The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 356, October 23, 1886.Various
General
The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII: No. 356, October 23, 1886.
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
From a recently-published book I gather the following ideas, and as they
coincide with what I am always impressing on my readers with reference
to tight dresses and stays, I quote them gladly, as showing that there
are other sensible women in the world, a class which I hope will every
day increase:--"If you lace tightly, nothing can save you from acquiring
high shoulders, abnormally large hips, varicose veins in your legs, and
a red nose. Surely such penalties, to say nothing of heart disease,
spinal curvature, and worse, are sufficiently dreadful to deter either
maids or matrons from unduly compressing their waists? No adult woman's
waist ought to measure less in circumference than twenty-four inches at
the smallest, and even this is permissible to slender figures only. The
rule of beauty is that the waist should be twice the size of the throat.
Therefore, if the throat measure twelve and a half inches, round the
waist should measure twenty-five. The celebrated statue know as the
'Venus de Medici,' the acknowledged type of beauty and grace, has a
waist of twenty-seven inches, the height of the figure being only five
feet two inches."
And, while on this subject, I must mention that some new stays, made of
elastic material, have recently been advertised, which I should imagine
were comfortable. Dr. Jaeger also has an elastic knitted bodice on his
list, which is in reality a description of stays, and would afford
sufficient support to a slight figure.
The illustrations to our dress instructions of this month show the
prevailing characteristics of the gowns of the month, and also
demonstrate how little change there is in them. As the majority of the
community is still moving about at this season, most of the dress
thought about and worn is suitable for travelling, as well as autumn.
Now that we no longer think it needful to put on all our old clothes and
to make our appearance grotesque, as was formerly the case, we very
frequently follow the French and American plan, and have a special dress
made for the tour we are about to undertake, which will do for day wear,
as well as for journeying while we are away; then, furnished with a
second nice black silk or satin for very best occasions, we are
sufficiently well clad for every purpose. A dust cloak, travelling
cloak, and short jacket are added, and some wise people take their fur
capes; in fact, for short expeditions of a month or six weeks we do not
like large trunks nor encumbrances, so we curtail all our wants, and are
so much the happier, having less anxiety and worry. In addition to all
this, we save our shillings in fees, and charges for over-weight, very
considerably, and, when we are rid of the heavy trunks, last, not least,
we break no backs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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