Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-04-21
CARTRIDGE PLEATS FOR
NEWEST SPRING FROCKS
BY ANNE RITTENHOUSE.
rrespondence Of The Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
NEW YORK, April 20.-One must
give credit to Jeanne Lanvin for the
.. invention of the actual cartridge pleat
which has rapidly become a factor in
to give a flare to the material. just
as box and side pleats were used a
decade ago.
There are many other dressmakers in
France, in America, who make car
fridge pleats which have not the
rightly of those that Lanvin builds up
in her frocks. She is credited also with
their use in variety of ways. where
as the majority of the French houses
employ these pleats only at the hips
or at the waist line. as means of
ankles which the new silhouette calls
for.
Lanvin puts them anywhere on the
surface of a gown that pleases her
fancy-sometimes of the material of
the frock again of contrasting cplor
and fabric. In fact. she uses them
trimming. thus killing two birds with
one stone. She gets her fullness and
her ornamentation by this one method.
Pockets Instead of Panniers.
Another trick that Lanvin. has given
to the world of copyists. which is
thrown out to them as a lifesaver in
a measure. is the employment of inn
mense pockets made of cartridge pleats
as a means of trimming the hips.
Every house in Paris has had its
fling at the pannier proposition. After
the first week the dressmakers tired
of the cerclette that was used to dis
tend the hips: it had been worn on the
stage in America for nearly a year and
had been exploited by professional
mannikins at half the places of
amusement in the late autumn. and al
the greatest houses. fastidious women
did not care to wear 1T because of its
spice of sensationalism in dressing and
its Inconvenience.
This does not mean that the method
of placing hoops in gowns has grown
into disfavor. for one sees it on all
sides in the most expensive clothes;
Yet the dreSSmakers have lent them
selves to an arrangement of drapery
rather than the placement of reeds
in obtaining the desired spread of line
just below the waist
In many of the Lanvin gowns. es
pecially in the famous one called
''Maintlnon," which has been greatly
ADMIRED IN America, ana tllat brilliant
gown called "Jaquerinot," the dis
tention of the hips begins Immediately
at the waist line. Maybe that idea will
grow in favor. but, SO far. American
women are afraid of it. 1t is Eliza
bethan and is more fitted to the cere
monious hours of Elizabethan days
than to the crowded hustle and hustle
of Main street in any of our towns.
However, the woman who does not.
care for any of these exaggerated pam
nier effects will snatch eagerly at
Lanvin's idea to put flaring pockets,
arranged in cartridge pleating and
faced with a bright color. over the
hip line just to show that the wearer
knows that something is demanded of
her in that line. Sometimes these
pockets are put above the waist line,
and they are especially effective on
slender figures.
Sir Walter Raleigh's Ruff.
Another clever piece of work that
Lanvin has handed to America to copy
to the fullest extent is the neckwear
called "Sir Walter Raleigh's ruff" For
about a year the French have INDUCED
far more in high neckwear of all kinds
than the Americans have, and as they
insist upon it we may take it up. even
though the hot weather knockS at our
door. This new ruff comedies with the
Elizabethan fullness at the hips the
moment the waist line is passed. 1t is
ade of double pleats of white organdy
and is probably the inspiration for all
of Lanvin's cartridge pleating. and the
HI