FASHION IN DRESS.
On the general subject of “Fashion in Dress,” Mrs. Bloomer wrote to Charlotte A. Joy, June 3, 1857, as follows:
“Your letter inviting me to attend the annual meeting of the National Dress Association to be held in Syracuse on the 17th inst. is received. Owing to the great distance and my imperfect health, it will be impossible for me to be with you on that occasion, much as I should be pleased to meet some of the members personally and listen to their deliberations on so important a subject as a reform in woman’s costume.
“At the present moment there is perhaps no subject which is more frequently pressed upon the attention of the public than that of dress. Our magazines are radiant with fashion plates illustrating the latest styles; our newspapers abound with allusions and discussions bearing upon the subject, as though it were a matter of national concernment; and it is continually the theme of conversation and a subject either of praise or satire wherever men and women meet together. It would be fortunate, indeed, if this discussion should result in securing a reform in all those styles and modes of woman’s dress which are incompatible with good health, refined taste, simplicity, economy and beauty; and it is to be hoped that the labors of your association may be so discreetly directed and so faithfully prosecuted, that they may go far to the accomplishment of this end.
The costume of woman should be suited to her wants and necessities. It should conduce at once to her health, comfort, and usefulness; and, while it should not fail also to conduce to her personal adornment, it should make that end of secondary importance. I certainly need not stop to show that these conditions are not attained by the present style of woman’s dress. All admit that they are not. Even those who ridicule most freely the labors of your association are ready to admit the folly and inutility of the prevailing styles.
“It is well, perhaps, in the present aspect of the movement, that its friends should abstain from prescribing any particular form of dress. It is better to learn wisdom from the experience of the past and, while successively lopping off all excrescences, produce at last that outward form of personal garniture which shall most fully secure the great end to be attained.
“What may be the next feat of the fickle goddess of Fashion, or how near or how soon it may approach the more rational and more desirable form recommended by your association, none can say. At present, we must admit, the reform dress is quite obnoxious to the public and all who bear testimony in its favor, either by precept or example, must expect to meet with some trials and discouragements; yet it may, as you believe it will, be ultimately adopted. In bringing about such a result your association will have a leading part to perform, and in your labors you will have the good wishes, if not the active coöperation, of all who desire the emancipation of woman from the tyranny of prejudice and fashion.
“A. B.”