Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-26

should all be AS happy as queens. inc
tall and tho short, the slim and the
stout, the fair and the dark, the
straight and the Informed, have styles
made for them. The reader may prob
ably jeer at the idea that the stout and
the Informed women are types that are
suited by the fashions of the day. but
such jeering is unseemls because it is
against the facts.
1t is true we do not live in Turkey, and
our idea of physical royalty is Il slim
princess; we do not adore fat, and the
only woman who Is under a ban is the
one who is born with hips and bust, ana
has not been able to reduce one or both
by corsets or fasting. Our alteration OF
skeletons has made us all purifiers OF
flesh, and we have tortured ourselves by
all means. fair foul, to wipe out
curves. We are apostles of tho straight
line, and such We chastise ourselves
like martyrs in a better cause.
X
Yet the artists of the day have made
allowances for women who are not too
stout There is limit to designing and
TO fashion, although it seems elastic
enough I'm these days of variety when
every new genius arises to proclaim his
art by a new fashion and claims certain
for instance, has given way to a draped
one that will hide curves and accordion
pleatng may be used below the knees TO
Offset the size of the figures above the
knees. There are many ways too tedluS
to enumerate in which the fashions have
combined to protect from ridicule the
woman who looks strong and healthy:
of course, the ultra fashions are designed
for the emaciated ones of the earth, but
there Is a hopeful sign in the heavens
%tvr,> han
two will not be considered amiss in the
female form.
As for the Informed ones. they are in the
height of fashion. Anything they wear
ing Is to snoop along as though one were
a snake and not a human being. 1t is
hard to achieve this walk. especially IL
one is healthy American who has been
soundly spanked into holding her Shout
ders straight and her head high. 1t is
the Anglo-Saxon creed that the woman
who stands like a lance at rest" as
Mr.. Kipling has 1T. has achieved the
height of grace In carriage: and there
fore it is difficult for her. il she is not a
mimic, to slide along In the new fashion
of walking, which calls for the head to
be held out like turtles. the shoulders
to be dropped and the arms to swing
from their sockets. There are some who
call it beautiful and there are certain
women. sinuous, snakelike women. who
make 1t attractive. For these there are
ones who are crooked.
-
While 1t is true that certain fashions
are multiplied so fast in America that
the nation Is in danger Of being dressed
in uniform, still the demand for variety
grows apace, and unless woman is so
provincial that she wants to wear what
her neighbor wears she can dress in a
different manner each day and still be
within the law OF style.
In small towns this is difficult, because
the shops and dressmakers are apt to ex-
plot certain leading features of fashion
and insistently offer them as ''the thing
In great centers this is not so. The lead
ing features are offered and usually ex-
plotted, but they are only part of large
array of clothes which are used as bait
to catch the pennies of vastly varied
population.
Take the mere question of coats. The
long one was insstently offered as the
correct thing, and yet short ones were