Etiquette

by Agnes H. Morton

The second point of harmony is the appropriateness of dress to the occasion when it is worn.

Dinners, balls, and formal receptions are occasions that call for handsome dress. This may range in cost to include some very inexpensive but artistic costumes, the quality of good style not being confined to the richest fabrics. But the inexpensive gown should have a character of its own, and not be suspected of any attempt to imitate its priceless rivals.

The degree of full-dress worn at dinner varies with the formality of the occasion and the fashions prevailing in the social circle represented. On very grand occasions a very rich and stylish costume may be required. In general, a lady wears her choicest silk or velvet gown at a dinner. The intrinsic value of the fabric is more important in dinner dress than in dress worn on other occasions, since the company are few in number and thrown into close proximity, where leisurely observation and criticism are inevitable. A gown that would pass muster in a crowd, may not stand the calm scrutiny of the dinner-table fourteen. The style of cut and the trimmings of a dinner gown may be as severely plain or as voluminously dressy as the character of the occasion and the personnel of the company may indicate and the wearer's instinctive sense of propriety may suggest.

A ball or a formal reception in the evening is a time to display one's prettiest gowns and all the jewels which one possesses. Fabrics of infinite variety, from velvet and brocade to diaphanous tissues, are suitable; and the possibilities in trimmings, in lace and flowers and jeweled ornaments, are unlimited. In the fancy costumes suitable for these showy occasions there is wide opportunity for the ingenious girl to make herself bewitching without greatly depleting her purse. The most becomingly dressed woman is not always the most expensively dressed. General effect strikes the eye of the observer who has not time to study special quality in the kaleidoscopic scene presented by the ball-room or reception throng.

At an afternoon tea, the hostess should dress richly enough for dignity, but without ostentation. As on all occasions, a woman should never be over-dressed in her own house. Her gown should not be so gorgeous that any one of her guests, even the poorest, need feel embarrassed by the contrast.

If several ladies join the hostess in receiving, they wear handsome reception toilets. Other guests come in ordinary walking dress, but it should be stylish and well-kept. A "second-best" gown, though neat enough for informal calls, may not be elegant enough for a tea or for formal visiting. But if a lady's means are limited, and her well-preserved old gown is the best that she can command, perfect neatness and a delicate disposal of lingerie will disguise the ravages of time, and make the "auld cla'es look a'maist as weel's the new."

Indeed, effective dressing, ultimately resolved, is a matter of refined ingenuity. As David, subtly endued with power, with a smooth stone from the brook vanquished the armor-clad Philistine giant, so the woman with a genius for the artistic details of dress, even though it be a last-year's gown, may triumph over another who has blindly clad herself according to the latest conventional pattern, but without regard to what is becoming to herself.

Happy the woman whose bank account permits her to give perfect expression to her taste. Not so happy, but still happy, the woman whose taste meets the emergency, despite a slender purse. But oh! most miserable the woman of stolid, unimaginative nature, whose luxurious wardrobe suggests nothing but the dollar-mark.

Not that I advance the poetical idea of "sweet simplicity" always and everywhere. Not that the rich gown is in itself objectionable, or the inexpensive dress intrinsically beautiful. It is not invariably true that "beauty unadorned is most adorned." It is not true that a "simple calico" is more charming than a sheeny silk, nor is cotton edging to be compared with point or duchess lace.

But the really beautiful in dress, as before stated, lies in its perfect congruity. According to this standard, the calico is sometimes more effective than the silk, and vice versa; and neither is effective if worn at inappropriate times, or under unsuitable conditions.