| DÉCOLLETAGE OF ROYALTY
ROyalty is distinctly in favor of décolle- |
relented so far as to tolerate rare exceptions to the rule, in favor of a few ladies who would otherwise be kept away from court. But in each instance they have been obliged to obtain through the Lord Chamberlain's department the permission of the Queen to appear in the royal presence in high dresses with elbow sleeves being careful to include in their application full and oft embarrassing details as to the reason of their being unable to wear low-cut gowns. Queen Victoria herself in her younger days, and even comparatively late in life possessed a beautiful neck and shoulders which she made no hesitation about displaying in the most generous manner. Her daughters, her sons' wives and her granddaughters take after her in this respect, and at the drawing-rooms at Buckingham Palace it is often a subject of remark that the most décolleté dresses are to be found on the steps of the throne. At the court of Copenhagen the same rules and the same disposition on the part of royalty prevail, old Queen Louise, although the great-grandmother of several princelets still décolletéing herself as extensively as if she were a young girl, and looking remarkably well, too, in her low-cut gowns. At Berlin, too, the décolletage is excessive, at least it appears so, perhaps on account of the gowns being cut by German couturiers who do not possess the difficult art of combining daring with elegance, chic and propriety. The young Empress, who has a fine neck and shoulders, is fond of making a liberal show of them. Empress Frederick, though similarly disposed, is less advantaged by nature, and I remember seeing her at a state ball at Berlin while Crown Princess, arrayed in a purple velvet robe, and presenting such a spectacle that it was difficult to see where the bodice ended and the flesh begain. Nor can I ever forget the shocking appearance of old Empress Augusta on that occasion. Almost completely impotent and helpless, she was reclining on a peculiarly constructed chair in one corner of the picture gallery of the royal castle. Wrinkled and shrunken, endeavoring to hide the ravages of her seventy-seven years of age by an enormous brown wig and quantities of badly applied paint, enamel, cream, etc., her exceedingly décolleté pink dress merely served to intensify the horror of the spectacle which she presented. At the court of Vienna, as at those of Madrid, Lisbon and Rome, the décolletage is of a very generous character, the royal and imperial ladies setting the example and leading the way. Since the tragic death of the Austrian Crown Prince, Rudolph, his mother, the Empress, has, however, invariably appeared at all State functions in a high-cut long-sleeved black crape dress, a sombre and pathetic figure among all the brilliant throng of gorgeously appareled and bare-shouldered beauties of her court. The only royal personage whom I can recall to have objected on principle to décolletage was the late Czarina of Russia, who, late in life, developed bigotry and prudery to such a remarkable extent that she for a while even declined to permit the physicians to examine her chest for the purpose of endeavoring to check the tuberculosis to which she eventually succumbed. In conclusion, I should like to ask one question of my fair readers. To us men evening dress constitutes, perhaps unconsci- ously, a species of moral straight-jacket. We are far more disposed to observe the con- ventionalities and courtesies of life when thus arrayed than when garbed in a jacket and a pot hat. What is the moral effect of décolleté evening dress upon women? Does it fulfil the same straight-jacket rôle for them as our swallow tail coats do for us? Or, does it, on the contrary, serve to call all their perversity, friskiness and coquetry into play, making them all agog for manslaughter? London Clubman. |