The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-05-06
SEASONS STYLES
ARE TOO BIZARRE
Woman Who Does Not Modify the
New Styles Invites Public
4. Disgust.
Ny FRANCES SHAFFER.

1t is bad enough for American women TO
accept the grotesque styles that has been
brought to us from over the sea- but II
lis worse to see them tagged all over with
the mark of their origin
For everybody knows that the daring
curiosities that pass before our startled
vision now and then are spurned by ex-
elusive French women. The bizarre
creations" first see the light of day on
the race courses and in public places at
the French capital. and are worn by
type of Partisan women frankly looking
for notoriety
And as the sovereign makers of fash
ions sit on their mighty thrones design
ing the styles for each season, they must
laugh in their sleeves as they religiously
separate the sheep from the goats, the
one allotment destined to remain on their
own fair shores, the other to shrek aloud
on this side of the water-"Parisian
made-'
For they tell us that the styles adopted
by the best dressed women of France are
reserved exclusively for them, and are not
set forth in fashion plates for the public
eye.
The season is still young and we nave
seen only a hint of what may be forth
coming a bit later, but the hint is bi-
zarre, rather than beautiful, and OF a
character to make us ready enough to
accept the statement that We are copying
an unlovely type OF Partisan womanhood.
Looks Out of Fashion.
And we seem to have reached the
point where il woman really asplres
to dress in quiet taste and to wear gown
that is not freakish in width, in cut, or
in general makeup, she looks DIT out
of fashion" For the cuts and decorations
n -s.s- ~lrGh
after wear have worked to dizzy heights,
and the fashionably dressed woman this
season. who has not Independently modi-
fied the absurdest of styles, invites
smile a frown, a stare, or a DOUBT, as
ii happens.
Some time American women are going
TO he thoroughly aroused to the fact that
there should not be a wide sea between
1hem and their styles. for they Will
realize that commercially, industrially,
and aesthetcally an immense advantage
rests with the nation which originates
fashions for its own womankind and Tor
all who will accept them.
Offhand one does not realize the ire
mendous part that changing fashions
play in the output of the world. In
Paris. long the home of the latest in
STYLES good American gold has steadily
poured into the Golfers of the makers OF
fashions. and fortunes upon fortunes
have been made and kept in Paris, all
thanks to the habit of meekly accepting
anything that bears the Partisan tag.
We have artistic designers this side
of the sea and dressmakers that can hold
their own with competitors in any land
why should we let Paris dictate to us,
particularly when Paris has thrown
grace. beauty, and conservatism to the
winds? And we have industrial workers
a-pIenty who gladly would see the Ameri-
can workshop and factory supplant the
foreign output.
And
American women are quite unlike their
Partisan sisters and look best in styles |
designed exclusively for them by dress |
makers Of their own nationality, who |
breathe the same atmosphere and alb /
sorb the same ideals.
Look Like Foreigners.
Frankly. the women we meet on the |
streets today, at least very many OF |
them. look as if they had drifted here |
from other shores. strange shores at |
that When they adopt eliminate. ,Hlodi- |
fy and slip in some of their own better /
taste. the product, if carefully worked. out, /
is really. quite beautiful, but when they |
accept the scantiest kind of a skirt that /
only permits walking by grace of a |
deep-cut slash and when they follow /
other much-heralded and very ugly |
Partisan fashions. they are not true |
10 themselves or their best possibilities. |
For the very best possibility of an |
American woman is to look the part.
And if we could see the fashion
select their models from wom- /
Ell who are glad to deck themselves
in the latest and most striking effects 1
and then send them forth to attract at
IGNITION with their eccentric modes-well, |
perhaps we might more readily draw the
inc at styles that started away down,
and never got any farther up in the
of their origin.
To the minds of some of us. the ac-
is not at all complimentary TO
he American woman. /
Some years ago Queen Elena, of Italy, |
started a movement to encourage home |
art in dressmakng and STYLES suited to
the individuality of Italian women. Then
Spain took up the new note, England |
has grown rather independent, and it is
hoped that American women will fall in
inc before anything worse drops upon
is.