Identifier: welldressedwoma00ecob (find matches)
Title: The well-dressed woman: a study in the practical application to dress of the laws of health, art, and morals
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Ecob, Helen Gilbert
Subjects: Women's clothing Women
Publisher: New York, Fowler & Wells Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
a covering supported by a head; the covering hasno relation to the head, and claims attention on itsown merits. Indeed it is scarcely fair to criticisethe existing coverings, which honestly do notstrictly pertain to any useful end, but are no morethan ornaments carried on the head. Instead of thehead being the point of honor, the apex of intelli-gence, which it is the function of the body to carryand to be subsidiary to, the interest is transferredto a mass of inanimate matter, which becomes thepoint of attention. Oscar Wilde recommends softfelt hats for both summer and winter wear. Nostriking color should ever decorate the front of thehat. It puts the complexion to an unnecessarytest, and diverts the eye from the face, the truepoint of interest. An artist would say, it throwsthe picture out of focus. It will be asked, of what advantage is artisticdress over conventional, since it demands studyand thought ? We would save time by going tothe mantua-maker and dressing in the style which
Text Appearing After Image:
ART PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO DRESS. 225 fashion determines, without the trouble of indi-vidual thought. Women who have a high purposein life, and who despise the fashion-book, yet giveit a passive acceptance because they feel that suchstudy is unworthy. Yet beauty in dress ought notto be considered a trivial subject, since it is theavenue to a healthful, self-respecting, god-rever-encing womanhood. Dress is not now ranked among the nobler arts.It never can be while it is conventional. Since itis of all arts the most difficult, its study ought notto be beneath the genius of our great artists. Thestudy of art in dress has a higher value than beingan end in itself. By it the student is brought intosympathy with the art world. Through it we mayteach simplicity, nobility, purity, refinement, andreverence of nature. Art principles applied todress relieve us of ostentation, pretence, and follyof ornament, and from the belittling influence ofthe tyranny of fashion. Conformity to conventionalusag

Note About Images