The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-06
lD[RESS AND SUGGESTIONS
 ANNE ..i44yuos.H FOR WOMEN
Even bath robes have been touched with the fashion for plaid and have become more ornamental than any thing we have known.

| New York, July 5.-Two years ago there was a recrudescence of the tea gown. The garment was more highly re garded than the name.
 The credit of introducing this type oi informal house robe has been given te the English, for the sane and simple reason that no other nation introduced the idea of o'clock tea at one's owr house.
 1 The habit has not remained strictly English, but the nations that have adopted the custom freely credit it's or. igination to Great Britain. For century, the Americans ahd the French laughed at the idea of drinking tea and eating toasted mullins and cake in the late afternoon just in time tc spoil one's appetite for good dinner but it was the habit of England to dine late, while other nations dined early Royalty, 1t is said, has preferred the hour of in the afternoon. This dinner hour has been deferred as more fashionable habits of eating have spread over the planet. Even in our own southern states, where dinner has been served at 2:30 since the coun- try was discovered, there is a growing custom of dining in the evening.
 FRoCK FOR AFTERNOON
 The English have always been vio- lently attached to their tea in the aft ernoon as a means of breaking the fast between a 1 o'clock luncheon and an 5 O clock dinner. About this custom. in Great Britain, and whenever the British flag is uufurled, there has grown a deeply rooted racial attachment
 It is the English social hour of the day. To observe 1t, all cares are put aside. It is to the Anglo-Saxons what the noon hour Is to the French, when all business ceases to be transacted, and, from the President of the republic to the blue smoclked peasant, the wheels of in dustry stop for an hour of social inter course.
 So it was that England invented tea gowns in order that her women would be attractively clothed in that informal hour between dusk and dark, when the tai- lored suit is not comfortable and the evening gown not desirable.
 It was England, who, content with the introduction of the long, loose robe for the afternoon, turned her attention to in-
  bath robe for the morning.
 Women have found it their chief joy. Its comfort has made too many of them disregard the more healthy habit of dressing for breakfast.
 COMING OF THE PLAID
 One of these new English bath robes has borrowed from Scottish costumery and taken up the plaid which Is worn by the famous Black Watch, the kings own.
 The sketch shows robe made of plaid and plain cloth with an unusual ly large collar of plaid and hem on the skirt to match. The sleeves are kimono shaped, with paid bands, and there is an exaggerated pocket across the front which is heavily stitched at the edges. The bath slippers are made to match.
 It is season of pIaids. Every gar ment will be touched with the design. The fashion may become harmful, for no one collection of colors is more dan- gerous in amateur hands than checks and blocks and straight lines. r
 There should be warning in every sewing room that just so many yards of plaid to woman must be observed. If there is to be economy in food, there should certainly be economy in plaid. It should be made law by the dress makers.