Evening star., 1932-09-04

Of all pretentiousness. People have be-
come more human, and clothes nat
urally adapt themselves to the changes
In character and conditions of life,
rejecting in some measure what peo-
pie think as well as what they do.
This Is no time for putting on great
airs. Costly banquets are fewer and
simpler, the expensive extras have
been eliminated on all sides. This be-
ing true of life. it must be true in the
fashions we wear, which must har-
monize, and useless etceteras were
never so much to be frowned upon.
The line, the cut, the fabric. these
are the important elements of dress,
assuring its smartness and practical
value. Trimming can be achieved by
the adroit selection and combination Of
these, many a, fabric being its own
trimming, or lending itself to being
easily trimmed through a certain cut
ting process.
WHEN actual trimming must be
w added to a model, this should be
suggestive of practical use. A bow. or
several bows, of modest dimensions
never look out of place, because, whether
one stops to think about it or not, we
remember instinctively tIat a bow is
a practical thing and has often replaced
pins, needles, stitching, buttons and Or
naments. The same Is true of but
tons. They suggest practical purpose
and, indeed, often are as practical In
point of fact as their suggestion.
Loads Of imposing flowers on the
shoulder have had their day and would
look positively incongruous in the cur
rent mode. Billows of drapery and
trailing chiffon strike us now as incon-
ceivable. Any trimming which does not
carry with 1t an implication of prac-
tical use is to be eliminated Nothing
on a dress or coat must look useless,
as If it had been added to the model
after it really had been finished
The ensemble should look as though
it had all been conceived as a whole,
and the trimming was one with the
dress rather than grated onto 1t.
The next thing, after applying this
rigid and scrupulous pruning process,
through which all non-essentials are
got rid Of. Is the precise adaptation of
your clothes to meet the requirements
of the definite social life you lead and
want your clothes for. When you re-
fleet that no two women out of fifty
you find admiring the same dress lead
the same lives. or the same kind of
lives, ana see them au actually puylng
such dress, you know that something
Is fearfully wrong in the national
style consciousness.
X y
VOU know that at least half Of
them are going to look ridiculous
or pitifully out of place. There will be
a little too much on the dress for
some, and for others too little. Their
wearers will appear at their respective
functions, and look either as II they
got into the premises by mistake. or
came through fire. or a masquerade
ball, or were misinformed and thought
it was to be, instead Of dinner party.
wedding, funeral or boat excursion.
They viii be those unfortunates, In
greater or lesser measure, that we have
all seen somewhere or other, prowling
around in clothes conspicuously inap-
propriate to their surroundings.
II so women admire certain model,
and those so lead lives that vary how
ever slightly, this slight variance should
be reflected In the manner In which
the dress Is adapted TO their individ-
ual requirements. It Is this scientific