The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-10-01
WILL SHOW LIMBS TO KNEES
FASHIONS LATEST FOR THOSE
WITH SHAPELY UNDERTAKING..
Sensational Gowns Seen at a Private
Display of Costumes Designed by
Worlds Greatest Dressmaker.

Display of Costumes Designed by
Worlds Greatest Dressmaker.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.-Anne Rit-
tenhouse, fashion editor of the Phil
adelphia Ledger, in a Paris letter
says: Worth, the most conserva-
tive dressmaker in Europe, among
the great houses, has just given a
private opening of winter costumes
for the benefit of hundreds of Amer
lean buyers. For the first time in
the career of this celebrated house
there were sensational gowns. No 9ne
in this sartorial world has talked of
much else since.
That Worth, of all men, should
join the procession of senSationalists
has caused not only anxiety, but deep
thought in those who are interested
in fashions as part of the worlds
serious movements.
1t was Worth himself who in
striking article written last March
for the Public Ledger said that w0-
mems raiment reflected the moral
condition of the world; that it was
far more than a whim, caprice, it
was, to students, a mirror in which
one saw the uplift or the decadence
of the times.
Degeneracy in Dress.
He deity traced the manner in
which women's clothes gave an ex-
cellent idea of tn moral, political
and religious epochs through which
n fc
statement as an opinion from one
most qualified to pass on such
subject, we must therefore believe
that he now considers the times too
degenerate in taste to struggle
against it longer.
1t gives US serious thought, this.
1t means that for the handful of
silver" which is necessary for life
today the refined minority has gone
over to the coarsened majority.
Worth could never make anything
coarse; it isn't in the blood. He
couldn't possibly be vulgar, like
many others, for his intellectual
equipment would keep him always
on the high peaks of fashion; but in
his new gowns he shows decidedly
that he has broken down many of
the barriers which he has kept up
since the Empire against all on
slaughts.
His skirts are excessively narrow.
You could not ask of him to make
them wide, for that would put him
among the Outlanders, but one can
scarcely step in them. If you think
that the skirts of the last two sea-
sons have been narrow wait until
you see the new ones! l can hear
you say: well, Americans won't
wear them" And | answer that the
French say: ''They are the ones
who dol"
WOrth's View of Fashion.
However, that is not the question.
We are considering Worth's view of
the new fashions and the times by
his acts. Some of his evening gowns
are less than yard wide and are
slashed in front for at least six inch
es, so that one may move along
somehow.
Added to that, he shows one or
two models that are transparent to
the knees. Cabot introduced this
idea last winter and everyone
thought it decidedly cheap and taw-
dry to attract attention by oriental
izing gown in this method, but
Worth showed one of his best mod
els with this attraction.
1t is quite true that he did not
show more than two of this fashion,
while some of the other houses are
going in strong for it, but he GER
tainly cOuntenanced it by doing it at
all Worth is too great an artist
to force any popular style on his
especial clientele, and be says he will
make gowns according to the wish
es of his patrons, but that the times,
the public and the buyers demand
gowns that are sensational and that
his costumes are really lamb-like in
comparison to the host of others.
When you order gown for your
self and not from the models, or if
you prefer the model modified, you
have not only Worth's taste but his
heart at your disposal; but this does
not alter the crude fact that the
American buyers who gather from
every part of our continent certainly
opened their eyes and gasped at the
parade of n.annequins in the white
and silver rooms on the Rue de la
Paix at the house of Worth.
At the Palace Market.