A DRESS CRUSADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3348, 14 October 1911, Page 4

A DRESS CRUSADE.

CHANGES IN THE WESTERN WORLD. What changes have the autumn fashions in store for the western world ? The question is already being asked in London and Paris, and, no doubt, in Melbourne. The general expectation is that the full skirt will be po,pu : liar once more. Meanwhile a band of Parisian artists have inaugurated a revolution against the dresses which, as they say, “no longer drape tho human body, but hold it up to ridicule.” Tnese artists have arranged a great doll show, in which 000 manikins, each half a yard high, will be set up in rows. Each will be garbed in a newly-invented style, every “creation” being invented by a painter, sculptor, or draughtsman. No professional dressmaker will be allowed to contribute to the exhibition. Each costume, we are told, will be “artistic, natural, and in good taste.” Certainly, the era of the hobble skirt and its sister barbarisms has already been too long. If a change does not come soon we may have the powers that be intervening in the interests of propriety and good taste. The Italian newspapers tell us that the Catholic .priest have just received one of their periodical instructions to institute a crusade against the exaggerations of feminine attire. In the south of Italy the clergy have adopted a novel method for dealing with the evil. They have recruited bands of small boys, who have been instructed to follow women appearing in the streets in tight gowns or transparent blouses, and hiss them. Surely a novel method of securing feminine dress reforms.