Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1916 — CLOTHES NEVER MORE GORGEOUS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLOTHES NEVER MORE GORGEOUS

Good Reason Why Season Will Go Down Into History as Age of Gold. EXPENSE GIVEN NO THOUGHT Gowns Designed for American Women Command Prices Which a Few Years Ago Would Have Been Considered Fabulous —— Fr'tf New York.—lt Is not an exaggeration to say that clothes are made of bullion. That is why this season will go down into dress history as the age of gold. Possibly, when the de Medicis reigned in Italy, and when the most gorgeous trousseau in the world was prepared for the young Catherine, Princess of Florence, who was to marry a French king, the son of Francois Premier, there might have been such gowns included as Prance offers America today. The only single item of expense that the dressmakers forgot to place on the gowns of today was precious jewels. There is a feeling on the part of many women who pay for these new clothes, that there must be a diamond hidden somewhere in the folds. Everything that could be devised to create expense was thought of and used. Every animal in the land gave up its hide; every glittering stone that could be produced from crystals, natural and artificial, was gathered together and facetted by skilled workmen and raised 40 per cent of their original price. All the bullion in the laud that was not real gold was spun into threads miles and miles long and laid in great heaps at the sides of needle w orkersywho were paid their own price for the workmanship that has not been equaled since the sixteenth century. Stained glass windows, historic altar clothes and jeweled robes placed about the madonnas In gothic churches, gave up their designs, in order that the American woman’s gown might be more sumptuous ift appearance. Where ordinary furs-could not be used, expensive processes were invented to shave these hairs into a resemblance of the peltry of precious animals. and the cost was added to the gown’s price. Sprinkled With Semi-Precious Gems. The designers of clothes looked to the jewelers to help them get quantities of brilliant quartz, artificially colored onyx and peculiarly cut bits of glass that could be sprinkled over the surface of tulle, satin and net. A fine, new thread of gold was spun which would hold these semi-precious gems in place. This was made of bullion threads in three colors —red, blue and Roman gold —which were skillfully wound together into tiny ropes that would loop themselves into masses of color on a brilliant surface. Peculiar crystals were found by the men who know mineralogy, that could be cut to exactly resemble the great

jewels of the fifteenth century, the sapphires and emeralds that hung over cloth-of-gold gowns and were imbedded in the stomachers of Elizabeth, Catherine de Medici and Mary, Queen of ScotsJv The old method of using flat gold threads was brought back into the process of gown-building. Its old name Lame was kept The name was taken from the method by which this gold thread was pounded and beaten until it became a supple blade of grass and could be run in and out of the net in any design attempted. Marvelous Needlework. Needleworkers were called up from the furthermost recesses of French art work, and Belgian refugees who had crowded the Institutions of Paris were given work to do in which they were skilled and superior. Whole surfaces of gowns were so closely embroidered with bullion threads that they resembled a fif-teenth-century coat of mail. When the French designers began to fashion all these magnificent materials into gowns for American women, they painted the lily and gilded refined gold; in other words, they heaped precious peltry on .some precious gems, held them together with bullion, worked rare lace into the spaces imd provided a foundation of metal

tissue that was revived from the twelfth century. The High Price of DreMlng. And now do you see why this period will go down Into history as the Age of Gold? Everything will glitter that women will wear this winter, and it will be gold, sliver, steel, crystals and gorgeous fabrics. It Is not possible, however, to buy such clothes »t the usual price. Paris did not Intend this to be done, and yet, to do her full Justice, she does not believe that out of the glory of her clothes she will receive more profit, If as much, than she has received in recent years. Why? Because all work, fabrics and dyeing have become expensiveybeyond counting in Paris. The cost of satin went up to $lO a yard, brocade

went up to S3O a yard and more, and panne velvet went up to S2O and more. Look at some of the gowns in detail. Callot made a dinner gown of green silk in an exceedingly rare color and weave, and the entire bodice across the back and extending over the hips was like a brilliant beetle worked out with infinite skill through tjie medium of unusual metal threads, semiprecious. gems and touches of espe* cially dyed floss. •*" Gorgeous Gown for Actress. Bulloz made a gown for Miss Elsie Ferguson, which is a museum piece. Its" cost was reckoned anywhere over $650. Miss Ferguson wore this on the opening night of her new play. It is a straight, medieval gown of net, which is so entirely covered with gold bullion threads that not a particle of the net is visible. The lower petticoat is bf a specially woven piece of solid gold lace, and the swinging, medieval drapery from the shoulders at the back that extends over the arms to the wrists and is caught at the hips and trails to she ground, is of black lace heavily embroidered in gold threads in an ecclesiastical design of the fourteenth century. It Is commonly supposed tO'he the longest piece of uncut lace drapery ever used in the making of clothes. Take another gown made by Bulloz for Mary Garden. This Is called Griselldis and she will wear It when she sings the title role of the opera of that name. It is a medieval frock of pearl gray satin which has a long tunic dropped over a chemise of gray chiffon. The bodice is entirely embroidered in jewels and held by gold and" silver threads. (Copyright, 1916, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

A conspicuous frock brought to America, of bright green taffeta, with a bodice of jewels.

This gown was made by Doeuillet, with jet beads and rhinestones. Its wide girdle is embroidered in gold.