The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-29
|v&r !. DRESS )! =! !! S.
lN I'LL BIZ Gure Rite =. house
. syndicate. New York ci,y.,
greater burdens than we have y
been called upon to bear.


+, greater burdens than we have yet
been called upon to bear.
Fighters Like Pretty Clothes.
| Women of the belligerent countries
are not preoccupied with the question
of dress, as so many of them were
before the war, but it is not being
| ignored by any means In Paris the
women are dressing for the delecta-
ton of the "permissionaire, who re-
/ turns from the horrors of the front
| for his few days of furlo, and wha
begs his feminine relations to look as
| pretty as possible during his stay, no
matter how cribbed, cabined and con-
/ fined in khaki they may be at other
times.
The soldiers gravely assure us that
the sight of nice frocks is good for
their morale. And who are We that
we should doubt it? Morale is SO
parently unrelated things, that one
| can we'll imagine that the dressing Of
| women enters into its preservation
| Keep the home fires burning has
| been one Of the favorite songs of the
| Tommies since the very beginning of
| the war; so the wearing of a charm
! ing gown to tend them in may make
the fires burn. more brightly; who
knows ~ OF course, no one dares to
| belittle the, sacrifices of the noble
/, women who are doing mans work,
! clad in mans garments. Possibly the
| cheerful wearing of these garments
| may be one of the greatest sacrifices
of all.
At any rate, the other wartime
countries are our only reliable guides
in the matter; and they say CON
| sentative elegance" One reason for
the survival of the well-dressed wom-
| en-, even in face of calamity. may be
the interdependencea of the great body
| of business and trade which depends
directly upon her attire. That ques-
| ton is too big to be discussed here.
Another reason may be the realiZa ton
! of those higher up" that a certain
| standard Of life, and of the things
most Intimately associated with life.
like clothes. must be preserved i'll
| spite of the war.
1t is true that more people are
spending money for certain Injuries.
even in battle-scarred France and
England, than ever before. Those at
| the top are spending less, but those
at the other end of the social scale
are placed in a state of financial COM
fort of which they have never dream
ed. More pianos and more diamonds
are said to have been sold in London
since the war, than peace records
ever knew
Ones financial condition is usually
reflected at once in ones clothes. The
| among women who have never had it
| before. the sudden Indulgence in the
unlimited and unguided buying of
| much expensive apparel, may lead to
grotesoue consequences. unless some
! one upholds the standard of good
| taste, and moderation.
Standards Must Be Maintained
| In the same way that France is pro-
tecting her art and her artists with
! the thought of future generations in
! mind, the men and women interested
/ in apparel in a large way, are pro-
/ tecting dress Dress is an art; it has
! a place beside painting, sculpture, and
: the other fine arts, and the sooner
! America recognizes this the better.
Dress is one of the readiest mediums
for the embodiment of good ideas of
line. form and color. Long before the
war, France realized this to the full.
Her artists looked upon the dress
maker" as an equal, as a creator,
; worthy to rank with them Young
painters and sculptors, whose names,
perhaps, the catalogs of the salons
never knew, worked hand in hand
with the makers of apparel. proud to
express themselves thru the medium
of clothes. French fashions have
sadly missed this cooperation since
the war.
American artists would be encour-
aged to think of dress as a means of
! exploiting their ideas. as a worthy ex-
preston of their best efforts The
: trouble with US is that when artists
interfere with our clothes. they are
so apt to make them "arty." Dreadful
visions are conjured up by the very
word. of steely, dun-colored wispy
gowns. untidy hair, and uncorseted
figures. Heaven preserve US from
such horrors! Costumes like that
would be bad for anyone's morale,
not only a soldiers \
To come down to cases. The gown
in the sketch today is far removed
from the reproach of being "arty;"
yet 1t is artistic, and it offers a won
derful opportunity to the home dress
maker, for the ombining of old and
new materials. The bodice is of gray
satin, which appears again in the mar
row lower skirt The draped tunic
and the long sleeves are of black satin.
To bind the two together and make
them look as IL they belonged to each
other, silver is discreetly used in EN-
broidery on the bodice, and for the
narrow ribbon which ties just above
{ the waist line. in a way as clever as it