Summary
Wilde thanks his many correspondents and turns to Mr. Huyshe's second letter and drawing. He declines to discuss Mr. Huyshe's appearance, observing that the gamin in discussion is a nuisance, and goes to the real question: whether the late eighteenth-century costume is better than that of the second quarter of the seventeenth. Huyshe admits he has never worn the dress he proposes; Wilde has, often, in a form taken from a print of Northcote's in Mr. Godwin's handbook, and gave it up because the doublet is simpler and warmer than coat and waistcoat, tails have no place in costume and knee-breeches are uncomfortable to wear constantly. He kept the broad-brimmed hat and loose cloak.
Huyshe's drawing may be passably attractive, Wilde says, but it is not beautiful, because beauty comes only from the perfection of principles. The hat is stiff, so its brim cannot be turned down, as the bycocket's can, against rain or an east wind, and its high crown is useless getting in and out of hansoms. The boots are stiff leather; a boot should be soft and either laced or carried over the knee. The overcoat has narrow sleeves and is too tight, where an overall should be loose, light, warm and adaptable, as a cloak is. The breeches are too tight and the jacket too tight over the hips. The drawing proves only that 'our grandfathers did not understand the proper laws of dress'.
Wilde's counter-example is a dress drawn by Mr. Godwin from the Duke of Newcastle's book on horsemanship. Its young man can turn down his hat brim, trousers and boots, moves freely, and is warm without being strangled; even his ostrich feathers fan him in summer. He is 'apparelled with ideas', while Huyshe's young man is 'stiffened with facts'. The dress is good not because it is old but because it is well constructed, as a lintel or an arch is. To Huyshe's claim to take 'practical views' Wilde answers that beauty is organic, that ugliness is want of fitness and waste, and that beauty is the sign of right principles.
Finally Wilde answers an 'Old Sailor', recalling that the runners and rowers at Oxford wore jersey and drawers woven in one piece and that sailors are forever hitching up their trousers. He defends clogs, still worn in Oldham, against the charge of anachronism, since whatever is useful cannot be one. The divided skirt must stop imitating a skirt and announce itself for what it is, for 'there is absolutely no such thing as a definitely feminine garment'. He warns against belting the over-tunic at the waist, the fault that spoils the otherwise sensible Bloomer costume.