Evening star., 1919-12-21

The hrSt dance and not with the cradle
Even mothers are apt to lose their
point of view about the Importance of
ohildren's clothes. They believe that
nursery clothes are merely coverings
and that one begins to take fashion into
account when the child puts up her hair
III 1t Is girl; when the child is n boy
the mother ceases to care anything
about his clothes as soon as he starts
for boarding school, except to see that
he has enough.
No one is so utterly unable to hear or
take advice about the choice of his
wardrobe as a boy, unless it is a man.
The male species ignores any sugges-
tion OF the female species as to how
ii should dress. Mind you. a man has
no hesitancy in giving his views as to
how woman should dress; he believes
himself an absolute arbiter on this
question. Nothing she may say about
fashion or style or cost has any infiu-
ence on his decision. He has his own
views or opinions or prejudices, and
these he expresses at the slightest
provocation.
All OF which means that the only age
when n woman can influence the clothes
of a boy is when he is very young. She
has no influence whatever over ner
man folk in their choice of apparel, even
in cases where it would be most bene-
fetal. American men are said to dress
more carelessly than those of any other
ration; they are said to choose cheaper
materials, prefer their shoes unpublished,
&c wear dreadful cravats. A woman's
influence in tidying up these careless
ways of men might be good for the ap-
pearance Of nation.
Boiling it down. therefore, it should
be a woman's delight to begin with
fashions for children at the cradle. She
should not feel that youngster should
be merely dressed as means of pro-
lection or comfort. She has plenty of
opportunity to get together allurng
clothes and turn out costumes that haze
all the eccentricities that she might care
to wear herself. but fears to do it,
Every woman has an instinct for
clothes that are out OF the ordinary.
She may look as drab as ashes in her
own costumes. She may not dare to
extend her wardrobe beyond stone gray
luiuiisuN Diucs anu yet tueTG COn-
stantly runs through her mind the de-
sire for scarlet thread. She can in
dulge the desire in her children's
clothes.
The history Of apparel for the young
is vivid and interesting. It has changed
in striking manner with each period
in the worlds history. 1t has had its
designers who were eccentric. its caaor-
lists who were violent, its reformers who
really reformed. it's artists who created
revolutions.
Kate Greenaway and Boutet de Mon
vel were among the latter. They were
gentle giants who turned the thoughts
Of all mothers in a different direction
from what they were. Miss Greenaway
brought quaint Victorianism into chill
which. in the minds Of many, is merely
heightened accentuation of molesty
and femininity.
She introduced long skirts for chill
dren. big sashes, poke bonnets, frills
and nounces, curls and shy giances.
Now and then the world reverts to all
OF these things for women, but the shy
young English artist. VINO adored chill
dren and made them her most intimate
companions, was the first to bring into
babyhood the strong note Of frivolity
tempered by modesty and childlikeness.
Her attitude toward clothes over
turned all the English conceptions. 1t
made Europe look with dlstaste upon
the apparel that it had chosen for chill
dren. Today we would look with dis
taste upon such clothes because they
confined the legs, restrained freedom.
permitted children to regard themselves
in the light Of coQuettes.
4
True. 1t was a healthy change from
the exasperating clothes that the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries imposed
upon youngsters; clothes that were
made Of stiff metallic brocades, that
had pointed bodices boned in front and
at the sides, panniers at the hips held
out with cerclettes. In those days chill
dren were as compressed as mummies
They could not run, nor play. nor leap
After the Greenaway revolution came
the De Monvel revolution. The French
man was also. an artist who not only
cared deeply FOR children, but was in
terested in the clothes Of his own group
OF youngsters who lived in the aristo-
cratic old quarter in Paris and who
dressed according to the artificialities