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FASHIONS IN WAISTS

BY ROBERT MACHRAY.

THE history of costume is like a great procession, interminable, swiftly changing, almost kaleidoscopic, but always interesting. Now a stately, perhaps sombre, pageant, now a gay and sparkling carnival, it is ever a curious yet truthful commentary on every phase of the Passing Show, reflecting its tragedy or its comedy, its sadness or its frivolity, with extraordinary faithfulness.

At first sight "Fashions in Waists" seems almost a trivial subject, but that has not been the view of a striking number of very eminent people. Kings have deemed it necessary to issue edicts to regulate the making of "waists," and Napoleon went so far as to say tint the strength or the weak­ness of a nation was to be seen at a glance in the waists of its women. Satirists and other keen critics of life and manners have made the extravagances and eccentricities of "waists" congenial themes for the sharpening of their wits, as may be seen in the pages of Montaigne or Rousseau and many another writer. The light but yet penetrating shafts from such pens were not without their effect, especially when they were reinforced by the unanimous voices of painters and sculptors, who protested against any disfigurement of the beauty of the human form, and by the testimony of famous naturalists like Cuvier, who hesitated not to say that the laws of health could not be disregarded with­out incurring the severest penalties. And it certainly would seem to be the case that narrow waists and tight-lacing are to be found in periods marked by a lax morality and a low degree of artistic feeling. A generalisation of this kind, however, is apt to be too sweeping, and it is well to remember that there are exceptions to every rule.

We are accustomed to look upon the waist as the natural, essential point of departure of all the lines of the female costume, because the "waist" of the present day is nearly always modelled in harmony with the structure of the body, and the "waist" coincides with the actual waist. Fashions in waists for many years past have varied very slightly, and the waist no longer plays so important a part as it formerly did, when on its position and form the whole character of a woman's dress might be said to depend. It is to be hoped in the best interests of the race that fashion will long continue to follow the dictates of reason founded upon the teachings of Nature and of experience. But fashions in waists have gone through many changes in the past, and I hope I may not be accused of cynicism if I add, will doubtless go through many more.

The Greeks and Romans were

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