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peculiarities, it is impossible to give general directions of
much importance. We can only point out the field for study
and research; it belongs to each one's own genius and
industry to deduce the results. However ugly you may be, rest
assured that there is some style of habiliment which will
make you passable.
If, for example, you have a stain upon your cheek which
rivals in brilliancy the best Chateau-Margout; or, are
afflicted with a nose whose lustre dims the ruby, you may
employ such hues of dress, that the eye, instead of being
shocked by the strangeness of the defect, will be charmed by
the graceful harmony of the colours. Every one cannot indeed
be an Adonis, but it is his own fault if he is an Esop.
If you have bad, squinting eyes, which have lost their lashes
and are bordered with red, you should wear spectacles. If the
defect be great, your glasses should be coloured. In such
cases emulate the sky rather than the sea: green spectacles
are an abomination, fitted only for students in divinity,--
blue ones are respectable and even _distingue._
Almost every defect of face may be concealed by a judicious
use and arrangement of hair. Take care, however, that your
hair be not of one colour and your whiskers of another; and
let your wig be large enough to cover the _whole_ of your red
or white hair.
It is evident, therefore, that though a man may be ugly,
there is no necessity for his being shocking. Would that all
men were convinced of this! I verily believe that if Mr. --
in his walking-dress, and Mr. -- in his evening costume were
to meet alone, in some solitary place, where there was
nothing to divert their attention from one another, they
would expire of mutual hideousness.
If you have any defect, so striking and so ridiculous as to
procure you a _nickname_ then indeed there is but one
remedy,--renounce society.
In the morning, before eleven o'clock even if you go out, you
should not be dressed. You would be stamped a _parvenu_ if
you were seen in anything better than a reputable old frock
coat. If you remain at home, and are a bachelor, it is
permitted to receive visitors in a morning gown. In summer,
calico; in winter, figured cloth, faced with fur. At dinner,
a coat, of course, is indispensable.
The effect of a frock coat is to conceal the height. If,
therefore, you are beneath the ordinary statue, or much above
it, you should affect frock coats on all occasions that
etiquette permits.
Before going to a ball or party it is not sufficient that you
consult your mirror twenty times. You must be personally
inspected by your servant or a friend. Through defect of
this, I once saw a gentleman enter a ball-room, attired with
scrupulous elegance, but with one of his suspenders curling
in graceful festoons about his feet. His glass could not show
what was behind.
If you are about to present yourself in a company composed
only of men, you may wear boots. If there be but one lady
present, pumps and silk-stockings are indispensable.
There is a common proverb which says, that if a man be well
dressed as to head and feet, he may present himself
everywhere. The assertion is as false as Mr. Kemble's voice.
Happy indeed if it were necessary to perfect only the
extremities. The coat, the waistcoat, the gloves, and, above
all, the cravat, must be alike ignorant of blemish.
Upon the subject of the cravat--(for heaven's sake and
Brummel's, never appear in a stock after twelve o'clock)--We
cannot at present say anything. If we were to say anything,
we could not be content without saying all, and to say all
would require a folio. A book has been published upon the
subject, entitled "The Cravat considered in its moral,
literary, political, military, and religious attributes."
This and a clever, though less profound, treatise on "The art
of tying the Cravat," are as indispensable to a gentleman as
an ice at twelve o'clock.
When we speak of excellence in dress we do not mean richness
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