Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-05-17
BY MARY MARSHALL.

TOR the woman whose sole con
- Germ with new clothes is the
wearing Of them. interest in
the changes of fashion is fitful
and seasonal. There are times
OF the year when the acquisition of
new clothes becomes an absorbing in
terest, and hours or days are then
spent at this age-old sport. In the
intervals between, during long weeks
OF Midsummer and Midwinter, it
seems to many women as if fashion
sat back with folded hands.
AS a matter of fact there is no
respite for the real makers of smart
clothes, and the wheels of fashion re-
Folve steadily, Systematically. The
well known French dressmakers be-
gin shortly after the new year max
ing models for buyers from North
America, South America, England
and all the other countries where
French fashions set the standard. No
sooner have they satisfied these ag-
sressive and acquisitive individuals
than they have to present new and
slightly different models to the smart
Frenchwomen on their return from
southern resorts. With the coming
of the short but important Paris sea
son" society women demand new and
exclusive clothes. and then comes the
season at Deauyille and other Summer
resorts, when every one wants new
clothes.
That done you might think that the
designers could knock off for awhile,
but before Deauville clothes are out
of the way there are incessant de
mands on the part of the buyer for
models for Autumn and Winter.
Don't imagine for minute that with
the first showing of Spring clothes for
the American buyers everything is
settled until Autumn. Often the most
important changes in fashion come as
the result of little developments that
take place much later in the season.
And while fashion is thus develop
ing overseas we are making our own
fashion history over here. You never
can tell where or when an important
fad will start or which of the innum
cradle fadS that do start in the vacd-
ton sea son will be of real Importance
to fashion. And YOU never can tell
either, Just when fashion is going to
keep steadily forward with a given
'ttd anu Nlltl SiIt IL guns ~ SCI iAti
clutch and reverse. She may sudden
" decide that there was something in
the ia shion of last season or two sea
sons ago that she did not have enough
Of and so at the end of the Summer
we find ourselves nearer the fashions
Of last year than we were at the be-
ginning.
THE very short skirt is one Of the
,f
frequently when discussions Of pres
ent tendencies are in order.
One thing is certain, skirts can I
be much shorter than those worn by
some fashionable women. and still be
worthy of the name Of skirts. But
though stressed by almost all the
dressmakers, these very short skirts
have not been adopted by all well
dressed women. Rather short, but
not too short" has been the instruc-
ton of many an American woman to
her dreSSmaker. Perhaps the skirt
that ends just below the knee can be
worn to better advantage by the Euro
pean woman, anyway. For the French
woman has thinner legs, while ours,
as a French physician gravely pointed
out to an American patient, are shaped
SO much like inverted wine bottles.
The ankles are as slender-perhaps
more Slender-but the line between
the ankle and the knee is much more
curving, and this perhaps makes a
very short skirt seem even shorter
The tendency that, 1t seems to me,
Is most important at the present time
Is toward more closely fitted silhou-
cite. Gradually we are getting away
from the meal-bag ideal. Once a wom-
an could go clothes hunting and il
she found a ready made frock that
was the right size through the Shout
ders and hung thence in a straight
line, she felt that she could take the