The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-07
.ittenhOuse

the same time. just as wings serve q
bird. The, floating panel has some
thing of the swirl and swing of free
thing. 1t never suggests to the be-
holder that it is used to disguise ugli-
ness, or awkwardness or stinginess.
When it is used at the back of a
gown, it may be made of any material
that occurs to the woman who wants
it. There are black chiffon gowns
with black silk net panels edged with
monkey fur; there are thin blue serge
gowns with back panels of black sat-
in soutached in a bold, Aztec design,
and there are thin jersey silk frocks
which have these panels of heavy jer-
sey silk edged with colored Angora
wool.
An Unusual Gown.
Among all the vagaries which the
dressmakers have turned out, prob
ably the trick of one French designer
has the strongest touch of novelty
about it; it is of MORE silk soutached
at the edges, with a high. rolling col
lar at the top, and is tied around the
neck with blue ribbons. The slim lit
tie frock beneath is of Chinese blue
crepe de chine.
The world of fashion has been al
most Orientalized by this method of
swinging drapery at the back of the
figure in order to form background
against which the woman herself
seems but colorful shadow.
We have been saturated with the
Orient on the stage since the Russian
ballet burst upon our brain with It's
vital colorings that almost gave one
headache. Then came "Chu Chin
Chow" with its swirl of draperies. its
color, its silhouetted-women against
backgrounds of gold. and smoke. and
bronze, and Persian blue. Uncon-
sciously thru the influence of all these
Oriental plays, dances and fancy dress
balls. the dressmakers have put in.
bit of background drapery on our
modern clothes.
This drapery takes away from the
Occurrences of a solid, dark color from
head to heels; it relieves, in most
graceful and agreeable manner. the
pencil-1ike slimpess of the war woman
in her conservation frock. 1t does all
that the graceful people of other
chimes and epochs intended it should
do in the way of curving lines about
slim figure.
The women of the Directoire period
knew this well, for when Nine. Tai
lien-the Queen of Rags and Patches
and Josephine, who afterward be-
came Napoleon's Empress, were the
hostesses for Barras in his palace, they
forced upon the French public the
fashion of draped backgrounds to all
costumes.
Cape Accents Silhouette.
The voluminous, floating drapery
which we now call a cape, is the tlndl
expression of this method of placing
a background for a woman's figure.
One may think that the cape, in its
present swirling form, enlargeS the
figures or gives to a woman too gen.
erous proportions for the hour, but,
strange to say, it does neither of these
things.
The woman who has taken on undue
flesh can wear cape which is cut
after a certain pattern and which
lengthens her lines and DISCUSSES her
curves. That is all that the modern
woman asks of fashion. Let US hope
that the woman with the curves will
not be the first to rebel at the more
and more attenuated die which is
asked of usl
The whole world has paid attention
to the fact that women have taken to
the dieting measures with so much
patience, skill and enthusiasm. But
why shouldn't they? They have been
living on the theory of eating SO that
they may grow thin, of leaving out
wheat, cereals, flour, sugar, sweets
and milk from their diet in order to
remain emaciated, so there is no pos
sible reason for them to rebel at a
measure which saves food for those
who care not what they eat and which
enables them to keep slim.
The American woman, therefore, as
we'll as her sisters in France and Eng
land, may grow thin with improve
ment to her looks and to her digestion
by doing for patriotic reasons what
she should always have done for rea-
sons of vanity.