The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-11-17
"American Fashions
For American Women
BY DOROTHY DIX.

sion OF the Paris label on gowns
and hats. aud the substitution
therefore OF the home grown one.
The hattie cry Of this holy war
is "AmericaD fashions for Ameri-
can women lis appeal is TO the
good sense, the pocketDook and the
patriotism Of the women of the
country, and hero IS wishing the
new crusade success, and that the
time will not lie far distant when
II respectable American woman will
10 more think OF getting her clothes
from Paris than she does her NOR
ais from there.
Too long have we been under
the tbrslIdom of the fallacious idea
that ALI sar;oriaI glory not only
originated in Paris, but stayed
there, and that because a dress or
hat was made in Paris it was
bound to be a marvel of beauty
and taste, and bave points Of eI-
cellence about II that no other d-ess
or hat made elsewhere. and ,spcc-
iallv in America, could possess.
Paris has had us hypnotized to that
degree that we have taken what
ever she handed out, and have worn
IT, no matter what freaks it made
Us look like, without daring to crit
icjse or question
But the time has come for us
to make few passes at ourselves
and wake up, and face the truth,
and that - that the superlative ar
tistic touch of the French dress
maker and milhner is nothing but
1,vth - -
such sloppy dressmakjnC eytant as
that executed on the banks of the
Seine. and that when we buy Il
French frock we pay about fifty
dollars extra on ii for the pleas
ure Of deceiving ourselves. and As
long as We wear it we have the
continual pleasure Of sewing on
hooks that were merely pasted on.
and catching up drapery that ripped
if We looked at il.
Our blind devotion TO the French
fashion fetch is silly enough, heav-
EN- knows, when we get the real
article that is actually made in
Paris, but it becomes grotesGuely
humorous when we find women
willing TO pay nearly double for
hat or gown that js made in New
York or Chicago, or Philadelphia
because it has bogus Paris label
sewed on it. Yet they do this ev
cry day, and 90 per cent Of the
"lmportcd clothes for which
women spend their husband S good
money were imported from Sixth
avenue. and are no nearer French
than is the French accent Of the
Mary o 'Gradys, and Sally Joneses,
who masquerade as E'Mahsme The
rese," or" Clotllde,' or F'ihue.'
Recently pawn shop that was
investigated by the police in this
city was found to have tens OF
thousand OF the labels of cele-
brated French dresamnkers and
nilliners that it sold TO epterpris-
ing dressmalSers and uilliners here.
Further, a man interested In this
subject was told by the head Of
large millinery house in this city
that so per cent of his imported
French models were made right in
his own workroopl, and the French
labels pasted in.
Now there is no use in blaming
the merchants for this duphcity.
The fault is with the women. They
demand French goods and they are
supplied with what they ask for.
If they would ask for AMERICAN
made hats and gowns, the merchant
would be glad to furnish thems
Nobody leads the double life from
choice.
OF course in millinery and dress
making, as in other things, TO sue
ceed you have got to be able to
deliver the goods, rs Mr., Devery
would say. And that American
millincrs and dressmakers can de-
liver the goods is sufficiently prov
on by tho fact that this substitu-
tion OF the domestic article for tbe
foreign one goes mcrrily on, and
women are perfectly satisfied TO
pay the Paris price for \ bone
made dress or bat provided they
have the French label.
They are simply slaves 10 the
old idea, and the woman s clubs
can DO no more effective OF patri
otlc work than in bringing to bear
their tremendous influence in COM
batting this boary superstition that
decadent Paris. and not inventive
aud young America, is capable OF
properly clothing American women
Of refinement and taste.
We like TO boast that we are the
most Ingenious people in the world,
the most practical. the quickest to
see a need. and to supply 1t, and
this being the case we stultify our
selves IL VIC admit that We have
nobody among us capable of or1gi
mating clothes that arc built on
hegutiful audSharmopious lines and
composed of artistic combinations
of colors.
That Americans can not only
originate fashion, but that the
whole world will accept them is
shown by the short skirt, aud the
shirt waist, which emsnated from
the land of free women, aud which
Paris is first derided, and then ac-
cepted, and which fashions were 50
practical and go sensible that they
have come 20 stay for women just
as much as coat and trousers have
for mon.
Also because American women
refused to wear tbe clumsy and
ill-6ttinG foreign shoes, the Ameri-
can shoe has the earth for its own,
and on the most fashionable shop
ping streets in London and Paris
there are huge signs which pro
claim American Shoes Sold
Here
1t is absurd TO say that we can't
make as pretty hats and gowns as
arc made anywhere else In the civ
iliyed world. We do. But we sell
them under a French label, at R
higher price, than if they had their
,-n bnnoSf American frnJp mnrE