Evening star., 1922-07-09
BEAUTY IN CAPS.
Headeear Gives Bathers
Added Charm at the
Beaches.

Exceedingly numerous and intense
are the criticisms OF mermaid flap
pers' wearing apparel, yet somehow
nobody ever bothers to criticize or
even to notice her often very at
tractive bathing cap. 1 wonder why?
Few fiappers who. take to swimming
or beach adorning are without some
moro or less intriguing headgear.
And 1t Is usually more rather than
less attractive. In cases where they
really intend to enjoy the caresses
OF damp waves to excess fiappers
carefully protect their bobbed and
curled heads with two caps. The un-
der cap is one of those plebian affairs
which can be found on heaped count
ers in any five-and-ten-cent store in
blue, green or red. The top cap, how
ever, Is generally a work of real art.
indigenous to nothing of lower mer-
camille rank than the utilitarian drug
store.
Surely If one were cast adrift on a
desert island containing absolutely
nothing but one normally equipped
American drug store, one could live
long and happy life with little or
nothing for which to want. There
pastes to liniments for all ailments.
radiophones to help keep in touch
with the world at large, bathing
suits. eggs. fruits and syrups. alcohol
stoves to cook on, catnip mice to IT.
tract any stray island pussies, a va
please cannibal CANNES, cigars and
perfumes galore. What more could
any castaway, mermaid or man, de-
sire?
But to return to bathing caps. 1t
Is traditional to make them of rub
h m tot l,~V
sistently and deftly concealed by
clever manipulation. Some caps are
adorned with huge Tapping rubber
butterflies and some have coy pleated
bows. Others seem completely COW
cred by fringed flowers Of rubber,
animals running around them in
gaudy bands. We are all fairly well
acquainted with the bathing hat
that strongly resembles mother's-or
shall we say ma's?-favorite
pie tin, covered by shirred rubber
Of the rubber. 1t Is movable. like a
lampshade. SO that the fiapper can
change its slant from one side to the
other to emphasize her most effective
eye or what she considers the least
freckled side of her nose.
most stylish bathing caps is terrify-
ing, but one must admit that many
of them are charming in design.
Erie. the famous designer. has sketch
ed some unusually effective bathing
caps in his latest collection of sum-
mer ideas published in Harper's
Bazaar. One of them is combination
of rubber and jet. which Is shirred
SO that the fapper's shell-like ears
may be uncovered to the sea air. 1t
is claimed that this arrangement
holds the cap on tighter and keeps
the hair dry: One merely wonders
how much water the mermaid Is cal
culated on admitting into her head.
No wonder some folks get water on
the brain.
Another of this artists designs is
tightly fitting black cap with cute,
little fishes embroidered all over it,
To add a realistic touch, the whole
cap is covered by a green silk net OF
heavy cord, which gives the sugges-
ton to one on shore that the fapper
has been fishing successfully-which
is probably true.
And then, when a girl poses her
self to the best effect on the beach.
gracefully tosses her cap from her
Still curly and not too disarranged
coiffure and complains that her hair
got all wet" mere man wonders why
She wore the cap. Whatever else
mermaid may or may not do she
never sticks her head in the sand.
wherefore the bathing cap.