ANTI-FASHION CRUSAVE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3666, 30 October 1912, Page 9

ANTI-FASHION CRUSAVE

A ONE-PIECE DUES?

Th-' New York women crusaders against “the mad tyranny of fashion, and the unhygienic character of the latest styles'’ in woman’s dress have at last found a proselyte in Mrs Nina Wilcox Putman, a magazine writer of note and wife of the publisher of that name, who is brave enough to act in accordance with her beliefs instead of merely giving literary expression to them.

A few months ago, Mrs Putman, who is twenty-three years of age, designed a dress in harmony with the ideas of the crusaders, and she has now written a letter to Miss Ida Tarbell describing the social martyrdom she has since suffered. “In my new dress,” says Mrs Putman. “I am covered from head to foot without the use o.f the ton to twenty hideous, uncomfortable, and unnecessary garments, and without vulgarising the shapes of modern fashions. It is an extremely becoming dress, j'ot, because it docs not conform with the prevailing unhealthy and restricting styles, I am stared at and jeered at wherever I appeal. •‘At the opera, where I am surely the most fully covered female present, nermle gaze at mo as if I am a wild animal,"“and the air resounds with remarks such as ‘How peculiar,’ and How shocking.’ Several dear, prim old ladies have cut my acquaintance because they find my dress indecent. My gentlemen friends have taken me severely to task for being eccentric, though they know that my dress- is beneficial to health. Everywhere I am made to feel like a pariah, and am regarded as a curiosity.”