e degree in which it argues exemption from labor; it also adds a
peculiar and highly characteristic feature which differs in kind from
anything habitually practiced by the men. This feature is the class of
contrivances of which the corset is the typical example. The corset
is, in economic theory, substantially a mutilation, undergone for the
purpose of lowering the subject's vitality and rendering her permanently
and obviously unfit for work. It is true, the corset impairs the
personal attractions of the wearer, but the loss suffered on that
score is offset by the gain in reputability which comes of her visibly
increased expensiveness and infirmity. It may broadly be set down
that the womanliness of woman's apparel resolves itself, in point of
substantial fact, into the more effective hindrance to useful exertion
offered by the garments peculiar to women. This difference between
masculine and feminine apparel is here simply pointed out as a
characteristic feature. The ground of its occurrence will be discussed
presently.

So far, then, we have, as the great and dominant norm of dress, the
broad principle of conspicuous waste. Subsidiary to this principle,
and as a corollary under it, we get as a second norm the principle of
conspicuous leisure. In dress construction this norm works out in the
shape of divers contrivances going to show that the wearer does not and,
as far as it may conveniently be shown, can not engage in productive
labor. Beyond these two principles there is a third of scarcely less
constraining force, which will occur to any one who reflects at all
on the subject. Dress must not only be conspicuously expensive and
inconvenient, it must at the same time be up to date. No explanation at
all satisfactory has hitherto been offered of the phenomenon of
changing fashions. The imperative requirement of dressing in the latest
accredited manner, as well as the fact that this accredited fashion
constantly changes from season to season, is sufficiently familiar to
every one, but the theory of this flux and change has not been worked
out. We may of course say, with perfect consistency and truthfulness,
that this principle of novelty is another corollary under the law of
conspicuous waste. Obviously, if each garment is permitted to serve for
but a brief term, and if none of last season's apparel is carried
over and made further use of during the present season, the wasteful
expenditure on dress is greatly increased