The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-13
NEW CLOTHES
 NDR SOUTHERN. WEAR

Some one should do something about the ambiguous way in which everything put forth at this time of year outside of a fur coat Is labelled Palm Beach fashions. Likewise some one should invent a word or a term to be applied to those togs now called sports clothes and worn at every and any daytime function wherever or whenever it is warm enough to do so.
 When skirts were short and ample at the hem it was possible to apply the terms of sports clothes to almost anything in summer clothes short of a lingerie frock, but now that skirts are growing longer and many of them with tendency to drapery it will be necessary to call clothes designed for country wear by some other name than that which implies the possibil- ity of physical exercise.
 While the Balkan problem still hangs in the balance. the newest of smocks assume the lines of the na- tional costume of these countries. Not that this new Balkan blouse is as the old Balkan blouse, not at all; ; although derived from the same source the designer finds a way in all cases to make it a very different af- fair. One of the things heretofore hampering the smock In it's efforts to enter into afternoon society has been it's too loose lines giving a far too informal air. The new blouses have none of this unfitted appearance; in fact they are hardly to be distin- gulshed from the straight little blouse !, worn with the coat suit
 Long. straight. one piece dresses are also among the items mentioned as for sports wear-whatever sport outside of the new defunct croquet should possibly be performed in these dresses one is at loss to imagine, but aside from this fact they really are most suitable for sandy beaches or for any country wear
 The material and the embroidery make these trocks interesting. Many of the frOcks are interesting without embroidery and in this case usually q combination of colors is the means by which the frOck is raised from the common place. There are few ways more attractive 10 make a frock look
 different than the old trick of placing
 | narrow white band or binding at
 the bottom of the skirt The mere fact that the band is there and re-
 mains white is quite enough to prove that one can afford luxuries if only in the way of laundry bills. Chanel is very fond of foot bands of all kinds and some of her most successful dresses have shown this band, either of white in contrast to blue or in blue in contrast to white. The latter is an extremely practical arrange ment.
 Now that there is hope of more woollen materials being availa bIe, the use of flannel bids fair to be an ultra fashionable note. The better dressed
 women have never really given uL i their white flannel sports skirt but
 many novelties have contributed tc 1 putting it rather i'll the background l There is an exclusiveness about white | flannel which is not to be denied l and the color is not as crude and 1 hard as many of the novelty silks and ! satins, for instance, while every ef- | fective is far from distinguished, and | the manner in which the folds hane | is far from attractive. Needless tc 1 say, the f1annels are made up as 1 narrow at the skirt hem as IS possi- 1 ble to manage for sports. One piece dresses of the white flannel will be among the most exclusive new fash | ions, although trocks of this type have | been carried out in white jersey. The white flannel successors ot these white jersey models are decfd- i edly smart than their predecessors l for novel as white ersey may be fl 1 lacks the beauty of texture of fan l nel and does not lend a trig effect. i So much for sports clothes-one must have some clothes which cannot | be placed under this head, and they
 are the new all Georgette frocks. 1 Both good looking and useful are | these apparently filmy dresses | Launched late in the summer season they were immediately in favor, in the 1 darker shades for day wear wher ! something cool and dark was desir- l able, and in the light shades-peach 1 horizon blue and canary-for after
 noon affairs. There is every indica- | lion that this type of frock has found
 definite place.