HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME
Here is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:
We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of
Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your
attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent.
Granted that you decide on a court costume, one of those made so
familiar by the paintings of the great Velasquez, let your first step be
to get a definite impression of the _outline_ of such a costume. Go to
art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for books on
costumes, with plates.
You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt
periods, there are a variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope
of the hip line and the outline of the skirt is the infallible hall-mark
of each of these periods.
Let it be remembered that the outline of a woman includes hair, combs,
head-dress, earrings, treatment of neck, shoulders, arms, bust and hips;
line to the ankles and shoes; also fan, handkerchief or any other
article, which if a silhouette were made, would appear. The next step is
to ascertain what materials were available at the time your costume was
worn and what in vogue. Were velvets, satins or silks worn, or all
three? Were materials flowered, striped, or plain? If striped,
horizontal or perpendicular? For these points turn again to your art
gallery, costume plates, or the best of historical novels. If you are
unable to resort to the sources suggested, two courses lie open to you.
Put the matter into the hands of an expert; there are many to be
approached through the columns of first-class periodicals or newspapers
(we do not refer to the ordinary dealer in costumes or theatre
accessories); or make the effort to consult some authority, in person or
by letter: an actor, historian or librarian. It is amazing how near at
hand help often is, if we only make our needs known. If the reader is
young and busy, dancing and skating and sleeping, and complains, in her
winsome way, that "days are too short for such work," we would remind
her that as already stated, to carefully study the details of any
costume, of any period, means that the mind and the eye are being
trained to discriminate between the essentials and non-essentials of
woman's costume in every-day life. The same young beauty may be
interested to know that at the beginning of Geraldine Farrar's career
the writer, visiting with her, an exhibition of pictures in Munich, was
amazed at the then, very young girl's familiarity with the manner of
artists--ancient and modern,--and exclaimed "I did not know you were so
fond of pictures." "It's not that," Farrar said, "I get my costumes from
them, and a great many of my poses."
PLATE XVII
Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, patron of the arts,
exhibited in New York at Duveen Galleries during Winter of
1916-1917 with the Zuloaga pictures. The exhibition was
arranged by Mrs. Lydig.
This portrait has been chosen to illustrate two points: that
a distinguished decorative quality is dependent upon line
which has primarily to do with form of one's own physique
(and not alone the cut of the costume); and the great value
of knowing one's own type.
Mrs. Lydig has been transferred to the canvas by the clever
technique of one of the greatest modern painters, Ignacio
Zuloaga, an artistic descendant of Velasquez. The delightful
movement is that of the subject, in this case kept alive
through its subtle translation into terms of art.
[Illustration: _A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig.
By I. Zuloaga_]
Outline and material being decided, give your attention to the character
of the background against which you are to appear. If it is a ball-room,
and the occasion a costume-ball, is it done in light or dark colours,
and what is the prevailing tone? See to it that you settle on a colour
which will be either a harmonious note or an agreeable, hence impressive
contrast, against the prevailing background. If you are to wear the
costume on a stage or as a living picture against a background arranged
with special reference to you, and where you are the central figure, be
more subtle and combine colours, if you will; go in for interesting
detail, provided always that you make these details have meaning. For
example, if it be trimming, pure and simple, be sure that it be applied
as during your chosen period. Trimming can be used so as to increase
effectiveness of a costume by accentuating its distinctive features, and
it can be misused so as to pervert your period, whether that be the age
of Cleopatra, or the Winter of 1917. Details, such as lace, jewels,
head-dresses, fans, snuff-boxes, work baskets and flowers must be
absolutely of the period, or not at all. A few details, even one
stunning jewel, if correct, will be far more convincing than any number
of makeshifts, no matter how attractive in themselves. Paintings, plates
and history come to our rescue here. If you think it dry work, try it.
The chances are all in favour of your emerging from your search
spell-bound by the vistas opened up to you; the sudden meaning acquired
by many inanimate things, and a new pleasure added to all observations.
That Spanish comb of great-great-grandmother's is really a treasure now.
The antique Spanish plaque you own, found to be Moorish lustre, and out
of the attic it comes! A Spanish miracle cross proves the spiritual
superstition of the race, so back to the junk-shop you go, hoping to
acquire the one that was proffered.
Yes, Carmen should wear a long skirt when she dances, Spanish pictures
show them; and so on.
The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one
in touch, not only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the
customs of the times. Once steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and
artists, how quick the connoisseur is to recognize Spanish influence on
the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your expert in costumes of
nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of dynasties
and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has
extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them,
and when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of
studying history.
If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one
with inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data
on periods in dress, as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of
this there is verily no end.
We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for
one in pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.
There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair
is worn, from Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's
sleeve, its ups and downs and ins and outs as shown in art; the
separation of the waist from skirt, and ever changing line of both; the
neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and how the necklace
changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the Greeks
into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.
One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance,
the joyous optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so
simple with all the material,--old and new, lying about one.
Ah, that is the pitfall--the very abundance of those plates in wondrous
books, old coloured prints and portraits of the past. To some students
this kaleidoscopic vision of period costumes never falls into definite
lines and colour; or if the types are clear, what they come from or
merge into remains obscure.
For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of
data a system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of
the human body, a framework on which to build. If our historical outline
be clear enough to impress the mental vision as indelibly as those
primary maps of the earth did, then we feel persuaded, the textless
books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve their end as
never before. We humbly offer what we hope may prove a key to the rich
storehouse.
Simplicity, and pure line, were lost sight of when overabundance dulled
the senses of the world. We could prove this, for art shows that the
costuming of woman developed slowly, preserving, as did furniture, the
same classic lines and general characteristics until the fifteenth
century, the end of the Middle Ages.
With the opening up of trade channels and the possibilities of easy and
quick communication between countries we find, as we did in the case of
furniture, periods of fashion developing without nationality. Nations
declared themselves in the artistry of workmanship, as to-day, and in
the modification and exaggeration of an essential detail, resulting from
national or individual temperament.
If you ask, "Where do fashions come from,--why 'periods'?" we would
answer that in the last analysis one would probably find in the
conception of every fashion some artist's brain. If the period is a good
one, then it proves that fate allowed the artist to be true to his muse.
If the fashion is a bad one the artist may have had to adapt his lines
and colour or detail to hide a royal deformity, or to cater to the whim
of some wilful beauty ignorant of our art, but rich and in the public
eye.
A fashion if started is a demon or a god let loose. As we have said,
there is an interesting point to be observed in looking at woman as
decoration; whether the medium be fresco, bas relief, sculpture, mosaic,
stained glass or painting, the decorative line, shown in costumes,
presents the same recurrent types that we found when studying the
history of furniture.
For our present purposes it is expedient to confine ourselves to the
observation of that expression of civilisation which had root, so far as
we know, in Assyria and Egypt, and spread like a branching vine through
Byzantium, Greece, Rome, Gothic Europe and Europe of the Renaissance, on
through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, down to
the present time.
Costumes for woman and man are supposed to have had their origin in a
cord tied about the waist, from which was suspended crude implements
(used for the slaying of beasts for food, and in self-defence); trophies
of war, such as teeth, scalps, etc. The trophies suspended, partly
concealed the body and were for decoration, as was tattooing of the
skin. Clothes were not the result of modesty; modesty followed the
partial covering of the human body. Modesty, or shame, was the emotion
which developed when man, accustomed to decoration--trophies or
tattooing--was deprived of all or part of such covering. What parts of
the body require concealment, is purely a matter of the customs
prevailing with a race or tribe, at a certain time, and under certain
conditions.
This is a theme, the detailed development of which lies outside the
purpose of our book. It has delightful possibilities, however, if the
plentiful data on the subject, given in scientific books, were to be
condensed and simplified.
PLATE XVIII
Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) who has been one of the
greatest beauties of modern times and a marked example of a
woman who has always understood her own type, to costume it.
She agrees that this photograph of her, in an evening wrap,
illustrates a point she has always laid emphasis on: that a
garment which has good lines--in which one is a
picture--continues wearable even when not the dernier cri of
fashion.
This wrap was worn by Mrs. Langtry about two years ago.
[Illustration: _Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap_]