The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-05-27
WELL DRESSED GIRLS

For tea let US go to smart hotel
uptown on Fifth avenue where smart
women of all ages and types gather
in the late afternoon. There are tiny
tables, long corridors. secluded hooks
for private conversations: there is
soft music and the perfume of many
subtle odors; there are pretty faces
and still prettitr clothes, though the
two do not always. alas! go together.
We see the clothes of the girls at
tea have become a trifle more color
are still plain-yes, extremely plain
the better they are handled and the
smarter they are. But with the more
glowing colors we find slightly less
formal lines appearing, and, at tea
time, a greater majority of girls are
well dressed--better dressed than
they were earlier in the day when
they were having lunch. Perhaps 1t
is because only those who fitch their
clothes take to the leisurely process
of having tea. Perhaps it is that
more men are apt to be present with
their ever critical eyes trained on
the elements of dress and the last
analysis of the girls they visit with.
Perhaps it is that with less tailored
needs it is easier to get an excellent
effect.
There are atrocities, though-ever
so many of them. If you are bent
upon this search for the well dressed
woman you will find yourself dis
couraged time and again not only by
the misdeeds that are committed in
the name of fashion but by the re
iteration of one idea until 1t looks as
though the American girl bought her
clothes with her eyes shut, asking
only for the guarantee that her Co.'S
tune had been done 100000 times
previously.
You see a plated skirt with a short
fan fur jacket You like 1T and feel
satisfied. But. dear me, here comes
another and another and still an
All. here Is a variation, but, bless me,
it is only a white fur coat with an
other plated skirt. It's good, but,
oh, it's monotCnouS.
Then you are relieved by an ac-
Gordon plated frock. all straight and
plain with its accordion plated short
cape to match. 1t is dark blue and
is worn with little dark blue and
white hat. But, here comes another
and another and still another, and
they are all more or less alike. The
hats shade the faces to such an eX-
tent that tn6re is no CndHce &c tel
whether even the features differ and
you begin to suppose they do not
after so much reiteration of the same
outward appearance.
But here in the crowd comes girl
who has done the usual thing with
that degree of skill and art that is
called well dressed" or. at least, her
dressmaker has, for it would take a
professional tG do the thing so eX
tremely we'll and on so unpretentious
scale Her dress is gray wool velour
of the lightest quality. looking al
most like silk. 1t Is trimmed with
stripes of silk braid In varying
widths, one black, one cerise and one
green. There Is circular, short cape
with a puffed. becoming collar of the
frt cks material and the stripping of
braid runs round the inner edge of
that cape as it does in two up and
down lines on the frock. Her hat
turns away from her face in a
blessed relief from all those thatturn
down. and the general lines of the
dress. the air with which the young
lady carries herself, the set of the
cape and the hat all speak plain
language which says that here is a
well dressed woman-well dressed in
her own style co-ordinat.d suffi-
GENTLY with popular standards to
make her costume complete sue
cess. There is no banner which says: