Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1917 — Gay Colors Seen In New Clothes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gay Colors Seen In New Clothes

New York. —It is often said that the fashion experts dwell too much upon line and material and are given to ignoring the extraordinary value of dolors. The charge is true. At least, the truth of it dominates the majority of dressmaking houses and is present in the majority of women's minds. Color is in reality so vastly important that .it should rule every department of dress. There are colorists w’ho overestimate its value to women, and they are the ones who actually frighten the majority Into a conservatism that often borders on the ugliness. The trouble with the artists lies In the fact that they do not seem to have any tenderness or courtesy toward the coloring of the woman who is to wear the garment. They assimilate and put Into juxtaposition colors that have extraordinary beauty in themselves, but when they are placed next to the human skin, hair and eyes, they kill what nature has done. This Is glorifying the artist at the expense of the woman in a way that is not fair. The gown is predominant; its beauty draws all eyes. The woman is Insignificant; the only time she comes into the question is when the observers think how unattractive she looks in that glorious frock.

Women in the Wrong Colors. There is no temptation in costumery greater than the one offered by a gown built out of an exquisite harmony of colors. It appeals to every woman but the one who is “shocked by a thread of scarlet," as Mrs. Stuart puts it in one of her admirable short stories. Mind you, these women who feel that drab colors are part of the respectability of life and who have a traditional and mystic belief that the color of the scarlet letter used by Hawthorne was in itself an acknowledgment of sin, are not out of existence. The Puritan stock lives on, although it may be in Montana, Texas or Alaska, instead of a small New England village. But aside of this well defined segment in human society that looks upon scarlet as the color of all that should not be, and upon 'black and gray as the colors that spell respectability, emotional limitations and the straight and narrow path, there are thousands 4>f women wh<b are attracted to colors as goldfish to w w. They find in the brilliancy of tone a kind of mental and physical stimulation that the savages probably feel. So it is that when the gifted artistdressmakers, weavers and dyers throw out to the world bits of colored bait, as our forefathers did to the Indians when they Wanted furs, a large segment of women snap up the gifts with delight. Color as an Accessory. The world is .wiser and better dressed when the great artists produce glorious colors as accessories to gowns

of somber tones. Even then there are a thousand women who go astray to a dozen who go right. The helpful artists in dress will explain to women, with intelligent patience, that any kind of color can be managed in a costume if I it is not placed next-to the skint. It/ is for this reason, and this alone, thatktbose who deal in evening gowns have made an artistic success in choosing the most difficult color for the skin, if they so wish, and then building a, bodice of tulle or crystals that rests against the skin of the neck without doing It any harm. ' * . The fashion which was exploited tn Paris at the August openings ami which is already in America, of wearing a separate evening bodice with a brilliant skirt, is sure to succeed because it allows a woman to Indulge

that savage strain in her which is not quite dead and which calls for gay colors. Black panne velvet and tulle, as well as jet, have been the fabrics chosen for these separate bodices which are put above Algerian skirts of satin in any of the blues, greens, reds nnd purples that the skin will not tolerate. The' accessories which fashion will spring upon us are gorgeous in color ing. All that need be said is that wotsted embroidery is In high favor. Sometimes, when an artist w r ants to get a bit of brilliant color Into an otherwise demure picture, a cat play-

ing with balls of colored wool Is thrown recklessly over the background and the effect always catches the’ eye. Taking this as the foundation of the work that is being done by the Paris dressmakers, we can build ourselves up into some sort of colorful picture that will catch the attention wherever we display ourselves. — A dark blue gown is nothing but a dark blue gown to those who know nothing oftheposstbFflties of combining it with something vivid; but when, against the midnight sky surface is put a design of the Dakota Indians, done in vividly colored woolen threads, then the dark blue gown takes to itself a gayety which it has lacked. It is quite true that the designers In Paris will also mingle opposing colors through the use of double faced materials, but they are evidently determined to get the very best they can out of the color scheme in dress by using primitive embroidery against a somber surface. Colored Crystals Used. In the new gowns there will be as much colored crystal work as colored worsted embroidery. It looks as though the crystals will be given over to'the evening costumery and the worsteds to the street clothes. Only a few of the dressmakers have put sequins on clothes, but each and all have taken up colored bead work with enthusiasm and exploited it with all the frankness of vivid colors that is a pad of the American Indian as well as his Southern ancestors.

Lanvin, for example, makes a black satin gown for informal evening wear that is nothing but a series of straight, primitive panels failing over a slim, tight, transparent skirt of periwinkle blue chiffon. The edges of this, skirt are beaded and fringed with periwinkle crystals, in the fashion with which Americans are peculiarly familiar. The bodice is slimly built, of black satin, opening over a panel front of the blue chiffon and crystals, and the long, straight sleefes which are not full, but hang far away from the arm like a panel and are negligently cafight into the wris’t by a tiny bracelet of crystal and chiffon, are made of the blue weighted with great tassels and fringes of periwinkle crystals.

Both Premet and Worth have adopted a smashing touch of color on a dark gown, in the way of a broad sash. Premet ties hers In a big bow at the left side of the back, giving something of the effect of a one-sided bustle, and Worth takes a width of gorgeous material and makes a low waisted girdle of it on a black or gray gown. Smoke gray afternoon and evening frocks have flaming red, deep blue and emerald green sashes, slightly below the normal waistline, made of chiffon or tulle, heavily fringed and tasseled at the end with colored crystals. (Copyright, 1917, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

Thie evening gown of shrimp pink satin, with polonaise of taupe velvet and silver lace. There are curious peasant sleeves that resemble arm bands. They are attached to the top of the bodice. The necklace that holds up the bodice. Is of silver cloth embroidered with pink beads.

The material of this waist la lime green handkerchief linen, with the new peasant collar embroidered in threads of tan-colored silk. The deep cuffs are made to match.