ritative.

My first _Carmen_ clothes were very _Opera Comique_ and not at all
Spanish gipsy. I studied the Spanish cigarette girls and those of gipsy
blood as carefully as possible, and my idea of the role changed
naturally. I went to Muelle one summer, and told her that I was no
longer happy in satin princess dresses. She said that Zuloaga had just
designed and superintended the making of Breval's clothes for the
_Comique's_ real Spanish revival of _Carmen_. She could duplicate these
for me as she knew just where to send in Spain for the flowered cottons
in garish colours, and the shot silk scarfs that Zuloaga had imported
for Breval. I was delighted at this and adapted the costumes to my
needs, using the last one exactly as Zuloaga had intended, with the huge
red comb, made specially in Spain.

When I sang _Carmen_ before Prince Henry of Prussia in Darmstadt, he
sent word to me that my skirts were too long, no Spanish woman wore them
so long. I knew, however, that they were the right length, and any one
can see by studying Zuloaga's paintings that the soubrette length skirt
is not worn on the proud, swinging hips of the Spanish girl. I have been
told by Spaniards that I am an exact reproduction of a Spanish gipsy as
_Carmen_, which shows my studies were not in vain. People have said that
Merimee's and Bizet's _Carmen_ is not Spanish, and perhaps they are
right; but in aiming to portray a Spaniard, what model can one take but
a real one?

My _Orfeo_ clothes I have never changed. The _crepe de chine_ for them
was imported by Mounet-Sully for one of his characters, and Muelle gave
me the piece that was left over. Its beautiful creamy colour and thick
softness cannot be improved upon, to my mind.

Marie Muelle is now the first operatic costumer of the world. This
reputation she has built unaided through her own unfailing energy.
Through her rooms pass the most fabulous-priced opera singers, the
greatest actors, the stage beauties, famous managers, producers, and
designers, the ladies of the great world seeking costumes for wonderful
private _fetes_--and gentlemen seeking the ladies--all the varied crowd
of many nationalities to whom the old childish pastime of "dressing up"
is a business or a pleasure. The present establishment in the rue de la
Victoire is quite impressive. The hall is usually half-filled with the
trunks of "Muelle artists" engaged in America, who bring their things
into New York in bond to avoid payi