University of Virginia Library

THE MODE.

What a variety of changes there has been in
the costumes of men and women since the fig-leaf
garments were in vogue! And these millions of
changes have, each and all, had their admirers, and
every fashion has been, in its day, called beautiful.
It is evident, therefore, that the reigning
fashion, whatever it be, comprehends the essence
of the agreeable, and that to continue one particular
mode or costume, beautiful for successive ages,
it would only be necessary to keep it fashionable.
Some nations have taken advantage of this principle
in the philosophy of dress, and have, by that
means, retained a particular mode for centuries;
and there is no doubt the belles of these unfading
fashions were, and are, quite as ardently admired,
as though they had changed the form of their apparel
at every revolution of the moon.

In some important particulars these fixed planets
of fashion certainly have the advantage over those
who are continually displaying a new phasis.

They present fewer data for observation, and consequently,
the alterations which time will bring to
the fairest person is less perceptible, or, as they
always seem the same, less noted. There are few
trials more critical to a waning beauty, than the
appearing in a new and brilliant fashion. If it becomes
her, the whisper instantly runs round the
circle, “how young she looks!”—a most invidious
way of hinting she is as old as the hills;—if it
does not become her, which is usually the case,
then you will hear the remark, “what an odious
dress!”—meaning, the wearer looks as ugly as the
Fates.

The contrast between a new fashion and an old
familiar face instantly strikes the beholder, and
makes him run over all the changes in appearance
he has seen the individual assume; and then, there
is danger that the antiquated fashions may be revived—and
how provoking it is to be questioned
whether one remembers when long waists and
hoops, and ruffled-cuffs were worn!—A reference
to the parish-register, or the family-record, would
not disclose the age more effectually.

Nor are the youthful exempted from their share
in the evils of change. It draws the attention of
the beholder to the dress, rather than the wearers;
and it reminds bachelors, palpably and alarmingly,
of the expense of supporting a wife who must thus

appear in a new costume every change of the
mode.

Now, as it is fashion which makes the pleasing
in dress, were one particular form retained ever so
long, it would always please, and thus the unnecessary
expense of time and money be avoided;
and the charges of fickleness and frivolousness entirely
repelled. We have facts to support this
opinion.

Is not the Spanish costume quite as becoming
as our own mode? and that costume has been unchanged,
or nearly so, for centuries; while the
French and English, from whom we borrow our
fashions (poor souls that we are, to be thus destitute
of invention and taste)! have ransacked nature,
and exhausted art, for comparisons and terms
by which to express the new inventions they have
displayed in dress.

We are aware that a certain class of political
economists affect to believe that luxury is beneficial
to a nation—but it is not so. The same reasoning
which would make extravagance in dress
commendable, because it employed manufacturers
and artists, would also make intemperance a virtue
in those who could afford to be drunk, because the
preparation of the alcohol employs labourers, and
the consumption would encourage trade. All
these views of the expediency of tolerating evil

are a part of that Machiavellian system of selfishness
which has been imposed on the world for wisdom,
but which has proved its origin by the corrupting
crimes and miseries men have endured
in consequence of yielding themselves dupes or
slaves of fashion and vice.

We do hope, indeed believe, that a more just
appreciation of the true interests and real happiness
of mankind will yet prevail. The improvements,
now so rapidly progressing, in the intellectual
and civil condition of nations must, we
think, be followed by a corresponding improvement
in the tastes and pursuits of those who are
the elité of society. Etiquette and the fashions
cannot be the engrossing objects of pursuit, if people
become reasonable—the excellencies of mind
and heart will be of more consequence to a lady
than the colour of a riband or the shape of a bonnet.
We would not have ladies despise or neglect
dress. They should be always fit to be seen;
personal neatness is indispensable to agreeableness
—almost to virtue. A proper portion of time and
attention must scrupulously be given to external
appearance, but not the whole of our days and
energies. Is it worthy of Christians, pretending
to revere the precepts of Him who commanded
them not to “take thought what they should put
on,” to spend their best years in studying the form

of their apparel? Trifles should not thus engross
us, and they need not, if our citizens would only
shake off this tyranny of fashion, imposed by the
tailors of Paris and London, and establish a national
costume, which would, wherever an American
appeared, announce him as a republican, and the
countryman of Washington. The men would probably
do this, if our ladies would first show that
they have sufficient sense and taste to invent and
arrange their own costume (without the inspiration
of foreign milliners) in accordance with those
national principles of comfort, propriety, economy,
and becomingness, which are the only true foundation
of the elegant in apparel.

It is not necessary to elegance of appearance,
nor to the prosperity of trade, that changes in
fashion should so frequently occur. Take, for instance,
the article of shoes. What good consequence
results from a change in the fashion of
shoes?

If we have a becoming and convenient mode,
why not retain it for centuries, and save all the
discussions about square-toed, round or peaked—
and all the other ad infinitum changes in cut and
trimmings? And if the hours thus saved were devoted
to reading or exercise, would not the mind
and health be more improved than if we were employed

in deciding the rival claims of the old and
new fashion of shoes to admiration?

Such portions of time may seem very trifling,
but the aggregate of wasted hours, drivelled away
thus by minutes, makes a large part of the life allotted
us.

We by no means advocate an idle and stupid
state of society. Excitement is necessary; emulation
is necessary; and we must be active if we
would be happy. But there are objects more worthy
to call forth the energies of rational beings
than the tie of a cravat, or the trimming of a bonnet.
And when the moral and intellectual beauty
of character is more cultivated and displayed, we
hope that the “foreign aid of ornament” will be
found less necessary; and when all our ladies are
possessed of “inward greatness, unaffected wisdom,
and sanctity of manners,” they will not find
a continual flutter of fashion adds any thing to the
respect and affection their virtues and simple graces
will inspire.