Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-01
THE CURTAILED SKIRT.
Correct Length in London for the Holt
day Season.

From the London Mail.
The curtailed skirt with no train to at
tract the microbes Of the pavement nor to
weary its wearer's little hands over its up
lifting, was promised an uninterrupted sue
cess this season by some of the tatlors.
Its hygienic qualities and its comfortable
properties it was felt would secure it a
welcome from women. But July is here,
and the short skirt Is only. SO far as Lon
don goes. rarely vouch-safed vision. Wo-
men evidently have some grievance against
1t. What 1t is7
A West End dressmaker declares his sur
prise. not that the short skirt has failed to
arrive but that any one was foolish enough
to imagine 1t would until every opportunity
for wearing muslins Is over. No fiimsy fab
rfc like muslin. which requires flowing lines
for its perfect naturalization. can be made
short and at the same time graceful. More
over. with no short skirt can q picture
hat or a diaphanous blouse be worn. The
two modes are absolutely antagonistic. for
one spells elegance and the other utility.
and both must be equipped with ct ceteras
to match.
Trains. then. are as necessary to all
toilets made for women to wear at cere-
monious affairs as silk hats and frock coats
are the essential items OF mans full
dress daytime gala attire. Ascot would
have frowned had a short skirted woman
appeared on the scenes. and at Goodwood
there will not be one. But it must be adj
mitted that the long, wasp-like, rat-tail
train has not been made this season
Rotund effects are coming in, and the
correct length for the skirt of a woman
whose height is five feet seven inches and
who Is fashionably slim and long WASTED
is In front forty-two inches and at the
back forty-nine inches. There is grace in
this length. and grace the sex will have.
Modern English women approve no yio-
lent changes. but rather feel their way to-
ward alterations by gradual degrees
Therefore the same women when the trav-
cling season begins and the opportunity
for skirts that clear the ground arrives,
will put on a skirt that measures forty
inches in front and forty-two at the back.
It will not be nearly SO curtaf1ed as the
skirt donned by the American globe trotter,
who boldly cut hers as short as q girl of
fourteen and wore 1t from three to four
inches of the ground all round. but it will
nicely clear the ground. and demand no
irksome wrist work to keep 1t from the
blemish of the roads.
invasion of the short holiday skirt with
smart and becoming models. and the
hosiers are likewise on the alert. White
shoes have gone out of fashion, and there
Is. indeed. not a great demand for colored
shoe leather at present Even the nut
brown and the clay leather summer shoe
Is In less request than a well cut, laced up,
serviceable looking black Cromwell shoe.
or one with three straps over the ankle to
button.
the smart set for biscuit tinted shoes to be
worn with trained muslins and linen frocks
at the German watering places, but the
short skirt. regarded as 1t is as a strictly
unitarian product. is to be borne company
by the black shoe. Boots. therefore. are
being far less sold than they were, save
for mountaineering, moor and like hard
work.