The sun., 1919-03-16

clothes are coming home and the Amer
lean woman is trying to decide what
she will do about her own wardrobe.
The dressmakers are in two frames
OF mind: They expect that large class
Of millionaire war workers to return
TO their old pastures and buy hundreds
OF gowns for social life. and yet they
fear the luxury tax and the new loan.
Everywhere one goes. dressing is ex-
ceedingly smart, lavish and expensive.
This is n good omen for the dress
makers, but the observer is not quite
satisfied that 1t Is not a phase. 1t may
continue and IL may not. Much de-
Ponds on the amount OF money that
each person will have to give to the
Government in the next year.
The dressmakers are well aware OF
these conditions. They are watching
them as anxiously as the capain OF
a ship filled with precious cargo
watches the barometer.
summary or Paris Ideas.
1t is easy to run over the list OF
some things that have been settled by
Paris and It may help the woman who
DO we'll aware that the American world
iS still dominated by what Paris says,
although We have formed our own
opinion about things in a surprisingly
authoritative manner since 1916.
Ono Of the significant things to
dressmakers, and probably TO the
American woman in TIE new fashions
that arrive from France is that the
skirts are shorter than they were last
year.
You may remember that America
elected to wear long skirts last year
and all her smart women have insisted
upon ankle length. They say they
have no intention of changing this
and at the ultra-fashionable gatherings
in New York during January, there
were skirts worn at luncheons that
trailed the ground back and front
The smart designers stopped maxi
Ing short skirts even for the street six
not been above the instep since last
October, and the dlgnifled ones always
boosted Of a short train.
Paris made her skirts shorter.
America refused them. Then Paris
heightened her skirts in December for
her fashionables. Now she sends us
the shortest skirt ever known in the
history Of civilized fashions.
One need not even use the word civ
ilized. The savages who wore any gar
ments never adopted such short skirts
as Paris has launched this spring. It
Is no exaggeration to say that some Of
them are not more than five inches be-
low the knee. These have been sent to
America to some exclusive women who
order their clothes direct from France
and they are included in the first Of
the Paris gowns that the importers
have brought over.
Now what are we going TO do about
1t? 1t Is pretty question. 1t is prob
ably the biggest struggle that has ever
been put on between the two countries
in the line of clothes.
II the American women adopt skirts
that are five inches below the knee and
wear them in the French manner with
slippers instead of high shoes there
will be a protest from pulpit, press and
the critical public that will reach hur-
ricane power.
That the Paris women should wear
these skirts directly after the day the
armistice was signed is symbolical OF
the French manner OF springing into
an eccentricity whenever there is
vast upheaval in its politics which it
would take a historian to explain. All
the dress student knows is that Paris
has done it ever since there were wars
and rumors of war.
1t is wonder that she did nothing
more extravagant than cut her skirts