Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-29
STYLES IN MEMS DIR ESS
COLOR ENTERS INTO ALMOST
EVERY FABRIC.
The Propriety Of the Dinner Jacket Dis
IN
cussed-The Proper Waistcoat
to Wear With It.

Color has entered into every fabric de-
signed for wear by men TO such remark
able extent that think we may say with
perfect confidence that mans clothes never
presented a more slightly effect Color
abused is like anything else that is over
used In apparel it is the quality that
pleases and that attracts, used properly
and with due regard to the matching and
blending of the various tones in shirt,
suit and cravat, and it gives life to the
whole scheme of dress and makes it of
more than ordinary interest.
Wearing Co1ors.
Last summer we were on the very verge
of black white and gray craze, and that
the somber school did not obtain was due
1 think wholly to the fact that plain
colors and plain patterns are deucedly easy
to copy in the cheapest trash. The only
thing that saves fashions after all is that
peculiar art of mingling colors which Is
only mastered by the Intelligent. man
of education can wear colors because he
understands them, and he is able to create
inoffensive color combinations. 1t Is the
ignorant man. the man who has no idea
of taste or of color who makes color hide
Gus. No doubt men Of the latter class will
revel In the chestnut brown suitings, the
old gold yellow shirtings the terra Gotta
that may easily be secured. These fam
boyant effects are cleverly avoided by the
man who understands color, although he
does not entirely ignore them. He knows
that too much brilliancy too much color.
attracts attention, and he manages to Sc
lect colors and combinations which go SO
we'll together that the tout ensemble is
neither noticeable nor to the ordinary OBJ
server particularly odd.
The pleated shirt is very much in EVIL
wi doubt
worn during the season between Easter
and the coming of very warm weather.
In other words, we might call the pleated
shirt the pre-waistcoatless garment When
men go into the two piece suits then the
plain front shirt will be given the pref
erence. The pleated affair does not look
well when worn with belt, and without a
waistcoat. The front bulges out and great
creases appear across the pleats. This
makes the entire bosom appear mussy and
for that reason the plain front shirt has
been given the preference as a purely sum-
mer garment.
The Dinner Jacket Again.
1t would be contrary to the accepted and
regular order Of events If there failed to
develop at the opening of each new sea-
son many questions of more or less i'm
portance affecting the dress suitable to the
climate the social conditions and the
sporting events that are naturally a part
of the life of the modern man and woman.
With the coming of spring and the sum-
mer season following so closely upon its
heels, the principal sartorial question that
appears for discussion is the position in
the bill Of dress to be occupied by the
irrepressible dinner jacket. 1.-THE abbreviat
ed garment which has never in any civil
lied country at least, been accepted as
formal dress is pushed by It's jealous de-
voices to the front with insistent demands
that 1t be acknowledged and taken up as
part of the formal evening dress Of the
approa ching warm season. j OF course the
well-bred man needs these clamors but
little. He very rightly believes that there
can be but one formal evening coat, and
be 1t winter or summer, he adheres to the
standard garment. The jacket has been
generally adopted by the habitues of the
principal summer resorts as a summer
evening coat for wear at the informal
hotel hops. and about the casinos club
houses and other resorts where the peo-
pie are wont to gather to vile away the
long summer evenings. 1t is conceded that
something less formal than evening dress
is required to meet conditions and sur
roundngs which do not admit of tail coats
silk hats, standing collars and stiff shirts
A Question of Temperature.
We cannot very well follow the Gus
toms and the fashions Of people whose
climate is so very different from our own.
We must. at least that is my humble opin-
ion. devise a dress that will meet the Pc
culiar conditions of climate and environ
ments that are, to a great extent. local.
This new dress must be made up without
ignoring the jacket Suppose for sake of
argument that we admit that the jacket
cannot become a formal coat, and on the
other hand suppose that we admit that
the evening coat cannot be made popular
or possible for summer evening wear. Here
we have two fixed conditions or PROPOSE
tons that being problem
can only be solved by taking some radical
action. If the coat will not be accepted,
then 1t Is easy to see that the jacket must
be- OF course we must bear in mind
throughout this argument that we are
discussing dress suitable for semi-formal
occasions.
The hotel hop. the veranda siesta, the
lobby lounging and the evening life about
the summer resorts and clubs, with bill
lizards. bowling. walking. card playing and
dancing as the principal amusements,
seem unfit for that dress which we don
when the social season demands formal
dress during the day as we'll as the even
Ing when there is nothing in the climate
to make the wearing of heavy clothes and
starched shirts an impossibility. The tail
coat necessitates silk hat, stiff shirt and
high collar. These form combination
which seems utterly impossible when the
mercury Is lowering about 100 degrees and
the mosquitoes are feasting upon ones
anatomy. The beauty of the jacket Is that
II ADMITS or more comfortable 0reSS ac-
cessOries, and is therefore, more suitable
to a climate that has been declared truly
tropical.
The Proper Waistcoat.
The short jacket may properly be worn
with straw hat, and with a soft pleated
white shirt and turn-down collar. The
only weak spot In the costume is the waist
coat, and to be strictly correct one must
wear the black single breasted affair made
of the same material as the coat The
white waistcoat in any form. with either
gilt or pearl buttons, is not proper, but
has been admitted merely because the
crowd would have 1t. There are many OBJ
jections to the black waistcoat. 1t looks
warm and 1t Is warm. 1t does not go
we'll with any otheE than a stiff shirt.
When the wearer perspires freely the dye
in the waistcoat' lining Or. the waistcoat
material runs and stafnsuthe shirt 1t Is
evident that while all of the dependable
authorities agree that the black waistcoat
Is the proper thing. yet they all agree
that 1T is time that something lighter and
more suitable for sufnfner"was introduced.
The suggestions aresnotQ many. In fact,
there are but two worthy Of consideration.
One is to do away with the waistcoat en-
tirely. The other Is to adopt single
breasted three-buttoned waistcoat of
very dark gray mercerized Oxford or
madras. favor the latter To go without