Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-05
Women Make Their Choice.

The, plant of these is not well advised,
because it is not necessary for. any wom-
an to appear in an immodest fashion. in
the first place: and. second. these gowns
would not be brought to America by the
buyers if they disliked them. or if they
thought the American women did not like
them.
one might readily ask why the
French designers continue to exploit
such fashions for the American trade.
or why do they lend their energies to
the eXacting and expensive business OF
holding semi-annual openings for the
American buyers if they detest the
business they say: and the answer
is not hard to find. 1t lies in the
quality of human nature. 1t is hard to
refuse the money.
When millions are offered for sensa :
| tional clothes. who would say. My art
| forbids it," When dressmaking con-
Germ is vast business venture. with
! frightful fluctuations and great risks.
! who can ask that il refuse to please
| its money spending trade"
! So who is really al fault in all this
| turmoil of charge and counter charge.
| if it be not the American woman? The
! buyers think she will not buy unless
! She is tempted with the bait of sensa =
/ tional clothes. The French think the
| only fashion that will tempt the COM
inerciaI traveller is the freakish eX-
! al
/ woman has the final power in her own
! hands.
| AS for the oft-reiterated statement
made that our women wear the
| the answer lies in the truth: Our
! women wear the clothes made for
Americans. shown to American buyers
| before any one else in the world, and
| brought by them to America.
Where the Remedy Lies
| Now. does the remedy not lie with
u.s. 1t is absurd to say that all the
| fashions are ugly: that we should
| go back 10 the days when saner clothes
were worn. and that we should boycott
| Paris and invent our own fashions.
To begin with, there is variety of
charming, modest, graceful fashions
lying at our threshold if we would pick
them up. Even the original STYLES as
they We're invented have been modified
/ by the conservative buyers who have
the welfare of our women at heart
and they can be modified again by any
woman who wears them II she so de
sires.
wear skirt so narrow at the hem that
she cannot step in it. Fa shon decreed
against this two years ago. and the
woman with the mincing steps of the
thing ugly that pleases her. Skirts
have been siashed in a modest way to
give freedom to the feet since women
rebelled against the hobble. and for
six months it has been the fashion to
make the lower part of the Skin;
accordion pleated in order that we
could walk in comfort
As to going back to the days when
saner clc-hes were worn. when were
these days Surely. we were neither
modest nor wisely dressed in the hoop
skirt days. nor through the years of
tlsht Iaclng. nor when the pull-hack
was IN style, nor during the wears
when clothes weighed pounds and "A
woman wore so much flannel that she
caught cold and various other ailments
every time the temperature changed
Barring the eccentricities when have
women been dressed with so much rea-
son? Look at the marvellous improve
ments that have come about in the ac-
cepted styles Of dressing during the last
decade
So take heart that when women them
selves snail call halt this eccentric
and patchwork quilt style of clothing We
shall enter into an era of wonderful
clothes. The trouble that threatens us