Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-02-25

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, February 81. 1890
Give q dog a bad name and it may not
stick. A phrase. even clever one, Goes not
always kill.
Fifteen years ago the late NJ Worth call
ed the tailor costume stable dress, but t
survived him, and bids fair TO outlast his
sors and grandscns.
A popularity of the spring tailor costume
recalls the great dressnaker's epithet.
Bright steel buckles fasten the strapping
on skirt and bodice, and by their number
and smart. Observation-Disclosures appear
ance suggest handsome harness. The
correct buckle is of oval shape and me
diUm size. 1t disdains all ornament but its
own polish: boasts strong teeth and bus
iness.-like bite, and updeniably gives the
woman whose dress it adorns the look OF
being well grOomed.'
In spite of shining buckles, the new tailor
harness is not built for speed. The skirt
fits so closely from hips to knees to re-
call the fashions of 1871 Whereabouts,
when many a woman found 1t almost i'm
possible to step UP into carriage or onto
high curbstOne. Physical culturiStS make
moan. for Lent is their harvest time: but
whore find pupils to learn the art of
graceful walk. when narrow trailing skirts
compel a sidewise sllpping molten like that
of fishs tail?
1t is curious fact that with somewhat
more regard for outward grace and ele-
Eance. fashion year by year repeats the in
convenience and discomforts of condemned
old-time styles. A certain growth of artis-
tic feeling forbids exact replicas of the
skirts whose lining school girls of twenty
years ago slit from top to bottom for great
er freedom to impatient limbs; but in con-
straint and essential vulgarity the Partisan
extreme of the present mode has scarcely
been OutdCne.
The PepIum.
If not shapely the spring tailor dress is
beautiful in material
The soft white drap du Sudan Sudan
cloth in the Sudan is cream tinted the DEL
icate fdwn-toned Henriettas, the bright blue
Amazon cloths. the novel green and mauve
armures and the glossy cashmeres for
which the tailors have needles threaded
and shears sharpered attest the intelligence
and industry of the manufacturers The
: sad. degraded. Tre-Raphaelite colors and
TIRE mdwkish sentiment of a few years ago
q have given place to more wholesome and
optimistic loneliness.
Plain cloths are in the ascendant but
plain, figured and cotton weaYes alike are
rapidly being converted into costumes with
Greek Ieplums. round apron effects or tunic
CrdTeries- [ should beg pardon of Greek
ore sSmakers. for the costume of today is
really combination CT the dresses of 1901
anu iSlS. whipped up with the flowing lines
Of the ancient Greek chitsn.
The round overskirt of the same length
in front and behind. is the most novel and
most ungraceful of innovations. 1t is toler-
able only in cotton goods. In fiounced mus
Inns il Is almost n exact repetition OF sum
mTr dresses Of 1913 and 1919.
The polonaise, which reaches to the hem
OF the skirt IN the back, lying a few inches
on the floor. IS the most favored of spring
patterns, and Is borrowed directly except
in the greater length of the waist. from
French costumes of the earliest years of
the century Even the scalloped embroid-
cry. which is offered with flourish of trum-
pets as its accomplishments, can be dupi-
Gated from the fashion plates of 1901
Two Cents Yard.
The more severe tailor dresses rely upon
stitching for decoration, but on elaborate
cloth dresses the profusion of braid and
embroidery Is without precedent
Outside of wearing apparel, the value of
articles is apt to bear certain relation to
permanence, and often is in direct ratio
to the age. Because in the realm of fashion
this ratio is reversed and nothing is priced
except the novelty of a season, good en-
broidery. done with the love of an artist for
his craft. is rare, and borrowed patterns,
albeit sometimes beautiful, are endlessly re-
peated- The prime necessity Is large show
for moderate eXpense-expense that can be
repeated every season Hence il comes that
flower patterns and true lovers knots are
multiplied past counting, and the pay for
making even the most elaborate braidwork
is starvation wages
Tenement workers on passementerie of
considerable width and intricate pattern re-
ceive in some cases two to three cents a
yard; acquaintance with such women re
duced to place their children in charitable
institutions and piecing out an anaemic ex-
istence on bread and tea, roughly disturbs
ones enjoyment of the spring novelties"
The most iabyrnthine Openwork effects
are now woven into cloth cut out by ma
chinery, 50 that gay apparel. such as once
would have been handed down from genera
ton 10 generation, may be worn for a dav
and flung aside.
Some of the best embroidery is very quiet