Evening star., 1915-03-21
are various new and in
terestinC details in the art of
dress this spring season. but

01HERE are various new and in
terestinC details in the art of
dress this spring season. but
q the. center of comment, gossip
and speculation is in the skirt. Look
ing at it from the viewpoint of one
who saw the accepted wide skirt in
Paris last September and its accept
ance in New York in December, it
seems like an old story, one too old to
even be reviewed.
But interest in it is by no means
subsidized. 1t was never more intense.
Like all things, 1t gains in Importance
when it becomes a personal issue. As
long as the fashion was remote. when
Paris talked about it. when cables re-
ferred to it and certain smart women
adopted it, it was not subject of ex-
tensiye discussion.
When it actually came into ones own
town and was unaccompanied by mar
row underskirt, and one faced the
probability of being compelled to meet
the idea, or rest without the pale of
current fashion-then the wide skirt
instantly became a topic of feverish
interest.
There is little reason to comment on
this well known phase of human ma
ture. 1t is too strongly established TO
be ignorant of. and yet it never fails
to have its amusing side Everything
is theoretic, academic, until 1t becomes
a personal situation At that moment
it assumes proportions and signifi-
canoes that worry or ingulf us, ac-
cording to its magnitude.
Wide skirts as certainty of our
own wardrobes are quite a different
question from wide skirts in France.
fixed between the skirt worn by Mrs.
Cltra-Leader and ourselves. The
former makes pretty reading matter
for an idle hour, the other becomes an
acute question of dollars and cents out
OF our purses, also the taxing of the
sewing room and our ingenuity in al
tering the skirts We possess.
Wearing Old Fashions.
OF course. it Is easy to say that we
will go on wearing the narrow skirt
which we bought last October in the
face Of repeated warnings that the
style could not last, but we are not SO
brave. We know that it is as conspic-
uous to be utterly out of the fashion
as it is to be an extremist in exploit
ing new ideas. and that to be conspicu-
Gus in any personal way is to be out of
good taste. no matter what a tempo
rary condition of social life may prove.
No phase of life destroys certain
creeds. Good manners and good taste
remain the same throughout the centu-
ries, no matter how indulgent society
is. in certain epochs, to their omis-
sion.
The people around one take it as an
evidence of poverty, not eccentricity,
when an old fashion is persistently
worn in defiance of an established new
one, and no one wants to be considered
that poor. In every woman's heart
there exists the desire not to be smoth-
cred by circumstances, to stand with
the rest of the world in dress: it may
not lead her into extravaganza, nor
1feaktshness, nor overindulgence in the
passing caprice. but there is something
wrong with a woman who turns deaf
ear and a stubborn indifference to the
cut of new clothes. So If the neighbor
10 wearing a five-yard hem on her new
spring skirt one does not like to raise
comparison by continuing to wear one
50 narrow that one can scarcely step.
1t is q form of natural pride to ap-
pear to know what Is going on in the
world OF dress. Possibly 1t might be
better II one had the same kind of
pride extending along the line of other
knowledge, as the students insist, but
every ono 10 not capable Of being men
tally interested in movements that do
not Immediately affect ones environ
ment. Narrow. probably, but true. AS
ture. that is-exists as it Is now, just
SO long will the movements of dress be
Of absorbing interest when they appear
within the personal environment. The
woman who denies this with the most
scorn Is usually the one who puts forth
as her first question to one returning
from more fashionable parts: What
are they wearingT
A Way to Compromise With Honor.
There is one ray of light for the
woman who must alter other gowns
before buying new ones. This is in the
fact that the narrow underskirt which
shows just below the full upper skirt
is considered fashionable. This may
present q way out of a dilemma.
It may be rank extravaganza, on the
other hand, to discard the narrow
skirts and buy others. no matter how
inexpensive they are, but this trick