Evening star., 1919-03-30
ect0ire Influence in New Gowns From Paris
" ANNE RITTENHoUsE.

bY ANNE RITTENHoUSE.
| OOKING at the French clothes.
fore and aft, one has a grow
], ing conviction that the direc-
toire period rules or pervades
tmosphere of fashion.
len one speaks of directoire
les tho public imagination leaps
ke quick vision of the short waist.
| trailing skirt. the snug little
at with its beaver tails. yet those
hres of fashion are only parts of
whole movement Of dress during
'ascendency of the French direc-
There were many others, not as
motive, perhaps, and not original
the French woman, but the stu
of clothes remembers them more
'kly than the more pronounced and
Hing features.
la quite easy to link up Josephine
| the directoire and think of all
hons of that period arranged after
Inany portraits: but Josephine was
a part of the personnel that gov
Ia the Paris of that day. She had
ling in common with that certain
who inaugurated the most out
ding directoire fashion, which is
Hong striped skirt with its short
M ut hn
h and hanging in two tails at the
She did not wear the high hat
larry a gold headed cane. She was
Ially led to adopt the classic style
women more powerful than she
before Napoleon made her an en-
kd It is this classic style that in
es the French designers for this
lon. 1t is more ancient than Greece.
las the earliest form of civilized
bring for women.
may have been designed in those
y DAYS to cover the female form.
ldirectoire to disclose it. Histori-
! it was protest against Marie
binette and her court. 1t was the
wild cry of the bourgeosie
INST royalty. 1t was the democratic
|ence of hatred. scorn and con-
BIT for the women who were sup
d to have throttled the people.
II centuries the court of France
adopted the utmost frivolity in
Is, expressed by Superfuity OF
fc and non essentials that dis
= ed the figure, concealed it's natu-
ess and permitted the dressmakers
ffabric-makers to grow rich.
the people struck at all the artf-
3lity of royalty and swept away
Brutal and murderous hand the
edifice called social life which
been built up by the hands OF the
1t powers. so they swept away the
1t costume. 1t went to the guillo-
| before the Austrian queen. In it's
Ie was put the costume that artists
! always considered the loveliest
be world.
may be that the reinstatement OF
bty in dress was not the reason
governed the women who ruled
g when Napoleon was merely
ain. They might have reveled in
q they knew was indecency: but
achieved an exquisite movement
bshion.
is not possible to say that the
hch designers were inspired by the
bling similarity between the direc-
and the present hour when they
lved the new directOire costume; 1T
be that the position Of Greece
elf in the war brought to their
as the beauty of the classic lines.
1ay be that the double Inspiration
led them to f1lch fashion features
p each epoch in order that they
ht give the world something that.
ehow, has always stood for the
hOm of mankind as far as cos
can be symbolic Of supreme
fical movement.
ire are the outstanding features OF
dtrectoire gown that one watches
the procession of new Paris
pes; the fillet around the head, the
coinure, the bare arms. the ma
Of the bodice narrowing to the
of the shoulder and caught there
an ornament: the garlands of
that create lines on gowns and
&g free from waist or shoulder;
plight and graceful girdling of the
the use Of the heavy silken cord
eid the fullness of the material into
agure; the lifting of the material of
ekirt In front and the timid ven-
4 NhO Aouuu~tocu Hdt-nCSiCu oiip
with its ribbon straps around the
Pp.
re and there, as the fashions have
ted and turned throughout the
pms, an Independent designer has
out Grecian gown and watched
necf upon the public. Once, a few
before the war. Paul Poiret
20 his delight that the Queen Of
liked his Grecian gown SO well
she bought 1t. One day, in her
ocratic British manner. she was
IT out in the public gray salon
PIE famous house on the Avenue
Tin before a few of the gentlemen
ladies' of her household; 1t was
suitable to her large. vigorous