Evening star., 1926-03-28
Spring Blorses Will Soon Be Appearing in Many Difere
BY MARY MARSHALL

H HE blouse is an order Of which
there seem to be many fam
lilies. And If you tried to
make a truly scientific classi-
fieation of the clothes that
women wear nowadays you might
wonder whether or not all of these
blouse like garments really ought to
Sv grouped under one order. Fortu.
nately, however, no one expects sci
entific methods when we speak or
write Of clothes and fashions. The
fact is. any thorough going scientist
would probably feel affronted at the
very thought of applying his pre-
cious methods TO a subject, 10 him,
so completely brainless and caprtcious
as that Of women's dress. =
AS a matter of convenience, how
ever, we do not include under the gem
eral heading of blouses any garment
that needs to be worn with a skirt
and that is not 10 be taken on and
off like a jacket. Thus the tunic re-
mains a blouse so long as 1t is still
short enough to need u skirt or slip
beneath It, 1t become a frock when
IL Is long enough not to need such
complement. A sweater we had bet
ter consider apart from blouses when
II serves the purpose Of Jacket to
be worn over q blouse or frock OF
some sort. 1t falls under the head OF
blouse when il is, like the new sweat
er blouses, worn directly over the un-
derclothes as companion piece to
slip or skirt.
Some women get along well enough
NN-ifb NV M = N
wardrobes They are devoted TO the
one-piece frock and they do not care
about suits. In some cases they are
perhaps wise. But it is worth While
10 have a varied wardrobe as well as
q varied diet.
Undoubtedly the attitude of the
women who wear only frocks is
natural reaction against the tendency
some 10 or - years ago to oVerdo the
blouse or "shirtwaist," as it was then
popularity called.
Let's consider the sweater blouse to
start with-one of the border families,
so to speak.
Patou Of Paris sponsored it this
Spring and showed how it might be
worn TO advantage either with sepa-
rate skirt or with a twopiece suit.
More than any garment in the ward
robe of today it suggests the oldtime
jersey that women Wore q generation
aEo-before ever the word sweater
was considered fit for polite conversa-
tion. While ii is straight cut it IS
closely knit, so that il conforms to the
contours of the body, giving the mold
ed silhouette that the up-tO-date dress
makers talk so much about. Usually
there is fine ribbing at the lower edge
50 that 1t clings closely about the hips:
a q oil
ribbed about the wrists. Patou's
sweater blouses are for the most part
made with horizontal stripes-a fact
which makes them more becoming to
the nymphs than the Junos.
An Eton collar sometimes finishes
the neckline and sometimes a Patou
tie collar Any woman who finds this
sweater blouse becoming and who has
decided on tWo-pieCe suit for Spring
would. in my opinion, do we'll to add
one to her wardrobe. choosing stripes
that harmonic with the color of her
suit. For early Spring weather fine
wool jersey would he a good choice. but
for a cooler garment select one of the
mixtures of mohair and rayon.
No one can doubt the revival of. the
two piece suit. OF course, It has not
regained the popularity it maintained
20 years ago, nor is it a really wise
choice for the woman of meaEer ward
robe. If YOU must have a single piece
de resistance for Spring you still do
well to select a coat and frock. for the
two piece suit is at best something for
special occasions
The tWo-piece suit. of course, re-
Quires some sort of blouse-and so it
is to the various dressmakers and
tailors who have set the fashion in
Spring suits that we look for the last
word in Spring blouses, jumpers, cas-
quines, or whatever you or they choose
to call them.
Whether you have ever seen a real
O'Rossen suit or not the chances are
that you associate his name with this
type of garment. The same is too
picturesque to forget Well. he. like
Patou, seems to think that the sweater
blouse, or jersey jumper is a good
answer to the question of an appropri-
ate blouse 10 wear with the two piece
suit.
However. this type Of blouse he
combines only with suits of rough
sports material. For wear with his
dinner suit-which, s you
know, was inspired by the masculine
Tuxedo and which has been adopted
by many fashionable women abroad
and few here. as an informal sort
of evening costume, or for afternoon
with this gallant suit he gives us soft