Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1916 — SKIRTS TO BE LONGER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SKIRTS TO BE LONGER

ANKLE LENGTH IS DBCREE OF PARISIAN MODISTES. There Will Be Difference of Opinion a* to the Advisability of the Change, but It Seems Sure to Come. The great majority of women are too restless and uncertain to let one costume follow in the footsteps of another and no dressmaker is sufficiently persuasive to make them see the advantage of this course, but the fact that it has succeeded should be a lesson to those who indulge in too much restlessness and who allow themselves too free a fancy in the field of costumery; all of which is not very far away from the subject of wardrobe efficiency, because it deals with the problem of how to save money and vitality. There is no reason to discard a full tunic over a moderately narrow skirt this season, simply because you owped one -last season; if it was not becoming, then there is an excellent reason for never getting it again; but; if It was satisfactory, there is every:, reason to repeat it when the new fashions offer a chance. It is not possible to put a finger definitely on any certain assortment of clothes from a leading house and say that it shows a tendency toward longer skirts, but there is a strong feeling in the air that the movement is to this end. The cables from Paris regarding the actual gowns that smart women are wearing tell of thelengthening of street skirts by at least three inches; instead of escaping the boot top, they escape the ankle. Both Jenny and Cheruit have lent themselves to this change. There are few women who can produce a new fashion through their exploitationi'of it in Paris today, but no one can fail to find significance in the fact that the leading houses and the leading women have joined in a new movement. liy this country two notable houses have put out skirts' that touch the floor, but they are not attractive;

their fullness makes them ungainly and even if they are to be used in the evening and not on the street, they cannot be effectively handled. The apostles of this new fashion insist that the*women of another day contrived to be' graceful in them, so that we should find it an "pasy matter. But are we sure that our ancestors were graceful in such skirts? That may be one of the traditions, along with a lot of others, that we would prefer to accept in theory than to refute in practice. As for this long, full skirt, it may

be left to the future. It has its news value at present, because'its sponsors are important designers, and what ever they do is followed up by some, if not many, fashionable women. There are many who think that it is a difficult thing to choose between a very long, full skirt - and a very short, fulj skirt, but it seems to me that the latter is by far the better. Even in dancing, it is more graceful, and if the new fashion for wearing high-laced boots of brocade or satin in the evening prevails, the shortness of the skirt will be attractively offset. (Copyright, 1915, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Small Hat of Black Velvet Effectively Trimmed With Wide-Winged Bird.