Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-26

or eight inches. and is cut away in
front and usually edged with band
Of colored crystals il the gown is tue
kind that can stand this ornamental
ton.
When the dressmakers began using
the flaring tunic they continued I"
drape the skirt up in the front and
back, as they had been doing all sum
mer. They merely mounted the tune
on top of this. But after a week or
two of experimenting they decided to
! omit this particular movement of dra
perry because it was likely to create
awkwardness at the front Of the waist
line. and there is quite enough awk-
wardness there to answer for as it is.
IL was easy for French woman, or
man. to evolve a skirt which had all
the appearance of draDery without any
visible means of obtaining it, but it is
not easy for the American either to
make it or describe it. Even with
pattern in ones hand. it may not be
simple matter for skilled American
skirt filter to accomplish that freedom
of movement, combined with narrow
ness of line, which the new French
skirt has.
1t is not strictly new, after all. for
the idea was used in walking skirts
tinctly Turkish. for the skirt slightly
balloons out over the knees and hips
and goes snugly in at the ankles and
waist. This swirl is accomplished by
cleverly manipulated seams and here
and there a pleat. but it is the feeling
of the American woman at the moment
that the American dressmaker Will not
accomplish it in satisfying way.
\ !:
This idea is based on the fact that
we never got the hobble skirt quite
right in America. 1T may have some
thing to do with our figures; we may
be at fault, not the dressmakers, but
the truth is that the Paris people are
past masters at a kind of uncanny ma
uipulation of cloth. and this new skirt
is good evidence of it.
It's incoming does not mean that those
broad pleatS at the waist have gone OUT.
for one still sees all manner of skirts
arranged in that bias line which brings
this drapery to the middle or inc waist
front or back and sometimes both IN
less the material is excessively sou. ~ -
not easy to put one Of Doucets wrinkled
yokes over the upper part of the hips IN
order to hold down the tunic.
The pleats stand in the way of this, Tor
they are not stitched and they make the
yoke bungleSome.
MANY of the new skirts have all their
pleatins in the tunic itself. and many of
the best houses are using two TUNES IN
stead of one. This does not make the
line of departure from the figure so abb
r,lpt There is black satin theater
gown with double ruffies, that is an ad-
mirable example OF what theater gown
should be- especially for the woman who
does not care to wear decollete frock
every time she desires to see play at
night
The skirt, which is of the satin, is with
out pleats at the waist line, but full
enough to be caught up in horizontal
pleats between the knees under the lower
tunic. This drags the gown up In the
front, breaks the Straightforward hem at
the ankles which Is now considered quite
old fashioned. and gives that basgy eff
feet above the feet which Is much de-
sired.
There are two tunics of black silk net
boldly embroidered in a fiat silver thread
with a design picked out in steel beads |
Each tunic is edged with a ribbon of /
black velvet, and each is thickly pleated |
to the narrow satin skirt beneath.
The upper tunic is held down by a |
black satin yoke or sash, which Is drawn I
around the figure to outline 1t, edged
with shell beads in front, and tucked I'M
der at the lower edge in order to follow |
the outward movement of the tunic and |
not confine 1t too closely.
The bodice is a straight up and down |
shirt waist that is semi fitting. is with !