The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-06-28
HOW They DRESS
TOpekanS Are Trying To Find
Cool Summer Clothes.
Center Sex More Successful
Than Mere Men.
THEY ARE WEARING LITTLE
Many Believe Topeka Has Slip
ped in Geographic Belt.
This City Often Seems Like 1t
Is Tropical Zone.


ever increasing strength in Topeka.
1t IS that the geographical belts have
slipped since the day when most
adults studied geography. The be-
lief gains precedence that Topeka is
now in the tropical zone.
The question of clothes then, be-
comes the paramount issue. On every
corner, up and down the avenue. you
hear it every day. How do you dress
this kind of weather? What kind of
clothes do you wear to keep cool?"
The women. far ahead of the men,
in inventive genius and a certain
streak of daring. have solved it. An
inventory of the gowns seen on Kan
sas avenue most any of these hot
afternoon and evenings bears out that
opinion.
Transparent skirts do not seem to
be so much in evidence as they have
in other summer seasons. Apparently
no reason can be found for this unless
il Is that it is not stylish. Should
dame fashion decree the famed
string of beads and beaded girdle of
spangles ascribed to Cleopatra and
other historic bellies of those early
days. she would possibly not be with
out a certain following.
and the airy, open work of the grass
skirts of the girls that made Honolulu
and the hula-hula girl famous, to say
nothing OF the ukulele, might prove
an attractive mode of attire. Still the
state of Kansas has no material of
this sort for skirts except wheat straw
and alfalfa. The beautiful curving.
wavy lines of the grass skirt could not
we'll be accomplished with wheat
straw and alfalfa would make one
look like a walking hay wagon. There
is another factor. too. 1t must be
that they don't have chiggers in the
Gem of the Pacific. Local straw skirts
would undoubtedly have to be decoot-
lied for chiggers.
Paris Has No Advantage.
Ex-soldiers line the streets and vow
that one does not need to cross the
ocean seeking the boulevards of the
large cities to observe the dainty bits
Of femininity with which rumor has 1t
these streets are forever thronged.
For sheer ractiveness the women
Of Topeka have them beaten thou
sand different ways.
But don't think that this is criti-
cism. They like it. 1t is most unan-
imous1y approved of. For then there
can be no camouflage. A fat girl
is fat and a skinny girl is skinny.
II one loves her she is either well
developed or slender, as the case
may be.
Never could the filmy, transparent,
gauze-like textiles with which we are
led to believe the wives of Solomon
were clothed, with which the historic
Messalina was wont to cloth herself,
or with which the much heralded
hours OF the Arabian Nights tales
played about the coolS spraying foun-
tains in the harems of their lords and
masters. equal the crepe de chine.
georgette crepe and chiffon with
which modern bellies are wont to
slightly shroud the attractiveness with
which the creator has moulded them.
But they look cool-probably are
cool and comfortable, so what's the
difference. The only thing that agi-
tates the men is the inequality of the
thing. They have not been able to
figure out how they are going to at
tain a so apparent degree of GOODNESS.
How Men Figure 1t Out.
AS near as the men have been able
to figure 1t out. the girls do it in sew
eTal ways. One combination is: a
b-assiere. tied not too tightly, dainty
bit OF gauze known technically as a T.
3. all the same B. V. D., you know,
except more class, a camisole of some
fancy variety and the gauZe blouse.
one skirt, not transparent, except a
little, at times, shoes and stockings,
above the calf of the leg. Some leave
out the brassiere. Others the CANT
sole. With many it is a fairly heavy
dress over a T. b. But whatever the
combination, it is just al little as pos
sible. From the hips down-just one
thickness. usually. not universally.
Can you beat it? The men haven't
been able to yet. They attain an
equality, almost. in number of gar
ments. but not in lightness of texture.
few girls, in an effort to be rid
OF all surplus cloth decided on mems
half hose. These they purchased.
Some even went so far as to buy up
the carriers. The first day they wore
this equipment the street cars lost
little business. The step aboard the
street car is long. high and far from
the ground. 1t is very often accom-
panied by the fleeing flash of a
silken clad limb, first one and then
the other. But when it comes to a