Evening star., 1917-10-21
BY ANNE RTTTENHoUSE.

TT IL not possible to divide the new
gowns into strongly differing sec
tions. No designer has taken
pAriod and copied her gowns from
II with certainty and exactitude. All
Of the French and American workers
have jumbled their history in way
that would give the seeker after truth a
brainstorm.
II Is we'll for the public at large that
the designers do not stick too closely
TO period clothes. when the decorators
insist that one cannot have a curtain.
vase or cushion in room that Is
drawn from a certain period. we get
beautiful pieces of interior decorative
work which should be in museum.
but which have little relationship to an
intimate home life.
It II wise for every woman to learn,
and II would be well II one could only
teach tho artists and decorators the
oame thing, that exhibition work Is one
thing, but the kind of work that one
must live with Is another We can go
TO museums or department shops and
see period rooms and period dress, but
human nature resents the thought of
having such limited environment in
which to spend ones waking and sleep
ing hours. Therefore, we greet with
pleasure the fact that vastly different
into for the new clothes: but anachron-
ism is rife.
The Callot gowns were the last TO get
70 this country. and they presented no
new note, except the introduction OF
the first empire silhouette. Even when
Callot took the most symbolic feature
of this period, which is the high waist
line that slightly girdles the figure just
under the bust. she added medieval
sleeves to it that the Empress Josephine
never wore.
The most dominant first empire frock
that Callot has sent over is of brilliant
red that Is neither geranium. Japanese
nor wine. She calls it 'incendie." 1t has
the richness of ruby In the light and
resembles that Jewel to the inexperi-
enced eye more than the flames from a
conhagrattS... an.s gown is not naarred
by trimming. As the French say, II
goes without garnish. The neck is not
low in the way that Callot is apt to ar
range IT. and the sleeves not only cover
the arms and wrists, but the back OF
them hangs to the knees when the arms
are dropped.
When Callot features a new thing, It
10 bound to be significant, and, there
fore, when she puts modified angel
sleeve In the same gown with an ex-
treme Josephine waist line. she is pro-
ducing something that will be widely
copied and worn by women OF the most
ultra-fashfonable convictions
AS FOR the rest of the Callot collec-
tfon, the only word that can describe
and the oriental effect is magnified. es-
pectally In one gown that seems to have
been made on the impulse of the mo-
ment in the same manner employed by
Polly With a Past" In this, the ac-
tress catches up yards of orange-colored
velvet In an interior decorators room
winds 1t about her figure and then pre-
fascinating French lady who trods the
primrose path.
Probably the medieval sleeve will re-
ceive more attention from American
women than the first empire waist
line. This fact Is increasingly evident
in the exhibitions OF American designed
gowns. which have obviously taken the
medieval sleeve as the chief feature
An entire chapter Of dress could be
written concerning this sleeve. 1t has
played most historic part in the evo-
luton of fashion throughout the CEN
turtes- Like the comets of the solar sys-
tenn. 1t comes in and out of the suns
glare at intervals and can never be
counted as lost
.
America was quite we'll aware that
some type of long. flowing sleeve would
shadowed by the voluminous tulle
sleeves that reached to the wrist and
hung downward in points. Every cable
from Paris insisted upon the prefer
snce shown by the French women for
gowns that did not expose the arms
even though they were half low at the
neck. Fantastic gowns in this country
designed for the footlights. brought a
good deal of attention to themselves
by the fmmensity of their sleeves. but
these were usually fashioned on some
antique Chinese idea. for their square
outline was held in place by Chinese
tAssels and jade bracelets.
Then came the first Callot gown with
the genuine medieval sleeve. The men
who were In Paris early in the summer
and who saw the possibilities in the re-
aowal OF such sleeve, got it over here
before the actual Callot gowns were
unwrapped and displayed to the Ameri-
can public.
It is not easy to define these sleeves
by simply calling them medieval To
eur American minds they are reminis-