| To critically examine these hoops -- to get the best effect -- one should
stand on the corner of Montgomery and look up a steep street like Clay or
Washington. As the ladies loop their dresses up till they lie in folds and
festoons on the spreading hoop, the effect presented by a furtive glance
up a steep street is very charming. It reminds me of how I used to peep
under circus tents when I was a boy and see a lot of mysterious legs tripping
about with no visible bodies attached to them. And what handsome vari-colored,
gold-clasped garters they wear now-a-days! But for the new spreading hoops,
I might have gone on thinking ladies still tied up their stockings with
common strings and ribbons as they used to do when I was a boy and they
presumed upon my youth to indulge in little freedoms in the way of arranging
their apparel which they do not dare to venture upon in my presence now.
- "The Fashions," Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, February 1866 |
 AI image created by Barbara Schmidt |
Quotations | Newspaper Articles | Special Features | Links | Search