Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-05
Longer Skirts Are Not
Too Long for Com.
fort-Wearers Like
More Graceful Lines
Provided, But Have
Rebelled at Discom.
fort - Approved
Styles Declared to
Meet All Needs of
Wearers-SOme Ad-
vantages.
BY MARY MARSHALL.

III
who wear clothes who are respon-
sible for the fashions, and while
4 We like to blame the dreSsmakers,
importers and manufacturers future
generations will not be inclined so to
place the blame or praise for the
fashions of our day. We look at the
hoped skirts and tiny waists of some
Godey's Lady Book print of the 1850
period and--however much we may like
the print as q decoration for a tele-
phone screen or waste basket-we say
to ourselves How foolish women must
have been to be willing to wear clothes
like that?"
Three decades of our own century
have passed-decadeS In which there
was an almost uninterrupted tendency
toward clothes for women that were
comfortable, more hygienic and more
sensible. What-one wonders-will the
next decade show?
Will the present desire for clothes
that are more feminine, more alluring,
lead us back to long, cumbersome skirts,
tight bodices and absurdly trimmed
hats? Are we starting off now on Q
reaction from simplicity and good sense
that will lead women during the next
80 years to phase of fashions that
will be as grotesque as those of 1850?
Possibly If we sit back and let designers
and dressmakers follow their own
caprices some such thing might come
to paSs-but I am convinced that 1t is
the women themselves who determine
the fashions Of the age, and it is hard
70 neieve that women really want
clothes that are less comfortable or
less practical than those to which they
have become accustomed
X r.
| A S matter of fact fashions for the
late Winter and early Summer are
| motor at least need not be--any less
| sensible than those Of the last decade.
1t is not dresses as they are that have
started the loud protests against long
skirts and tight waists so much az
| dresses as we fear they are going to be.
Look, over any collection Of smart
clothes for Winter resort wear-clothes
OF the sort that will be worn every
where this Spring and Summer-and
| you will see sports dresses that are Just
| as light in weight, and that permit
| just as great freedom of motion, as
those that were worn last Summer or
the Summer before. The inch or so
added to the skirt length could not
possibly cramp any ones style on the
tennis court or golf course. Even when
! skirts we're at. their shortest there were
certain French dressmaakers who adj
| vised an additional inch on skirts for
golf to avoid the appearance of ex-
1
for q drive.
Dresses for street wear are no longer
| made with long, uneven drapery.
French women have In fact never
CHOSEN this Type of dress for wear
about town. A few additional inches
OF length are Offset by added fullness
about the knees. And il you are one
of those definitely opposed to longer
/ skirts you can make, your opposition
count by insisting on having the skirts
OF your street clothes shortened.
The new evening dresses are frankly
very long, Just as they have been for
some months. Many women have held
out against them, while others, wisely
enough, have worn them merely by way
| OF diversion--or as an experiment.
! feeling somehow convinced that the
fashion would not become fixed for
many years. And there is this salts
| faction to the woman who must wear
her dresses more than one seaSon-it
Is deal easier to shorten a skirt that
becomes too long than to lengthen one
that becomes too short.
! EXTREMELY prompt to accept GER
tain fashion changes, capable
even OF blazing the trail for Paris in
q new fashion--as was the case in the
high brow" hat fashion which was
really launched by the American flap
per-American women are coca sionally
tardy IN their response to fashion edicts
| from Paris.
This hardness has been especially
noteworthy in the case of the longer
skirt which was presented by the
French dressmakers more than .. wear
ago and Is by now something of an
OLD story In Europe. At present, while
many American women are still irving
TO make up their minds to wear the
new long skirts. French women are
looking with favor on slightly shorter
skirts. The uneven skirt for street
wear is q thing Of the past among
French women and when it appears on
evening dresses the line at the front
Is usually decidedly short
Though we lament the passing or
temporary eclipse OF the uniformly
short skirt, We must not forget that Il
had certain disadvantages. There were
some women to whom it was decidedly
nbecoming-and now at last the wor1
an who chooses to hide her knees need
not 40 so with the feeling that she VIII
look dowdy or oldfAshioned.
(oopyrieht, is3o)