Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-25
SEES END OF
WOMEN'S SKIRTS
Will Probably Wear More
Comfortable Garments
After War
BY MRS. WILSON WOODROW

The occupation or sport must have
| it's appropriate garment. That's as
necessary a corollary as the hour and
| the man.
And now that women are mobilizine
| in practically every state in the union
for agricultural work, there is much
agitation over the sort of garments
which shall properly fit the woman
and the task.
The popular vote is for overalIs,
| and the manufacturers OF these use
full and bucolic garments are already
! busy trying out designs. When the
Maud Mullers of this simmer rake the
meadows sweet with hay, they will
! probably do so free of the incommod- =
/ ing and hampering skirt.
l wonder II this is the beginning of
| the end, if in a few years the skirt
| VIII be on the dust heap along with
the Chinese shoe, and the wasp waist
ed corset. and the veil of the woman
| of the zenana. The prophets have
been predicting it for several years.
think 1T was just before the war
| that there was an interview in one
! OF the London papers with Paul Poi
ret, the great French designer. He
said that he had just finished two de-
signs which he foresaw would be uni
| versally adopted by women in about
| ten years. He had had these designs
| duly certified by his attorney and
! placed under seal for the period stat
ed. in order that his prediction might
| be verified. Then to his interviewer
, he showed copies of the designs. ,-
In the first, the skirt separated at
the knee into trousers. In the second
there was no compromise with skirts.
| The trousers were slightly fuller than
those of men but unmistakably trous-
| ers.
L will not predict fashions" NJ.
Poiret is quoted as saying. "for 1 dis
own fashion. l believe only in influ-
| ences. If you ask me what is the
| transcendant influence to-day, 1 reply
that 1t is the wind of emancipation
passing over women"
don't keep clippings or note
books; they add so much to the clut-
tering lumber of life; but l did file
this prediction, just to see If time
! would bring it to pass.
l fancy, too, that NJ. Poiret had
! been sedulously observing the straws
! which have long been showing the
direction of that wind of destiny. II
you will gaze at the pictures in some
old fashion book of the nineteenth
century you will see that the lady on
| horseback presented a flowing, biIlow-
ing silhouette which, according to the
ideals of the period, was indicative
of graceful femininity. But Heaven
help her, if she attempted to negotiate
'trappy" country in the teeth of
high wind.
A long, white ostrich feather waved
| from her hat, and the black velvet
! skirt of her habit almost swept the
! ground. Imagine being pitched off
and finding yourself all tangled up
| in those velvet folds. Ladies thus
panoplied must have been content to
amble along at rocking horse speed,
or else have been uneXcelled trick
riders. Nevertheless, Victorian mod
esty" demanded II.
But this so-called modesty In dress
| Is purely a matter of custom as well
as of geography. The thoughts of
women were widened by the process
of the suns, and the bicycle appeared.
1t called for the divided skirt. Women
also found that If they were going
to do any hard riding 1t was safer to
| ride astride; hence, the long coat and
breeches. The trailing, velvet skirt
became not only effete but obsolete.
Daily the sports clothes of women
more nearly approach those of their