Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-08-13


~eaveattea. and conventions are
the cement ot society,"
sSome women wo~ld manage 10
- im modest or suggestive, no
matter what the fashions might
b.. Hat such women In all ages
arr exceptaosal. A charge against
the modern frock cannot be sus-
tatn~A.~
when people say "the shops" they
don't mean butchers shops or bread
rhcsH. They mean the shops In which
wcman's attire is the Sole or the Load
inw merchandise. Ana when they say
the sales" they mean chiefly bar
gains I'm woncn's attire.
The shops count among the greatest
attractions os London and the pro-
Nineid cities. They draw 90 their win
sss~s enormously larger crowds than
Westminster Abbey or the National
tsstier~, There are half dozen spots
In the West End where the spectacle
cf shop windows fun of froci>s. haze
and lingerie results I'm blocked pave
m.nss for several hours every day.
No other kind OF wares VIII rcru-
larry block pavcmehts. And let u hc
admitted that no other Kind Of wares
are so pretty and 40 agreeable TO
ieok at. and therefore so worthy TO
block ravoments. The richly varie-
gated windows OF n bis shop. Just ~
Illuminated at twilight. with the dark
upper stories setting OF their bright
a.. he
ing slowly In front OF them. make
show that for truly romantic beauty
cannot be beaten i'm London: and /
will hack ~ against any sunset seen
from Westminster Bridge. Further,
sunsets are not improving In elegance
and shor-frcuts are
And not In the main thoroughfares
alone is ~omen's attire the para
mount display and lure. 4 similar
phenomenon In TO be observed in the
newspapers. You might turn over the
pages of n daily and miss the politi-
cal rrports--you could not possibly
miss the women's attire. For quite
apart from the immense and compre-
hcnsive illustrated advertisements OF
~. now infinitely more imposing and
attire IL treated every day In most
papers n a special item of the days
news. with the aid of original designs
and photographs, often it is the only
illustrated news in the paper.
Cricket may shrink. even racing
may wither in drought. but the jour
nali@tic Importance OF womcn's attire
never ahatee. Newspapers have realiz-
ID what women's attire has come TO
mean to the community but i doubt
whether the community itself has yat
realized to what a tre-
rn~ndous extent this dazzling subject
has captured the general imagination.
Any sensational preacher who lacks
4 topic for his fulminations can find II
and often does find it, in women's
@anery;- any layman who happens for
private reasons to be out of love with
the sex viii try to revenge himself
by scarifying woman's peculiar folly
as demonstrated by the pursuit of
fashions: and not for generations have
women been more fiercely attacked
on account of their clothes than dur
ing the Fast three years.
According. TO the attackers. social
and religious, the matter is perfectly
sinnle.
Women as a sex are foolish about
their clothes. and that is the beginning
and the end of it. But 1 doubt II the
matter is 80 simple.
which Is Worse7
For example, no man has yet shown
that women are more foolish than men
in the affair OF clothes. Men are slaves
r. fashion: they allow themselves no
latitude. And when they do escape |
from some unusually fatucus conven-
tion they do what they can TO get |
back TO prison; as witness the present
wrand masculine effort 20 restore the |
top-hat to MS ancient tyranny.
Ner are men any more practical |
than women in their clothes A human
being who viii wear black or dark /
clothes IN hot weather would commit /
any folly
Consider the male waistcoat. which |
n ihinnest in exactly the region where
4 covers the most sensitive part of |
he body--the spine,
Consider the starched shirt
No. better not consider it, There are /
.b1ects too shocking, too barbarous, /
90 grotesque, for the consideration of /
persons
AS for the relative extravaeance of /
he two sexes IN clothes. am not /
that the wife's cost on the /
veraes more than the Husbands. The /
usband knows as rule what the
.rtfe sy,ends, but unless he is a luna
lc he does not disclose to her what he
pends. A clever woman. world con-
s1re half A dozen evening frocks out
4 the price of her husbands dress
NIT
One OF my friends. a misguided
tafistician. proved TO me the other
INV that every time / don evening
Irv:s I dissipate ten shillings. And
nv~ry women array themselves to
lease men and because men positive
y want them to be arrayed and would
"a vexed if they were not arcayed.
The attitude of men towards wo
mems clothes is perhaps the grossest
osssble example of hypocrisy, con-
usrA thinking. cheap .sneering, and
<,vnriRhf nseAnness that the history
Z the human race can show.
Fashion . Benefit
To understand clothes it is neces-
.v to grasp two fundamental
ruths.
The frst is that fashion is not an I
VII but a good. Fashion is an ex- I
resstou OF convention, and ccnven-
oos are the cement of society, or. To