DRESS, the clothing or apparel of the human body. Under this title will be considered the principles underlying the wearing of clothes rather than the minute details of their shape and color, which will be found treated under Cosruma. The evolution of dress has always been associated with the growth and decline of nations and therefore sheds much light on racial characteristics. In the earliest stage of human dress must of course have been strictly utilitarian, consisting only of the covering neces sary to protect the body against the extreme conditions of climate and temperature. With many uncivilized tribes this conception of the function of clothes still survives.
With the dawn of civilization another utili tarian function is assumed by clothes. Clothing becomes a means of indicating distinctions of rank and office in the community. The mini mum of clothing is found among slaves and the lowest classes in general, while garments even more massive and extensive than either climatic conditions or considerations of modesty prescribed come to be worn by those in the higher ranks. Next, a purely decorative motive, which undoubtedly has its source in personal vanity, came to supplement the two more utili tarian ones just mentioned. With some un civilized or semi-civilized peoples this is by far the strongest and frequently the only motive for the wearing of such scant vestments as neither cover nor protect the body. That per sonal vanity underlies the use of clothes quite as much as considerations of modesty and tem perature even among civilized peoples is a view held by many authoritative scientists.
The Assyrians covered themselves entirely with heavy draperies, stiff with embroidery. The Egyptians, of whose dress we have the earliest records, clothed themselves in thin materials which revealed the lines of the body and fre quently left even the limbs exposed. Their dress was rich in texture and splendid in color ing, the designs of their textile fabrics being of high artistic excellence and beauty. Class distinctions were very strongly emphasized in the dress of the Egytians. A peculiar feature of their priestly garb was the leopard-skin worn on solemn sacrificial occasions. The Egyptian women of rank wore beautiful em broidered skirts secured at the waist by a colored sash, or suspended by straps from the shoulders, and over this a long, loose robe. The laboring class used woolen fabrics, but their costumes, especially when at work, con sisted as a rule simply of a loin-cloth and girdle. Among the Chinese the predominating idea of dress has always been splendor of ma terial and decoration. The intense conserva tism of this race is nowhere better shown than in the almost complete sameness of dress from earliest times to the present day. That, as a general rule, progress in civilization — and especially a sudden leap in this direction — makes for radical dress reform, is well illus trated in the case of the modern Japanese. For a long time the figure was merely draped in loose lengths of material, with no attempt at conforming to the lines of the body or limbs— though sleeves and trousers are occasionally ob served, as in the Persian sculptures at Persepo lis. The primitive sandal was evidently thought to afford all necessary protection to the foot, until the time of Assur-bani-pal, or Sardanapa lus, when soldiers and hunters appear to have worn a sort of net to protect their legs and boots or gaiters somewhat like the Greek and Roman cothurnus, laced in front. Save as offi cial costumery, hats and caps were little worn in early times. Even in the time of Julius Caesar they were little used except by travelers, most people preferring a fold of the toga or mantle for a head covering. Among the Greeks and Romans the division of classes and professions by dress were very striking. By the Greeks
the artistic effect was carried to a height hitherto unknown, their garments being the per fection of grace and dignified elegance. At no other time has a nation's dress offered such great advantages to the artist. The Greek chiton and himation of about 450-350 B.c. were the highest type of loose clothing, while the highest type of the more tightly fitting costume was found in England and France in 1350. The costumes of western Europe during the last quarter of the 14th and the first of the 15th century were characterized by a beautiful rea sonableness and adaptation at once to use and artistic effect. But there have been other periods in which the exaggeration of good sar torial points led to utter absurdities and de moralization. After the Norman Conquest, which introduced into England, among other unsalutary features, numerous ugly changes in dress, eccentricities in headgear were especially prevalent. In the 17th century shoes grew so small and pointed that they were an encum brance to the wearer and had to be hooked up by their projecting tips to make walking pos sible. Small waists were considered quite as essential for men as for women. Even as late as the reign of George III, English tailors ad vertised corsets for gentlemen. The modern tendency in dress, as in many other things, is decidedly democratic —a tendency toward the complete elimination of differences in dress as marks of social or other distinction. The dress reform movement inaugurated in the 19th cen tury and the greater attention paid to hygienic considerations have resulted in making women more solicitous about the health and comfort of the body than they have been for many cen turies previous. Extravagance in dress has always been a mark for social and religious reformers. Both in France and in England, especially during the Puritan period in the latter country, preachers thundered from many a pulpit against the senseless fashions of their times. Sumptuary legislation has attempted time and time again to regulate it, but usually without success. In England, particularly under the Tudors, considerable drastic legislation was enacted on the subject of dress. Beginning as early as 1463 and taking on a most mandatory form in 1510, when "An Act against wearing of costly AppareP' waspassed, such legislation was re-enacted, or re-enforced, again and again, taking a different — usually a more stringent form from time to time. But, custom proving stronger than legislation, the people constantly overstepped the bounds of dress laws, with the result that all such legislation was finally re pealed in England in 1604, a century before such action was taken in other countries. There are two satirical literary treatments of this aspect of dress which are especially famous, that of Swift in the 'Tale of a Tub,) and that of Carlyle in