Omaha daily bee., 1915-06-20
By Pierre Creget,
Director Of the High School Of
Commerce, Lyon, France

Director Of the High School Of
Commerce, Lyon, France
FASHION is a social custom, trans
mitted by imitation or by tradi.
ton. 1t is a form of luxury, lux
uTy in ornamentation.
Many writer's have sounded the ca
price Of fashion, its frequent coming,
its suddenness. 1t is changesble, unre-
liable, frivolous; most careful calculations
are often brushed aside for the most
trifing causes. "One fashion has hardly
brushed aside another When 1t is abol,
ished by a new one. And this in turn
gives way to one which follows, but
this one will not be the last" wrote
La BruyeTe back in the sixteenth
century. The new style Of dressing
makes the older fashion out of date,
so forcefully and with such general
agreement that 1t might be called
kind Of mania which turns the senses
round" writes Montague in the
eighteenth century.
An English aTcheologist. Mr. Evans
found in the Mycenaean palace of Knos-
SOS in Crete some frescoes painted 1,400
years before our era, showing ladies OF
the court clothed In respondent gar
ments, with enormous leg-of-mutton
sleeves held to the neck by a narrow
ribbon; their founced skirts, ornamented
with embroidered bands, are expanded
behind by enormous bustles.
Writings and monuments tell US That
under the Empire changes Of fashion
and popularity in costumes we're Gus
tomary at Rome. During the Middle
Ages, an author of the twelfth century
wrote: France, whose humor varies
continuously, ought to have some gar
ments which would proclaim her insta-
bility." In the fifteenth century Robert
Gaguin reproached Parisians ''for al
ways being eager for, novelties and un-
able to retain the same style of clothing
for ten successive years"
Fashion sleeps only for perpetual re-
awakening, making evolutions in irregu-
lar cycles at the will of its creators I'm
der Henry III. we find the pointed waist
held in place by a stiff corset, the pulled
sleeves; the dress already had the hoop
petticoat which fashion revived again in
1880.
The reign of Henry w. brought us the
great bell skirt, built on springs, which
= we find later with the crinoline This
tendency toward fulness in the skirt kept
increasing until 1905, bringing some
dresses to enormous proportions with
ward the end of the seventeenth century
the fulness diminished, giving way to
padded dresses, concealed under man
tie wraps, and in 1880 they reappeared
again.
Reduction in the size of the skirt con.
tinued uutil about 1850 when fulness
again came into fashion, and by 1856
the skirts were ridiculously full, expand
cd with great hoops. There was another
reaction, and the hoop-skirt gave way
irst to the hustle; then in 1898 came the
)ne-piece dress, with a running string
and without ornamentatiOn. Greek robes
we're seen at fetes and on the stage The
)irectoire dress, very close-ftting, eX-
lggerated the plated style and resem'
lled the trousers skirt of recent date.
The Empire costume, with the waist
high under the bosom, was only another
transformation of the Directoire dress,
showing at that time tendency to full
ness in the form
After 1905 the cycles began TO shorten
the wheel turned faster. and without
stopping, until we find a general style
used by all classes of society. Skirts
were worn very full again toward 1910
and, passing through all sorts of grada-
lions, with a partial return to fulness in
the back, ended in 1860 and 1866 in the
eliminating point of the crinoline. This
marks the departure from Orientalism
and brings US toward the epoch when
very simple and straight robes were
worn until we reach the other extreme
The clinging gown, not forgetting the
larem skirt, an exaggerated revised edi
ton OF the eccentricities of the period
from 1905 to 1915. We must pause to
resume slowly but surely the march TO-
ward the pulled or padded styles.
The fashion created, there is haste
TO make It known, to launch II. Under
the monarchical regimes and under the
trst and Second Empires. the court full
illed that duty and gave fashion some
distinction. To-day the style is made
public by mannequins at the race course
on the street, at the theatre, by actors
on the stage, and by such social func
lions as wedding or a ball