The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-05
SKIRTS-JUST SKIRTS
But Paris and New York Fight
Over Their Length.
BY MARGARET ROHE.
Fashion says skirts up"


| And Paris is just opposite
To little New York town.
| New York, April 5.-'"To be or not
| to be, that is the question, whether
| tits smarter in the main to suffer the
Sits and narrows of outrageous fash
hobbies and by opposing shorten
them
If Mr.. William Shakespeare was
only alive today, he would simply have
to bring Hamlet up to date by rewrit-
| ing the soliloquy around that burning
| topic of the modish moment-"Skirts."
The long and short of it is that not
even the live ones seem, to know much
about it.
| In Paris the skirts are climbing to
l even dtzzier heights. In New York
they are going to such desperately mar
row lengths that you can't take steps
about anything, any more, and a
promenade is just one short jump
after another.
| 1t is indeed a ticklish moment. The
fate of the future arbiter of fashion
hangs by a skirt. Which way the
skirt goes will determine without a
| doubt whether New York or Paris is
to set the mode of future femininity.
II Partisan skirts begin to come down,
| it means that Paris is coming down,
too, from her perch as Queen of
Fashions. If American skirts go up,
|
fashionable parade will be cut off as
shortly.
As Fast AS Hobbie Allowed.
Making as much speed as my hobble
| skirt would allow, 1 have been on the
jump the last few days from one lead
ing American designer to another,
craving their expert opinions. They
all agree that the long skirt is here to
stay and that American women never,
never, will accept the ballet length
garments, now revealing how perfect
is the Parisienne understanding.
The head of leading Fifth avenue
house while admitting that the long
| skirts are here to stay and that the
American women would have none of
the short ones, commended with his
marked Partisan accent that this by no
| means proves that America will wrest
the fashion scepter from the Partisan
digits. Only the fact that France has
been crippled by the war has given us
the advantage for the past few years.
| We have made great strides as de-
| signers on our own account, but now
that the war is over it will be but a
short time till Paris is supreme again
and we but blind and humble follow
ers. 1t is true, he said, Partisan skirts
are coming down a bit in the fall, but
this does not prove that Paris is fol-
lowing our fashion dictates, "Jamais!
jamais." America will only be the
leader OF fashion, in his opinion, when
South America and Europe come to
| us for their fashion models as here
tofore they have gone to Paris. Be-
sides, he pointed out, the leading de-
signers of our best American houses
are not really Americans themselves,
but of French descent
Had Partisan Accent.
His opinion would perhap: have i'm
pressed me as more free from bias had
his speech been more free from
| Partisan accent.
My next jump landed me at one of
the smartoSt tailored gown and suit
houses, whose real American heads
only accent is a slight Hebraic one.
He said that our skirts are corning up
a little this fall. but that this doesn't
mean we will be following Partisan
fashion dictates. Never! never" He
said that the enormous strides Ameri-
! can designers have taken during the
| war have given them a permanent
place on tho Throne of Fashion and
| Vile perhaps Paris will not be pushed
| completely off, she will at least have
to put up with a foreign consort. To
prove his faith in his contention. he
is starting up Partisan branch of his
house where he will import strictly
made-in-America tailor-mades. which,
he said, South American and Euro
1 pean maids and matrons are clamor-
ing for.
And there you are! Sort of $3.50.
Little old last years war was inter-
estiRg. but the war of fashions that
is about to be pulled off looks mighty
mussy.
y The peace conference may have to
boundary lines of skirts are as vital an