IS A NATION'S CHARACTER REVEALED IN ITS DRESS?


ALS IK KAN
IS A NATION'S CHARACTER RE-
.VEALED IN ITS DRESS?
HE           immediate history of any na-
         tion is told from   day to   day
         through its fashions; not only its
         political history but the changing
 conditions in the civic, social and religious
 world. We have grown accustomed to the
 idea that nationally we are revealing our
 soul to the world in our architecture, that
 our homes are as a printed page for the
 world to read, but we are not apt to realize
 how completely the fashion world is a rev-
 elation of the civilization which presents it.
   Of course I do not mean that each fash-
 ion detail presents a revolutionary na-
 tional idea, although as each style is an
 expression of a thought it is more signifi-
 cant than we realize; but taken as a whole
 from season to season and year to year
 there can be no doubt that we can read of
 the changing ideals of a nation in the
 changing dress of the women, particularly
 in woman's dress because in our present
 civilization women have more time to give
 to such details than men have.
    Possibly a few concrete examples will
  make more clear just what I have in mind.
  If we contrast for a moment the dress of
  tOie Puritan woman of the early days of
  the settlement at Plymouth Rock with the
  style of costume worn by the native wo-
  man of the Zenanas. in India we shall not
  need histories or poems or paintings to tell
  us the truth about the lives of these wo-
  men.
    The Puritan girl in her soft brown wool
  frock, homespun, just escaping the ground,
  full enough to walk with ease, not too full
  to be ungraceful a short bodice reaching
  the natural waistline of the human figure,
  open at the throat for comfort as she
  stooped about her daily tasks, the outline
  softened by a snowy kerchief which added
  to her beauty and gave a sense of her per-
  sonal exquisiteness, her hair rolled pleas-
  ingly not too rigidly away from her face
  and caught in place with a snowy cap, her
  loose great coat for stormy days which she
  wove herself in warm colors and her bon-
  net for wintry days, close fitting, simple,
  becoming, are expressions of the condi-
  tions which surrounded her. We do not
  need a library to tell us the quality of this
  woman, a worker, stern in her spirituality,
  faithful in her love, capable in her -home,
  622


simple in her manner and beautiful in her
person. We know the home she lived in,
we see the times that bred her.
  The costume of the East Indian woman
will not take so long to describe. It is
usually gauze some fitteen yards in circum-
ference, heavy   with  gold   embroidery,
capped with a tiny coat that does not reach
to the bust, held at the waist with gold and
jeweled bands, a gauzy sleeve, the bust re-
vealed, the hair elaborately plaited and
strung with jewels, the mouth scarlet and
the eyes darkened, the entire body shown
through the masses of green or scarlet, the
ankles and feet bare except for tiny san-
dals. Surely the history of fler race is told
in this dress, the history of her domestic
life, her spiritual, her political status made
clear. For of what use in her home or in
the world can a woman be standing help-
less in the midst of fifteen yards of gauze
with heavy anklets of metal circling her
feet, and her little body bared to the heat
and the cold.
   From this contrast of costume a glimpse
of the old Greek dress will help us again.
It belonged to a civilization of the great-
est mental and spiritual freedom. The wo-
men were great mothers, strong friends,
the inspiration of the men they dwelt with,
a force in the government of their world.
Their gowns were neither scant nor loose,
they just escaped the ground, they were
caught about the waist and bust for con-
venience and beauty, they outlined the fig-
ure, protected it, concealed it.. The arms
were free and the neck unhampered, the
hair was caught high and held in place
with beautiful ornaments.  The women
were free to think, free to work, free to
achieve, and helped to produce the most
beautiful civilization in the world, of which
their dress embodies the beauty. One could
go on through the pages of history and
never fail to find a direct and intimate cor-
respondence between dress and environ-
ment; for fashion is, as we have said, but
the embodiment of the thought of the age.
   Mainly, whenever women planned and
 made their own gowns, fashions have been
 attractive, they have been suited to the
 needs of the people, expressing their inter-
 est in comfort and beauty. It is only since
 women have been able to purchase gowns
 that the eccentricities of fashion have de-
 veloped and that whole nations have been
 dressed absurdly, uncomfortably, unbeau-
 tifully; because in buying rather than mak-