The sun., 1917-07-01
Capes, Rugs and
Parasols Import
ant Acce ssories
for Women Who
r lily Enjoy
Swimming Yet
Who Wish to Ap-
pear Well
By ELEANOR HoYT BRAINERD.

Il
beach clothes have certainly
done much TO turn the femt-
nine tide seaward. The submarines
are so remote and the glad raiment is
60 greatly in evidence that every peri
scope submerges In the enrolling wave
of enthusiasm over beach capes, beach
rugs, beach parasols, beach bags.
beach frocks and incidentally bath
ing costumes.
We have grown more frank. you see.
Once upon time all that was worn
ION the beach save conventional attire
was labelled bathing costume. II
might be the most impractical of gar
ments for bathing wear. The material
might be sure to shrink, :he color
might be sure to run. the design might
be ingeniously contrived to render
swimming or even comfortable dipping
impossible for the wearer, but one
brazened out the claim, bought the
thing for bathing suit, called 1t a
bathing suit. did everything but use 1t
for a bathing suit
Now we quite nonchalantly talk Of
= beach costumes, meaning thereby at
. tire with all the informality of the
bathing suit, but with the decorative
quality raised to the nth degree and
no question Of utility allowed to in
terfere.
To be sure, the beach costume does
usually make its bow to the utilities
by being built up of material that will
Nstand a certain amount Of wetting.
Rubberized silks and satins are its
mainstay; but many a model OF this
class would lose its charm II given a
real dipping.
There's compromise in the COM
bination OF swimming suit and beach
:. cape. with attendant beach parapher-
MALTA One has the fun of the swim or
dip and one follows 1t by the pic
turesqueness OF the colorful beach
gorgeousness, hiding the soaked and
foriorn swimming suit under a but
= terfiy cape; but one doesn't need to
go through the form of getting wet
unless one really likes the wetting.
- Just spread a gay colored, fantasti-
cally ornamented beach rug down on
the sand. Plant full blown and gor-
geous big beach parasol where It will
shade the rug. Don a wonderful taf-
feta or satin frock that is cousin sew
serai times removed to the swimming
suit and no more shrinkingly modest
than the latter. Throw on over this
kaleidoscopic beach cape for effect. not
for concealment. Tuck your hair up
under saucy beach cap or hat. Pick
Up your futuristic beach pillow and
I beach bag and locate yourself upon
the aforesaid beach rug under the
Aforesaid beach parasol
Then II instead OF being a unit OF
coast defence you are an incentive to
Invasion nature and the manufac-
turers are to blame. You, at least,
have proved your courage.
And at that there are beach en-
sembles calculated to daunt the stout
est heart. Picturesqueness and au-
dacity in any sort OF clothes are sure
TO bring about horrors. There's a
deep. an appalling gulf 'twixt the de-
: lightfully audacious and the frightfully
audacious; but there are always de-
slgners and wearers who leap this gulf
lightly as any mountain chamois, and
one shudders to think what nightmare
beaches IL wearers are found for GER
tain of the latest achievements in
bathing wear.
Even a beautiful woman would be
awesome in a scant one piece swim
ming frock of brilliant orange on
which are applied. by way Of orna-
rnent, brick red and dark brown In
dians--or are they Egyptians?-done in
profile and helped out in being orna-
mental by strange geometric plants Of
bright green and purple and brown.
Yet such swimming suits are shown
in Fifth avenue shops, and there's a
horrid probability that homely women.
very homely women, who consider that
Z. though they may not have classic
beauty they have style will buy these
things and wear them.
~ Well, here again one comes to that
matter OF coast defence. A Judicious
sprinlxiing Of such apparitions along
the Atlantic coast would surely render
Y the beaches safe from any craft whose
navigator carried strong spyglasses.
But why pick out the crumpled
:, rose leaves In bed that may on the
= whole be considered unusually downy
Let US close our eyes to the brick red
!, Indians on the orange ground and
contemplate some OF those delectable
beach cloaks or wraps.
= Europe has always gone in more or
less enthusiastically for beach cloaks
slbut we have not taken very kindly to
the mode. In our generous, bountiful
way we have said. "Oh, why grudge
the public q treat?" and have allowed
our wet bathing suits to cling as they
would, unconcealed by dry and shell
= tering folds.
- But where considerations Of mod.
esty and even ordinary picturesque.
ness failed to move us the designer:
tour de force this season has had iti
.saway with us. II isn't in the heart oi
lasyoman to resist beautifully soft anC
~ lustrous cape OF pink rubberized silk
= pink warm yet not garish, and lined
throughout with black satin or g
=. great cape of sea green satin EN-
: broidered in blues and greens anC
lined with blue, or a cape OF brigh
blue rubberized silk lined with brigh
= red
The manufacturers do such wonder
full things with these rubberized silk
Nrnnd satins and waterproof silks tina
are not actually rubberized that ther
seems no limit to silken possibilitie
in beach or bathing suit connection
and to supplement the silks comes tn
phenomenally popular wool jersey.
- Beach caueg OF this Jersey line