The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-19
EXTREMISTS HAVE
ALWAYS EXISTED
Unregulated Desire to Follow FASH
IONS Last Call Not Peculiar to
This Generation.
By FRANCES SHAFFER.


And now report has it that at least
sprinkling of the feminine portion Of the
CITY of Indianapolis is trying to invoke
the aid of the superintendent of police in
the matter of regulating the wearing OF
slashed skirts without accompanying gar
ueuts to offset the effect of the revealing
slash These women, it is said. assuming
that the superintendent and his mighty
force of police have outreaching power
sufficient to mold the fashions to their
sense OF fitness. are asking for an Or
der restraining the worst of the show
ings.
And the story runs that the superin-
tendent promptly asked the traffic squad
to act as censor of feminine wearing
apparel.
How much of truth how much of fancy
there may be in the story must be left
to the reader to determine, but, counting
it shorn of all possible truth, II still re-
fleets the way some critical folk look
upon the within of the season
Because similar reports. more or less
isolated to be sure, come drifting in
from Eastern, Western. Northern, and
Southern towns and while they are ac-
cepted for what they seem to be worth,
they naturally enough lead to a bit OF
thought and of wondering approval or
disapprovaL
rs to the part that women play in all
such questions, one is inclined to say let
them take any action that they like.
make any comment that they like. and
regulate the modes of the day If they
can But one firmly believes that SO far
as men are concerned. whether in a pub
lie or a private capacity, they had better
Just abide by the warning to keep hands
off. For there are plenty of other chan
nels for their energies
The Motive.
One is not disposed, at this writing,
to say all she thinks of the extreme.
freakish gowns she sometimes sees
or of the women wearers, for her
thoughts chance to be running in
different direction. AS the women go
ny in. motley procession, it is not the
striking ugliness of the gowns that
impresses her the most, not the dar-
ing creations themselves, not even the
wearers-and, quite frankly, all three
make her gasp sometimes.
The thought that takes the form of
a question is-what is the motive that
prompts the extremists to go so many
steps beyond what seems like the sane
stopping point? Is it an open bid for
attention? An evidence of dropping
away from oId-time standards? Or.
possibly, a frank confession Of natural
immodesty, kept under cover when the
modes help to conceal IL, displayed
when fashions present the slightest
excuse?
One cannot answer with certainty
of knowledge; all she can do is 10 say
how it impresses her.
And looking at these extremists
among women. whose manner of dress
is Interpreted in many different ways,
according to the measure of charity of
the folk who view il, one believes that
their one aim. in the matter of dress,
is to be in what they count the height
of fashion.
If fashion calls for skirts slashed at
the front, the back, the sides, with
nothing beneath the opening, why,
they simply want to make sure that
they lose not trick of fashion and
that they lead, rather than lag behind
1t is not of good taste that they think,
not of dehcacy, of modeSy, OF the pos
sible effect, or of the construction put
upon it: it is the unregulated desire
to plungs deep in the swim OF fashion
shadows of andmothers.
Ard before one grows too caustic in
condemnation one must remember that
these women are the shrunken shadows
of the voluminous figures of the GUS,
the women who were not content TO
have their ridiculous hoopskirts little
wide but must make sure that they We're
the widest of all They are the shadows
of the women who held themselves In
quite willing bondage to crinoline and
stiffening of all sorts; the limit was all
that Satisfied them. And the women who
today fare forth in public and semi
public places with their necks start
lingly barred are the shadows again OF
those other women who, when hlgh'
tight. destroying collars were decreed,
must have them the highest. the tight
est the most destructive of all.
They are the women who, If fashion
wiIIed it so, would primly sit behind
lilac bushes and obscuring hedges in
their own home gardens, and their eyes
would droop the lowest of all. For, you
see they blindly follow the lead OF
fashion without taking the trouble to-
figure out the possible consequences.
They do not deliberately plan to be
so. spectacular and pronounced in the
clothes they wear and the manner Of
wearing them that conservative folk will
feel like praying for restraining orders
they simply want to be in the very
height of fashion-a little ahead, maybe.
And since we always have in our midst
folk who are a bit misguided. bit ex-
IRENE, and not so very well balanced, II
seems rather fairer to blame the makers
of fashions than the women who weakly
follow. N-Vf
For the very same women who today
fall victims to slashes, to sheaths, and
some things else, tomorrow may be found
subscribing to a note of occurrences. And
it will not be because they have grown
demure overnight, but rather that they
have listened and, listening. have heard
a later call.
Indeed one believes the extremists do
not all indicate that the world of woman
kind is losing it's Unborn delicacy. They
are of a class that always has existed
and always will; and while they seem to
be telling one kind of story just now
it will not be long before they will seem
to be telling something quite the reverse.
And all the while it will be changing
fashion that is speaking the loudest, not
changing woman, for woman remains
pretty much the same, as the genera
tons, the seasons, yes, and the centuries
go hurrying by.