Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1917 — Woman Must Be Her Own Guide [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Woman Must Be Her Own Guide

z New York. —During the ebb tide of fashions is the time to plan one’s compaign in clothes. There may have been days on this continent when a woman could have gone along without confusion, z bought one or two of the", new things offered by the dressmakers and worn them with serenity until the following season. But today there is dire confusion concerning clothes in the minds jof most women. Few are strong enough to rise above it, and not many are sufficiently jpoised to disregard the perplexities that confront every woman who is attempting to dress dither on a small or a large income. Dressmaker? hatesprung up like

mushrooms; importers who were once content with sending clothes from Paris twice a year, now feel it necessary to import them by every boat, and standing orders are left by them with the French houses to send over anything that appears new or is designated as such. This may not be true of all the centers of American life, but it is certainly true of a handful of great cities, and as women are traveling this "year in great flocks, like birds do, it is the great centers that are catering to. their tastes and caprices and persuading the coin out of their purses. Season of Uncertainty. So, here you have this condition of life in early spring—conflicting rumors of what will be worn and what will be passed up; a widespread and sensational prosperity which enables women to spend quantities of money in the name of vanity; an immense number of importers, who are shuttling across the ocean and making new clothes do the same; a Paris needing money and, therefore, con-i strained to originate new garments at every turn in order to get the money out of the only continent that has it.' Looking this condition in the face, one finds it almost impossible to sail above it. Serenity of mind is a difficult thing to have when one is beaten by currents of fashion and rivalry. The woman who can go calmly on from October to April, content either through taste or through philosophy, with the clothes she has, is to be envied. She is not the friend of the dressmaker; she is the enemy of the importer; she is not the purchaser desired by the shops; but she keeps .her head above perplexities and con-

fusion and should set an example to other women who may follow her in part, if not in whole. March is the month that divides the year in half, as far as women and clothes are concerned. One seems to have run a breathless race with or against fashion until this time, and one knows that the race will be picked up again soon. Therefore, it is wise to give a few weeks over to mapping out a campaign that will lead to success,or, at least, keep °P e out of a aeries of quagmires. No one, not even the rich woman, wants to continue'failures in the purchase of clothes. She who has SIOO a year to spend on her apparel and she who has SIO,OOO- Is fretful if she eees her closet filled with garments that are wrong, unbecoming, or inopportune, There are the stern economists who insist upon wearing their failures with the grim determination to punish themselves for making mistakes; »nd there are others who discard them with the feeling that it is

unwise to be tempted -into looking one’s worst, and that it is far better to refuse invitations and stay at home than to appear in costunfts that are ugly, unbecoming, or not well made. No one can tell your faults to you as well as you can do it yourself. One has heard a'hundred women cry out for an expert to go over all the clothes they have, carefully mark down the social opportunities they dre likely to hate, regard well the figure and Complexion and the per, sohality that shines through the face, and, taking all these facts and possi-

bilities together, map out a rigid systamofdress that will exclude failures. If any woman were successful along that line she would make more money than a powerful captain of industry, But the cry goes out into the wilderness and no prophet answers. There are dressmakers who take entire charge of certain women and guide them as best they can; there are earliest friends who are willing to give advice for nothing and make that advice as good as human nature permits, but the majority of women, after trying the dressmaker and the friend, still come face to face with these failures in clothes, for the purely human reason that salvation is from within and not'from without. Must Make Own Endeavors Count. I do not mean that every woman is her own best guide. There are thousands who are lifted out of the quagmire of failure by sensible friends or dressmakers who literally pull them out by the arms, and compel them to wear the things that are becoming and. suitable; but it is rare that these women rise to any eminence in the art of dress. The woman who really dresses well, whose clothes are rarelx- failures andwho appears suitably dressed on all occa,sions is the woman who takes her clothes seriously, maps out her campaign of purchasing, puts cotton in her ears when she hears the siren’s cry and passes t>n her own way, rising to whatever heights of dress she can through her own endeavors. (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Barrel skirt in Jersey silk; the color Is oyster white; the embroidery at hips, at waist and at neck is done in a primitive design in the same shade as the gown.

Bandeau and bodice to match; new fashion started by French actress te to complete an evening costume with a headdress of the same material. Tho gown is made of rose-colored satin ruffles from a deep, pointed cuirass of net embroidered in gold and colored crystals- The high bandeau with its chin strap, is of the same.