Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-09-15
LONDON ARTIST ON
COSTUME DESIGNS
Americans Wear Better Tailor,
mades, She Says-Loose
Gowns for Tea.

Why did I leave London? Why, TO
get more money, of course" said a
costume designer to a New York Trib-
une interviewer. THE field Is becom-
ing so crowded over home that all the
artists are earning less now. The two
greatest ones, who used to make &3,0OO
are making only 81, 1000 now. But over
here there seems 10 be a great opening
for fashion artists.
"The great part of the really new
fashions are designed, as you know, In
Paris. The great dressmaking firms
employ people to make rough sketches
of their gowns, and these sketches they
sell 10 us. They usually are very crude
showing only the main points about
the dress, and with just a splash or
color here and there to show the color
scheme. We take these sketches, draw
them over, color them, and they have
to be printed In our books with
'sketched by Worth at the bottom.
Another way we get hints. for our de-
signs is from similar sketches made by
our W artists. We send a young girl
out on the avenue to get sketches from
the shops and passers-by. Haven't
you seen a girl sometimes draw q tiny
pad from her pocket and mark IT
quickly, casting furtlve glances around
all the time lest she be detected? Or,
she ma walk around inside the store
and make drawings from the gowns
displayed within. American shops are
much easier to do that in than the
English. over there you can't go into
q store without clerks coming forward.
What does madame wlsh?' aud then
you have to buy something to get rid
Of them. Here IN America, on the other
hand, you can go into @ store n wan
der around as much as YOU like with
out being spoken to. It Is easy then
to make little quick sketches. I like
the English stores when ! really want
to buy something, but the American
ones when / am just looking at things.
/ never really have to make the
sketches OF which / have been telling
you. That ia too elementary work FOR
a head artist. They aways send the
new apprentices out to make those
sketches. Then I use them as guides
and models for my large drawings.
Wear Thin Dresses Ia Street,
"The only other difference / have
noticed as yet between clothes here
and at home IS that you Americans
wear much better tailormades. You
seem TO take more pains about your
cloth suits, and insist on their fitting
perfectly. You wear them a great deal
more, too. Here on the street you seem
to think are not properly dressed
unless you have on q tailormade. Eng
HSn women wear lileiI Only WHEN tiiSy
are sporting, or on cold mornings IN
town. Before the extremely hot wealth
or comes you see nothing on Fifth ave.
nue. but dark serge suits. Bond street
at the same season would be fun or
light muslin dresses. Think how much
more comfortable the thin dress is and
how much prettier a picture q group
OF women make when so attired! |
can not understand why Americans
are SO devoted to the tailormade,
though I must say they have the best
ones In the world.
"They are almost as bad, I hear,
about house dresses, what we call tea
gowns, such as this / have on. We
always wear loose gowns like this.
without c~orsets, at afternoon tea, and
have such a comfortable, restful hour
before getting ready for dinner and the
evening. You Americans, poor things,
don't have tea, and you keep In your
ttoht onxune or stiff hlouses unit even
ing, and you don't even dress for din
ner as much as English wome do.
Over home in a boarding house like
this, where the people were not wealthy
ordinary working people like me, you
know-we would all be In light gowns
at dinner"