204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It may be noted, by the way, that this requirement, that women 

 must appear to be idle in order to be respectable, is an unfortu- 

 nate circumstance for women who are compelled to provide their 

 own livelihood. They have to supply not only the means of liv- 

 ing, but also the means of advertising the fiction that they live 

 without any gainful occupation; and they have to do all this 

 while encumbered with garments specially designed to hamper 

 their movements and decrease their industrial efficiency. 



The cardinal principles of the theory of woman's dress, then, 

 are these three : 



1. Expensiveness : Considered with respect to its effectiveness 

 as clothing, apparel must be uneconomical. It must afford evi- 

 dence of the ability of the wearer's economic group to pay for 

 things that are in themselves of no use to any one concerned to 

 pay without getting an equivalent in comfort or in gain. From 

 this principle there is no exception. 



2. Novelty: Woman's apparel must afford 'prima facie evi- 

 dence of having been worn but for a relatively short time, as 

 well as, with respect to many articles, evidence of inability to 

 withstand any appreciable amount of wear. Exceptions from 

 this rule are such things as are of sufficient permanence to be- 

 come heirlooms, and of such surpassing expensiveness as nor- 

 mally to be possessed only by persons of superior (pecuniary) 

 rank. The possession of an heirloom is to be commended because 

 it argues the practice of waste through more than one generation. 



3. Ineptitude : It must afford prima facie evidence of incapaci- 

 tating the wearer for any gainful occupation ; and it should also 

 make it apparent that she is permanently unfit for any useful 

 effort, even after the restraint of the apparel is removed. From 

 this rule there is no exception. 



Besides these three, the principle of adornment, in the aesthetic 

 sense, plays some part in dress. It has a certain degree of eco- 

 nomic importance, and applies with a good deal of generality; 

 but it is by no means imperatively present, and when it is present 

 its application is closely circumscribed by the three principles 

 already laid down. Indeed, the office of the principle of adorn- 

 ment in dress is that of handmaid to the principle of novelty, 

 rather than that of an independent or co-ordinate factor. There 

 are, further, minor principles that may or may not be present, 

 some of which are derivatives of the great central requisite of 

 conspicuous waste ; others are of alien origin, but all are none the 

 less subject to the controlling presence of the three cardinal prin- 

 ciples enumerated above. These three are essential and constitute 

 the substantial norm of woman's dress, and no exigency can per- 

 manently set them aside so long as the chance of rivalry between 



