Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1917 — WOMEN TURN TO ONE-PIECE GOWN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WOMEN TURN TO ONE-PIECE GOWN

Adopt It Chiefly Because of Growing Aversion to Marked Waistline. FINALLY ADOPT FRENCH IDEA Americans, After Years of Opposition, Decide That Feminine as Well as Masculine Shirtsleeves Should Be Hidden. New York.—There Is no doubt that the increasing popularity of woolen jersey has solved several problems of Importance for many women. It has been difficult -to find a suitable compromise between serge and muslin for Whrm weather. When that weave known as jersey made its appehrance in sweaters, it was greeted with enthusiasm, for there were undoubted disadvantages in the knitted garment on hot days, and there has come about such a rooted aversion to the marked waistline, or, the admission of it by leaving it uncovered, that every woman, slim or stout,’ desires a sack of some kind to drop from shoulders to hips. In jersey one-piece frdeks they find the right substitute for the skirt and separate blouse. The French have always been the strongest opponents Of that keenly drawn division of the skirt from the bodice, and even after they adopted the Anglo-Saxon coat and skirt made of mannish suitings, severely built, they did not remove the jacket in the house. In those days we were in the habit of laughing at them and showing-at all times a rather contemptuous attitude toward their abuse, as we said, of the type of apparel we had made famous. When Americans in Paris went about on hot days without a coat, wearing a dark skirt and white lingerie blouse, the little mldlnettes at the noon hour were wont to turn and laugh in that provocative manner in which the French women are adept We thought they were ignorant of the proper way to treat a coat suit. We hated to hear that laugh of derision intended for “women who turned out on the streets in their shirtsleeves, which e?en the French workman did not do,” as they put it, but we acted In a like contemptuous manner, and each side thought it had drawii blood, as It were.

When Americans turned into the tea places where there was dancing after five o’clock and found women dancing with their jackets on, we wondered how they stood the discomfort of it, and we immediately took oft our coats to show elaborately embroidered chiffon blouses which we thought very suitable indeed. Evidently the Parislenne did not think so, from the uplifted eyebrows that greeted the costume. But America is usually toplofty at first and imitative in the end. The several seasons of amused derision on the part of the French for the woman in shirtsleeves finally began to have its effect and sensitive souls began to keep on their coats in public-places. Covering the Shirt Sleeves. Then the Americans went over wholeheartedly to the French idea that a woman, as well as a man, must hide her white shirt sleeves. It was founded, you see, on the right artistic idea n« well ns on good taste. Tlie controlr ling reason behind the French attitude

was the one that rules whatever the French do in dress : which is to make the best of the human figure and give it as good an outline as art and nature combined can produce. Today it is exceedingly dlfiicult to make an American woman appear in her shirt sleeves in public; in the privacy of her own home, yes; but even there she finds a one-piece frock far more artistic than a doth skirt with a separate white blouse. It is because she has discovered, after many years, that the figure looks infinitely better and more graceful with a_ lons line reaching from neck to hips, that she

wears a sweater constantly in the house. She has begun to feel that the waistline should be obliterated at all costs. •<-—' In this of mind she naturally turns to. the gpwn cut In one piece, hanging in a Hne. It allows her to comfort herself vrith the thought that, even if her waist is too thick in front and her skirt rides, these deficiencies are covered up by the frock or coat that, charitably a trifle too high in the waistband, passed them by without revealing them to the onlooker. Long Line Under the Arms. So insistent have the women be: come upon hiding the waist, except

by the merest fraction of a supple curve, that the dressmakers are pleasing them by introducing drapery under the__arnis'vvhlchhangsbelow the knees. It is transparent, this drapery, and floats about in the air as the wearer uses her. arms, but it fulfills its mission of straightening out the figure in an admirable manner. It cannot be emon an infofmal frock, the kind that one would wear between the hours of eight in the morning and seven in the evening, but on any type of ning frock, it is well placed. Another method that the dressmakers have of catering to the concealment of the waistline is the use of the elaborate cape of tulle or lace that goes over the shoulders and extends to the tips of the fingers. The fashion for lace of any kind gives one a variety of methods of draping the body line in a lissome manner. In flay time frocks the long line is given by the use of braid, of ribbon, of plaiting and embroidery. There are also glorified suspenders of ornamentation that are attached to skirts with chiffon blouses that give the correct and desired silhouette. They .JIo not extend over the front and back of the frock, but pass over the shoulders, reach to the hips, widening as they go under the arms, and are often loosely belted in at the waist by one or more of the draped girdles that attach themselves to every kind of gown this season. These suspenders, by the way, should prove an Inspiration to the woman who wants to bring the gowns she possesses into the present picture. If she has a dark silk or cloth skirt, for example, with a thin blouse to match in color, she can easily bring the two into a composite whole by the addition of this skeletonized Jacket of embroidery, or soutaching on net. Lace Is Rioting Over Clothes. The experts prophesied a revival of lace in the immediate future and the knowledge they possessed, proved exact. Lace positively riots over the new clothes. It is used for entire frocks, for long wraps, for parasols, negligees, petticoats, coats and evenlng frock drapery. • ——. There is surely some economical reason behind this furore for a valuable and not easily procured article of dress. It is quite evident that the French wish to make lace the high fashion in order to give employment to the thousands. of needleworkers of

its own country and those who have come from Belgium and who have to be supported by the French government. This strain of caring for the homeless of the neighboring country Is telling on France, for, in addition to the prisoners she has taken, the number of alien mouths in which she has to put food, constitute a small nation. Therefore, to give the Belgians and the French widows work, all sorts of Jndustries have been revived and encouraged; especially those thgt will have a good chance of bringing in American dollars converted Into francs. In America, we are minus ncedleworkers ofimportance, so the major portion of what we must use, comes from the centers of Europe. The fashion for it may lead to a foolish and inartistic application of cheap and tawdry laces to frocks, and a mass of it where it should be avoided, but, so far, there is no diminution of the fashion which came Into its first bloom as‘the spring openings were held. (Copyright* 1917. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

This frock of gray jersey has organdie ruffles at neck and wrists. Pockets are braided with gray sitk. The buttons are silver and the belt of blue suede. J i L_

This is one of the highest of the new hats. It is built of white straw with an immense silk bow in front and a band of small pink roses.