The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-31
American Girls Far Ahead In
 Sport Clothes
Rv IMAGERY WELLS

INVITE girls in Amerca have raised the w sport dress to the acme or per
 W lection. In other countries they So not know it as we do-they tall Id get out of the sport costume the worth that is in it.
 Those who think that they think seriously about fashions-as though any one could-tell us that dressing ex- prcsses the spirit of an age. Ii that IS so-and there is no reason to doubt the essertion--then our sport clothes ex- press our independence as well as our own peculiar charm and the spirit with which we are tacking and arranging our lives. They are simple, they are well cut and to the point, they have no extra 1ol- de-rols and, above everything else, they are smart.
 Now, you will find many girl Of tbe modern day, be she extremely young or not so much so, wearing nothing but clothes of the sport type. She VIII tell you seriousuly that she can abide no others. She has grown into those clothes as into her very own express sion and any other type of dress makes her feel awkward and clumsy ana decidedly tout of the picture" Some grouchy critics might say that she "does them to death," but she dosen't think so. nor will she consider the hint of such an idea. She is satisfied and for that reason she looks well in her clothes, she does them justice, she shines as her personality throws itself out into the world She feels at home in her clothes, and that is half the bat tie, if not all of it.
 But the American girl has taken the sport dress idea and softened 1t and handled it and arranged it to suit her self and her very own personality. She has made an afternoon dress of it so that no one could take it for anything else but an afternoon dress. And in doing this she has changed it but little. She has used finer piece of material, perhaps, more lacey, and hand stitched collars and cuffs, belt of rich embroid- cry, but in its essential lines and dominating features it remains the same.
 She has dore the same with her eve ming dress and her pretty dance frock. Here she has called into play the hand somest of brocades and velvets, but she has kept the style that pleased her on the golf links.
 went with young lady, golf cham pion from one of our biggest colleges, to buy a frock in Paris. Now that was . an experience I want you to know. The girl was as pretty as could be, tall, graceful, a trifle large across the shoulders, but beautifully proportioned. She couldn't see the Paris dresses for a cent. She just shrieked and laughed and said frankly that she thought they were awful. tried to do a little speedy work in the way of educating her to style right on the spot, whereupon she thought I'd gone crazy with the rest of them. "Why," she said, they'd think was wild at home if came back dressed like this" I called to hand my meagre French and tried to explain to the buz- zing couturier that this girl was an American type. Then the couturier laughed at me. I was between the devil and the deep sea. The American girl won out. She turned on her heel and left, announcing that Fifth avenue was good enough for her. She'd go home to get her clothes and wouldn't be bothered with duty and flub-dubs.
 That girl had character-American character-and she was just as sure of herself and her own style as any Parisienne ever had hoped to be. She could have adapted herself and her feel