The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-06-29
SHE MouLDs aoTHAM's STYLES.
Who Sets the Fashions-w Washington
Women the Best Dressed.

Women the Best Dressed.
From the Ne,O York Mol and Express.
have been talking dress this week with
dressmaker. Don't get frightened. am
not going to write a chapter on the styles,
but I'm going to say something about some
body who can sway the fashion in feminine
fabrics and fancies by scratch of her head.
She's little old maid of a French woman,
and she has garrett at hetop of house on
Fifth avenue. She has but few patrons for
whom she makes gowns, two of her best
customers being Fanny Davenport and Ada
Rehan; but there are several great New
York houses which receive their new ideas
of feminine wearing apparel from this hard.
featured little foreigner, and she is an artist
of acknowledged ability. 1t is a treat to
see her when she is evolving a new drapery
or new effect Of some kind or other. Made
moiselle has her models, the same as any
other artist, and they are flesh and blood
too, mind you, and no dummy figures. She
will stand one OF these models in the middle
OF her garnet, arrayed In the gown which
is, perhaps, to inaugurate an entirely new
style in fashions realm, and as she circles
around the figures, just as Indians in dime
novels dance around a victim tied to the
stake, Mademoiselle looks sharply at every
portion of the dress, and at the same time
scratches her head vigorously with her fore
finger. Ever and anon she darts at the
figures as eagles are supposed to dart at
their prey, and with little poke here, and
little pinch there, and a small yank in
several places at once, the drapery is ar
ranged in a different way, and Made moi
selle begins her war dance anew and
scratches her head more vigorously than
ever. When the draperies and things are
finally arranged to her entire satisfaction,
the model must do the walking about while
Mademoiselle sits still on a high stool,
watches things closely and scratches her
head. The model must initiate lady walk
ing on rainy day, getting into cab, bend
ing, bowling and sometimes dancing; she
must manipulate fan, arrange her couture
at the'back of her head, and go through
other movements that display to Made
moiselle the effect of her arrangement in
every particular. Mademoiselle complained
to me that she could not copyright her new
designs in dress She sells them outright
to two or three large establishments which
make from fifty to 5000 or more gowns
from the design, which, if successful, is
copied by hundreds of other houses with
out the tormality of even asking permits
sion. Mademoiselle believes she could retire
in five years if dress-deSign copyright law
was passed which would allow her roy.
atty out of each pattern sold of her inven.
tions.
The little French lady remarked to me
that the women of Washington dress in
better taste than their sisters of New York
and Boston. In New York, she says, the
women dress loud" in Boston they are
''dowdies, " but in Washington they have
notions of harmony and artistic elegance
which do them much credit. She also told
me that she is now making designs which
contemplate the abolition of that mysteri-
Gus piece of impedimenta, the hustle, at
which announcement l am sure everybody
should rejoice and he glad.