Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-05
Women Are Beginning to Rebel Against
Wearing Uniform Clothes and Want
More Variety in Frocks and Suits

has no foundation in sense or reason. ana
il cannot last. The strain is too much on
every one even now. and 1t is the OPINION
of those who are learned in that vast
study of wearing apparel of which the
amateur knows nothing that a decided
change was felt in the undercurrents this
autumn.
Women did not buy as they Were cN-
pected to buy. Various reasons We're
given, chief of which was the retarded
winter. but those who sit in the watch
towers have come to the conclusion that
the trouble was due to the weary attitude
of women toward this frenZied desire to
produce something new each week and
month. Not only were they exasperated
over the uncertainty in fashion values
but they We're timid about appearing in
novelties because of the immense exploita-
ton of these fashions and the way in
which they had been held up to scorn by
the caricaturists who use pen or brush
1t Is quite true that women have gone
far along the line of unconvention in
clothes: even conservative ones have de-
parted from the paths of righteous dress
ing more than even they know. and fash
ionable society has admitted into its ranks
pariah gowns that should never have
passed he portals in which Is housed good
breeding. Women have had many strange
adventures in clothes during the last three
years and they are now passing through
one of those cyclonic phases that sweep
over fashions in cycles.
Clothes. mere clothes. have been in the
center of this whirlwind of criticism. COM
ment contempt Millions have been spent.
fortunes made and fortunes lost, and
newspapers and magazines have given
columns to a matter that had lain quies-
cent for decades and which has now be-
come one of the important issues of the
day II has genuine news value and is
worthy of daily cables. Women have
grown tired of the turmoil-that is,
large majority of them have-and the
wonder now is how long frenzied fash
ions will last.
There are two distinct seasons in Amer
Faster, and one of them is taking place
now. Because of the fashion Of our
southern Riviera the dressmakers and
shops have started an early campaign in
summer clothes, which Is to catch the
birds of fashion and brilliant plumage in
their southwark flying. Where these fash
ions came from is often a mystery to
layman because they are neither French
nor American, but a hybrid production OF
the two. America mOdifes clothes. but
does not create them. and in the effort
of Commentaries to catch the pennies in
January they have taken advantage of
that well known condition in Paris, the
production of November fashions after
the Americans have got out of town in
september
These gowns, or sketches of them, are
sent over here, and the wholesale manu-
facturers go to work in the late autumn
to copy them in thin summer fabrics. This
is quite easily done, as nearly all ma
terials today are pliable. and much the
same drapery can be used for a frock of
eponge and for frock of panne velvet
The majority of Americans have not seen
any of these late French gowns; the
smart set have these gowns shown to
them, as a rule, because there are GER
tain firms that bring them over from