Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-25

" HERE was a time when the
very mention of winter under
wear brought to mind repel-
lent visions of shapeless nam
nelette nightgowns. horrible
adhesive wooden garments that ex-
tended from the neck to the ankles
and the wrists; worsted petticoats,
black cashmere stockings. To wear
anything else was to invite pneu-
moniR or rheumatism. Ladies or the
old school-your grandmother no
no doubt-could point to stones in the
family graveyard that bore witness
TO the untimeIy demise of Cousin Sue
or Sister Bella, who took of her long
sleeved unders before the first or
June. Anyway, practically every wo-
man in northern chimes wore those
things during the mid-Nictorian era,
and we are wont to think that the
present generation is the only one
that ever has worn lighter, more at
tractive lingerie.
But there was a time when under
things were even more negligible
than they are now, if that is possible.
About a hundred years ago women
used to find amusement In weighing
the clothes they wore, and the one
who wore the fewest number of
pounds or ounces Dragged a bit.
Not only, in those days, did women
forego the wearing of corsets; they
gave up petticoats as well, and what
ever else they could we'll get along
without. They wore silk tights, and
chemises of the thinnest sort-and
thin frocks over that. They used to
call themselves well undressed,
rather than well dressed-or rather
commentators on the foolishness OF
fashions used to do that, perhaps
not the women themselves.
Even in winter women wore frocks
Of cotton. Wooden was taboo. And
then came an epidemic of what was
dubbed muslin disease--a bad out
break of influenza. 1t is said that
sixty thousand persons became III in
Paris in single day.
The doctors OF the time attributed
this outbreak to the thin clothes of
the women. Immediately heavier
clothes became the vogue. Women
donned for underwear what they
called English fannels. And that
episode of diaphanous underwear was
closed.
But the pendulum has swung back
again. We now wear thin and few
undertakings. And we have flu. But
no doctor has the temerity nowadays
to suggest English fiannels as cure
for the affection.
X y X
A present there simply is not any
- Summer or Winter mode so far
as fashionable lingerie is concerned.
To be sure, the shops that sell all
sorts OF undertakings do have to take
into consideration prudent souls who
still cling to their warmer Winter
underclothes. but they have nothing
to do with the fashion.
From time out of mind January and
February have been the months when
thoughts of fine underwear seemed
most appropriate. In some well regu-
lated households the late Winter
was considered especially appropri-
ate for the making of such things
IT was then that the family seam
stress spent weeks at a time hem
ming, tucking, shirring fine white
cotton and linen petticoats, chemises,
those days when Lent still had sig
nificance in the social calendar even
the ladies of the house" found am
pie time on their hands to assist
with this fine handwork.
1t was in these late Winter weeks
that the Easter bride devoted her
thoughts to her trousseau-dozens of
everything, but always pure white
and, if possible, handmade.
Nowadays women do not find so
much time to devote to the making
Of their own dainty lingerie. But
the shops supply the want with