The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-25

France puts a hustle in front of gown, and America puts it in the pack Such is the interesting struggle going on between designers.
 Two men, one on this continent ana one of that, were responsible for the 1917 hustle, and it may be confidently asserted that no woman designed had part in it's creation or development.
 It took the public just six weeks to level the fashion to the commonplace. IL is because of this acceptance that the style must be dealt with generously oy the reporters of fashion who usually can give only passing attention to each ne" idea as it is shot across the battlefield of apparel. One mans idea attracts at tention, but that attention is deflected by every other mans idea, but when this individual idea is multiplied thousand times by buyers and sellers, by women who pretend to be fashionable and py those who care nothing about the word' then the fashion becomes "the style, as we term it in this country, which is our nearest equivalent to the French phrase, "C'est la mode"
 If you talk earnestly with those who deal in exclusive clothes, you will hear them say that the silhouette must change and that it is more than probable that the hustle will become more of a feature in the spring among high-class designers than it is today.
 There is no disposition on the part or the American woman to save in the buy ing of clothes despite all the propaganda on this subject, and no matter what comes later, if the war continues, the process of buying goes on merrily today. There is not the slightest idea of a re- turn to fullness in frocks or coats. There are two good reasons for this announce ment-a scarcity of material in certain quarters and the wish of the various gov- ernments of the world for strict conserva- ton, and also the fact that we have been over surfeited with fullness in clothes and the very sight of such a gown gives us a squeamish attack of sartorial in- digestion. It is almost unbearable to- day to look upon a looped, panniered, be- friled or be-flounced costume. We wore hoopskirts, even though they were dis guised under the name of the farthin- gale, until we felt ashamed to look at a barrel, and it is not possible for either the French or the American designers to compel us to turn our attention to such clothes in the immediate future.
 We want slimness, we look our very best in slimness and we are quite willing to wear less material than since the Civil war, but we are tired of tunics. Our trou- ble is that we don't want a return to the small waist, we will not have more ma terial put into our clothes and we insist upon a straight line from arrnhole te hips, but something must be done with our skirts if our palate for clothes is to bt tickled any further.
 The dressmakers concur in this wish In fact, they further it, for they are afraid of the approaching January which opens the winter season, when women are tired of their autumn clothes and turn to their chosen dressmakres for a whole new supply of flashing frocks and suits.
 CONTRAST IN BUSTLES
 Under the influence of this impatience and annoyance with a continuity of line in clothes, there is no reason why some thing approaching the tie-back skirt ano the hustle of 1S70-S0 should not appear quite gradually over the horizon for the better class of January clothes.
 xeu know by this time, of course. that