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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 6 (October 2, 1933)

Fashions in Fustian

Fashions in Fustian.

The most curious curiosity in the emporium of existence is the fad of fashion. Fashion in fustian is a fusion of cut and custom, or a reflection of the times on the torso. Periods plus persons produce sartorial sensibility harmonising with the mood of the moment. The extent of each era's error can be measured with the tape of the tailor, for clothing has ever been an index to outlook and, conversely to conversion, a gain in garments has always reflected a loss in liberty. It is strange but true that a bare skin betokens freedom from fretting, and thus the barer the body, the less the body bears of the cares which are contemporary with collars and tied to ties. For the tie of Progress is a noose round the neck of freedom, and the collar dogs the dollar and dolor, and hounds happiness to the bow-wows. The edge of the ocean provides an illustration of the victory of bareness over bearishness when sun and sand provide proof of the proverb that “clothes hide a multitude of sins.” For even near-nudity is a destroyer of distinction and it is impossible to wear an air of importance with only the air to wear. It is the irony of fat that often lesser men look the greater the lesser they wear and the greater grate the greater when reduced to skin and bone. It is possible that Caesar, realising the limitations of greatness, hoisted his standard on the beach when he went in off the deep end, so that the citizenry might be seized of the fact that he was Caesar, although he may have looked more like Brutus.