Page:Science ofDress221.png

CHAP. XIII] uses for carriage wear, as by so doing they would obtain more notice from passers-by than would be altogether agreeable. It is, however, not at all necessary to go to the expense of having special dresses for tricycling, though, of course, these may be had if one likes.

In the Dress Department of the International Health Exhibition were several dresses adapted for tricycle wear. Of special dresses which would be exceedingly comfortable and suitable I noticed one or two, but these could hardly be worn in towns unless the wearers were hardened to a considerable amount of staring and of comment from the younger and dirtier portion of the community as they passed along the streets. One of these dresses was intended for the Highlands, or for mountaineering purposes. It was made of a dark blue cloth, with gaiters, knickerbockers, a skirt reaching to the knees, and a very pretty short coat like a gentleman's shooting-jacket; the hat was made to match. This is a fair type of the kind of dress to which I am now referring, and of which other specimens were exhibited differing in unimportant detail.

This sort of dress saves the wearer from the friction and weight of long skirts, which form an impediment, and are the means of wasting a considerable amount of energy, whether in walking or propelling a machine, and for the same reason all sorts of divided skirts are suitable.

The dress worn by the members of the Ladies' Cyclist Touring Club is made of dark grey tweed,