"Yes," said he, "they are very smart; with them it is paint and feathers, and hooray! all the time."
I was told that the Marchioness of Lorne, during her residence in Canada, had set the example of the greatest simplicity in dress.
American ball-toilettes are ravishing. Here the diamonds are in place. I do not know any gayer, more intoxicating sight than an American ballroom. The display of luxury is on a gigantic scale. The walls are covered with flowers, the rooms artistically lighted, the dancing animated, and the true spirit of gaiety everywhere visible. The young women are ideal in beauty and brilliancy; and if it were not for the atmosphere, which is hot enough to hatch silkworms, you would pass the evening in an ecstacy of enjoyment.
Low-necked dresses are much worn by American women, not only at balls and dinners, but at their afternoon receptions. It seems very odd to us Europeans to see a lady in a low-necked ball-dress, at four in the afternoon, receiving her friends, who are habited in ordinary visiting toilettes or tailor-made gowns. I should not have said "ordinary," as there is nothing ordinary in America, especially in the way of women's dress. In France, a hostess seeks to make show of simplicity in her reception toilettes, so as to be likely to eclipse no one in her own house.
Low dresses are universal in America; old ladies vieing with young in the display of neck and shoulders. It is true, the Americans are not peculiar in this. Many times, in a European ballroom, have I longed to exclaim:
"Ladies, throw a veil over the past, I pray you."
You may see some wonderful costumes in the streets of the large towns, disguises rather than dresses. The well-bred woman wears quiet colours on the street, but the other wears loud ones. I have seen dresses of an orange terra-cotta shade trimmed with huge bands of bright green velvet; costumes of violet plush worn with sky-blue hats, and other atrocities enough to make one's eyes cry for mercy. Violet and blue! Oh, Oscar Wilde! I thought you had been in America.
The wives of men with middle-class incomes imitate the luxury of the millionaire's wife. I expected to find it so: in a Democratic country the frogs all try to swell into oxen. They puff themselves out until they burst; or, rather, until their husbands burst.