THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF WOMAN'S DRESS. 205 



persons in respect of wealth remains. Given the possibility of a 

 difference in wealth, and the sway of this norm of dress is inevi- 

 table. Some spasm of sense, or sentiment, or what not, may from 

 time to time create a temporary and local diversion in woman's 

 apparel ; but the great norm of " conspicuous waste " can not be 

 set aside or appreciably qualified so long as this its economic 

 ground remains. 



To single out an example of the temporary effect of a given 

 drift of sentiment, there has, within the past few years, come, and 

 very nearly gone, a recrudescence of the element of physical com- 

 fort of the wearer, as one of the usual requirements of good form 

 in dress. The meaning of this proposition, of course, is not what 

 appears on its face ; that seldom happens in matters of dress. It 

 was the show of personal comfort that was lately imperative, and 

 the show was often attained only at the sacrifice of the substance. 

 This development, by the way, seems to have' been due to a rami- 

 fication of the sentimental athleticism (flesh-worship) that has 

 been dominant of late ; and now that the crest of this wave of sen- 

 timent has passed, this alien motive in dress is also receding. 



The theory of which an outline has now been given is claimed 

 to apply in full force only to modern woman's dress. It is obvi- 

 ous that if the principles arrived at are to be applied as all-decid- 

 ing criteria, "woman's dress" will include the apparel of a large 

 class of persons who, in the crude biological sense, are men. This 

 feature does not act to invalidate the theory. A classification 

 for the purpose of economic theory must be made on economic 

 grounds alone, and can not permit considerations whose validity 

 does not extend beyond the narrower domain of the natural sci- 

 ences to mar its symmetry so far as to exclude this genial volun- 

 teer contingent from the ranks of womankind. 



There is also a second, very analogous class of persons, whose 

 apparel likewise, though to a less degree, conforms to the canons 

 of woman's dress. This class is made up of the children of civil- 

 ized society. The children, with some slight reservation of course, 

 are, for the purpose of the tlieory, to be regarded as ancillary 

 material serving to round out the great function of civilized 

 womankind as the conspicuous consumers of goods. The child in 

 the hands of civilized woman is an accessory organ of conspicu- 

 ous consumption, much as any tool in the hands of a laborer is 

 an accessory organ of productive efficiency. 



ExPEEiMENTs to determine whether air when dried became electrified, reported 

 upon by Lord Kelvin in the British Association, were interpreted as indicating 

 that the effect was really due, not to bubbling or other motion that might cause 

 friction, but to true electrification of the vapor in the air. 



