202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



one life) spent to no useful purpose ; which, for purposes of re- 

 spectability, goes as far as a very considerable unproductive con- 

 sumption of goods. The offensiveness of crude taste and vulgar 

 display in matters of dress is, in the last analysis, due to the fact 

 that they argue the absence of ability to afford a reputable amount 

 of waste of time and effort. 



Effective use of the means at hand may, further, be taken to 

 argue efficiency in the person making the display ; and the dis- 

 play of efficiency, so long as it does not manifestly result in pe- 

 cuniary gain or increased personal comfort, is a great social desid- 

 eratum. Hence it happens that, surprising as it may seem at first 

 glance, a principle of pseudo-economy in the use of materials has 

 come to hold a well-secured though pretty narrowly circumscribed 

 place in the theory of dress, as that theory expresses itself in the 

 facts of life. This principle, acting in concert with certain other 

 requirements of dress, produces some curious and otherwise inex- 

 plicable results, which will be spoken of in their place. 



The first principle of dress, therefore, is conspicuous expen- 

 siveness. As a corollary under this principle, but of such magnifi- 

 cent scope and consequence as to claim rank as a second funda- 

 mental principle, there is the evidence of expenditure afforded by 

 a constant supersession of one wasteful garment or trinket by a 

 new one. This principle inculcates the desirability, amounting to 

 a necessity wherever circumstances allow, of wearing nothing 

 that is out of date. In the most advanced communities of our 

 time, and so far as concerns the highest manifestations of dress 

 e. g., in ball dress and the apparel worn on similar ceremonial oc- 

 casions, when the canons of dress rule unhampered by extraneous 

 considerations this principle expresses itself in the maxim that 

 no outer garment may be worn more than once. 



This requirement of novelty is the underlying principle of the 

 whole of the difficult and interesting domain of fashion. Fashion 

 does not demand continual flux and change simply because that 

 way of doing is foolish ; flux and change and novelty are de- 

 manded by the central principle of all dress conspicuous waste. 



This principle of novelty, acting in concert with the motive of 

 pseudo-economy already spoken of, is answerable for that system 

 of shams that figures so largely, oj)enly and aboveboard, in the 

 accepted code of dress. The motive of economy, or effective use 

 of material, furnishes the point of departure, and this being given, 

 the requirement of novelty acts to develop a complex and exten- 

 sive system of pretenses, ever varying and transient in point of 

 detail, but each imperative during its allotted time facings, edg- 

 ings, and the many (pseudo) deceptive contrivances that will oc- 

 cur to any one that is at all familiar with the technique of dress. 

 This pretense of deception is often developed into a pathetic, child- 



