Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05

ject are the women who do not like
the trouble of buying new clothes. but
the world must be run successfully on
the principle of the greatest good to
the greatest number.
! Instead of going back to history, as
every one thought it was probable that
the French designers would do, they
went back to Russia. This is only a
step backward in the right direction. 1t
may be claimed that we have never got
Russian ballet under the wizardry of
Leon Bakst held Paris in thrall Every
night one would see there the most ia
nous designers with keen. watching
eyes, and the artists for the best de-
signing houses were always working
| rapidly with their pencils, taking in a
line here and a suggestion there.
America did not get the full tide of
| the Russian fashions. The women did
not accept them, probably because they
| had not the inspiration and enthusiasm
| chat came from seeing the marvellous
| ballet itself All they knew of it was
purely academic; they had read of it.
| but the reading conveyed no vivid pic
| ture to their minds.
t The majority of experts in the bust
ness of dress thought this Russian in
| fuence was over; even last winter the
| fragments Of it were shown in the
high -colored boots and the enormously
| full skirts that looked like the trou-
sers of the peasants. Then Victorian
| ism came into play. and for a while
we played with it and there was an IN
easy feeling that possibly it would sue
coed, for. although 1t was sweetly pref
| ty, it was not for the majority of
F., Americans. and it was always on the
edge of ugliness.
-.
| Small waists were then imminent.
Normal waist lines almost succeeded.
Frills and burbelows without mean
ing were prevalent. Hats were Eng
lish- gardeny, shoulders sloped, flow
cred cretonnes and figured muslins
came into prominence. But the type
of women had changed since these
strictly feminine things had been worn
We had shifted to something quite
different. We were less pretty and
more striking. We worshiped line, not
lovely eyes. We could not pull in our
waists unless we had danced and dieted
toward emaciation and gone through
all the reductio absurdum exercises
that are supposed to make for slim
ness.
We had an unpleasant suspicion that
we were misflts in those Victorian
clothes. They did not go with platform
speaking for votes for women, nor col
lege basket ball teams, nor subways
at in the morning. carrying one to
males. We felt foolish in small waists
and hats with ''suivezmoi, jeune hon.
me" ribbons.
But it is not to be Victorian, ladies.
Look up and be of good cheer. You
need not pull in your waists, nor Gull
tivate a baby stare. nor droop the
shoulders, nor look anemic. You are to
be dressed in all the robust parapher-
MALTA of the superb Russians
1t is not to the ballet by Bakst with
its strong compound tincture Of Per
sian and the Arabian Nights that the
French designers have looked. 1t is to
the fighting millions under the Grand
Duke Nicholas, to those retreating but
ever glorious fighters on whom the eyes
of the world have been fixed for six
months. Callot and Cheruit have said
the last word on the subject of what
to wear, and there was rarely a time
when these two did not have the voice
of power. 1t will not fail them this
time. especially as they have no die
tatorfal rivals.
No designer advances Victorianism
No one asks for the tiny waists No
one really reduces the flare of the