THE LADIES’ WORLD

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2534, 22 June 1909, Page 7

THE LADIES’ WORLD

A CHAT ABOUT HOOKS AND EYES

How did ladies fasten their dresses when there were no hooks and eyes? The hook and eye is a simple contrivance known ;to every child,/ari t d made so familiar’.by everyday use that' its. wearer never steps to enquire, about its origin.©o'r >go rback-to -the timd i 'when it had no existence and 1 could not .be bought;,for so many .a-nbnny. ‘ ; The samcient i method :?•" of fastening dresses was by mrians of pins, brooches,'’ buckles, and. tie-strings. .The modern safety-pin, for instance, is really Abe’ ancient Etruscan fibula in slightly modified form. The Greek toga wap held in place by two brooches, and in ancient English >costumcs: the bodice-was. sometimes laced? or tied together. Later on buttons came into fashion, and have, been found on costumes of. the sixteen-. th century. They have had a long and prosperous reign.?-. t Under the name of crochet and loop* the hook and,eye form of fastening l wasin use as early, as the, .fourteenth . contury. }> Hooks jajid' ; eye,S, as.bwe. .k-noiVi them, evidently came, into fashion.; or were revived, in the reign • .of. - King George 111.,,,and, began to oust, their first cousin the button from its popularity, for a curi6us <f odp,to:the' King,’’; published in 1784, jests at King George’s hobby of turning buttons ;of mother-of-pearl and other substances with a lathe in the following amusing mariner:”.'-: r/j o .< h

“In vain unnatural hooks and eyes Combined in' foul rebellion rise, And strive to eclipse, thy glories.’ Through many' ‘ages' still unborn The well-turned button shall he worn. The pride of future glories. Then shall my lofty numbers tell Who taught the royal bribes' to.- spell And sovereign’s arts pursue. ' To mend a; watch,, or; set (a? clock,: v „ New patterns 7 shape for : Harvey’s frock v > t i it. fj h Of buttons made at-'Kew.”

The “unnatural hooks; and eyes,” however, seem to have gained so, much in favour that ajter a time an attempt was made to introduce them on men’s garments. “Within my recollection," says a . writer in “Notes and Queries,’’ 1860, “an attempt has been made to substitute books and eyes for buttons on the male dress, but to no purpose. As to how the ladies; managed before hooks and eyes were invented, I leave to the initiated in such matters to determine.” - ; -

In 1853 hooks and- 1 eyes were being made by machinery in Birmingham, each machine turning out four thousand hooks in an j hour, and , their manufacture was -considered so curious and interesting that it .was minutely-, described by a writer in one of the magazines. diaries Dickens had a sly hit at difficult dress, fastenings; in the “Pickwick Papers,” when he tells of the girls who were all crying out to be l “done up” oil the wedding morning, for they had fastenings on the backs of their dresses, and: were helpless by He also mentions hooks and eves in “Nicholas Nickelby,”' when he refers to “now and then tyiner a string or fastening a hook and eye. ’ In 1554 a branch of the strict Mennonites broke off from the general..body and were called “Hook and eye-ers,' because they employed hooks and eyes instead of buttons on their dress. The Mcnnonites are the followers iof Menno, of Holland, who was the founder of the reformed Anabaptist School .after the death of John of Leyden. Many of their tenets resemble those of ’be Quakers. They are divided into Mild and Strict Menuonites^ ; and the .Hook and Eye-ers were probably, the .Mui. ones, who were not; averse to ■Tfifor'vasr in dress, which were held to he unseemly by their more strict brethren.- ’ It is a far cry from the ancient fibula to the modest little hook arid eye of to-day, but, having traced the descent of the one from the other, we- are bound to confess?that though less elaborate; the latter is more adaptable and conducive jto comfort. The success of a modern blouse or bodice depends very much on its-neat and secure fastening. and to achieve this it is important to havq books and-eyes .that will remain iniviriblei and not be luvely to tear the garment during the wearer's efforts to unfasten it quickly. ( < There are hooks and eyes -and- l:oo«s and eyes, arid" so' many worthhUs j ones aro put on the market that/ tao orc&s- , makerifs them altogether, and go. back to the tron ble of m aking loops- once Unc-r-e, instead of using the clumsy and iushaped eyes which ironmonld in trie wash and spoil the material. One ot the commonest ways for a- hmne mhv;© blouse or frock to fall short of; the professional'effort is in the •• litt © details of finish; Thest* little things eount very highlv for the critical eye' notes .them at mice. The manner in winch the' hook and eye' is applied, arid espema. ythe manner of its fashioning, i S; ot immense importance,- and there is; U-yt the slightest need to - buy the clumsy affairs that swamped the mark it. a w * Npt Uon£ ; agd> t>efbrm a '.Select-. ,Clomjnittce of the House of Commons, Mr J. G. Newey.: of ißirmmgbam; .lnfomied, the chairman. Sir Thomas M .pttak-T; that all hooks and -Oyes beanr> - his name -were no»v caiaeut uj , .. * . micl ; tlrat "young "girls operauhg machines, wereable to earn .good yvage& on an eight-liririr-day; system, c Here at U-ast is no sweated labor! • ,