Evening star., 1918-07-14
nercan Women Designing and Making Their Own Clothes
BY ANNE RITTENHoUsE.

Z &SA04S4 0~SS04 y
BY ANNE RITTENHoUsE.
SNAsHIoNs are rarely nxed. but
IH never have they seemed to
fiuctuate more nuently and
. perversely than now. 1t does
not need a Diogenes with a lantern
to find the reason for this condition.
Certain raw materials are lacking;
labor grows scarcer every moment. al
though it shouldn't with SO many
women to be employed. and the de-
signers put out in the morning what
ever they dream of at night They do
the latter to balance the former and
to create an equilibrium in industry.
To the observer these days are fasci-
mating. To the woman who thinks
she has settled the question of clothes
for an entire season by buying her
costumes at the beginning of it the
situation is not only perplexing, but
irritating.
10 the reporter. the designer and
the woman with a restless mind or a
capricious taste the situation is di-
verting to a degree that one did not
expect this summer.
go against human nature by preach
ing Standardization Of apparel or
food. We will not eat the same dishes
three times a day 365 days in the year,
and we will not wear the same gown
ten hours day for twelve months. II
we can't get raw materials to di-
versify our food and apparel, at least
we can stimulate the appetite and the
eyes by mixing what we have into
new forms.
~
Looked at from the aeroplane point of
view. 1t looks as il the entire world of
women will attempt to bring out
something new in clothes for them
selves or for their neighbors.
This does not mean that they have
ceased to work for the Red Cross 1t
only means that such work has in
tensified their desire to dress well be-
fore the public, and has brought them
into such an active current Of air that
they see new things and think OF
them with brains that might have
been almost atrophied from inactton
before the war. Stimulate brain in
one direction, you know, and 1t reacts
in all directions
A woman who goes to war relief
work several hours a day sees,
through the constant contact with
many minds, fashions and strata of
social life. a hundred different paths
(which she may tread. She sees in other
Swomen's clothes variety for her own
wardrobe, which Is sometimes meager.
Stimulation is the heart and soul of
of producing the very best kind of
national dressing. 1t will cause a
woman to rebel against looking as IL
she belonged to q procession in which
kindles a flame in the brain. which
heats 1t up and makes it respond to
whatever there Is in 1t Of creative
power.
Therefore. every woman becomes
her own designer. She no longer goes
to shop and takes the gown that
she is assured every one is buying"
Once she regarded that phrase as the
decree OF power; today she listens to
it with a shrug of her shoulders and
usually insists that that's the last
gown she wants to buy.
e Heretofore the woman with slender
opportunities and rare contact with
the outside world chose her clothes
saleswoman to whatever was cut by
the hundreds and sold by the thou
sands. She had no opportunity OF
knowing that these gowns were re-
pTOuuCcu ike paper uOliS.
Today she is quite worldly wise. She
has seen too much; she has come in
contact with the moving world. She
may buy gown that is cut out by
the hundreds. but she gives a small
price for 1t, knowing that she can
remedy the poor sewing at home put
on some better lace or tulle and add
to- the insufficient quantity of hooks
and eyes--at a cost of less than IS, let
us say
She is not SO easily hoodwinked as
she was, although "hoodwink" is not
the right or the nice word to use, be-
cause the public was as much to
blame for the constant repetition of
one model. sold at varying prices, ac-
cording 10 the overhead charges, as
the dresslnakers and shops
Women who have always been tor
pid about clothes, and rarely thought
out a single trick for themselves,
come home from a days round with
other women really excited about de-
vising something in their own homes.
A trick here, a trick there, tried out
in the tentative manner of women
who are afraid of their material and
not sure of their skill not only be-
comes diverting game, but often re-
Sn1fS in a yo0d aSbion