Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-11-19
What's Wrong Win Fashions?

regarded as vulgar. Yet that Is what
women are always doing today. They
have gauntlet gloves, which might have
been worn by one of the mistresses OF
Charles II, and they wear them with a
simple tailor-made dress. For a few
months they adopt little muffs, which
belonged to the Cos, and carry them
with the latest modes of 1898. And
what modes those are!
CONSIDER the fur coat problem Can
any woman put her hand on her
heart and honestly tell me that in the
last five years she has seen fur coat
which gave her any sort of esthetic
pleasure? I do not mean that she may
not have seen fur coats that made her
mouth water, or brought little glimpSes
of the emerald monster into her eyes.
What do mean is: Has she seen a fur
coat that she can put on and say,
This is beautiful-its line is perfect
it will be a Joy forever" I do not think
there is any woman who can honestly
do that
The worst, shabbiest looking and most
generally abused of all the furs which
women use for their coats is squirrel.
A woman in a squirrel coat usually
looks as if she were going rafting. Even
the most expensive squirrel coats are
shapeless, drab and boring. Almost as
bad is musquash. I have very warm
cn0t i'm NV heart for oil ani,,noIc b,,f
if I saw a musquash coming down the
street I should be sorely tempted to
take gun and destroy the thing before
it had time to be caught, cured and
deposited on some woman's back. The
use of this animal ought to be made
illegal for feminine wear. And think
how rich woman abuses the lovely
sable, and how the not-so-rich woman
abuses its humble kolinsky sister!
Stables should be thing to dream about
But as they are used nowadays, they
are only likely to give one Nightmares.
Furs need master craftsmanship. And
where are the masters today? In past
centuries there were ermine cloaks that
made the woman who wore them look
like queen. There were lovely crea-
lions in sealSkin, which had mystery
and charm. Even quite recently the
silver fox lent its beauty In the poor
simplicity of its native cline. But now
furs are chopped up, plastered on to
collars, stuck on to sleeves, so that all
their individuality is lost. And here
again, when these fur coats are repro
duced in cheap voriatioS ftaro 10 =
real sense of tragedy over their wearers,
visible to any man with the least imagi-
nation. In the old days, when dresses
were very elaborate, indeed, it was inn
possible for working girls to ape them,
so that they wore simple clothes In
which they usually looked far more
attractive than their mistresses. Now
they wear practically the same thing;
only, In their case, the fur doesn't even
keep them warm
One of the oldest paradoxes of wom-
ems present attitude to dress, however,
is that they usually seem to want their
clothes to look cheap. Cheapness has
become smart. If you are inclined to
question this, how do you explain the
bead craze? A few months ago thought
that this strange mania had died an
unnatural DEATH But now it seems to
be coming back again. In the last
week or so have noticed all sorts of
women, who ought to know better,
plastered with six-penny necklaces, four
penny bangles and strings of nine
penny glass. Every time these women