The Jasper news., 1922-12-14
Scores of Girls Are Being Trained
in Art Schools to Devise
Costumes.
At WORK ON SPRING MODELS

We hear a good deal about Ameri-
can clothes, but mostly there is no
real evidence that they are strictly Of
American origin, writes a fashion cor
respondent Ia the New York Times.
The ideas, the inspirations can always
come from unknown sources. They
must necessarily do this. And so, there
is ever the possibility that so-called
American design will be accused Of
not being American at all.
After all, to the average woman, 1t
matters not the slightest bit whether
the design is American or Hindu II
she happens to like II and II II hap
pens to draw the proper sort Of fiat
tering remarks from those who see
her wear 1t. However, there is arising
a multitude of American designed and
made clothes, all of which are quite
startlingly beautiful And there is. Of
course, an underlying psychological
demand for dresses which have includ-
ed In their workmanship not only the
stitches of American workmen but the
American art that goes to make up the
design. The women in this country are
developing, almost unknown to them
selves, a style of their own suiting
most f1ttingly their type and that type
only. 1t is really the demand which Is
creating the art, and for that very
reason the art becomes at once a vital
thing and one which is tremendously
interesting.
American women, wherever It Is pos
slble to consult their tastes, have no
use for extremes of style-for sudden
clippings into the past for period cos
tunes etc. They keep that particular
energy for their fancy dress parties.
But on the street they wish to dress
much the same from year to year, with
Just enough change to make their cos
tuning interesting and not enough re-
form to make a total readjustment of
their wardrobes necessary. Now this
is a force which seems to be gaining
in strength every day and every year.
American women are not stampeding
for the cause, neith,r are they banding
together to demand what they want.
The fact Is that the movement for
American dress is so subtle a thing
that 1t grows among women without
their realizing what is happening to
them. A woman goes to the shops
these days in totally different frame
of mind from the one she carried with
her five or ten years ago. There are
certain attributes of dress which she
actually demands.
Many Girl Students.
out of the art schools there are
coming scores of little girls trained In
costume design. "'hey are destined to
lead the new generation, and they are
so much more prevalent than they
ever were before. Nov, when the new
generation grows up. TO a place of
power, it is going to think much more
naturally about American design than
we are thinking now. 1t Is going to
take the expression of its own country
far more as matter of course. 1t is
going TO ACCEPT the natural evolution
in so natural a fashion that we who
have talked and talked, and doubted,
will be put to shame. We Will see
that we were getting excited over a
perfectly natural occurrence and that
the existence and the development of
American costume design was a nat.
ural evolution which could not be cir
cumvented even had we wished to do
30.
One Of the traditional fashion ex