Women's Fashions Keep Pace with the Times

This is a valuable interview which “The Woman's Voice” has won from a lady in whose taste and lofty artistic culture Lebanon takes pride.

■

Mrs. Bustros was not at home that afternoon; she had thought it best to receive me at the Bahhar Hotel in Aley. When I came within sight of the hotel terrace I found her seated at a small table, surrounded by a few friends. No sooner were introductions made than she moved with me to a neighboring table and began, with her accustomed graciousness, to express to me her admiration for “The Woman's Voice” and its new dress, and her readiness to answer my questions. Awe took hold of me, and I found pleasure in gazing at that dignified face, and at that costume which bespoke refined taste and consummate elegance.

I said: “I have come to you, Madam, to convey to the readers of The Woman's Voice whatever you may be generous enough to give me of your precious knowledge and useful observations on Lebanese dress, old and new...”

She answered: “With great pleasure. Ever since I began to understand Lebanese dress, I have found no great difference between its old and its new. History always repeats itself. In the past the waist was high, and the skirt a little longer than it is at present. Nor was the tailleur so abbreviated as this. Before long a general change came over dress, and it grew to resemble the Tunic, with its low waist and wide skirt. But this change did not last long; dress soon returned to what it had been in its first period.

“And just as a child grows stronger with the days and prepares to walk on its own feet, so does a fashion gather strength gradually until it becomes universal. I do not favor this slow evolution; I hold that the lady who wishes to keep pace with fashion ought to prepare herself for it until it becomes second nature in her — until even the color comes to her mind as if she felt it before it has spread.

“Since this war, changes have come over dress in general and Lebanese dress in particular at which I do not wonder; but I do wonder at the return to hats and their strange and various fashions — for I no longer love them...”

I said: “Do you recall when European dress entered Lebanon?”

She answered: “I do not recall exactly, because I was brought up on it. I had a European governess.”

Then she smiled and went on: “I respect the dress of the Lebanese woman, and I believe she has improved greatly in her use of it. Yesterday she would often lose her balance and wear a costume wavering between Lebanese and European, so that imitation showed upon it.

“I am one of those who call for woman's liberty, on condition that she not carry it to excess. I visited India recently as one of the delegates of the Lebanese Arab Women's Federation, and I admired the educated Indian girl — among them the lawyer, the doctor, and the ‘lady.’ She is simple in appearance, far from affectation, modest; she converses with men at home, in the café, and in company — but not in the street...”

Here I asked her: “What is your opinion of the Lebanese woman's use of cosmetics?”

She said: “I approve of everything that helps a woman to bring out her beauty, provided it does not go beyond the bounds of moderation. I love everything that bespeaks taste, and I believe the Lebanese girl, on the whole, is not excessive in beautifying her face. Nature has helped her in this, granting her a harmony between her hair and the color of her complexion. But I very much detest the painting of the toenails red...”

Here I put a last question to her: “Have you anything to say, Madam, to the Lebanese girl?”

She answered: “Indeed... I would have her keep away from extravagance — economizing in her clothes and her adornment, and spending lavishly on the cultivation of her mind and spirit. And I have been pleased of late by her turning to the love of children, her care for her husband, and her setting herself to face life, so that she is no longer altogether what she was in the past: an ‘ornament’ for man and a ‘diversion’ for him...”