Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-09-21
By Otto B. ShulhOf.
president Of the Associated Dress Indus
tries of America, Member Paris and
London Chambers Of Commerce,
etc. etc.1
etc, etc.)

StSS WV
-HE true aim of fashion is three-fold:
To make any woman look prettier,
L more charming. daintier and more
alluring than she is: to maintain really
pretty woman's percentage of prettiness
up to it's reality; to set off properly the
beauty.
And three other factors go hand in hand
with these To give the woman the
confidence in herself that only per-
fectly designed and adapted gown can give
it was the great English philosopher
Herbert Spencer who quotes the lady who
told him that "a well-fitting dress gave her
tie peace beyond understanding that not
evea religion could" to arouse the adml-
ration of the male: to arouse the envy OF
the female.
Now, to do all this is no small task-yet
Il is what the fashion creators nave peen
trying to do and doing more or less sue
cessfully for centuries. Further, there en-
tiers the great complication-the lncessant
necessity for change in fashions.
The prophets of efficiency always In
weigh against the changing OF fashions.
They ascribe 1t to the lust for wealth OF
the fabric manufacturers. who see to II
that designs are shifted so they can get rid
Of material 1dSl6T, OF TIC CONclOuShOSo VI
the dressmakers, who by shifting OF the
STYLES prevent dress from being worn
more than one season. They are wrong.
If YOU could once standardize dress that
would accomplish fashions three aims
there would be none more pleased than
manufacturers and dressmakers, for what
they might lose in decreased sales they
would more than make up in reduction OF
production expense.
No-the real reason is that the mind
demands change A beauty who is beheld
always by those who know her in exactly
the same dress soon ceases to seem
beauty. There is nothing more wonderful
than the stars-yet how few there are
who appreciate them. We get used to
them But if the stars could change color
every night, surround themselves with this
and that changing halo of luminosity, the
fireworks business would go out of the
market!
Woman has to keep calling attention to
herself all the time. She can't say: Here,
look how pretty | am" Her dresses have
to say that for her. And the same old
dress soon loses its voice.
This brings me to the bare back and its
whyfore.
The painter has a whole world and the
world Of his imagination besides to draw
from; the musician has an infinite comb.
nation of sounds.
But the dress creator has only so many
square inches of human skin to work upon!
Nor does the difference between the thin
nest woman and the plumpest add much
surface to his or her palette. And even
this skin, small as 1t is in comparison to
the fields of painter and musician, has
how can put Unrestricted areas.
For decades we have been in time Of
coyer-up clothes. II started early In
Victoria's reign. Before that there was
never such time of undress as followed
the French Revolution. And before that
in Puritan England, was another period o.
covering up. Preceding that was an era Of
semi-nudity, and before that Queen Eliza
beth's ladies hid all except the smallest
point at the neck with gigantic ruffs. Ant
SO on, ever alternating, back, no doubt, ter
thousand years.
The Victorian prejudices were hard I,
overcome. They lasted longer in Americs
than they did in England, curiousl!
enough. Up to comparatively few year.
ego the ball dresses and evening dresses
showed little below the neck, nothin,
above the instep Then fashion, seeing thu
world becoming bored, shortened tn
dresses, did away with the long sleeves
cut out the hoops. brought the dress close
and closer to the lines Of the body, fnall.
cut out the sleeves and compromised OF
long gloves.
After that they daringly showed the arm
Then the front of the dress began to cree
down-and It scrept and 1t crept and
crept.a n
About three years ago 1t crept as far a
Y could. keeping in, mind that which hav