The day is past when latitude or great variety in dress is considered original. Clothes, if they are startling at all, must be startling in a degree to be borne. A train cannot be worn where only a short skirt is in order, nor can an abbreviated drapery go where full dress is required. A garden party, for instance, or an out-of-door tea at a private house demands a muslin, a silk, or, at any rate, an elaborate toilet, while at a golf club, such dress is absurd, except for the elderly or non-players. In winter, frills and furbelows, if they are worn at all, are worn at large teas, the plain tailor-made suit having gone out for such purposes. However, it is difficult to follow the vagaries of fashion in these regards.
For morning wear, no dress can be too simple. Luncheons are growing more and more informal. When distances are great, however, and one dresses for calls in the part of town where the luncheon is, afterward, more elaborateness of dress is allowed.
The best advice to all girls upon the subject must be, not to be overdressed, nor yet to be careless in the matter. They should attire themselves according to their circumstances, and should, above all things, avoid all extremes of fashion, as well as all eccentricities of style.
Only quiet colors should be worn either to church or on the street, and wherever girls go they should endeavor to be unconscious of their personal appearance.
The woman who is overdressed at an afternoon reception is much more uncomfortable than she who is gowned with the simplicity of a Quaker. A well fitting wool gown, a becoming bonnet, a fresh pair of gloves, and one is suitably dressed as a caller.
A girl of fourteen should not wear her hair done up, and her gown should come just below her ankles.
It is not in good taste for a young girl to wear diamond rings; if she is fortunate enough to possess them, let her keep them carefully until she is older, and then she may wear them with perfect propriety.
It is in very bad taste to wear a dressing-sacque when breakfasting in a public dining-room of a hotel. Such an undress costume is only permissible in one’s own room.
A frock coat is, under no circumstances, a correct garment for a man to wear at an evening dance, neither is a Tuxedo or dinner coat. The proper dress is a full dress suit, with white vest and white string tie. Possibly a dinner coat might be allowable at a very small and very informal dance, but a frock coat never.
A man should wear a white tie with a dress suit at any large formal entertainment, such as a ball, the opera, a wedding reception, a large dinner party, etc., and on all occasions where he wears a white waistcoat. He should wear a black tie at the theater, at a small dinner, in calling, and at home with his dinner coat.