The Washington times., 1917-03-30
MTLADY WEARS EN-!
Ell? TROUSERETTES
Queens of the Home" Adopt
European Sisters Style
of Work Clothes.
By MARGARET MASON.
NEW YORK, March 80

By MARGARET MASON.
NEW YORK, March 80.
The busy housewife pants these days
As she does up the chores;
You see, she's cast her skirts aside
For trouserettes indoors.
In a class. with the hoary and de-
crepit mother-in-law joke. the one
about the advanced female donning
the trousers has done equally long
and faithful Service. But 10! and
behold, the latter wheeze has now
ceased to be joke, and in these days
of 1917 become a stern reality.
DR.. Mary Walker blazed the trail
for the wearing of masculine neither
garments, believe, but It took a heap
of red tape to keep them on. Nine.
Curie more recently gained the per
mission of her government to wear
'em, after a great deal of trouble
and time, but now everybody's doing
it with the greatest ease and non
chalance.
Along with the high cost OF living
and other evils, of course, this fem
inine penchant for trousers must be
blamed on the poor old war. Only
ln1S time II Is no eNlly out u DtcSSluB
In disguise-of pants.
With the women forced to take over
the tasks of males in all the fighting
countries, naturally II was meet that
they should take over the cut of their
clothes as well. One can't very ade-
quately oil engines, plow, drive
motors, and run elevators all done up
IN skirts and petticoats.
~Home Queens. Wear En-.
Sitting on the sidelines, Maiden
America, and Matron America as
well, have calmly appropriated, as
they do all imported fads and fash
their own and pant no longer mere
ly with emotion or exertion but with
gingham denim, chambray, silk and
satin.
By a, quaint whimsey Of fate, 1t
isn't the advanced female of the joke
who is now wearing the trouser ef-
fects, however. but the dear, domes-
tic little wives and mothers, the
Queens of the home" and "the
housewives of the hearth"
As q first aid to baking, brewing,
sweeping, and chores of the home in
general, nothing could be neater,
Eweeter, or fieeter than one of the
new pantalette house dresses.
They are made with blouse waist,
with sailor collar and loose, three
quarter sleeves. They have a neat
little belt, button down the front
and there are two dandy, handy, big
patch pockets, one on each hip. Thus
far they are no different from the
little old last years model house
dress. But below the pockets comes
the great divide into cunning little
trouserettes that CLASP the ankles
with an elastic headed frin or else
hang straight With a stitched band
of the material bounding them. like
an honest TO goodness regular male
trouser cuff
Not All AIIke.
On some of the prettier models
this band around the bottom of the
pantalettes, like the belt, collar.
pocket. and sleeve cuffs, is Of a con-
tFasting shade OF material. These
sensible and saucy suits come In
chanoray' Bingham, denim, and
Khaki in pink or blue or white or
tan.
Then there are the regulation
oyeralls, the female OF the snecies
resembling much the male. These
are, OF course, for the more siren
nous walks Of workaday feminine
life.
Skating overalls are cutting sorD.
ice these days. too, let me tell vou
Fair skaters fnd they can cut a much
better figure s or any old figure at
all in the smart new tailored trousars
OF novelty suiting and tweed. cut gen
erously wide with big flap pockets on
each hip and cunning suspenders of
the same material holding them se-
curely in place
Milady of elegant leisure is pantin1
TO be in trousered class with her
sisters, the sporting girl and the busy
housewife. So she affects the straight.
black silk trousers of the Chinese
woman. topped with a gaily embroId-
cred Chinese coat for her "robe
tntime" or the full trousers of a Turk
ish trophy under a glowing coat of
silk
wearing trousers has, indeed, be-
come such fascinating habit that
the 1917 female cannot even doff them
at night, and so she dons, when the
shades OF night have fallen down and
the window shades are down as well, |
cute little suits of pajamas with femi- |
nine V-cut decollette and short |
sleeved uppers and masculine, |
straight cut, ankle length lowers.
So, you see, it keeps lovely woman |
painting twenty-foVr hours a day to !
keep up with these strenuous times |