Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1910 — HOBBLE SKIRT JOKE [ARTICLE]

HOBBLE SKIRT JOKE

Parisian Designers Got Idea From Cleverly Drawn Cartoon. Cartoonist Now Apologizes, Declaring Never Thought Such Mode of Dress Possible—lntended to Ridicule Low Waist. London.—Who is responsible for the invention of the “hobble” skirt? Some famous fashion creator of Paris, every one will say, by no means. W. K. Haselden, the cartoonist, envolved it out of his inner consciousness many months before it was actually created as a dress. On Feb. 14, 1909, he thought of it as a hideous possibility which might some day come The next day his conception of itffjieared as a cartoon, in company with other products of his imagination; later a Parisian fashion expert the cartoon and seized upon the idea. , Some months later the hobble skirt appeared in Paris, and in December, 1909, was actually being worn in London, and speedily became the rage. In one or two cases enthusiastic adopters of it were so overzealous that they had hobble skirts made for them which were so tight they prevented their getting in or out of vehicles, and broken bones resulted. Other wierd dress designs were "the knee-and elbow-room dress,” a quaint conceit which showed balloons round the knees and elbows; the “Punchinello pattern,” the woman in this case wearing an artificial hump and a very voluminous skirt; "the donkey’s ear shoulder,” an ordinary costume with a trailing skirt and two long, pointed projections rising from the shoulders to a distance of three feet above either side of the head; and “the pyramid” and the “diamond” design. These have not "come true,” but Mr. Haselden thinks it highly likely that their day will dawn. Asked upon what lines he worked when creating such fashions, be said: “I think of all the most outlandish things in the way of dress, being at

the same time assured that nothing is too impossible for women to wear. “Indeed, the real difficulty is to invent a’nything that looks impossible. There wai one really sensible thing I invented. This will, not, I fear, ‘come true,’ because it is sensible. I refer to the pneumatic hat for matinees, a drawing of which appeared on Aug. 29, 1908. “It was a large hat blown up with air and capable of being deflated when the wearer had- taken her seat in the theater. “I am afraid that if 1 designed a really artistic and useful dress women would not wear it. “The very last thing on earth I wanted was to get women to wear hobble skirts, but I had a fear. I did not think it unlikely that they would adopt it. It is so very silly, you know. “When I read of the lady, who, owing to a very hobble skirt, broke one of her legs in getting into a taxicab, I felt indirectly responsible. I kept silent about my invention because I did not wish to be found out. “I am very penitent. I know I ought to be broken on the wheel. If any other man had done it I would get up a society to have him broken on the wheel. But I will not get up a society to have myself broken on the wheel. That is for other people to do. “At present, you know, we are going back to eastern dress fashions The thing now is to hide the face and show the figure. You can’t see more of a woman’s face nowadays than her chin. Breaking on the wheels is quite conformable with eastern ideas."