Exhibition of Male Costume. (Victoria and Albert)
Tim human male has long since given up the idea that he needs any exterior embellishments in order to attract the female of the species. With consummate arrogance he now assumes that it is sufficient for him to be a man tout court, and that provided he is reasonably clean and neat the laws of nature will automatically guide one, or perhaps several, of the millions of superfluous women to his side. He is, as usual, quite right. It is a pity though that all the rich panoply of his former trappings is now denied us. Our feminine instincts tell us, that men should so dazzle us with their beauty, as well, of course, as being very dear and companionable, that we fall blinded into their arms, and it is touching to note that, left to ourselves, we do everything in our power to provoke this anopsia. We buy them the loudest socks, the gayest ties, the most vivid pullovers. "Dazzle us! " we cry. But only on Saturdays do they reluctantly oblige. It is safe to say that women love men more on Saturdays than on any other day of the week, unless, of course, they are the wives of aldermen or the fiancees of actors, when they are prone to more variable outbursts of affection. Yet be he as round as a cottage loaf, as squat as a toad or as bald as a coot, the peer in his robes or the soldier in full-dress uniform, the coster in his pearlies or the judge in his scarlet, can melt the most adamant female heart where an Adonis in his corduroys has failed. However, it is supposed we must be reasonable, although le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point. A ruff in the bus queue or satin breeches in the tube would only entail more work at home, and the lavender tails would never, at any crucial moment, be back from the cleaners.
So that we can mourn over what we are missing, the Victoria and Albert Is showing an exhibition of male costume during the past six hundred years, and it is interesting, though not palpitatingly so, to trace its evolution from the homespun mantua to the aquascuttun. It appears, so we are told, to be governed mostly by hierarchical or class principles, although the urge to be attractive was not completely submerged until the French Revolution. In each period the type of dress becomes con- ventionalised until the younger and more dashing males evolve a sports dress. The sports dress becomes in its turn formal wear, and so on down to the present day when it is possible to go to the City in a light country suit, but not quite possible to go in grey flannel bags or shorts. This development will presumably follow shortly.
It must be admitted that the exhibition is more academically edifying than aesthetically pleasing. There are few actual clothes on view, and these are somewhat sad. Really more than somewhat. For the rest there are prints, caricature3, bock illustrations, fashion plates and photographs, attractive in themselves to the patient peerer but giving a general feeling of flatness. The prints are very fine, indeed, the finest for some reason being those which distract one from the subject in hand, such as Charles II receiving the first pineapple grown in England and Bloomsbury Square in 1787. Many of the plates are captivating, particularly those of the early nineteenth century. There is a gentleman in thick leather breeches and gaiters carrying, open, a lady's umbrella made of delicate green silk who has to be seen to be believed. And who could resist the 1814 gentleman wearing a " chapeau a in Robinson, cheveux a l'entant, pantalons de tricot, bones a la hussarde "? In a few years' time he will don a " carrick a cinq pelerines " and have the gravest difficulty in remaining vertical under its weight, and in 1835 he will be trying on a pair of stays. In those times man as well as woman had to suffer to be beautiful, until the Industrial Revolution, filling the air with liberal smut, released him from his sartorial bondage and gave to us the drearily serged, the tamely herring-boned, the lamentably pinstriped creature we know today.
HARRMT .VILLIERS.
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