fad March.
We should never have pictured the Strnits Settlements as a suitable field for dress reform. Yet one of the latest issues of a Singapore journal contains the report of " lecture delivered there by a local physician on the subject of hygienic clothing as iota to the tropics. Whilst acknowledging ourselves to be singularly impressed by the exalted rate of intellectual enthusiasm displayed by attendance at health lectures given in such a high temperature, we confess we are a little doubtful as to the ultimate success of the present lecturer's theories. For, as' defined by the meaty doctor, the vestural tissue, as Carlyle called it, assumes such appalling' possibilities that we shudder to think of our friends in to sbaliave that the belles of that Singapore adopting it. Are we really
place have consented to assume "a thin woollen garment to. be worn next the skin, with high neck and Jong sleeves, and 40 fashioned as to completely cover the upper and lower extremities, thereby avoiding the needless stispension of clothing from the waist?" We are glad to say that over this the doctor kindly allows his patients to wear "an outer dress of any material the taste of the wearer directs but he qualifies this appar rent concession to feminine weakness by adding that "this dress must be hung from the shoulders, and thus save any compression at the waist. Corsets, of course, he would' like absolutely to forbid, except for "the diseased and deformed" (sic); and the shoes he recommends for ladies' wear in Singapore are to be "made of canvas with leather soles, scarcely any heels, and fitting accurately to the foot."
Our imagination comes forcibly into play on reading these astounding statements an it be that bead; the lecturer has a Beardsleyan or Whistlerian love of poking sly fun at his audience, or does he seriously contemplate a state of things when Singapore-dames will proudly sally forth to advertise his "thin woollen garment and outer dress To our less educated minds it would seem wiser to restrict the material permitted for the said outer dress to some stuff of sufficient weight and consistency to entirely conceal the garment underneath: If left to the dis-¢retion of the wearer, the Municipal The W.-C. herald and S.
Comnci] or whatever august body regulates matters of law and order in Singapore, may find their office no sinecure should the health lecturer's costume be adopted. he temperature of the Straits Settlements naturally suggests muslin or some other flimsy material as most fitting for the outer garment. Therefore words fail us when we picture a fair being of noble and generous cie airily clad in a' muslin ress, hanging loosely from the shoulders, and wem above a skintight woollen garment, displaying every line and curve of the figure Even the dowdy disfigurement of canvas shoes with low heels could hardly
of such raiment. The lecturer so Aetract from the thrilling possibilities strenuously insisted on the entire absence of petticoats that we feel now we are not doing him the injustice of misinterpreting the theories stated so clearly. In fact the poor petticoat came in for a perfect volley of abuse; and the only argument that could apparently be urged to its advantage was "its useful ness as a means of decoration." Veils, also, lost all their seduce tive Suggestiveness when they were label wt mere man as "being comantetidafle: for: purely: mechanical reasons;" and the hint that the female hair could easily be arranged in such a way us to preclude all necessity for hats or bonnets is hardly likely to find favour whilst Paris millinery holds supreme sway.
Whilst the doctor's theories with regan] to men's dress in the tropics were much more reasonable, and infinitely less ridiculous than those quoted above; we can see that he has certainly no sympathy. with Professor Teufelsdrickh's idea that the first purpose of clothes was not warmth or decency, but ornament. He strongly advises, for ordinary wear, nether garments of such baggy protions that we fancy it must be Singapore fro: jackets. He de-difficult to distinguish the mashers of
blores the use for the hair; and we should say would be properly severe upon the present fashion waxing the moustache @ la Mephistapholes or the Emperor of Germany. He must thoroughly approve of the existence of the Bluecoat School for he wages a bitter war against any sort of gear, except in cases of absolute baldness. But it is as the prophet of the "thin woollen garment for both sexes" that he waxes most, eloquent, although he does not tell us whether it is to Jaeger or to Dickins and Jones that we must apply for its purchase. In future, the pleasant discussion of chiffons at noon tea or a ladies' tiffin will probably resolve itself into the possibility of varying the cut and- colour of this universal garment. We do not know how many disciples the lecturer has Socal" in Singapore.
Gazette.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.