Evening star., 1925-07-05
BY MARY MARSHALL.

I F. a taste for crude colors betokens
a low degree of civilization and
somewhat barbaric type of mind, then
we Georgians of the second decade of
the twentieth century must be going
through a phase of reversion to prim-
Tive type. We are backsliders, de-
eenerates-something of the sort. If
on the other hand a fondness for high
and bright Colors indicates a healthy,
normal outlook on life then we must
he recovering from the malady that
we suffered a decade or so earlier
when no street frocks was quite so
smart as a black one, when every de-
hutante longed TO wear a black dance
frock, and when milliners almost wept
over the fact that they couldn't per-
suade women TO wear anything but
black hats.
To be sure there are women still
who persist in wearing black. But
there are obviously more gay colors.
Even the very erudite professor of our
, acquaintance remarked that he was
quite startled this Spring when sweat
ers and coats were discarded, to see
before him in the classroom a spec
tacle as gay as a glimpse of "a florists
window in February.
ITO the milliners and dressmakers
L there is no surprise in this. 1t
Is goal for which they have been
working for many years. 1t is always
to their advantage for women to wear
gay colors. Now they merely see the
elimination of the incessant efforts
of many years. You know yourself
that if you have a black hat you wear
ii and wear It and wear it. but the
purple hat that you buy in an eX-
travagant moment cannot possibly be
worn with your new frock of pepper
mint green nor with your yellow tunlc
or your turquoise paraSol.
One thing that has been observed
Is that even backgrounds are much
more vivid than they used to be. In
the printed materials which every one
IS wearing wild and garish colors
sprawl over a background not of gray
or white or biege or something equally
neutral but over background of
green or blue or rose.
Uniformity in fashion is of course
quite as remote as uniformity in mat
ters of religion. While all the world
wears bright COlors there will be
women who still wear black or navy
blue or beige or gray, and when no
one wears black in the evening there
will always be smart women who come
TO evening parties in black. Thereby
they will attract more attention than
they did when every one else wore
black SO it is that one observer,
struck by the smart distinction of the
few black frockS he sees in Paris, as
sures US that the really smart Paris
ian is not falling for this craze for
color.
x x X
A. the races and the parks the
"a bright -colored frocks have been
most striking in Paris this Spring
and Summer. These gay frocks
were likened to the blossoms in
the flower beds. Deep blue ciner-
aries, petunias that are almost too
pink. fuchsias deftly combining red
and purple Parma ViOlets, the green
of apple foliage, the unflower-which
the French call tourne-Sol because II
turns 10 the sun-pink primrose or
primevere, cornflower, which is the
bIuest of France, and another blue
flower called barbeau-all these bios
SONS of the French gardens have in
spired the makers of fabrics and the
milliners and dressmakers in their
work this Spring. And so the chance
observers of fashionable women in
France this Spring and Summer have
said they looked like flowers in their
own gardens-bright, vibrant and
beautiful.
Curious color-green, isn't it? If
Michael Arlen had called his tale of
Iris Storm THE Red Hat or THE
Blue Hat" or The Purple Hat the
effect would have been quite different.
For in such case Mrs. Storm would