The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-02-25
THE HAREM SKIRT.
charges

We concede to femninity the widest latitude
1t comes to admiration CT beautiful womanhood,
styshly and befttingly gowned. We watch the
everchanging styles Of habiliment with new
and greater thrills as the seasons pass We
have never gone so far AZ to insult the intelli-
genoe of American womanhood by dreaming for
a moment that the horrible, dishguring and In
appropriate harem skirt would gain favor with
the gentler sex in this country, however much
like widhre its popularity might spread in the
realm of the Sultan or in Gay Paree,"
Some one has said. LAS well be out of the
world az out of the fashion" but this does not
apply in the instance of the harem skirt for
that viii never become the fashion.
Dressing serves convincingly to illustrate
of the fundamental differences between the
workings of the masculine and feminine mind.
1t is womans whole existence, but TO a
thing apart The right kind of man cares
little or nothing for fashion, style and sartorial
fads. He Is the same man in overalls in
broadcIoth. A woman however. must be dress
ed in the height OF fashion, or else-it matters
not how overcrowded Ter wardrobe--she has
nothing TO wear" Searching and watching for
the newest, the latest and the most stylish
thing in dress occupies great part of woman
time. In many instances the greater part 1t
was ever thus and ever Will be. and no right,
minded man will audibly criticisc woman for
1t.
Thu American woman. in quest OF the stylish
garment, has been led d merry chase by the
Partisan modistes and lashion-makers, and the
American husbands and fathers have been COM
PEELED to pay much good money to see their
wives and daughters arrayed in impossible garb
Wherever the modisteS have led, the American
woman. has followed. Whether the Partisan
fashion.makers laughed and scoffed at the folly
of the American woman after Quitting her
seems to have been of no consequence In the
past,
The parting OF the ways has been reached
with the creation of the harem skirt, This is
one trail blazed by the nodtsteS which the
American woman win rot and cannot follow
There is no deUand for the harem skirt 1t
has been created because majority OF women
who follow the fashions have equipped them
selves with the hideous. ungainly and uncon,.
Portable hobble skirt Another season has roll
ed around, and the Partisan talors who have
amused themselves and filled their Golfers by
making monkeys of American women, believe
the best interests of their exchequers demand a.
new garment
The harem skirt is an impossible. unwomanly
and Objectionable piece OF dress which is DOOM
ed TO an early grave. The Pope of Rome has
decreed that CARRIED in it shall enter
Il Catholic church. In Paris, birthplace and des-
tined to be the deathplare of the harem skirt,
slave TO fashion, demonstrator for the
makers of the garment, has been pelted with
eggs, booted off the streets and rescued by DO.
liceman. In New York another female, fettered
by the shackes of style. or hired to walk the
streets and popularize the unsightly affectations
has made a show OF herself, attracted howl
ing, curious mob. and sought seclusion
This is as 1t should be. The harem skirt will
become the predominating fashion in this coun.
try when the American woman has lost all her
self-respect dignity and good sense, but not until
then 1t will be time enough to don this freak
creation when the men of the nation have taken
to wearing fftysix gored. plated skirts. with
shirring at the top and rufles on the bottom,
and pile upon their pates great masses of dead
hair. ---'--~-------