victoria – Page 33 – Call Me Victorian

Vintage Hats

Hats were a prominent fashion accessory for many decades.

Rules for wearing hats to flatter your face, figure and dress:

Very short women should not wear a very tall or wide hat because the hat will exaggerate their diminutive frame.

Women with thin faces should avoid plumes of feathers in their hats and too many decorations due to the fact that it will overshadow the face.

Gentlemen should wear their hat straight and squarely upon the head.

Ladies should wear a bonnet to a summer lawn party.

A grey veil should never be worn by a pale or sallow complexion.

A style of hat popular in the 1920’s cloche hats were the fashion trend.

Trifles that Perfect the Costume

The must have fashion accessories for this season:

1. This high collar from Paris concedes a bit of a V-neck opening in front.
2. Spanish hair comb in blond shell with green brilliants.
3. French brooch embroidered in silk with a safety pin closure at back.
4. Narrow ribbon watch fobs from Paris. A Paris novelty.
5. Pompadour butterfly voile, one of the new chiffon stuffs that has become the fad underwear. Making underwear more dainty than it has ever been before.
6. Parisian handbag of black moire, single strap handle, silver mountings and hand embroidery.
7. Of course your slippers should also be decorated with bows nowadays.
8. The new Oriental idea in neck chains, made of beads and enamel.

Little Talk On Engaged Couples

The little winged god Cupid, armed with his deadly bow and arrow, and aiming here, there, and everywhere his deestructive darts, has, we are fain to believe, the fatal power of rendering his victims blind, so that they have no longer any sense of proportion, and ofttimes make themselves ridiculous in the eyes of clearer-sighted mortals.

Edwin – to most people a very commonplace young fellow, neither better nor worse than the rest of mankind — is to the woman who loves him a very king among men. His nondescript features are to her the highest type of manly beauty; his trite qualities of heart and mind are to her synonymous with innate nobility of character and sterling worth; while his very faults are glossed over to appear more attractive than other men’s virtues.

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Privilege of Marriage

Rules from Thomas Paine’s Utopia – I don’t think anyone would be eligible for marriage today:

“Their women are not married before eighteen nor their men before two-and-
twenty, and if any of them run into forbidden embraces before marriage
they are severely punished, and the privilege of marriage is denied them
unless they can obtain a special warrant from the Prince. Such disorders cast a great reproach upon the master and mistress of the family in which they happen, for it is supposed that they have failed in their duty.

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Proposing as a fine art

Man proposes, but oh how bunglingly, how inartisticly, he does it. The large number of proposals result from words spoken by men; and how many more would result if the fine art of proposing was better known.

No 1. The Casual Proposal This is the most common, unplanned type of proposal. A man mentioning as he hustles you into a car, “By the way, will you marry me?”

No 2. The Condescending Proposal This is generally uttered by a middle aged man of the world who fancies that because of his wealth or position it is to any woman’s advantage to marry him.

No 3. The Prudent Proposal Never is there an outright offer of marriage. It is forced upon the subjects due to circumstances or misdeeds.