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November 2, 1867
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SUITABLE DRESS. [Victorian Servants' Clothing]
THE uniformity of dress is a characteristic of the people of
the United States. The man of leisure and the laborer, the
mistress and the maid, wear clothes of the same material and
cut. Political equality renders our countrymen and
countrywomen averse to all distinctions of costume which may
be supposed to indicate a difference of caste. The
uniformity which results is not favorable to the
picturesque, and our everyday world in America has, in
consequence, the shabby look of being got up by the Jews in
Chatham Street and turned out in a universal suit of
second-hand clothing.
Our working-people, in vindicating their claims to social
equality, by putting on their heads the stove-pipe hat and
flimsy bonnet, and clothing their bodies in tight-fitting
coats and flowing robes, not only interfere with the
picturesque, which is of minor importance, but make, we
think, an unwise sacrifice of comfort, convenience, and
economy. What could be more unfavorable to that free
movement of the muscles essential to those trades and
occupations requiring the exercise of physical force than
the scant coat and tight-fitting trowsers now in vogue? It
would be as well to put Hercules in a strait-jacket, and set
him thus accoutred to slay the hydra, as for our muscular
sons of labor to clothe themselves in suits of fashionable
cut, and so to strive at their mighty work. It is surprising
that the blouse of the French workman is not generally
adopted. Nothing can be more graceful, convenient, and
economical. Its lines are flowing, its form admits of
perfect freedom of movement, and it can be made of a
material both cheap and lasting. Artists generally adopt the
blouse for work in their studios, and thus guarantee its
tastefulness as well as utility. The free American citizen
has no reason to scorn it as a symbol of slavery. The French
blouse has vindicated its title to the drapery of a freeman
in many a bloody encounter with tyranny on the barricades
and in the streets of Paris.
As for the suitableness of the female dress of fashion to
working-day purposes no one will venture, we suppose, to
hold that crinoline is convenient in the china-closet or
safe in the proximity of a red-hot stove, and that a flowing
train of silk is the most appropriate broom for the kitchen
floor. Crinoline and train, however, are constantly found in
these inappropriate places and dangerous proximities. We can
not for the world see why Bridget and Katarina, and their
mistress too, indeed, when the occasion requires, should not
dress appropriately — to their spheres we do not say, but to
their occupations. They would be gainers in every respect —
in taste, comfort, convenience, and economy. It is quite a
mistake for the female servant to suppose that by spending
her money in gaudy dress and mock finery she advances her
social position, though with her rustling silk she may pass
in the dark, or, coming out of the front door on a Sunday,
be taken at a distance for her mistress. She may spend a
half year's wages on a flimsy bonnet, it will not avail her
— the sham lady will still be manifest. If she has personal
charms of her own and desires that they should be
appreciated, let her take the advice of the tasteful, who
will tell her that the rude freshness of natural beauty
appears to the greatest advantage in a plain setting.
A
white cap, a close-fitting jacket, with sleeves neither so
tight as to hinder movement nor so loose as to lap up the
gravy or sweep off the sherry glass, and a short skirt of
simple stuff — plain or many-colored as it may be — make an
appropriate costume for the household servant. Scraps of
cotton lace, bits of bright ribbon, and collars and cuffs of
linen, may be added according to the taste. Any one who has
seen the picture of the Chocolate Girl of the Dresden
Gallery will not doubt of the picturesque capabilities of
a dress which was so effective in this particular instance
that it procured a rich and titled husband for the original
of the portrait.
The female cap should be insisted on as an essential to
cleanliness by those who are not so sentimental as to prefer
to receive daily pledges of the cook's affection in the
shape of locks of hair in the soup.
How To
Cite This Article:
"Suitable Dress", November 2, 1867
[electronic edition]. Harper's Bazaar, Nineteenth Century
Fashion Magazine,
http://harpersbazaar.victorian-ebooks.com (2005).
MORE INFO:
Fashion Print Timeline: See hand colored antique
Victorian fashion prints of Victorian dresses from 1850 to
1865.
The Housekeeper and Nursemaid in Jane Eyre:
Just as servants played an essential role in
Victorian England, they also played an essential role in the
novel Jane Eyre.
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