White was the obvious choice, but there was something rather pleasing about the notion of black patent leather. ”

“ The best compromise is a gray, and I wonder that in our climate that practical fact, which was once known and acted upon, has ever been allowed to die out. Those wise and discerning forefathers of ours, who utilized the serviceable gray suits, were best informed, after all, in the matter of color of dress, for health as well as for service.
Fashion, in these later times, has misled once more, by the introduction of the incorrigible black clothing for the outer suit of men and women. ”

“ Most of the locally-woven cloths are white, and a visitor from the south cannot fail to be struck with the rarity of colour in the dress of the women. The men's cloths are often red, but the dye is applied after, and not before, the weaving. ”

“ Out of the shadows and hesitations of childhood they had stepped suddenly into manhood and womanhood, with firm feet and uplifted heads. All the day that was theirs they worked, picking the Silver Fleece—picking it tenderly and lovingly from off the brown and spent bodies which had so utterly yielded life and beauty to the full fruition of this long and silken tendril, this white beauty of the cotton. ”

“ Although in a climate the annual average of which is 81° Fahr., clothes are all but unnecessary, the natives nevertheless manifest an extraordinary passion for European clothing, and when it seemed impracticable by any other means to elicit an expression of pleasure on their calm, indifferent, emotionless countenances, it was always possible to succeed by presenting them with a shirt, a coat, or a black silk round hat. ”

“ The upper classes adopt American and European fashions, and costly articles of wearing apparel are in demand. Women, as a rule, wear white dresses the year round, or those of a light pink or blue gauzy stuff. At parties or balls the dress is usually white and very light. Little jewelry is worn. In the street a woman always wears a mantilla or a shawl covering her head. ”