Evening star., 1919-04-06

tho tAuo hANthk oWoh6u up
into immense proportions on
Its way across the ocean from Paris.
1t has brought with 1t new features
of fashions. wide diversity OF styles,
eccentrioities, numberless caprices
One might say. when looking at some
Of the costumes. that the slang ex-
preston of tho coast, applied by
fishermen to all that 10 queer and use
less. could be applied to them. You re-
member the phrase: 1T was washed
In with tho tide"
There are many interesting features.
however, in the clothes that have
como over. The Paris dressmakers
complain that tho American buyers
only come abroad for novelties and
not for elegance, and that to please
them they often create absurd things
that no French woman would wear.
~
The delightful part Of this spring
seasons exhibition Of clothes is that
they are wearable. Many are queer in
the skirts. The ingenuity and the ma
licious caprice Of many of the de-
signers have been expended on the
skirt. 1t is too short for civilized
woman; it is too long to be comfort
able; 1t Is too tight for beauty; 1t Is
too draped for the average figure, and
when all Of these things are sum
married. in the reporters mind and
one feels that balance may be struck
somewhere along comes q skirt from
the powerful house Of Callot which
flares into unusual width at the hem
and Ia bell shaped.
If all the skirts that are travelling
over the ocean were compelled to go
to bureau of registration, as all the
people Of all the nations have had to
do, it would take months Of the fash
ion officials time to pass them up.
1t is a curious phase of this season.
this manipulation of fashion into an
infinite number of skirts. If there are
as many more to come as have arrived
a woman may feel permitted to wear
anything she owns. The tumble of
kind of skirt may pass muster. One
dominant idea runs through the whole.
II that is any comfort to the woman
who will purchase clothes this month.
and this idea is expressed by the mar
rowness Of the hem. To be truthful.
however. this new skirt that is ad-
vanced by Callot in Paris has possi-
bilities of upsetting our equanimity.
There Is no use wasting breath IN
laughing at IT.. Those who buy and
an extreme idea from the house OF
Callot as lacking in Importance.
Now and then. in the recent history
of fashion. Callot has introduced
Of diversion or jest. A year after
the world has awakened to find that
the jest Is fact, the diversion Is a
commonplace.
vt might be we'll, Therefore: to re,
launched by the-three sisters-the
fates, as they are often called-as the
most significant feature Of the spring.
1t may be that marrow skirts may be
Caliot does not do anything without
an object in view: their clothes are
always a prophecy, and when a wide
bell shaped skirt appears In the midst
Of the tightest skirts we have worn
for years then 1t Is wise to pause, look
and listen.
1t should go without saying that all
the other skirts of the season are
tight, but the blessed part Of it Is that
hem, and even there they are slashed
and manipulated in a manner that
gives freedom and bit of grace.
You surely will notice. II you have
observing eyes. that the draped skirt
is better than the plain one. The effort
of the dressmaker Is to free the hips
and the knees and to give the appear
ance Of extreme narrowness to the
hem without actually hobbling the
skirt. There are straight. tight skirts
that are lifted from the directoire
period, and these will be worn by the
extremists, and they will be copied
into the wholesale trade and, there
fore. will be the means Of continuing
the kind Of skirt which has been worn
all winter in America.
There Is another skirt which ranks
in Importance with the bell-shaped
skirt Of Callot. the straight directoire
skirt of Bulloz and the swathed and
draped skirts of the other houses.
This is the skirt which Lanvin ap-
proves and exploits. 1t has strong
suggestion of the century in which
Juliet loved and died; 1t also suggests
the costumes worn by Marguerite In
Faust" There Is a double skirt the
upper one of which is puffed out over
the hips and caught by girdle which
upholds the fullness The eighteenth
century borrowed this skirt and made
1T Of taffeta and brocades In pastel
shades, and we have taken up their
conception OF 1t.
Jeanne Lanvin sends over such
frock with modern notifications that
might have shocked the medievalism.
The skirt is exceptionally short. and
the sleeves merely accentuate the be-
ginning Of the arm, leaving the rest
OF 1T entirely bare,