The Republican journal., 1918-08-08

She has seen too much; she mas come
in contact With the moving world. She
may buy a gown that is cut out by the
hundreds, but she gives a small price
for it, knowing that she can remedy
the poor sewing at home, put on some
better lace or tulle and add to the In
sufficient quantity of hooks and eyes
at a cost of less than five dollars, let
US say.
She is not so easily hoodwinked as
she was because the public was as
much to blame for the constant repeti-
ton of one model, sold at varying
prices, according to the overhead
charges, as the dressmakers and shops.
French Women and Clothes.
Soon these women will be trained
into the same kind of power that has
governed France for 800 years. The
French dressmakers do not govern the
STYLES in Paris it is done by the wom-
en- who wear the clothes. They are
artists; they are skilled in the science
of clothes, and it is their inslstence
upon changes and peculiarities, their
experimentation in new things, which
guides the designing world into a sure
, groove of success.
Mark my words, we are going to
get that class over here through the
war. A whole new scheme OF things
in apparel has broken loose among
women. When they begin to get more
and more eXacting about variety, when
they learn how to cater to their own
types, and when they suggest to de-
signers who have heretofore been in
accessible and naughty, then we Will
create our own fashions, and not until
then.
There will always be a large seq
ment of women who will take the de-
signer's word on fashions. their suit
ability and their popularity, but TINS
grows smaller each month, under pres
| sure of a certain set of circumstances
, that are overturning the usual sched-
/ ule of life.
! You can see for yourself how the
stimulation will extend to all the quar-
| tiers of trade If women say to high
| priced dressmaker that they don't want
; such and such a gown, because 1t is
repeated on all sides and is unsuited
to their type, then the dressmaker
must design something that is suitable
and has character, or she will lose her
| trade.
France cannot fear competition. She
approves of intelligent cooperation
and until we give her that we will
always be in the hands of what she
calls the third party; we will be
| dressed through the judgment of buy
ers. who have brought from France
models that they thought would be
popular in America.
No One Fashion Dominates.
Do not expect any of us who write
of fashions, therefore, to be consistent.
We are telling the news from day to
day as we know it. 1t is quite useless
to prophesy. 1t is silly to say that any
one fashion dominates. If we tell you
that gowns are buitoned up the back
and then say that we have gone back
to primitive drapery in which no fasten-
ings are used, we are not stumbling
] awkwardly. We are merely rejecting
the fact that one woman wears one
thing, while another wears something
else. This should help you in your
own scheme of seasGnable costumery
To get down to the bare bone OF
news, Lewis, the milliner of Paris, has
exploited for the summer resorts hats
with the largest brims that have ever
been worn. If women were in danger
of having papal decree issued against
them for wearing obstructive fashions
as they did when they defied the
church and wore the hennin, they
would surely merit it this summer II
these hats.
copyright, 1918, by the Mcclure Newspa'
per Syndicate.)