Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 226, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1916 — DAME FASHION'S LATEST DECREES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DAME FASHION'S LATEST DECREES

Review, of Styles Presented to the World by the Leading French Designers. SKIRTS WILL BE NARROWER Longer, But Less Wide, Is the Edict, Though There Will Not Be a Return to the Hobble Skirt—End of War Will Affect Clothes • of American Women. PARIS. —Tlu?re is no doubt now that the French designers will put through their plan. to give us skirts that are longer and less wide. There Is no return, however, to the sheath or hobble skirt. Not a ripple on the surface of fashion indicates that woman will have less freedom in walking because of the tightness of the hem. There is a great deal of fullness taken out of the side seams in the new skirts, and the effect is more like the full skirts of the eighteenth century than those of last winter. A few of the Paris houses cut their walking skirts only three yards wide. Four yards, however, was a more general measurement, and many of the evening skitis fell to the floor in slight fullness, with a sizeable train behind. Even this moderate amount of fullness is not held out by cerclettes or crinoline, nor is there any tendency towfird the barrel skirt or the exaggeration Of the hips by the watteau panniers. No Hip Distension. Mind you, there is still an ornamentation of the hips, but it is not used for the purposes of distension. What one writer has called the slipper trimming, is a popular expression of the belief that the sides of a skirt should be brought into relief. Lanvin originated this trimming, and Poiret put a good deal of emphasis on it in a slightly different way. It consists of a stitched or embroidered band or bedroom slipper with a rounded toe, and this is placed downward over the hips and usually forms part of the belt. Certain forms of this slipper trimming have been so commonized in cheap, ready-to-war garments that the public may be wary of it. It is not possible to tell this early whether or not it will run more than a few weeks. Is the Short Skirt Doomed? There may be a few hundred young women and girls who will insist upon the extra short skirt until they are assured that it is doomed. It is graceful on all those who are not burdened with height or width, but it has been carried to such degrees of absurdity during the last six months by women Who should have known better, that one does not look with any sorrow on its threatened downfall. All the smart French women have taken to Oxford ties as the fashionable shoe, the- tie that has the broadly rounded toe, the short vamp and high,

Spanish heel with lacings of inch-wide ribbon tied in a smart bow at the instep. Such shoes demand a longer skirt than the high laced boot that America went quite mad over last winter. ' 4 It Is not possible to get away in our fashions from the reflection of the French spirit and French history, and in this connection the, designers are wondering the close of the war will have on the clothes Of Amerincan women. If France is not victorious the experts believe that all the clothes in the fashionable world will be somber, modest demure. JSo flicker of gayety will cteep through fabrics or costumery. ' If France is victorious, America will burst out in the gay panoply of conquerors. Scarlet and purple, gold and silver and al| the magnificent trappings of military achievement and of elated spirit will be reflected in our clothes. No Victorian Trivialities. The joyful thing about the new clothes is that all the bows and flutings and ruffles and ruches that disgraced our recent costumery are absent.

These styles, known as 1840 and 1870, were twisted into something that suggested grace and daring by those who were gifted by nature, to transform something ugly into something charming by the alchemy of their personality —the kind of person, you know, who makes orangeade out of all the lemons handed out by life, to quote from an optimist’s diary, which is, after all, the most constructive policy of happiness in this world. One gets weary of the Mark Tapleys of life who are forever at the things that are wrong apd pretending to be cheerful, but the chemical ability to turn something bad into something good, makes this word want to cheer the person who can do it. All of which is a verbose way of saying that only a gifted few can make Victorian ornamentation appear attractive. High Prices in Paris. Simplicity is the new keynote of French clothes, but expensive sim-

plicity, which, after all, is far better than expensive ugliness. Gowns are priced beyond the dreams of avarice, today, and no one but a buyer for a rich American firm can afford more than one in Paris at this season. No plausible reason is given for this increase in prices. There is no need of one. Paris needs all the money shd can get and she is no different from any other section of humanity on this planet in demanding all she can get when she knows that the world Is dependent on her work. Whether or not this will mean that the American people will pay morn for their autumn clothes is in the balance. We, the laymen, have never found that the American commercial world ever had the slightest hesitation in getting all it could out of us. Fashions That Are Promised. Several of the French houses still insist upon the Russian influence in clothes, but this does not mean the influence of the Russian ballet. There is a vast difference between the clothes of a Cossack and those of a slave in Scheherazada. Russian blouses, Paris says, will be longer than ever and will be belted with superb pieces of crude, brilliant Russian embroidery in which there is a glint of metal. Many jackets will be three quarter length. Satin is featured for coat suits, or rather, for one-piece frocks with jackets. The gray known as bleu ardolse, which is slate blue, is to be incorporated into a variety of clothes. Dark blue gaberdine with a thick cord across it will be used for coat suits, and the rich tones of velvet will remain in high fashion for one-piece frocks, separate jackets and coats and skirts. Ermine will take precedence over every other kind of fur—which may be a tribute on the part of France to her royal allies in this war. It is the czar’s peltry, and Paris Is closely akin to all Russian sartorial influence this season. Rabbit Fur Largely Used. For everyday wear and sharing the place of honor with ermine, in a popular sense, is rabbit. This common peltry is by no means commonly priced, and yet it is used so lavishly on all the new clothes that one imagines the French designers had been raising rabbits on a stupendous scale in order to get ready for this usage of the fur. The straight skirts which hang plumb from hip to hem are plaited. Many of the dressmakers indorse this style for the street. Other gowns are buttoned down the back, both skirt and bodice, and there is a shoulder cape and a tiny little apron tied about the waist with satin strings; this is a continuance of the Brittany fashions. Short velvet jackets are added to plaid and striped skirts for the early autumn, and the velvet hat goes with them. There are two new shapes which the milliners have brought over from Paris, one of which is a hat from the Russian marine with a pompon on top made of feathers and the other a modified cowboy hat with a slouched brim and a huge silver triangle in front. ’ (Copyright, 1916, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Hat is of black velvet with an immense Russian ornament of cut silver in front. The br/m is moderate in size and slightly curved, and the high, soft crown is carelessly dented at the top.

Soldiers and sailors, too, furnish Inspiration for the new autumn clothes, and this new black velvet hat is an evidence of It The black « and white boa is of the new zebralike fur.