Gilded Age Grace and Carriage

 

Look up, not down!... “To begin with, borrow from the creed of the King's daughters and “lookup.” If your throat is pretty and you want to make capital of it, throw your chin in the air as Ada Behan and Ella Wheeler Wilcox do. Don't think anything about your shoulders, for so sure as you do you will have them mannishly square. Make your chest lead all the time, whether seated or standing, and then look to your sides to see that there are no creases in your waist. So poised your shoulders will take a round, graceful, womanly cure, the stomach will go in, and, as the dress reformers put it, you will have a natural bustle and a carriage that will enhance any style of dress.” 

What women want is not better clothes, loose dresses, and sham corsets, but better positions. They want sittings. If some teacher of Delsarte, calisthenics, or physical culture would undertake to instruct a class in correctness of posture, incalculable good would certainly result. Women sit on their hips, their feet, and their spinal column; they throw their chests in, their shoulders forward, their abdomen out, and destroy forever the nice lines of the figure, besides rendering shapeless whatever gown or bodice they may be dressed in. 

These distorted women are unfortunately too prevalent. They force themselves on the critic in the church and theater, on the streets and trains, and in a car one looks in vain for a single upright, easily-poised traveler. Given a woman who knows how to hold herself, it must be a most miserable outfit that will not be improved. There is a tacit understanding among tailors that when the man has the shape, the coat is bound to fit, but in the world of modes one is told that this woman can carry a certain style or that another can not. 

Carriage is all a matter of habit. The worst can be remedied by practice, but before beginning, it is well to have an ideal. The galleries and art shops, books, magazines, and the stage abound in models, and besides, there are descriptive pictures that the most simple-minded can understand. To begin with, borrow from the creed of the King's daughters and “lookup.” If your throat is pretty and you want to make capital of it, throw your chin in the air as Ada Behan and Ella Wheeler Wilcox do. Don't think anything about your shoulders, for so sure as you do you will have them mannishly square. Make your chest lead all the time, whether seated or standing, and then look to your sides to see that there are no creases in your waist. So poised your shoulders will take a round, graceful, womanly cure, the stomach will go in, and, as the dress reformers put it, you will have a natural bustle and a carriage that will enhance any style of dress. 

Indeed, if the truth were only known a queenly carriage is worth half the toilet and is in itself beauty. Heretofore the bustle interfered with posture, but now that no such implement of torture is worn, and as reeds and straps are gradually losing their hold, there is absolutely no excuse for the women who lounge, sit on their feet, and otherwise offend taste. The best schooling for a good walk is a close observation of the people you meet walking in the street and drawing-room. 

Trollope, who was one of the closest observers of human nature, in describing the grace of one of his heroines, spoke of her walk as being “a lie stride from the hips.” He was right in this. A free swing of the leg from the hip, results in an easy, graceful walk. Swing the legs out firmly, keeping the knee steady, don’t stride, but, on the other hand, don't make the mistake of taking too short a step. Place the foot firmly on the ground, keep the body free from any motion, let the shoulders be thrown well back, and hold the head erect.- New York Times, 1888

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