Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1917 — CLOTHES LACKING IN ECCENTRICITY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLOTHES LACKING IN ECCENTRICITY

This Feature in Styles Is Considered Suitable for Time of Stress. EGYPTIAN SKIRT IS GAINING Straight, Knife-Plaited Design Wina Increased Favor—Paris Invented It Because It Means Saving of Material. New York.—Probably the lack of eccentricity in the spring apparel is its distinguishing feature. This is an admirable trait in time of war, but France did not foresee that America would be in war when she designed the spring clothes that have been universally accepted in this country. Paris keeps its wartime clothes for its own people, and has never failed to send to the rest of the world a fresh batch of newly invented gowns bearing all the marks of frivolity and extravagance. t Many reasons have been given for the lack of eccentricity noticeable in the French gowns, but whatever the cause, It is a matter of satisfaction that the condition exists. Women are compelled to buy new raiment at each change of season, but in time of a national crisis they do not think it fitting or seemly to indulge in the peculiar caprices of dress which have marked recent eras. Other Days, Other Clothes. It is a common cry to say that the existing generation is always the most provocative of criticism. We forget What has gone before in history, in humanity and in religion, as well as in dress. There are critics who cry aloud over a certain fashion, consider it monstrous, and wonder ■ivhat our young women and girls are coming to that such a fashion should be unblushingly accepted. They speak in excitable tones of the respected dead and referto our grandmothers as women who insisted upon dressing in a seemly and modest manner. But, just as Agnes Reppller has forcibly and brilliantly told of the new women among the old women—the brilliant, insurgent characters that were the pioneers of our race in —America—so some student could tell of the extravagances, caprices and indecencies in dress that swept over the generations to which our sainted grandmothers belonged, and which, in their time, were denounced by the pulpit and the press. This season is ushered in without the eccentricities of those genetations or even the half-decade that has just slipped by. One may call the narrow .skirt an eccentricity, but in its modified form it Is very attractive, and it saves material, which is the reason that Paris invented it. It is rather amusing that the women who have organized for a national defense and who urge economy in buying clothes, call especial attention to the pegtop or melon skirt as a garment to be frowned upon, when this very

This gown is built up of two fashionable materials and colors. The Skirt is barreled by draperies of dark blue satin, the skev.es,collar and sash are of satin. The biscuit-colored jersey is embroidered in dark blue.

garment was Invented by Paris to save material and thereby lower the price that a French woman has to pay for her skirt. Naturally, the French designers did not charge the Americans any less for a*'pegtop skirt than a full one, nor will the American dressmakers make any difference in prices because of the scarcity of material used; but' the thousands upon thousands of women who buy material for their, own gowns will see the advantage in dropping the extra-full skirt and adopting the slim line of the new silhouette. yThe Straight Silhouette. / Already the exclusivfe dressmakers are insisting that the pegtop skirt, or the drapery that is pulled out at the hips, is mediocre. The first fashion, they insist, calls for a straight silhouette from shoulder to heels without the break given by the pannier effect at the end of the ccrset. • - What is known as the barrel skirt,

pure and simple, has few followers, but the skirt with the kangaroo extension at each side is admittedly the popular success of the hour. Against this skirt is the one called Egyptian, which has been described by ail the fashion writers until the women know most that there is to know about it. It is the straight, knife-plaited skirt dropped from the waist or from a shallow yoke, and is supposed to have been worn by the fashionable Alexandrians at the time of Thais and Aphrodite. There is so much that is Egyptian in the spring clothes that it should not surprise the onlooker to see this straight, plaited skirt win out above all others before June arrives., Bulloz, for instance, has met with singu-

This ultra-fashionable gown has created much comment. Cuirass bodice and points on the skirt are of jet embroidery. There is a cape over the shoulder of black tulle fringed with jet.

lar success in this country through a gown which he calls Aphrodite, and which was originally made for Mlle, Chenal when she sang the title role in the opera last autumn in Paris. Bulloz has changed the gown somewhat, but everyone who was in Paris last autumn remembers it. It is made ofbhrek chiffon in three long, Egyptian tunics that hang limply against the figure, each one embroidered with a wide band of silver bugles in an ancient design. The upper tunic is longer than the rest and hangs in drapery on the floor when dropped; but it is skillfully manipulated by. the arm, which can pass through a long, embroidered slit and drape the length of the chiffon and stiver about the body as one wishes. Chenal was given to the posture of extending her arm in dramatic gestures, bringing about somewhat the same effect which she gave to the drapery which made her famous when she sang the “Marseillaise” in Paris. With this gown goes a tall Egyptian headdress of fine silver bugles and beads set on black. Egyptian Touch in Wraps. Another Egyptian touch in costumery is shown in the evening wraps for spring, which are quite luxurious, but light in weight and texture. Taffeta is used for this garment more than for any other. The wide, draped collar which rises above the ears and folds Itself down on the shoulders is the preferred one, and it is used for street wraps as well as evening ones. None of this is Egyptian, but the touch of Cairo is seen in a great square of bullion-embroidered silk which is placed flatly against the back of the wrap. On some garments it looks as though a brilliant, ornate cushion cover had been picked up and neatly tacked at each of its corners to the loose back of the taffeta wrap. The Egyptian Phoenix wing, which was decoratively used at one of the fashion exhibitions in New York, supplies color for much of the new cos- . turnery. The blue, green and coral of this symbolic bit of Egyptian life is copied in gowns, and especially in jewelry. With all this atmosphere of the East, of Cairo and Alexandria reflected in the clothes of the hour, it seems probable that the straight, plaited skirt that hangs plumb from the waistline will outlive the one with the side drapery at the hips. But even if both remain equal in value and fashion, one thing is certain—that there is no ehance for the skirt with the wide hem. . Since January, skirts have lessened in width below the knees, and although the public refused to believe that the wide, flaring, uihbrella skirt belonged to a day that was done, the dressmakers have insisted upon its use. In Paris they diminished the width of skirts gradually, but over here the change appeared to come overnight although the prophets and experts had been insisting upon this revolution for three months. The trouble with tht public is that it will rarely believe what it reads, but relies on what it sees. This is good, sound wisdom, but it often keeps a woman from being prepared for a change when it comes. The shops have the canny business instinct to supply the old with the new as long as they’vd got both on hand, but it is the duty of the reporter to teiFof what is coming more insistently than what Is going. (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newsp* per Syndicate.) *