Evening star., 1923-03-11
nv ANNE nIT.rENHousE,

EXTRAORDINARY luck for the
designers-that finding Of q
- Pharaoh's tomb. Not often
does such q piece of publicity
como the way OF those who make
clothes. They are compelled to edu-
cate the public to the meaning Of a
certain fashion movement they have
launched. They are compelled to
took up documents. review history,
employ expert publicity agents in
order that women may be interested
in why gowns are beaded. why they
are rufiied, what is meant by a re-
naissance neck line. why fourteenth
century Venice dominates apparel.
Last autumn they decided on
Egypt and the Pharonic dynasties
as an artistic and remunerative
source OF inspiration for women's
clothes. There has been q sweeping
movement of fashion toward oriental
ism since Gen. Allenby captured
Jerusalem and the King Of the. He'd
gar reopened Mecca.
The weavers had laid their plans
and perfected their fabrics. showing
patterns OF Egyptian and Persian
tigurations. for after Egypt was
nnally conquered by Persia there
was remarkable mingling Of the
two types of costumery, jewels and
manners.
The miliiners had revived the head
dress OF the Sphinx. Women had
begun to wear snakes Of beaten gold
an armlets. Skirts were pulled tight
" across the spine and draped in a
pieated panel in front Sandals over
rnauve and nude stockings had ousted
other slippers.
Seeing that women liked these things
the fabric designers and the clothes
makers had decided to continue
Egyptian fashions. In truth. they de-
cided TO emphasize them to a degree
that alarmed the experts, who felt
that women would soon look like
mummies.
Suddenly. in the midst of this ap-
parent decision, Howard Carter found
the tomb Of Tutankhamen. Those
who make clothes had no need to
employ publicity agents We are in
ror such a sidal wave of Pharaonic
fashions that no mortal man or
woman can run before It,
The Metropolitan Museum Of Art.
which has been using every publicity
inspiration to bring Americans to its
vast collection and interest them in
It's superb Egyptian department, has
10 call out the traffic guards on Sun
Gay From the moment the Pharaoh's
tomb was found going 70 the museum
has been the winter diversion of peo-
pie vino did no; know previously
where the building was Six thou
sand people gained admittance 70 the
Egyptian collection in orc afternoon.
= :;
THE world is apt 70 say that the
l. designers seized an inspiration
from the Egyptian discovery. Not at
all. They had been ready for six
months with the fashions of Thehes.
Luxor and Alexandria If Howard
Carter had been paid $4,000 by the
dressmakers, as the Associated Dress
Industries paid the new dress director,
things could not have broken better.
The first and foremost Egyptian
fashion that promises wide accept
ance is the printed cotton frock. On
the Nile throughout the centuries
they have picked and spun cotton,
and they wore these frocks, both men
and women, because of the climate
and because Of the extraordinary
color which the white cotton took.
The figurations were pyramids. tri-
angles. birds and beasts. human fig-
l:res and Persian effects In strongly
contrasting colors. The peoples OF
oriental countries wore these printed
cotton clothes from the dawn OF
their existence and our southern
states adopted them via England.
The laundry business should -four