Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 227, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1917 — Paris Presents Various Designs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Paris Presents Various Designs

New York,—This is a vastly exciting time in the fashion zone. It Is not alone exciting because women want new .clothes for a new season, but for the more important reason that commerce in this country is entirely entangled in the industry of elothes. A question as to what will be worn is supposed to concern Itself with woman’s vanity. Never was there such a foolish conclusion. The question of what will be worp is . inextricably mixed up with aie~iwerisf TMTHiofis of industrial workers in this country, and Upon its judicious adjustment depend the bread and butter, the happiness and the ability to be free from nervous 'depression of thousands of men too old or too young to fight and thousands of women w’ho have not the leisure to offer their services to war relief. i It is a curious thing that the woman who wants to know, even through an assumed indifference, whether her coat and skirts are in fashion, should be so densely Ignorant of the vast ramifications of fashions into the innermost recesses of American life. No one laughs at fashions in Paris. No one takes them lightly. Every one regards them as a supreme branch of French industry that brings welfare to millions. Each artist takes his or her designs for new clothes under serious consideration, and the state accords them the merit or dtemerit that they deserve. * Now, what have these great designers done for America this season? That is the leading question among the shopkeepers, the dressmakers, the millions of woman workers in the industry of clothes, the mills, the manufacturers, the importers and the exporters. We know that the styles for the autumn have been settled, but the masses do not know what each designer has done and what each great fashion establishment has. sponsored. To begin with, Paul Polret has again opened his house, to show models. That interesting little sign that went up over his house on the Avenue d’Antin, w'hich was also placed on many other doors, saying that the place would, be closed until the end of the wat, has been taken down. France may have foreseen a long war, but her people felt that things would come to' a crisis before the fourth year broke. Waistline Below Normal. Polret is always important; therefore, what he shows is of interest. To begin with, he features the waistline which is dropped below the normal,

In the Oriental manner. There is very little that would ever appeal to Poiret in the first and second empire fashions. He is strongly barbaric in what he does. He has a genius for fabrics. He knows the art of weaving and dyeing better than most artists in Paris do, and he has special places that work but his ideas. Therefore, he has been able to make frocks in the new kind of plush which will be very hard to get in this country, but which will be desired because it has been featured by a few of the great French dressmakers. The fabric is difficult to describe, because it owes everything to its manner of weaving. Poiret uses an unusual amount of black and white and brings back quantities of black and white jet lavishly arranged en frocks with a Slavic or Oriental tendency. His evening gowns feature the high line at the neck, which he has always sponsored. His wife, a beautiful woman who wore his clothes better than anyone else, always adopted the evening gown which showed only two or more

inches of the neck and dropped in a flexible line to a low belt. Poiret will never give up the skirt that suggests Turkish trousers. It is almost as much a symbol of his work as the flat, red rose that he used in his Martine house decorations. He does not object to the separate bodice of velvet that forms part of the evening gown, although he has watched a good many other dressmakers use it since he Invented it nearly half a dozen years ago. Lanvin Is Slavic. There have been so many things In common between Paul Poiret and Jeanne Lanvin for so many years that some dressmakers have Insisted that they are related or that the houses are commercially connected. The personalities of these two designers in France are as different as can be, even beyontUhe fact that oneis a woman and one is a man. Therefore, it Is not surprising that while Poiret clings to the sumptuous effects of an exotic past, Lanvin also continues to hammer upon the anvil of Slavic and Russian fashions. She has gone to Serbia and Roumania for inspiration and probably draws a color, a line or a suggestion from the Cossacks of central Russia. In direct contrast to these short, brilliant Slavic clothes, she has put out a most dignified evening gown. The skirt is quite long, but without a train, and the belt is nearly over the hipfine. The top part of the skirt has the tightness of the days of the Renaissance, and judging by the many things that Lanvin Is doing, as well as other French dressmaker's, it looks as though the loose blouse in any form will soon belong to a day that is done. , -This Is not startling news to the American woman, because the smartly dressed young women have been adopting the tight bodice and the long, tight sleeves in their summer clothes, even making them of gingham and especially of jersey cloth. Lanvin also exploits the large waistcoat in various materials, to be worn under a coat suit and to serve as ablouse or jerkin when the coat is removed. The hats she produces with these gowns are often small of brim. She clings to the Russian effect, but she has introduced a small edition of the Continental worn by Lafayette and Washington. Worth Continues Trains. Although several of the leading French designers have contributed to the demand for conservation of ma- ! terial by eliminating trains, Worth

continues to use these appendages to evening gowns. One would feel that Worth was not himself if he abolished rhinestones or trains, and it makes one feel quite safe that he has not done so. His bodices are not only covered with rhinestones, but glisten with cut jet in different colors. He uses dark blue and beige for the evening, built in satin and velvet. Like Poirqt, he uses the low waist* line, but no matter how heavy his skirts, the bodices are transparent, which is not in sympathy with Poiret at aIL He tries out a bit of first Emplrt here and there, and he has taken up that wonderful hydrangea blue that Callot made so famous the summer be fore the war. (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspw ' o per Syndicate.) -* An inventor living at Troy, N. ¥, has patented a laundry machine tha irons an entire skirt over a conlca roller at a single operation.

Here are two evening gowns that suggest the directoire. At the left is a dinner frock of pink silk and malines lace. The silk coat has a peplum that turns Into pockets, and there are lace sleeves. The skirt of lace hangs in ragged points at the ankles. At the right the gown is of pale lilac taffeta, embroidered on the lower sleeves_Jn pale green, yellow and pink. The bodice is finished with a loose band of colored beads and fastened with neck lace of purple velvet ribbon. .