Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-19
The New Figure as Built Up by the
Couturieres.
IDEA DISPLAYED ON LOVELY MODELS
TaiIor-Made Smartness Best for
Automobile Wear.
GARDEN PARTY AT ELYSEE
of The Evening Star

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star
PARIS. August 5, 1899.
When American fashion writers are short
for news they generally devote their space
to specuations in regard to the new figure
AS l have not much that Is interesting to
tell in midseason let me give you some
hints in regard to the new figure a la
Parisienne, as impaired to me by one of
the f1gure-making couturieres of the Rue
de la Paix.
Saith monsieur: "Our newest models,
you will note, mademoiselle, are infinitely
graceful" CThey always say that. Note
the curves on the Sides under the arms
and on the back. The back is no longer
perfectly straight; IT must slope
Then he INDUCES in some interjectional
French euogies of the sloping back.
Go on 1 say, emphatically, and he re-
sumes:
This slope. you will note, is SLOPE not
roundness. 1t extends from the shoulders
to the waist line. where it must form def
mite curve The line from the armpts
should be a compound curve, not sharply
defined hour glass. In front there Is a
straight line from under the bust to the
waist. Exquisite, is it not
l don't know. l find the best way to meet
monsieurs rhapsodies is to affect blase
Indifference. 1t always irritates him into
showing me his best dressmaking effects
in the present case. Lifting up his little
voice, he calls Shrilly:
''Mignon, Marie, Babet"' and there come
gliding toward US, obedent to the master
call. three beautiful, stately creatures, ex-
quisitely clad and with forms carefully
laced into the new figure as 1t is to be in
terpreted on the Rue de la PAX. the Rue
de Rivoli and the Avenue de fOpera-
MignOn in Classic Drnpery.
Mignon, tall and slender, wore a robe of
white crepe de chine which fell about her
figure in beautifully draped lines suggest
ing the classic draperies of the old Greek
sculptures. Skill in draping is of the
specialties of this ateiier. The draperies
seen to best effect in the back of this
Costume, because there there is best oppor-
tunity for elaborateness. The skirt was
quite guiltlesS of ornamentation, unless one
could call the exquisite folds such. The
tunic was cut in shape at the side and
fell to the gtound. AT the back II was
short and furnished with narrow plating,
the continuation of similar narrow plaits
in the back over the shoulders a deep
collar drapery fell in point to the back
and covered the head of the sleeves. In
front this cleVerly arranged lace formed the
upper part OF the corsage, while from the
shoulders to the waist fell a drapery Of
crepe de chine. The sleeves. too. We're of
lace cut tight and long over the hands.
After | had gazed long enough at this
marve! of the mudiStes skill, a skill which
in that instance seemed to me exercised
rather in conCeaing than in displaying the
pecuharitieS of the new shape We pro-
ceeded to Marie Marie was clad in ash
colored gray vole ana her garment fitted
as if nature and not the filter had applied
ii to her frame. This gown was treated to
a much modified form of the popular tunic
it being not more than suggested, since Il
reached in front almost to the bottom of
the skirt, and in the back and at the sides
was coincident with it The corsage and
the tunic We're both tucked in sloping lines,
the border of the polonaise being two deep