The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-21
EVENING CHAT
BY RUTH CAMERON.

cit costs so much more to be well
dressed than it used to-" is the perpet-
ua1 cry of all the women who make
any pretensions to smartness.
And, at costs so much more to be
even presumably dressed than 1t
used to- is the wall of their less pre-
tentious sisters.
And both are decidedly inclined to
blame this sad state of affairs upon
the high prices prevailing everywhere
But does all the blame belong there :?
For myself, I do not think so.
1t seems to me that the reason we
spend SO much more money upon our
clothes than we did ten years ago,
and are still no better dressed, is
largely a matter of ridiculously infiat-
ed standards.
What do I mean?
Well, let me tell you little person
al experience of my own wardrobe to
illustrate.
Some years ago a friend of mine
had a pretty black and white check
silk for summer afternoon ana ores
sy house gown. I always admired 1t
| Immensely and this year decided to
have one myself.
I conf1ded as much to my dress
maker.
what you want?" she asked.
1 thought the question absurd at
| the time, but since then I have seen
SO many women bound on informal
calls or shopping expeditions, wear
| ing blue and white or black and white
| check silks that 1 have been forced to
realize that the gown I planned, under
| the present style conditions, is proper
| for a general utility dress, but abso-
| lutely impossible for dressup gown.
Now, that little incident seems to
| me to epitomize the reason why 1t
costs so much more to be well dressed
| than it used to.
| 1t isn't that black and white check
| silk costs much more than it did ten
years ago. It is just because the black
and white check silk gown that used
to be a rather dressy gown, suitable
| for afternoon functions, has now de-
scended to the rank of general utility
| and street wear gown.
To fill its place as afternoon gown,
something proportionately above 1t in
expense and elaborateness must, of
| course, be substituted, and in order
| to maintain its rank as the dressiest
dress of all, the evening gown must
also become correspondingly more
elaborate and expensive.
Do you remember how dressed up
you used to feel in your best white
waist five or six years ago? 1t was a
! dainty little affair, embroidered and
lace trimmed, and when you wore 1T
| you felt that you could go to a swell
! afternoon tea or dine at a high-class
1 restaurant without looking at all
| dowdy.
! Today in that same waist you would
not feel at all dressed up. You put
it on for an informal call or shop
ping excursion, but you would feel
r., very much underdressed If you wore
| it to a formal function or to dine al
the dressy restaurant.
Il A woman who knows the question
from Az writes in a recent magazine
1 about comparative values in much
| this same vein:
lone may today in Paris buy the
4 identical waists that were for sale ter
] years ago, at the Identical prices; but
with the change in fashion has come
a corresponding change in the uses tc
which the same garment is put. The
thirty or forty-dollar waists of thai
II period would be very pretty today, but
one would wear them now where the
n eight-dollar waists were worn before
in order to be dressed at about the
same degree of smartness.''
That seems to be the crux of the
very high cost of dressing we'll tina
we complain of today.
Not that materials or workmanship
are so much more expensive, but sim
ply that we have moved all our stan
dards up one peg.
Will they go up peg more in tn
mex. decade?
VIII we soon wear fragile lingeri
WdLStS III tie litOfhlLS anu " DuSllSSs
and take to chiffon and embroidery TO
simple afternoon gowns?
And IL we do, what will be left 70
our very best evening dresses?
And how long are we going to keel
up this absurd Quickening of the pace
Seems to me these are few prert
good questions for home and clu
discussion among women.
Banquet for Judge Phillips. ~
The members of the bar of the west