Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-01
She of the Pale Face Has Her Chance
Anne Rittenhouse Says This
Is the Day of the Anaemic
Girl, Who Finds Herself
the Foundation Stone for
the Structure of Fashion.
Neutrality in Colors Is
Avoided.
BY ANNE RITTENHOUsE.
\ HERE was a time in the scheme

y of fashion when the pale
ana emic type of woman had no
hope to succeed as others
succeed.
Today her chance has come. She
has been swirled to the top of the list.
One might say she has become the
foundation stone for the structure of
fashion. She is the type which can
make the most of clothes as they are.
The remarkable part of this circum-
stance is the amazing virility, the en-
durance and the evident organic
health of the type that appears
anaemic. 1t is difficult to explain 1t.
The fashion reporter can only repCt
il. Doctors take it under serious con-
sideration. and those who write at
length on the ever-absorbing topic of
health-w which is a fetch of this gen
eration-never fail to take this type
as the basis of argument.
Those who speak in traditional
terms. as we'll as those who write in
the past and not in the present point
10 her as something to be avoided
therefore. counsel they. one must eat
fruit, drink water. take exercise. This
is a commonplace utterance of those
who do not investigate.
The modern writer and lecturer on
health admits with a smile that this
type can stand more punishment than
the fiorid woman, than the one with
large structure, or the stout woman,
or even the athlete.
This type often bears children of
strength, weight and health without
devastating her own physical struc-
ture. She is able to submit to nervous
strain better than the full-blooded
woman.
She is a constant contrast to the
athletic type in her ability to do as
she pleases without suffering. AS
rule, she eats what she wishes. she
can dance all night and work all day.
She does not suffer from hySterla,
from nerves or fear.
The reasons behind this amazing
endurance have not been explained.
They are rarely given. as II is prob
able that she has confused students
as she disproves that which they wish
to urge upon our sex. That investi-
cation. however, is the task of the
doctors.
1t cannot help being a constant
source of irritation and envy to the
woma who looks powerful and yet
SuccuInb 10 the punishment of
complex life. She will never cease TO
wbnder why she cannot be the equal,
if not the superior, of this white, thin'
active supple woman who breaks with
tradition.
The dressmakers and the designers
who create fashions do not debate the
subject with seriousness They care
little for its complexities. They are
not students of biology and nervous
resistance; they concentrate their at
tention on the thing which makes
their fortune That is why so many
of them ride in motors while others
walk They frankly admit this type
is their ideal to dress. The admission
"opens wide viewpoint. 1t discloses
in the twinkling of an eye the actual
reason behind the impossiblilty Tor
other types of woman to buy ready
to-wear models.
The concentration of a s h i n
makers upon the style of woman who
was once considered a failure and
who today in considered the highest
fashion is productive of thousands of
garments which flood two continents
She. this thin, whitA bony, plastic
girl-or woman, has the world of dress
ar her disposal. She can walk into
twenty shops in New York in one
day-and she has the strength TO do
it if she is so inclined-and find her
self able to buy ar entire outfit.
As a rule this type mas the GneS'
that sinks in. rounded, sloping shout
ders, a spine that is rarely straight
and never rigid. long snake-like arms,
absence of curve and usually sturdy
legs
striking contrast to the rest of her
body. In this say the students, lies her
strength Those who study ANATOMY
insist that the legs indicate bodily en-
durance and not the chest or neck
Thus is the athletic version or health
reversed, another tradition thrown 10
the waves as superfuous ballast
The older version of this type, how
ever. is usually thin from neck to
heels She was not developed through
the ex.Sencies of modern life. She
did not dance nor walk for miles. She
remained at home and was often per-
mitted TO rest in bed most OF the
morning in order that she might be
strong enough to continue the rest
of the day That was the ancae ho
remedy for the type of woman VINO
was often called consumptive-
Today she is recognized as the one
who can easily bear the strain OF TINS
era. She is the one who may permit
herself to diet in order TO get thinner,
and does IL without loss of health.
The thin. white youngster glories
in her type But the older woman
has not quite learned to realize that
she is the fashion; that there is no
need for her to bolster a thin figure;
that all she needs to do is to be herself,
10 lend herself TO the whlIns OF the most
modern fashion
Wherever women are foregathered
the robust ones looked fretfuIly, or
d.spairingly. at the white thin ones
Who arrive with composure-another
trait of the anemic mountaineering
pronounced clothes and appearing at
her best Any student of human ma
ture would realize from the CONVEX
sation of the other woman that TINS
one possesses the fifty-six points of
merit She causes the other women TO
depIore the color in their cheeks and
chin: to exclaim against the breadth
of their shoulders and the muscles IN
their backs and arms; 10 nate their
height which carries the chance Tor
f1esb: 10 make them wish to wipe out
every evidence of their virility if they
could gain even six points in the per-
lection which they ascribe 10 the
woman they envy.
And how does she dress, this
woman? What is there in her make
lIp that lends itself to modern clothes?
Is she made for them or are they
made for her? Is it the confluence of
two conditions that meet in this type
of woman and sweep her into the sea
of fashion as a model? That she is
The former Mrs. Vernon Castle in
America and Eve Lavalliere in Paris.
They have become the models of this
particular era
History is full of such women.
Nine de Castiglione was one; Ca
Nine I:ecamier were glorious ex-
amples, and their lesser rival
Nine Tallien, was close second
in French history. The influence of
Mary of Scotland has not ceased to
This day: il must have been power
- A.