Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1917 — Narrow Skirt Is Fashion’s Edict [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Narrow Skirt Is Fashion’s Edict

~’®Tere are some dressmakers Who arestill holding out that they will not reduce the width of the hems In frocks or suits, but Isn't it rather foolish to hold out against a Paris fashion that has been accepted by the American buyers? Naturally a change in the silhouette of the skirt is a drastic thing. It cannot be lightly regarded by dressmakers, tailors or the public. It is in this garment that fashion takes its most serious somersaults., The wrong cut of a skirt puts one more completely out of the fashion picture than one likes. Even the stoic and the philosopher among women cannot successfully stand this test, If a woman cannot buy a new skirt cut according to 'the new pattern, she will cook up some scheme in the sewing room by which an old skirt can be let out or drawn in. The voice of the prophet was lifted early in the winter, foretelling the incoming of narrow skirts in the early spring, but few listened. The dressmakers shrugged their shoulders, the ready-to-weai- manufacturers kept on making skirts with four and five yards

of material at the hem, and the highclass shops offered to women the skirt that was gathered at the waist and elaborately trimmed from the knees 'down. Hard to Convert. - The reporters kept hammering at the fact that the woman of wisdom should not indulge in bargains that w T ere offered in full and flaring skirts, but a great number of women insisted that if the silhouette changed, it was easier to take the fullness out of a skirt than to put it in. Even as late as the middle of February high-class shops were offering - skirts thaf measured yards at the hem. True, these hems did not'flare; they hung limply against the figure, but they were not cut according to the prophesied silhouette which has come true. It may also come about that the greater number of women will not take up tiie narrow skirt when it appears in most of the French models, but if the past is any forecast of the future, the narrow skirt will grow in strength as the spring advances and will become the accepted silhouette of the summer. Women-of judgment and advance taste in gowns already consider the five-yard hem a second-class fashion. • The openings in Paris, as they have been outlined to this country, can be summed up briefly as adyance information to those who are already looking for new spring clothes. A vast number of separate skirts were turned out by the best designers, through the -request of the American buyers, it is said. This fact argues; that the American woman will take up the separate skirt with a sports jacket or sweater or a separate coat, as she 1 once indulged in a tailored suit. Z-Ffawer ' Z There are fewer tailored suits turned out than usual, ~The deficit Is due to the fact that the men who do this "kind of work are under the colors. The onepiece frock, the three-quarter top coat, the separate skirt and the chemise blouse are the garments that are offered instead of the usual coat and skirt of cloth or silk. The _majority of one-piece gowns carry loose wraps with them. These capelike garments are made' of the same material and faced with an opposing color, and again, they, .are of. another material and color. A■■ dignified house like . Worth has put Emphasis upon sharply tailored skirts to be worn with separate blouses and topped by jackets that are shorter than any we have worn for two years. These’ jackets are not fitted to the (figure, but are a compromise between a cape and a coat. Worth uses a great deal of serge, falso gaberdine and the new kind of alpaca which France has been exploiting for two years with little success In America. He also uses a very thin

voile and several kinds of Chinese pongees under their various names, such as shantung and tussah. Worth never goes in for an eccentric silhouette, but this season he has thrown in his lot with those who are making narrow skirts. He has produced the peg-top skirt, as we are beginning to call it over here. The American buyers are doubtful concerning the fullness that is put into the waistline of <this skirt to make the barrel’effect at the hips; the older Americrfh woman does not care for a thick, bulky waistline, so our shops over here are working on the Idea of eliminating the plaits which are used now at the waist belt and are thinking out a scheme of substituting yokes and applying the fullness to the lower edge of them. The High Waistline. Jenny, Doeuillet, Worth and several .of their colleagues have introduced the, high waistline into afternoon and evening frocks. This is almost as serious a change in the silhouette as the narrowing of the skirt hem. If one Is adopted, the other must be, for the plow, medieval waistline, which is at the hips, connected with a melonshaped skirt, is too ugly to think about. Whenever a skirt has been full below the hips and narrow at the ankles, it has been high-waisted. This waistline has been obtained in many ways; sometimes the material is cut to fit a deep inner belt ’ and corded or bound to its upper edge; again, it is plaited in small groups at sides and back. Today plaits are"more universal than the plain effect. The high waistline on evening gowns has to do with the incoming of the First Empire and Directolre periods, both of which have been suggested in several of the costumes that have been turned out by the French designers during the last six months. It was expected that some definite move in this direction would be made at the spring openings, but, evidently, the designers have contented themselves with a few touches from the fashions of those two periods and have let it go at that. Large revers, a high, turnover collar at the back, long, tight sleeves that flare over the hand, and the high-waist-ed skirt beneath the short jacket are features of the Directolre period. The evening gown with the negligible bodice, the round decolletage and the high waistline, ’ with the skirt that hangs limply against the figure are features taken from the First empire.

The Round Decolletage. It is quite evident from the unity shown by the different dressmakers in Paris that they intend to bring in the round decolletage of the First and Second empires. Doeuillet is one of the designers who indorses the court decolletage, as it used to be known. This displays the top of the shoulders and arms, somewhat after the 1840 method which became so well known through the Empress Eugenie, who never failed to display her famous drooping shoulders. With these bodices there are ornamental straps that go across the upper part of the shoulder. Few evening -gowns - -have any- utteee-kind -of decofa letage but the round one. The difficult line of the Renaissance is not again attempted. None of the Paris gowns shows any especial or striking novelty in fabrics, j 1 heen working hard at the production of "silks, serges anti 'sofFCHhesefabrics^There" TsFhO one thing, however, that stands out vividly from the rest and proclaims itself as a desirable. (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Separate Sports Skirt From France.