The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-12
GARDEN GOWN" CLERKS
Query: Should Business Women
Work in Gay Attire?
How Madame Bar Harbor Buys Her
AiriIy Beautiful Gowns-f You
own Costume of the New Golf
Wooi-Tbe old-Timc Lace Collar.

The clerk who goes to her work in a
garden-party gown has found a defender
IN wholesale leather man who contends
that ribbons and lace imply light and
festive nature, and that so long as Miss
Typewriter gets through with her duties
properly he doesn't know but what he pre-
fers frippery attire to the eminentiy
respectable, but depressing black skirt and
the shirt waist that doesn't show dirt. The
balck-slSirted brigade is HOMOGENEOUS but
there is no doubt about its suitability for
the wear and tear Of daily use. The leather
man did not probably know enough about
his subject to figure up the cost of the
garden-party gown. The laundry alone
would have made him open his eyes and
probably whistle. Ribbons of the dainty
hue that keep company with the gar
den party make up soon soil and the airy
laces take OH a dingy look after precious
few wearings. So that while the festively
attired young woman may work as well
as her soberly gowned sister, she viii very
probably use up more money than the
gentlemen in leather deems it is his duty
TO give her.
of being an independent wage-earner she
is simply victim 10 :he instalment store
system-whieh, however convenient it may
be for other people. is not good for the
girl VINO earns a small weekly salary
from leather man or any other employer
Garden party" gowns are easily obtain
able, however, If Miss Typewriter would
eonfine herself TO the monotonous skirt
and shirt waist during her hours of toll.
At this season the stores are marking
down high-priced organizes to few pen
MES yard. The thoughtful girl with an
eye to her purse ought to buy all the pref
~ dresses she needs for the remainder of
this summer and next, together with the
ribbons and lace to go with them, for
fve-doliar bill. The shop counters are
piled high with dimities and lawns. ging-
hams, and batistes, all lovely and all de-
lightfully cheap. One merchant on f Street
said yesterday that a rich customer now
at Bar Harbor had just sent, as usual, for
list of marked-down samples, and that
he expected to sell her no less than three
dozen dress patterns for herself and
daughters. TO be laid aside until her re-
turn. Every summer, when the seasons
goods are reduced to make room for the
fan stock she lays in a supply of wash
goods which her seamstress makes up dur
ing the winter and early spring. As a
consequence the family is fitted out with
a beautiful sufilciency of airy gowns at
less than one-third the early summer
price-to say nothing of the saving in
time when the spring sewing season sets
in.
The outing sports of the season call so
DANGEROUSLY for short cloth skirts that the
producers have put on the market fabric
known as golf wool. 1t is woven heavily,
but is soft and porous, so as to feel COM
fortably cool. The staple color is gor-
geous scarlet, though there are blues of
every shade from a cadet to navy, and
flaming Chinese yellow.
With the skirt goes a blouse OF soft silk
or flannel TO match or contrast pictur-
esqnely, and later in the season when a
dash of crispnsss gets in the air there will
be a jacket, either cutaway or boIero, 10
go with the natty make up.
Somebody has resurrected the wayback /
beginnings of the hustle. 1t is developed !
from the obi, which is the essential adj 1
iunet Of the Japanese woman's costume. /
The fashion is supposed to be hundreds |
OF years old, but how It Travelled from the |
land Of the Rising Sun to the fashion plates I
OF modern Europe and America the inYes- /
tigafor does not say. At all events the |
hustle promises to assert itself in the au- 1
tumA. The small AFFAIR that has been in |
cons tnat use by the majority of women ever
ago II to be enlarged to serve as a support |
for the newly arrived skirt which viii maze
its appearance about October. 81
As the mercury has risen the feminine 1
collar has fallen, and with the tendency
toward undersleeves long shoulder seams I
and slightly fulled skirts has appeared an |
1860 mode Of dressing the neck; quite fiat, |
with a round collar of lovely lace and a 1
quaint or gorgeous brooch, holding the COL
lar ar11r foe ~ a1,s-
lace collar and brooch-snch a distinctive /
feature Of the old daguerreotype-hav I
been opopularized with picturesque full
sleeyed morning and breakfast jacket only.
but, given time and eneourag ement. they
viii encroach on more important depart-
ments Of dress.
The feminine mind is built. they say. TO
contend successfully with Details In sub
sanitation Of this tribute to a peculiar
gift the divers betting Of every summer
season stand forth with a prodigality OF
Inventive genius. The makers of the fash
Ions never utilize the same devices two 1
seasons in succession, and this year the
narrowest belt leads all the rest There
is the sash belt, the stitched belt. the
buckied affair of leather, the crush and
twisted girdle, but not oDc of them Is
wider than the blade of a breakfast knife.
and every one is SO arranged, dragged,
pinned. pulled, and fastened so as to short
sn the back and lengthen the waist line in
'ronr as much as possible.
Fex are the exceptions to the rule in
leather belts that the front shall be mar
rover than the back and a gray suede
strip, measuring an inch In width behind
and half an inch In width in front Is the
IristoeTat in leather belts. Its front clasp
must lie silver and wrought Ia the shane
Of an antique harness buckle. There Is a
craze for this special tyne of
buckle. which Is copied from the gorgeous
trappings that glittered on the milk white
steeds that drew in state Nine. Pomua-
dours c. the Duchess du Barry's gidcd
coach about the roads OF Versailles.
A secondary matter 10 belts. yet one of
decided moment. is the use of the black
libertS silk knot and streamers. 1t does
duty or so many gowns for afternoon and
evening wear that there is no ignoring it.
A gown all of pale blue organdie and lace
seems to require final touch in the form
Of great roEette made OF shimmery I
black gauze, having as It's heart q jewel
Of some sort, and then, where this is
fastened on the left shoulder or right
breast, depends two cash ends of the
dusky yelling clear to the floor. White
gowns sometimes show better upon vel
low or aquamarine tinted "noaters." as
the summer girl designates, very truth
fully, the gracious clouds OF color that
wave in her wake as she dances.
The White Glove.