Evening star., 1919-09-03
O1ntereSttOWOn1en
NEW ACCORDION.PLEATED SUITS

put upon the market, in cheap way,
the best productions of the high dress
makers. was German money and in
genuity. 1t is said that German manu-
facturers could buy an assortment of
gowns the first day of an opening, rush
them to Germany, reproduce them like
paper dolls, rush them back to Paris
and sell them to the department stores.
1t was through this channel that the
great mass of Paris women were able
to buy the newest gown invented by a
famous dresSmaker before the smart
set of Paris had even seen the fash
ion. Naturally this aroused immense
Indignation, and the dressmakers,
whether or not they knew this scheme,
made arrangements to see the Ameri-
can buyers first and the buyers of other
nations afterward.
We in America know this trick quite
well. The reason that the French
dreSSmakerS did not deplore it in
America was because 1t did not come
under their eyes. The truth should be
brought home to them quite forcibly
that this is the reason hundreds of
conservative women have bought
American instead of French models.
1t is to be expected. however. that the
same thing will happen with the Amer
lean models as has happened here in
Paris. We now have a practice of
selling to the trade first and the private
clientele afterward, and this very
trick puts A good gown made by
5th avenue dressmaker into the hands
of hundreds of women at one-fifth it's
original price before smart woman
has had chance to see it. l have
had well known New York model
follow me like plague down the
1nn ofh of fhn
rious prices, in various windows, be-
tween Florida and New York Now
all these factors in that stupendously
important industry of women's apparel
have come up for vital discussion this
season. They are fought over each
day by Americans and French. a
strong tendency that it does not take
an expert to see is for the American
buyers to come here and get inspira-
tions, then go home and work out the
clothes
The French say this is not fair. The
Americans then ask France to keep
them from doing it by designing novel
ties. The French retort that II they
design for Americans they could not
keep the trade of Europe; that the
American market is too small to be i'm
portant The American retorts that the
market is the biggest in the world. The
French point to the statistics of Holland
and Switzerland up to 1914. The Amer
leans shrug their shoulders and say:
German money" All is not harmony
be advised of that.
In the meanwhile the department
stores, like the Galleries Lafayette, lie
T'rintemps and the Louvre are putting
out clothes that attract masses of
women who never bought their gowns
at these shops before the war.
Among their best models are accor-
dion n-pleated skirts. blouses and suits
with long coats. Thin serge is used. and
gabardine, but not the rough homespun
ia brics.
In the suits which are of beige. or dark
blue, the skirt is longer and wider than
it has been. but hangs loosely against
the legs. The coat is almost to the
knees and has panels of accordian pleat-
ing at the sides and middle of back. The
outside blouse or tunic has disappeared.
but the short coat worn with patent
leather belt looks like a tunic, especially
when it is accordian pleated and has a
V-shaped collar of fine hand-embroid-
cred batiste This bit of lingerie has re-
turned to high fashion.
Do you know where some keen Amer
lean women have found such collars?
Among the bibs for babies in the shops
devoted to infants wear.