1903 The Bachelor Book

59

accounted by persons of taste eccentric or absurd^ or both j while he who follows slowly and at a distance the footsteps of Fashion is commonly regarded as not of this world,though in it. To hit the happy medium,to adapt the prevailing style of dress to your size, bearing and manner, is true art, an art not always easy of acquirement, judging from the numerous failures to accomplish it. Unfortunately, no precise rules can be laid down in the matter,for what is becoming to one man is often atrocious when worn by another; yet in this very difficulty lies the charm of dress—the scope it affords for individual taste and selection. A profusion of jewellery,denot- ing doubtful taste even when worn by a woman, is unequivocally vulgar in a man. True, it may indicate wealth; but the practice savours strongly of Israel in Houndsditch, and should be religiously avoided. King Edward,who may safely be taken as a model of all that becomes a gentleman in dress,is rarely seen wearing more than one finger ring, while in his choice of cloth patterns he displays that strong commonsense and correct judgment which he brings to bear upon most of the concerns of life. If there were tailors in England who had the slightest conception of cutting and fitting clothes,instead of the unskilled cloth butchers of execrable taste who abound in the West End of London and prey upon callow youth and indefinite dandies, the King, in common with some of his subjects, would be attractively and sensibly dressed. In America and France tailoring is a science and an art; in Great Britain it makes freaks of men and frumps of women. Study, therefore, your apparel, that it fit and be fit; and don't say of whatever your tailor may please to send you, "These clothes arc good

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