THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF WOMAN'S DRESS. 201 



fabrics that are preferable to it in all respects but that of expense. 

 So also the ostrich plumes and the many curious effigies of plants 

 and animals that are dealt in by the milliners. The list is in- 

 exhaustible, for there is scarcely an article of apparel of male or 

 female, civilized or uncivilized, that does not partake largely of 

 this element, and very many may be said, in point of economic 

 principle, to consist of virtually nothing else. 



It is not that the wearers or the buyers of these wasteful goods 

 desire the waste. They desire to make manifest their ability to 

 pay. What is sought is not the de facto waste, but the appear- 

 ance of waste. Hence there is a constant effort on the part of 

 the consumers of these goods to obtain them at as good a bargain 

 as may be ; and hence also a constant effort on the part of the 

 producers of these goods to lower the cost of their production, 

 and consequently to lower the price. But as fast as the price of 

 the goods declines to such a figure that their consumption is no 

 longer 'prima facie evidence of a considerable ability to pay, the 

 particular goods in question fall out of favor, and consumption 

 is diverted to something which more adequately manifests the 

 wearer's ability to afford wasteful consumption. 



This fact, that the object sought is not the waste but the dis- 

 play of waste, develops into a principle of pseudo-economy in the 

 use of material ; so that it has come to be recognized as a canon 

 of good form that apparel should not show lavish expenditure 

 simply. The material used must be chosen so as to give evidence of 

 the wearer's (owner's) capacity for making it go as far in the way 

 of display as may be ; otherwise it would suggest incapacity on 

 the part of the owner, and so partially defeat the main purpose of 

 the display. But what is more to the point is that such a mere 

 display of crude waste would also suggest that the means of dis- 

 play had been acquired so recently as not to have permitted that 

 long-continued waste of time and effort required for mastering 

 the most effective methods of display. It would argue recent ac- 

 quisition of means ; and we are still near enough to the tradition 

 of pedigree and aristocracy of birth to make long-continued pos- 

 session of means second in point of desirability only to the pos- 

 session of large means. The greatness of the means possessed is 

 manifested by the volume of display ; the length of possession is, 

 in some degree, evidenced by the manifestation of a thorough 

 habituation to the methods of display. Evidence of a knowledge 

 and habit of good form in dress (as in manners) is chiefly to be 

 valued because it argues that much time has been spent in the 

 acquisition of this accomplishment ; and as the accomplishment 

 is in no wise of direct economic value, it argues pecuniary ability 

 to waste time and labor. Such accomplishment, therefore, when 

 possessed in a high degree, is evidence of a life (or of more than 



