ill confirm; for in past ages the clothing of women did not change very
rapidly. There is hardly any difference between the costume of 1755 and
that which Queen Marie Leszczynska wore ten years later; in Greece,
between B.C. 500 and 400, the Ionic _chiton_ and _himation_ varied but
little; the Doric _chiton_ did not vary at all; the variations in the
over-mantle were not considerable. Any examination of early sculpture,
of Attic vases, or of terra cottas, will show that this is true. The
ladies of Queen Elizabeth's court, together with their royal mistress,
wore the same kind of clothes through their adult years. Their clothes
were sometimes costly, but when bought they were bought, and until worn
out were not discarded. And our grandmothers had that famous
black-silk dress, so sturdy that it stood up by itself, very like a
Victorian virtue; it lasted a lifetime, sometimes became an heirloom.

There was no question then of fashion following on fashion at a whirling
pace. Women were clothed, sometimes beautifully, sometimes hideously,
but at any rate they scrapped their gowns only when they were worn out;
now they scrap them as soon as they have been worn. The results of this
I deal with further on, but here already I can suggest these results by
quoting a few facts. Before me lies one of Messrs. Barker's
advertisements; it seems that there are reception gowns, restaurant
gowns; that there are coats for the races, and coats for the car, wraps
for one thing, and wraps for another--and the advertisement adds that
these are the "latest novelties" for "the coming season", and that all
this is "for the spring." And then there is an advertisement of Messrs.
Tudor Brothers, who have gowns for Ascot, and--this is quite true--gowns
for Alexandra Day.

I have looked in vain for gowns for July 23, for gowns to be worn
between a quarter past eleven and half-past twelve in the morning, and
for special mourning gowns for a cousin's stepfather. Some occasions are
shamefully disregarded. They are not disregarded by everybody; at least
I presume that the lady quoted by Mrs. Cobden-Sanderson in her lecture
in March, who possessed one hundred and ten nightdresses, could cope
with any eventuality; there is also the lady, mentioned to me by a
friend who made some American investigations for me, who possesses one
hundred and fifty pairs of slippers. There is, too, the _Bon Marche_ in
Paris, where, out of a staff of six thousand to seven thous