There will always be persons who do not know how to dress well; who have ideas of their own to which they are determined to give expression.  When they think they are doing their best, and are bent upon astonishing the world, they somehow appear to the worst advantage.  They endeavour to rival their neighbours in strength and variety of colours; and, if they see a beautiful woman becomingly dressed, they at once copy that woman, quite regardless of their personal appearance, which may be the least fitted to the style which has taken their fancy.  It reminds us of the story of a fashionable shoemaker, who, having made a pair of shoes for a lady who was remarkable for the beautiful shape of her foot, was applied to by another lady to make her a pair exactly similar to Lady So and So’s.  The shoemaker looked with dismay at his new customer’s foot, which bore no resemblance whatever to that of her friend.  At last he looked up at the lady, shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and said:  “Madam, it is impossible; you must bring me a foot like her ladyship’s before I can make a shoe like hers.”  The rebuke was well deserved:  but his honesty lost him a good customer.

The assortment and choice of colours, though chiefly a matter of taste, is yet under the direction of fashion.  At one time one colour predominates, at another time another; while two colours may be used together at one time, which at another are almost interdicted.

There is nothing more capricious, more inexplicable, more wayward, than fashion.  It is true that, taken as a whole, there is a certain conformity in the rules it prescribes.  For instance, as the crinoline diminishes in size and the area which petticoats cover in their circumference is lessened, so also bonnets have grown smaller, and the enormous plait of hair which has taken the place of the chignon, keeps in countenance the extraordinary length of ladies’ trains.

If any one cares to be amused she might investigate the fashions of by-gone days.  The transitions are wonderful, and do not appear to be guided by any rule.  Those of the gentlemen are simply absurd.  Since the days of Vandyck, there has been nothing attractive in their dress; nothing picturesque.  It has been as ugly as possible, and continues to be so.  The nearest approximation to anything less hideous than the present fashion is in the “knicker-bockers,” which are generally worn by sporting men and pedestrians—­men who shoot, or who are addicted to walking tours.  There was an attempt on the part of one or two individuals to introduce them, by means of velvet and silk hose, for evening wear; but the example was not followed, and the swallow-tailed coat still prevails.