It is very difficult, we might say impossible, to give any definite
rules about dress. Fashions change so continually, that if we were
to write a dissertation upon peplums, and trains, and gores, or give
directions how to cut them out or make them, almost by the time this
manual should come into circulation, they would have become portions
of the past, and our hints would seem absurd and out of place. All
that has seemed feasible to us we have done, which has been to give
certain hints that the rocks upon which so many split, who make great
endeavours to be well dressed, might be avoided by our readers.
There is no doubt that every one wishes to dress well, whatever her
means may be; and that no one thinks she dresses ill, whatever the
world may think of her performance. We look at ourselves through
coloured glass, and are apt to take the most favourable view of our
own peculiarities--
"O, wad some power the giftie gie us,
To see ourselves as others see us."
There are rules in dress, as there are in painting, which, if
observed, will prevent our making "frights" of ourselves. Anyone
who starts for herself on a new line, and, throwing to the wind the
received laws, adopts and carries out some crude theory of her own,
however much she may entertain herself by her experiments, runs a
great chance of making a figure of herself, and will infallibly obtain
a reputation for conceit and affectation. No woman, unless she is a
star of great magnitude, or a belle of note, can with impunity set
at nought the received customs. She is by no means bound to follow
fashion so implicitly and subserviently as to mar her own beauty. But
a clever woman will always be able to avoid affronting fashion
while she takes a line of her own. We use this phrase with a certain
limitation, because if a woman were to take a line of her own
unrestricted by certain "convenances" of society and of fashion, she
would certainly fall into the very error which we should be the first
to declaim against, namely--the error of eccentricity. A due regard
for these "convenances" will ensure that sense of propriety in dress
which will make everyone remember both her station and her means. The
fine lady will not effect the simplicity of the village girl, nor
the village girl aspire to be mistaken for the fine lady. Both
will maintain their own positions, and will be respected while they
maintain them.
Let it also be borne in mind that a bonnet or cap, mantle or gown, may
be very pretty in itself and very becoming to some persons, but not
necessarily to everyone; generally to only a few. The young and the
old have each their privileges. The one must not dress like the other.
Though we have seen some who have been foolish enough to forget the
years that have passed, and cannot realise the fact that they are no
longer young, and vie with the youngest in the youthfulness of their
attire, we do not, we admit, often find the young endeavouring to
make themselves look older than they are. One who has thought much and
written well on this subject says, "Doubtless if there were any way of
making old people young, either in looks or anything else, it would
be a delightful invention; but meanwhile juvenile dressing is the last
road we should recommend them to take."
In conclusion, let every woman bear in mind that dress denotes
character, that there is a symbolism in dress which they who have
studied the matter can read without difficulty.