The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-10-12
Capital Fashions or Smart Society
 Time And Place
By MARGARET WADE

Notwithstanding the patriotic move- ment of group of women high in off cial life to establish American fashions, with Mrs. Warren G. Harding encour- aging the plan when she entered the White House less than four years ago, the American capital is on the eve of social season that for sartorial effect promises to surpass anything known in Vanity Fair since before the war" (meaning before 1914).
 Furthermore, the fashions for the sea- son of 1924-25 are the very best that Paris can design with the style, man. ner, habits and purse of the American woman from dowager to debutante thor oughly understood and given due con- sideration by the greatest artists in clothes the worldmhas ever known.
 Which is the reason the best looking clothes of each season are always made in France-or are faithful copies by foreign needlewomen trained in details the average American worker is too i'm patient to master.
 For the present the returning trav- eler, however extensive her wardrobe may be, is confining herself to one or two straight line street suits and last springs dinner gowns.
 But straws show which way the wind blows in fashion and with Mrs. Warren Delane Robbins, Mrs. Peter Gelet Gerry, Mrs. Dorsey Richardson, Mrs. Sylva- nus Stokes on the ground, it is hardly necessary to wait for the Baroness de Cartier to point the way in the length of the skirt, the size of a hat or the prevailing color.
 Baroness de Cartier, always the best dressed woman of the diplomatic circles, as a matter of fact seldom indulges in color, her famous costumes being black or white.
 Mrs. Robbins at the smart little tea which Mrs. Frederick ii. Gillette gave in her honor last week was chic and charm ing in an all black costume of hugh luster flat crepe. Dhe silhouette was close as the closest tube frock but three vOlants of equal depth covered the front from waistline to the edge of the hem. The latter probably ten inches from the ground. The neckline was severe in batteau line and the sleeves long, very long and close to the arm from shoulder to wrist.
 The hat worn with this was high and narrow square topped shape in black satin with it's trimming an aigrette falling downward from the left ear to the shoulder. Some aigrettes will con tinue to point upward with all the pride of their old well established posi- tion but the call for something new every minute several famous designers are reversing the position with Mrs. Robbins the first to succumb to the mode. This former Washington hostess and present visitor is returning to Der lin later in the month to join her hus- band nov counselor at the United States embassy.
 While color is to play an important part in afternoon and evening gowns, particularly for the younger matrons, the debutantes and that still more in- teresting in-between class af which Miss Ailsa Mellon and her cousin, Miss Olyve Greaff, are the recognized leaders, the all-black and all-white frocks never go out of fashion.
 Miss Mellon, who is credited with having selected her seasons wardrobe in Paris in August, has .a charming white frock that illustrates the vogue of beads in new pattern. The gown is white crepe roma in the tube silhouette with knee length tunic embroidered in beads of three different tones-crystal, silver and milk white-giving a shaded effect. The smallest beads are pin points and the largest, which are the crystal, the size of a small pea. The batteau neck line is seen in this frOck, so it is not tout" as some importers would have us believe. A necklace of pearls gives another shade to this all- white costume.
 Miss Beatrice Henderson, whom the we'll informed usually name. first in speaking of the seasons debutantes, is ordering her evening gowns mainly in white in the straight line, with silver and crystal beads and embroidery used in great profusion on the skirts, skirts being the part of the gown carrying what our grandmothers called the trim ming this season.
 Miss Elizabeth Parker. the second daughter of Mir. and Mrs. Chauncey c. Parker, and Miss Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of MT. and Mrs. Perry John son, are other prominent debutants of smart residential circles with Paris