Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-12-08


clothing of the human race, but
no one has stated the exact date with
an attempt at accuracy.
There are many who believe that it
was the first garment worn by Adam
and Eve when they realized that
clothing was to be a necessity to their
species. The tunic really followed the
mantle. and from Elijah to William I
of England is long. long spell in
history. but we know that the former
wore a mantle and the latter a tunic.
sun between these two, but he wore a
toga. Beau Brummell brought in
coats, and George ~, picturesque as
he was in his costumery, blazed the
path for the ugliest clothes that the
men on this planet have ever worn.
The tunic was a masculine fashion,
as most garments are that women
think are their own. The critics of
smite them hard for Gleir fripperies
and .frivolities, the swhims and caprices
of their clothing. and yet these critics
are men who do not seem to realize
that all the centuries of progress of
the male part of the human race were
given over to caprice and brilliancy
in apparel as we'll as to defeat and
victory in arms.
Xxx
Man, having put aside the continue
Gus gossip about his clothes, the ex-
travagance that went toward their
purchase, and the volumes of history
that he has filled with his fash
ions from king to peasant, may think
that woman should also Danish such
interests. There is no basis for his
reasoning, and it has no philosophy
behind it. Man was none the less
magnificent animal. gifted with Drawn
and brain and achieving the great
successive milestones of civilization
because he never ceased to think
about his clothes and exhibited them
proudly in camp and halls.
John Paul Jones is none the less the
great figure of the American Navy
because his waistcoats were counted
by the dozen and because he wore
them in France and on shipboard with
that a woman gives to new, frock.
William the Conqueror cared good
deal about clothes; SO did Dagobert,
that great French fighter, of the
seventh century, who gave his name
AS one Of the best dress historians
says: Gladstone may be remembered
by his collar. Whistler by his lock.
Burns by his blue suit and Henry
VIII by his little fiat cap"
If you have the time to look up old
illustrations of famous historical days
you will find a thrilling excitement
in the similarity between the gar
ments worn by the people of those
to US as familiar names since child
hood, and the clothes worn today.
The French designers have shown
nice delicacy and an unerring sense of
the fitness of things in going back to
and French history for the new fash
ions. 1t was natural, under this i'm
pulse, for them to reinstate the IA
nous tunic of. William 1. He. the Con-
afterward, and therefore, in taking
one Of his costumes as model for
the modern woman the designers
united in dress the flags and tradi-
1 tions Of the allies; as they have been
1t was this William, by the way.
who introduced into England from
France the absurd fashion of shaving
the hair at the back of the head-a
sensationalism in Washington. where
1T was introduced by one of the ex-
cessively smart young matrons from
New York, who admits that she is
Wiling 10 90 anything TO De dluer-
emit" 1t is not to be believed that this
latter fashion, which has come into
the worlds history now and then
since the days of the Conqueror, will
be taken up by women, but his tunic
has been, and still is, a dominant part
Of the costumery of the we'll dressed
woman.
The recent editions of it which have
arrived from Paris are more faithful
copies of the original than the first
ones. They introduce the elbow length
outer sleeve, widely opened at the
hem and hanging downward at the
back of the elbow in a slight curve,
and the long, tight undersleeve that
reaches to the. wrist.
The similarity between the eleventh
century and this hour of the twentieth
century is even more accumulated by
the loose cape we wear, which is
something of a copy of the one worn
by the Conqueror His was buckled at
the shoulder. and many of ours are
buttoned. The fact that he wore
leather thongs crossed like puttees on
his legs, and that our war women and
their followers wear high leather
boots laced in front. and sometimes
strapped and buckled at the top, is
still another touch Of kinship.
The women during the reign of Will
liam the Conqueror also wore tunics,
but they had none Of the swagger APP
pearance of those worn by the men;
HA |Nrt y