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- Herausgeber: Seltzer Books
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
Practical clothing advice for women, first published in 1897. "Did you ever observe, dear comrade, what an element of caricature lurks in clothes? A short, round coat on a stout man seems to exaggerate his proportions to such a ridiculous degree that the profile of his manly form suggests "the robust bulge of an old jug." A bonnet decorated with loops of ribbon and sprays of grass, or flowers that fall aslant, may give a laughably tipsy air to the long face of a saintly matron of pious and conservative habits. A peaked hat and tight-fitting, long-skirted coat may so magnify the meagre physical endowments of a tall, slender girl that she attains the lank and longish look of a bottle of hock..."
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Seitenzahl: 66
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WHAT DRESS MAKES OF US BY DOROTHY QUIGLEY
Published by Seltzer Books
established in 1974, now offering over 14,000 books
feedback welcome: [email protected]
War of the Sexes, Victorian Style - Books about differences and conflicts between men and women, available from Seltzer Books:
Modern Marriage and How to Bear It by Braby
How to Cook Husbands by Worthington
The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives by Worthington
The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book by Bigelow
What a Young Woman Ought to Know by Wood-Allen
What a Young Husband Ought to Know by Stall
The Eugenic Marriage by Hague
Golden Steps to Respectability, Usefulness, and Happiness by Austin
Aims and Aids for Girls and Women on the Various Duties of Life by Weaver
The Business of Being a Woman by Tarbell
What Dress Makes of Us by Quigley
Woman as Decoration by Burbank
Women as Sex Vendors by Tobias
Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Freud
An Ideal Husband by Wilde
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Crane
Nana by Zola
Madame Bovary by Flaubert
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
Illustrations by ANNIE BLAKESLEE
1897
I am indebted to the editors of the New York Sun and New York Journal for kindly allowing me to include in this book articles which I contributed to their respective papers.
PREFACE.
CHAPTER I. HOW WOMEN OF CERTAIN TYPES SHOULD DRESS THEIR HAIR.
CHAPTER II. HINTS FOR THE SELECTION OF BECOMING AND APPROPRIATE STYLES IN HEAD-GEAR.
CHAPTER III. LINES THAT SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AND CONSIDERED IN MAKING COSTUMES.
CHAPTER IV. HOW PLUMP AND THIN BACKS SHOULD BE CLOTHED.
CHAPTER V. CORSAGES APPROPRIATE FOR WOMEN WITH UNBEAUTIFULLY MODELLED THROATS AND SHOULDERS.
CHAPTER VI. HINTS ON DRESS FOR ELDERLY WOMEN.
CHAPTER VII. HOW MEN CARICATURE THEMSELVES WITH THEIR CLOTHES.
PREFACE.
Did you ever observe, dear comrade, what an element of caricature lurks in clothes? A short, round coat on a stout man seems to exaggerate his proportions to such a ridiculous degree that the profile of his manly form suggests "the robust bulge of an old jug."
A bonnet decorated with loops of ribbon and sprays of grass, or flowers that fall aslant, may give a laughably tipsy air to the long face of a saintly matron of pious and conservative habits.
A peaked hat and tight-fitting, long-skirted coat may so magnify the meagre physical endowments of a tall, slender girl that she attains the lank and longish look of a bottle of hock.
Oh! the mocking diablery in strings, wisps of untidy hair, queer trimmings, and limp hats. Alas! that they should have such impish power to detract from the dignity of woman and render man absurd.
Because of his comical attire, an eminent Oxford divine, whose life and works commanded reverence, was once mistaken for an ancient New England spinster in emancipated garments. His smoothly shaven face, framed in crinkly, gray locks, was surmounted by a soft, little, round hat, from the up-turned brim of which dangled a broken string. His long frock-coat reached to just above his loosely fitting gaiters.
The fluttering string, whose only reason for being at all was to keep the queer head-gear from sailing away on the wind, gave a touch of the ludicrous to the boyish hat which, in its turn, lent more drollery than dignity to the sanctified face of the old theologian. Who has not seen just such, or a similar sight, and laughed? Who has not, with the generosity common to us all, concluded these were the mistakes and self-delusions of neighbors, relatives, and friends, in which we had no share?
I understand how it is with you. I am one of you. Before I studied our common errors I smiled at my neighbor's lack of taste, reconstructed my friends, and cast contemptuous criticism upon my enemies. One day I took a look at myself, and realized that "I, too, am laughable on unsuspected occasions."
The humbling knowledge of seeing myself objectively, gave me courage to speak to the heart of you certain home truths which concern us all, in homely language which we can all understand.
That you may discern the comicality and waggery in ill-chosen clothes, I have endeavored to hint to you in these talks some of the ways gew-gaws and garments make game of us.
May you discover that your dress is not making you a laughable object; but if, by any chance, you should note that your clothes are caricaturing you, take heart. Enjoy the joke with the mirth that heals and heartens, and speedily correct your mistakes.
The lines of your form, the modelling of your face, are they not worthy of your discerning thought? Truly! Whatever detracts from them detracts from sculpture, painting, and poetry, and the world is the loser.
A word to the thinking is sufficient.
D.Q.
CHAPTER I. HOW WOMEN OF CERTAIN TYPES SHOULD DRESS THEIR HAIR.
The pleasing, but somewhat audacious statement of the clever writer who asserted, "In the merciful scheme of nature, there are no plain women," is not as disputable as it may seem. Honest husbands, to be sure, greet the information with dissenting guffaws; gay deceivers reflect upon its truth by gallantly assenting to it, with a mocking little twinkle in their eyes; and pretty women, upon hearing it, remark sententiously "Blind men and fools may think so." Discerning students of womankind, however, know that if every woman would make the best of her possibilities, physically, mentally, and spiritually, it would be delightfully probable that "in the merciful scheme of nature" there need be no plain women.
Have we not Lord Chesterfield's word for it, that "No woman is ugly when she is dressed"?
It is no unworthy study to learn to make the best of, and to do justice to, one's self. Apropos of this, to begin—where all fascinating subjects should begin—at the head, it behooves every woman who wishes to appear at her best, to study the modelling of her face that she may understand both its defective and perfect lines. By a proper arrangement of her hair a woman can do much to obscure or soften her bad features, and heighten the charm of her good ones.
Romancers have written, and poets have sung, of the bewitchment in nut-brown locks, golden tresses, and jetty curls. Every woman, if so inclined, may prove for herself the transfiguring effect in a becoming coiffure. In fact, the beauty of a woman's face and her apparent age are greatly affected by the way she wears her hair.
A most important detail that too few consider, is, the proper direction in which to comb the hair. Women literally toss their tresses together without any attention to the natural inclination of the individual strands or fibres. They comb their hair "against the grain." Those who do so never have beautifully and smoothly arranged coiffures. Each little hirsute filament has a rebellious tendency to go in the direction nature intended it should, and refuses to "stay where it is put," giving the head in consequence, an unkempt and what is termed an "unladylike" appearance. The criss-cross effect resulting from combing and arranging the hair contrary to "the grain" is conspicuously apparent in the coiffure of no less a personage than Eleanora Duse, who, as may be seen from the picture, pays little attention to the natural tendency of the dark tresses that cover her shapely head. The bang has the dishevelled appearance of a pile of jack-straws. The side-locks instead of being combed or brushed to follow the contour of the head, fall loosely and fly in opposite directions.
