Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-10
How to Apply the Test to Your Late Winter or Spring
BY MARY MARSHALL.

~ NE doesn't turn to the pages
of II detective story To learn
about fashions. Yet il YOU
have read the first chapter
Of Mr.. Valentine Williams
thriller-"'fhe Orange DiYan-you
have read as good a comment on the
present day fashions as YOU might
get from reading many fashion mag
azines. AS the story goes, Il woman
who keeps a second hand shop is
looking down the street when. at
some distance, she observes a woman
who was young and slim and Eek
trenely well dressed" Furthermore
comments Mr.. Williams. her silhou-
cite. which after all is the test of
?resent-day elegance, was of the
ncst fashionahle.'
Then me- rrszg goes on-as detec-
tvs stories have a WAY of going
and Mr.. Williams has nrAhing more
TO say about fashion. What he said
is worth onSidering-worth rolling
over in Your mind when YOU plan your
late winter or spring wardrobe, worth
keeping steadily before you when you
are tempted 10 buy this bauhle or
that eewgaw. worth considering when
You are inclined To wear frock of
beautiful material iudiffereutly made.
because You 50 enjoy the feeling that
In truth silhouette is no longer an
incident Of fashion. In our cousid-
Grafton OF the whole tantalizing sub
Ject Of fashion we should no longer
consider silhouette as a subhead on
par with materials. colors or other
details. II i SO important that once
Won have attained 1.-THE silhouette
that Is for the moment smart and dis
tinctiVe-the rest doesn't 50 much
- h.A # 4
maker doesn't matter-or rather It
will be taken for granted that your
dreSSmaker is in the first water If
You have been able to achieve the
muCh-cOyeted contour. And 1t won't
so much matter whether the material
OF your gown costs three dollars
ward or tWenty-if by means of the
cheaper fabric YOU have been able TO
get Just the right line, just the right
silhouette.
OF course every era in fashion has
its silhouette. A certain Silhouette
Tor instance. was produced bout 1860
because women chose to wear enor-
mously wide skirts set out on crino-
lines. because they laced their stays
10 within an inch of their precious
lives. because they wore shawls ana
because the coal-skuttle bonnet had
com. INTO the fashion. These things
care into the fashion. in way. in
depoNdently They We're admired and
strivsn for ends in themselves The
silhouette reSulted-and women had
TO accept ii.
Now 1t is different. The silhouette
Is first considered The wraps and
hats and shoes and stockings and
everything else about us must he
chosen 10 conform to that graceful.
highly sophisticated. elusive contour
that We call the fashionable Silhouette
You noticed. didn't YOU. that the
f@shionahl woman whom Valentine
Williams depicted was young and
slim? If she had been other than
slim, if she had been other then
seemingly young. she could not con
cetvahly have possessed his fashion
able Silhouette. That is a very i'm
portant-and frequently very dis.
turbing thing to remember about the
fashions of the day. Seemingly it Is
easier for a camel To so through the
eye of a needle than for q fat woman
TO attain to the fashionable ideal
when that ideal is 50 almost entirely A
matter Of Silhouette and a slender sill
houette. OF course. Women of too
great weight-women With bread hips
and bulging backs and too billowy
bosomS-do achieve fashionable eIe-
gance. But then supposedly some rich
men get into heaVen-Some CamelS
contriVe to get through the eyes of
needles.
Simply being thin doesn't take one
far along the quest Of the fashion
able In fact, 1t doesn't take one any
where at all. There is a type of angu-
larity rather usual in the United
States that IS quite as difficult to bring
into line with the fashionable silhou-