The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-03-17
Skirt Is
Fashions EdiCt

posing color, and again, they are Of
another material and color.
A digniied house like Worth has
put emphasis upon sharply tailored
skirts to be worn with separate blouses
and topped by jackets that are shorter
than any we have worn for two years.
These jackets are not fitted to the fig
ure, but are a compromise between a
cape and n coat.
Worth uses a great deal of serge,
also gaberdine and the new kind of
alpaca which France has been exploit
ing for two years with little success in
America. He also uses q very thin
voile and several kinds of Chinese pom
gees under their various names, such
as shantung and tussah.
Worth never goes in for an eccentric
silhouette, but this season he has
thrown in his lot with those who are
making narrow skirts. He has pro-
duced the peg-top skirt, as we are be-
ginning to call it over here.
The American buyers are doubtful
concerning the fullness that is put
into the waistline of this skirt to make
the barrel effect at the hips the older
American woman does not care for u
thick, bulky waistllne, so our shops
over here are working on the idea Of
eliminating the plaits which are used
now at the waist belt and are thinking
out a scheme of substituting Jokes and
applying the fullness to the lower edge
of them.
The High WaistIine,
Jenny, Doeuillet, Worth and several
of their colleagues have introduced the
high waistline into afternoon and eve
ming frocks. This is almost as seri-
Gus a change in the silhouette as h
narrowing of the skirt hem. If n
is adopted, the other must be, for the
low, medieval waistline, which is at
the hips, connected with a melon
shaped skirt, is too ugly to think about.
Whenever a skirt has been full be-
low the hips and narrow at the ankles,
it has been high-waisted. This waist
line has been obtained in many ways;
sometimes the material is cut to fit n
deep\inner belt and corded or bound
to its upper edge; again, it is plated in
small groups at sides and back. Today
the plaits are more universal than the
plain effect.
The high waistline on evening gowns
has to do with the incoming of the
First Empire and D%irectoire periods,
both of which have been suggested in
several of the costumes that have been
turned out by the French designers
during the last six months. 1t was ex-
pected that some definite move in this
direction would be made at the spring
openings, but, evidently, the designers
have contented themselves with a few
touches from the fashions of those W
periods and have let 1t 60 at that.
Large revers, a high, turnover collar
at the back, long, tight sleeves that
flare over the hand, and the h~igh-waist-
ed skirt beneath the short Jacket are
features of the Directoire period.
The evening gown with the negligible
bodice, the round decolletage and the
high waistline, with the skirt that
hangs Imply against the figure are
features taken from the First empire.
The Round DecoIIetags.
It is quite evident from the unity
shown by the different d~ressmakers in
Paris that they intend to bring in the
round decolletage of the First and Sec
ond empires.
DOeuillet is one of the designers who
indorses the court decolletage, as it
used to be known. This displays the
top of the shoulders and arms, some
what after the 1910 method which be-
came so well known through the En-
press Eugene, who never failed to dis
play her famous dropping shoulders.
With these bodices there are orna-
mental straps that go across the upper
part of the shoulder. Few evening
gowns have any other kind of decol-
letage but the round n The difficult
line of the Renaissance is not again
attempted.
None of the Paris gowns shows any
especial or striking novelty in fabrics,
although Rodier has been working hard
at the production of silks, serges and
soft Chinese fabrics. There is no one
thing, however, that stands out wildly
from the rest and proclaims itself as a
desirable.
Copyright. 1917, by the Mcclure Newspa-