Evening star., 1920-07-11

Yet the task is not easy.
The stout figure with thick waistline,
swelling curves Of surplus flesh covering
the framework, dismays every Dress
maker. 1t is the most difficult type IN
the race. to costume, but designers are
too apt to feel that when customer
escapes a weight of flesh, when she
needs milk and eggs instead of elimina-
tion of sweets. she is in the n b
class and can be treated negligently.
Therein lies the danger of failure. The
world may regard the slim woman Win
admiration. but the emaclated ngure -
n defect The French bow down 10
what they call false thinness, but the
American achieves a degree of emacla-
tion that is rarely known among the
Latins. In men 1t is considered tne
American type. 1t is Uncle Sam at MS
present. but deplorable-another differ
ence between the sexes.
today. achieve without effort a Slightly
covered framework, one through which
the bones can be traced, but through
which they do not obtrude. This Is per.
fection. 1t is the figure for which all
women yearn. but it is not gained by
IL,
it is born, not made.
No dressmaker need worry over the
costumes for such figures. Whatever
is fashionable is available. The shops
and manufacturers cater to 1t. me
serious designers have it in mind In
whatever they do. 1t adjusts itself to
the changing whims of the sartorial
universe. Its poSSesSor wanderS at VIII
and without frowns or wrinkles through
the mazes of caprice; even economy has
no peculiar terrors.
Whenever one is a type, whenever one
represents the standardized condition.
then the mind may be at rest in one de-
partment of life. The other troubles
may be attacked with vitality saved.
The joyful truth is that the type of
one generation is the failure of an
other. Such things bring comfort to
those who feel that an eternity of
failure would be insupportable. Few
women could bear the weight. How
ever, if one type were to persist
through the generations, possibly the
designers would be compelled to con-
form to it.
There is strong conviction running
through. the minds of many. however.
that the life work of fashion makers
throughout the cycles is to pervert
the average type into something that
is ordained by them and not by ma
ture. One sometimes gets an uncanny
f1ashlight from beyond the horizon
that women grow up into the mold
that the fashion ordains. otherwise
how can 1T be that one generation is
tall and sturdy. another small and
eel-like, third heavy and medieval.
1t is disturbing that the majority
should conform to a fashion after
dozen years of it's duration. The last
generation was Stalwart one and
the women who are now mothers of
grown children prove it. The present
generation. if one judges by the type
and the fashions. a DOnV class.
How, why, wherefore, are the inter
negatives that fling themselves at the
student whenever this peculiar condi-
ton confronts him.
The distinct tyes that present a
marked and perplexing contrast to the
figure for which the designers work
are the stout figure. the tall ema
ciated one, the f1orid heavy one, and
the pale anemic one.
These are not easily costumed. They
do not lend themselves to the vaga
ries of fashion. They cannot go into
department shop or into the spe-
cialty shop that carries only the man.
ufacturer's products and buy what they
want and go forth feeling well clothed.
They cannot put on the expensive
models brought from France, for Paris
does not design for any of these types,
but only for its own kind with it's
false thinness, small stature and bril-
these gestures are suggestive of many
fashions that come from France, notably
the wide cape without fastening ap-
paratus.
It was designed to give the French
woman a chance to continually raise her
arms and use her hands and rearrange
her drapery into changing silhouettes.
The American is not person of ges-
lures. They do not occur in her Ian
guage nor in her physical department
She adopts the cape. however, as she
adopts everything French through our
manufacturers, who constantly renew
their inspiration through Paris and who
are the real adapters of French fash
ions, more so than the high-priced
dressmakers who faithfully copy.
The stout woman considers herself the
chief problem of the designers, but she
does SO because she is more uncomfor-
table than the emaciated woman, who,
in turn, feels that she can use her figure
as a clothes horse on which she can
fling whatever she buys.
She is wrong. Careless costumes are
not for her. She has liberties and privi-
leges permitted her that are barred from
the larger woman, but she is in danger.
In constant danger, of playing the part
of skeleton. The slim princess may
be in demand, but the woman without
the appearance of virility is not.
No one today wishes to ape the early
Victorian heroine. The demands of mod
ern life are too insistent a drain upon
the strength of the women who play
any part in it. to admit of weakness.
II it Is there. it must be vanished.
Even the men of the hour have no pa
tience with the weak tendrils clinging
for support Robustness is their desire.
The epoch he's produced remarkably
virile women and the type is established
for this generation, at least.
There Is a difference, you know. be-
tween the eel-like person with an arti-
ficially cream complexion and the WON
an who has no red corpuscles under the
skin and no padding over prominent
bone structure. The difference is ap-
parent at sight.
The former type needs no council. nc
suggestion. She Is a law unto herself
and for her the world works. But what
should the emaciated, the skeletonized
type wear? Wherewithal shall she be
clothed?
This Is not fairy story, but w,
must begin at the beginning. The cor
set and the underlinen are important
not SO much so as with the stou
woman. but there is every need Of tn
policy Of choosing with care.
Once upon a time the thin woman
who was over first youth contentet
herself with padding the figure. Mon
strous things were done in the nam
of curves. This repulsive idea wa
not peculiar to that generation whicl
we can still lock hands with. for tn