The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-04-12

Charged With Present immoral and
Indecent Tendency of the
Modern Feminine
Fashions.
FRENCH DANES
How Fashionable Stores of Paris Sell
Their Goods to the
United States
Patrons.

by William Philip Simms,' Paris cor
I respondent of the United Press.
| PARIS, April 11.-American women
are blamed here for the Immoral and
indecent tendency Of modern fem
mime fashions, dressmakers in the
Rue de la Paix charging them with
adapting modest French creations to
suit their own taste, which Is for
Exaggerated styles. This was the re-
ply made by style-makers Of Paris
when the Woman's Patriotic league
set on foot 4 movement of protest
against the tendency Of present day
couturieres to promote the most dar-
ing costumes for female wear At
| first the Rue de la Paix paid no at
tention to the protests. Campaigns
against the ultra-ultra in style have
sprung up and waned without number.
1.-THE appeal is the last despairing
struggle Of the dowagers," said a
Frenchwoman Of the extra-chic social
set, setting forth at the same time the
then opinion Of the style designers
themselves. NO woman who has
with its perfect freedom, will ever
consent to return to the old fashioned
petticoats. The ladies of the Fau-
bourg ST. German, who issued this
INCLUDED appeal, are. not leaders of
the section of society which sets the
fashions in dress" But the protest
grew like Mr.. Finney's turnip. From
where 1t could do no harm 1t grew
until it threatened to do a great deal.
Many we'll known social leaders sign
ed the petition. 1t was then that the
get from under and they chose the
excuse first voiced by Adam when
caught with the goods in the Garden
Of Eden. It was not their fault; they
were tempted and did fall. The
American woman was to blame.
1T is the American and not the
Frenchwornen who create the demand
for indecent dresses" a well known
Rue de la Paix dressmaker told the
correspondent. He assumed the con-
descending air of his kind, when Civ
ing the interview. an air which said
palmer than words that there is no
accounting for tastes-at least among
foreigners.
Rue de la Paix Is split in two. One
camp has come out in the open and
decided to defend modern styles with
their slit skirts, low-cut necks and
other daring features. the second
sticking to the good ship conservat.
ism The consensus of opinion among
A IN Do &c hot n
dress makers are right, however hard
that admission may hit their sisters
in the u. 8. A. But the trouble, they
maintain, is not with the American /
woman, but with the French dress
makers. to-wit:
Scene, a fashionable dressmakingi
establishment in the Rue de la Paix.
Enter Mrs. Simoleon Dough, OF Chi
cago. New York, Newport and else
where. She hasn't any idea what
French women are wearing save the
smattering she has cleaned from
glimpses Of very swell appearing |
ladies at Longchamps, Auteufl and the
theatres She doesn't know that
these ladies are hired by the Rue de
la Paix to wear those eccentric !
gowns: that these same ladies are
ONLY models instead of duchesses. and !
that they wouldn't wear such out !
landish dresses anyway unless forced !
to by way of earning living, SO she /
orders a gown like one she has seen.
= will make 'em stare back home, |
she saws to herself, and anything, no
matter what the agony, to achieve
that Should any lingering doubt re-
main in her mind that the lady she
saw wearing the dress at Longchamps !
was at least princess, the dress |
salesman would quickly set her right. |
He can even furnish the name. for
surely it was no other than the
Princess Frontage de Brie
Not word escapes the dressmaker !
which might lead the American lady I
to think that the dress was too &C.
centric. He tells her that it is the
dernier cri, the very chicest thing he's
got the last gasp. and that every
hody who is ANYBODY is wearing 'em /
cut like that. Then he charges her !.
$1,000 for materials. an equal amount !
for making It up. and $749 for the
name. and Mrs. Dough Is thoroughly +
convinced.
Very probably she thinks privately i