The sun., 1918-08-18

the country, have caused the scales to
fall from the eyes Of thousands of
/ women as to the expense Of the cos
tune they adopted.
Linen skirts and muslin blouses
went to and from the tub or the clean
er's like a shuttle in a loom. Each
time the trip was an expense. The
cost OF sweaters has been steadily
mounting. so that the woman who in
sisted upon an extremely gooj looking
one had to pay $40 for It,
There were women who paid $40
apiece for twenty sweaters for one
season: there were others who had
twenty sweaters hanging in their clos
cts, ranging In price from SIS to $50.
As high as SIS was paid for certain
types OF ornamental sweaters.
One who is fond of statistics might
state that the average fashionable
woman on the beach or on a country
club piazza wearing what was called
the simple American Uniform had
spent $50 for the skirt. $40 for the
sweater. s25 for the blouse and 335
for the hat. This would not include
short satin petticoat, a pair OF SO
silk stockings and a paid<of s12 white
shoes.
The Cost Was High.
As each one of these details of her
costume. except the sweater and the
hat. could not be worn more than
once without cleaning or pressing. the
expense of that performance must be
added to the rest. And the costume
would have to be multiplied by many
other garments OF the same Tx, as no
woman would wear these same clothes
throughout the days OF midsummer,
You can figure up for yourself some
thing OF the result. There was no
economy about 1t: it simply reeked
with exhense.
No observer of fashion knows the
exact moment in which there came
the first reform against this kind Of
costume. 1t had nothing to do with
Paris. really. Thousands Of women
who dotted the surface OF American
pleasure resorts in these white skirts
and shoes. ornamental blouses, sweat
ers and straight brimmed hats. went
to Paris and such resorts as Deauyille.
Nichy and Aix-les- Bains as a pilgrim
goes to Mecca. They knew that the
women Of other nations did not wear
that kind Of costumery in summer for
reasons Of their own, one Of which
was its informally and another it's
inability to keep fresh and clean.
The European. mind you, especially
the Parisienne. has a keen eve for
these defects. She may look -ex,
pensively dressed against the Gibson
ian simplicity of the American. but
her costume gives her far better SER
vice and costs her less at the end of
, the season.
So it wasn't Paris that made the
change. 1t may have been WEAKNESS
with the monotony of it. for II lasted
longer than any other kind of sum-
mer costumery invented in the whirli-
gig or clothes. And evidently II Is not
yet completely dead, as witness the
| snapshots that were looked over by
the critical observer of fashions.
But it belongs to a day that is done
II was strangled before the war and
: now the war has strangled the desire
| for it, A millionaire would not indulge
IN 1t to-day without prickings Of con-
science.
Women have been struggling along
as best they might in summer cos
tumery since the day of doom that
fell on us in August. 1914 They did
not realize in the beginning that this
country would soon find, itself up
against a scarcity of labor and ma
terial, but as each season presented
itself there came with 1t a terrifying
glimpse Of the shadow of coming
events
We couldn't buy this and we couldn't
buy that Five cent cottons were to
be had for thirty-five cents and no
less. Satin went up to eight dollars n
yard. Every other material rose in
price. Even last summer. when We
were Just beginning to get ready to go
into France, there was no such drastic
need for economy Of material as now
1t was the expense of cotton that
terrified the economical woman. The
designers and shopkeepers urged the
use Of these various weaves as a sub.
stitute for linen. which couldn't be had
Struck by the beauty of the chea n
cotton fabrics OF the Southern mills.
made a special propaganda for calico
three years ago, basing it on the cbean-