The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-29
Making Most of Standardized
 Cloth es
.Rx IMAGERY WELLS

MEHlCAN clothes Tor women ana A girls are standardized. We are
 agree on taht point. The custom makes dressing easier in some ways, perhaps in all ways it is easier, but the ease warps the good looks.
 You have often said, you have oft ener heard it said that "I don't want to walk down the street and see myself appearing to greet me on every street corner" Now, it is standardization that brings this distressing situation about. You know that a frock is not nearly 50 valuabA to you when your next door neighbor owns one exactly like 1t. It even loses some of its charm for you, yourself, when woman you do not know has one to match.
 In the old days, before you of the present dressy generation were born, every woman was her own dress maker. or something that amounted to that. Those old fashioned dresses which you have lately seen exhibited in the win dows of Fifth avenue were never made in lots of 5000.
 In those days a style was something that set down certain rules and stand ards very much generalized and along broad and sweeping lines. Then each woman who had new dress that sea son, or perhaps more than one, devel- oped that style according to her own Interpretation. Either she did it her self or some chosen and guarded dress maker did it for her, because that was the practice and the ruling of that day and time. Things were bound to be different then, for no two people eyer interpret an idea exactly alike. The practice of the time gave room for all sorts of variations and difference.
 Now the private dressmaker is al- most wholly thing of the past. The only ones in the world charge such shocking prices that the girl of today has no idea of accomplishing her dress ing after that old-time and honored method. She goes out to the nearest speciality shop and buys her newest frock, has the hem shortened or length ened as the case may be, and walks out in new and shining raiment with no more than a half hour of time ex- pended. *7a
 But can this girl hope to be so very individual in her style, to stand out as an entity by herself? Just here is where she loses by the process of standardization. With the passing of time the matter of her dressing has been made easy, but the result is that she is apt to look as though she and her clothes had been ground out of a mill along with many thousands of others. She is a perfect product, to be sure, but 50 perfect that there is a likelihood that she will look monoto- nous. And what is more destructive to beauty than a state of affairs such as that?
 Of course the modern girl has other ways of showing her peculiar charm and the effect of her personality. It is not necessary, in her larger life, to confine her expression to her clothes. But it is my impression that it is the desire of the modern, girl to be ex- pressive, and individually so, as re- gards her dressing. It is often true too, that she fails conspicuously at attaining this ideal because of the system of standardization that she is forced to face.
 She buys what she likes, what be- comes her well, only to find that the reason she looks ~ so chic and we'll dressed is that the dress, having been thought out by experts, is in away fool.proof, and will make almost any girl have exactly that same appearance. The expert thought behind the con struction of that dress has put the price within the limits of her pocket book, as the average pocket-book. It has chosen the color that will be be- coming. It has seen that good, wear able material has been used. It has the waist, the hem, all posed and fitted the shoulders, the sleeves, the length, to T. One master mind has accom-. plished the thing only because 1t could be produced in thousands, thereby to bring back the investment. That much has been gained. But the touch of in. dividuality has been lost.
 Then comes the rush to get the latest perfected model" In other words, there is instituted a stampede for the first of the standardized dresses These are, necessarily, the most expen- sive. Girls are no longer satisfied with taking the thing that is so tried and tested that 1t has been proved perfect They want to lead in standardization But a dress bought this way does moi last long. In the shortest while crowds like it begin to appear and the value of It's newness and aloneness have been lost overnight, and the budding desire for yet another new one has set in: