Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-06

from the standpoint of creative
ness Women are fashioning
new frocks. buying new hats.
arranging new details on gowns they
own and indiRerently looking forward six
weeks when the new fashions will be
known
II would be an untruth Ia say that
fashion is ever stagnant. Into the sea
Of clothes a tide IS always running
strong. ebbing or rising. AS long as
women are what they are tine interest n
clothes will never cease from the woman
who Is thrilled over new drapery BY
Paquin 10 her who will walk mile in the
country TO borrow a new design for col
lar
Women are cumulative. initiative. cumu-
lstive. and they always want what some
one else has, not wholly, but II part.
II is this forward state of mind that
makes them remarkably we'll dressed as
a mass which statement will probably
;neet with boos. When one walks along
the streets OF a great city and sees the
number of women who willingly make
caricatures of themselves Il is difficult to
believe that as an entire nation. we are
more ambitious and more successful in
clothes than any other nation.
This statement is founded on the fact
that the women in all sections of the
country from the cross roads to the
boulevards are thoroughly enlightened
through the shops and the newspapers as
TO what to wear. The commercial side
OF distributing new fashions is vast
In this country that 1t would not. be pos
sihle TO deal with it except I'm three vol
,Ines. and this is not true in other ma
tons. where women care little about
clothes unless they live in social centers
or great cities.
There is little ambition among the
women of small means and many duties
TO follow the fashions anywhere else ex-
cept in America. All one would have to
do to notice the extreme difference in
dressing of the privileged few and the
unfmpOrtant many. in other nations. Is
TO see the clothes OF women in the coun-
tries themselves take a snapshot view
OF them when the crowd gets of trans
atlantic liner
In America there are women who are
careless of their clothes in every re-
spect. but 1t is not through ignorance.
but personal Indifference: even lack of
money does not play conspicuous part
IN bad dressing over here. because the
machinery of clothesmaking spreads
gowns cut in the new way throughout
the country at a remarkably low selling
price
This is a DEPRESSION from July fash
ions, but it is an enlargement only upon
the original theme. Our women are
ceaselessly interested In clothes-in their
making. their wearing, their changing
and their possession.
The Acceptance of Change.
When the new silhouette with its extra
large waist and slight curve in front was
brought out in Paris it received its due
need Of gossip: some dismissed it as
whim. others took it seriously for several
reasons. one OF which was novelty and
another OF which was comfort. 1t Is be-
cause OF the latter that large majority
Of women are adopting 1t, and these. are
extremities to which women have gone
to be In fashion.
Wherever the great dressmakers in
America congregate one hears more talk
other feature OF fashion. We are not
confronted with theory, but a condi-
ton. and the dressmakers all seem to be
delighted over IL.
To give an idea Of how rapidly this
fashion has been taken hold Of by those
who make any attempt to dress accord
ing to the standards of the day one
dressmaker said that the normal waist
line was thirty-two inches among her
customers. But thirty-four was getting
TO be nearer the average. She said that
women with thirty-two bust measure
ment have a thrty-two waist measure
HicHts tndl exceedingly tnln women MADE
no attempt to draw in their corsets, but
merely wore them as support as one
would put whalebones in a gown, not to
repress or straighten the figure
] took up the question with many
dressmakers and found the situation
alike wherever fashionable clothes are
made. At two Of the ultra smart houses
the small pad or cushion is used across
the front of the waist line on figures
that are unusually small. Even when the
corset measurement is thirty-two the out