Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-09-24

solved many difficulties. look at it now
with regret. but without any desire to
possess it.
| They may be worn by this class of
women as house gowns, and as such
| there is no model rs good. Yet, even In
the face of this feeling on the part of
| well dressed women and high-priced
| dressmakers one cannot guarantee that
| the wheel of fashion will not again
=, turn them into first place before the
| season is over.
This thing has happened many times
before, and what has happened once
| can happen again. 1t may be that the
| world that looks on during September
will allow the great multitude of wom-
en- to get through with this frock and
| then it will be reproduced in different
way in November.
! Now the puzzling question before the
people who buy and sell Is this: Will
| the Moyen-age, which was SO speedily
| carried to popularity. become a drug in
| the market, and will the directoire loom
up as the choice of the minority? Will
| the smart women who really lead the
affairs of dress decide that the high
| waist line. slim hips, tight shoulders
| and long sleeves will be the fashion of
| their choice, making a direct contrast
to the wrapper-like frock that is girdled
around the hips?
In France the tendency is toward the
directoire and first empire. It is be-
| lieved that the smart women over there
have gone in for the newer line and
that the waist line dropped to the hips
was follow-on of French styles that
had been taken up in May and June.
| The belief Of the experts is that the
directoirc will win before Thanksgiv-
ing. They believed that in Paris, and
this belief has been strengthened by
the action of the multitudinous masses
| in America in taking up the Moyen-age
| and not looking at the directoire. How
ever. it's ali gamble That's what
makes clothes and the discussion of
| them exceedingly interesting to those
who are behind the scenes or standing
at the side of the race track.
1t is not probable that the extreme, or
rather pure. directoire will be inaugu-
| rated before February, although it may
flicker over here before that time
among the exclusive models that are
sent over to women who keep their
orders in French houses and to those
shops whose buyers send over some
thing different every month.
There would be no cause for surprise
if one saw. at some time not far away.
return to the tight, narrow skirt and
the long-tailed coat with its short, or
| namented front and striped waistcoats.
the fashion Of the moment with us for
SO long time that, in things sartorial,
break is sure to come.
France always let's certain silhouettes
| run for as many seasons as her mills
and looms need for the production of
the materials, and although we have
gone through various epochs Of French
history in the last two or three years
the fact that she is basing a quantity
of her fashions on Russia this season
shows that she is still working along
the same lines.
One has to look for small and SEEM
ingly obscure symptoms in the system
Of dress in order to see a. coming
change. and 1t would seem that the high
waist line, the definitely longer skirts
the high-crowned hats with their odd
shaping. the use Of long canes and the
type Of materials that are coming in
promise something different from the
last four years.
There is no doubt about the fact that
we will consider ankle length, rather
than shoe top length, the more correct
way to cut skirt: We may really come
into the long, full. straight skirt that
falls on the floor when we are dressed
for the evening, but the united hopes
Of nation should bar out the long
skirt Tor the street; the accepted length
is more graceful and in far better taste
than that which we have exploited for
a year.
Long. full skirts are excessively awk-
ward, and for that reason it is believed |
that the longer skirts get the narrower
they will grow at the hem.
Cabot clings to the juvenile skirt and |
does not add an inch to the evening |
gowns which she has exploited In their |
extreme narrowness for a half dozen |
years She allows fullnees in her street |
skirts when that fullness is severely
pleated and hangs plumb from the hips, |
but she has no dealings with other |
methods Of obtaining width at the hem |
In fact, she does not want width.
Lanvin does not want width. and the |