The Mirror of the Graces: Containing General Instructions for Combining Elegance, Simplicity, and Economy with Fashion in Dress; Hints on Female Accomplishments and Manners; and Directions for the Preservation of Health and BeautyLady of distinction, active 19th century
History
The Mirror of the Graces: Containing General Instructions for Combining Elegance, Simplicity, and Economy with Fashion in Dress; Hints on Female Accomplishments and Manners; and Directions for the Preservation of Health and Beauty
Lady of distinction, active 19th century
Beauty, Personal; Clothing and dress -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Etiquette -- Great Britain
“Who is there among us that has not witnessed a beautiful woman so
apparelled as to render her rather an object of pity and ridicule than
of admiration? How often do we see simplicity and youthful loveliness
obscured by a redundancy of ornaments! How often do the robust and
healthy, the majestic and the gay, the pensive and the sportive,
follow the same mode; marring, mingling and mangling without mercy,
and without taste; regardless of discrimination, appropriation, or
judgment; to the total overthrow of the attractions which nature
liberally bestowed! Do not these ladies perceive that each style of
personal beauty has a distinct character to support? That a tasteful
adaptation will enforce the stamp which nature has impressed? Let
us then admonish the female whose beauty is of the fair, pale,
and interesting cast, not to render her appearance insipid by the
overpowering hues of robes, mantles, pelisses, &c. of amber, orange,
grass-green, crimson, or rose-color. This soft style of beauty makes
its appeal to our most delicate perceptions; all grossness of color
displeases them, and therefore should not be admitted in the articles
of her dress.
“Grass-green, though a color exceedingly pleasing and refreshing in
itself, jaundices the complexion of the pale woman to such a degree, as
to excite little other sensations in the beholder than compassion for
the poor invalid. Such females should, in general, choose their robes
of an _entire color_; and when they wear white garments, they should
animate them with draperies, mantles, scarfs, ribbons, &c. of pale
pink, blossom-color, celestial blue, lilac, dove-color, and primrose;
leaving full green, deep blue, and purple, to the florid; and amber,
scarlet, orange, flame-color, and deep rose, to the brunette.
“Thus much we offer in the suitable appropriations of colors. We
shall now proceed to say something on the prevailing fashions of the
day; and though we may fairly congratulate our countrywomen on their
taste and improvement in this particular, yet here also the regulating
hand of judgment, the nice and discriminating effects of genius, and
the directing influence of a delicate and just taste, become most
importantly necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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