Evening star., 1925-08-30

- VERY Summer this happens.
l. An American mother with
schoolgirl daughter goes
IL abroad, and does what
American women out of 10
IN Paris always do-catches the fever
Tor shopping along the Rue de la Paix.
she may even be persuaded TO buy
icseS E.ockS in Italy, where prices
seem verY. very reasonable, and GER
tain things she buys in London-a
sport coat or suit OF such wonderful
Scotch tweed. OF course you could
never get anything at all like it here
Tor so low price. Even Paris frocks
bought from the good dressmakers
don't seem so very expensive-not
when you consider that each one is a
masterpiece. and in Midsummer in
Paris it is possible for the eager-eyed
American woman to pick up such
charming bargains-novelties of the
season that have been marked down
for quick disposal.
Well, this American mother with
her schoolgirl daughter comes home,
feeling that daughter can be sent post
haste off to boarding school or college
without having TO fuss a bit about
clothes. She has everything she can
possibly want-only a few slight alter
ations are needed. And what a dis
tinction it will be for the daughter to
have these interesting European
clothes when the other girls have just
the ordinary sort of American things
Going abroad would really have been
quite worth while If it had only been
TO buy clothes, thinks the mother.
They land and work their way
through the customs, return home
and in the course OF events unpack
the trunks. Meantime the school.
girl daughter runs out to the Coun-
try club, sees some of the girls, takes
trip to the shops for some trifling
purchases and over her comes a rather
sickening realization that those Euro
, pean clothes Of hers aren't going TO
look so smart or so appropriate as
she had expected.
In fact. there are some new things
that she will simply have to have.
All the girls are going to wear a GER
tain sort OF new hat. and not to wear
the sort OF hat that all the girls are
wearing is a great mistake. "A hat
straight from the showroom OF Lewis
would not really do instead.
Moreover, that suit from London
hasn't just the right line to 1t. Daugh-
ter doesn't look like the other girls
when she wears 1t. and of course the
other girls aren't at all impressed by
the fact that the material is quite
superior to that of their own suits.
And it may be that the daughter
schools where there are more or less
strict regulations concerning the dress
worn by the pupils. Or there may
he just a tacit understanding that no
frocks that are extreme in any way
will be considered appropriate, and
most of those European frocks do look
extreme when they are unpacked and
exposed to September sunshine in
America. So the outcome is that the
mother and daughter make last
minute foray into the shops and buy
few things-iust the things that an
American schoolgirl will surely want
to wear. And the wonderful French
things are hung away in the ward
robe at home to be worn during vaca-
tion time as much as possible.
+ X
THIS is what actually happens to
ever SO many women every year.
There are always American women
who come home only to be a little dis
appointed with their European bar
gains" but this is more apt to be the
case when these bargains have been
part of the schoolgirls wardrobe
than in any other instance. This is
because from the point Of view of the
schoolgirl nothing is so important as
conformity. Originality, personality
in dress seem in a measure to be at
discount IL originality is to be dis
played at all it is so by means of some
trick or mannerism contrived in the
wearing of the type of frock or coat
or hat or necessary that has been ac-
cepted as correct for the time being
for the group to which the schoolgirl
belongs.
Mere intrinsic value OF clothes is