Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-09-01
WHY DRESSES ARE BEAUTIFUL

DEAUTY, says Edmund Burke in one of
- his best known essays. produces in the
observer feeling of extreme wcariness.
As some Of the costumes worn by mod
crn women make the spectator tired. they
must according to Burkc's standard, be
beautiful.
Opinions differ on the subject however.
Two colorcd women were looking in the win
dows of q store on one of the cross streets
few nights ago. studying the dresses en-
exhibition. As they turned away one of
the women wns heard to remark to the
other, Those dresses would make bull
dog break his chains.
Now beauty is defined in the dictionary
as a combination Of qualities that delight
the sight. This suggests some inquiry into
the combination which makes the woman OF
the present day in the gowns OF tn" present
day as fascinating as her grandmother or
great grandmother used to be in the hoop
skirt of the Civil War times. For it is
undoubtedly true that the modern woman
has lost none of the charm Of her sex. That
charm was potent when women wore hoop
skirts. It did not disappear when the hustle
was fashionable. 1t persisted during the
pcriod OF tight sleeves and Clinging skirts.
1t survived the leg of mutton sleeves. And
the gradual shortening Of the skirt until
mature women look like the schoolgirls of
the last quarter of the nineteenth century
has not diminished her alluremcrt.
The essential ingredient to beauty in
feminine costume is the woman cucasCd in
it, The temperance for a moment in q
revived musical comedy now playing in town
OF the costume of 1900 when the piece was
first presented justifes this conclusion The
six girls who sing famous song appear in
1920 confcctions-we believe that is the
proper word. The skirts are short. The
waists are long and there are folds Of silk
projecting at right angles from both sides
at about the level of the hips No woman
Of 1900 would have been willing to appear,
even in W." own parlOr. in such gown.
Yet the girls who wore them were charming
and all the women in the audience admired
the dresses.
Then another set of six girls came on
the stage dressed in the style Of twenty
years ago. The skirts are full and long and
the waists are short The sleeves cover the
arms and the necks are high. And still the
girls were charming When they turned
| their backs on the audience every woman
burst into laughter-not at the girls, but
at themsclves-or ct their mothers who used
| to wear such dresses. 1t was the contrast
which amused them and perhaps a few OF
them reflected that in twenty years more
! the styles prevailing today will seem as
amusing to the generation of thcatregocrs
of that time.
What those styles will be no one ca1
forctcll. But we all know that they will bC
| different from those of today. Whether
the brevity of the skirts and their narrow
ness is to continue until American womer
wear silk knickerbockcrs after the mannc,
Of the Siamese women, or whether thew viii
revert to the other extreme with long train,
sweeping the streets, is concealed in th,
mists of the future. But whatever haDncn,
the woman herself will constitute tho gu
prcme cha"m of which the costume serve
but as a setting.