Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1917 — ORIGINAL MODELS HARD TO OBTAIN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ORIGINAL MODELS HARD TO OBTAIN

Women Have Little Chance for Individual Dressing at Present CARE IN BUYING NECESSARY New Form of Oriental Skirt Now Popular Has Two Openings for the Feet and la CloseiUlLthe Center. New York. —The merry-go-round of fashion continues. Each of the great centers where women’s apparel is sold reports an extremity of business that has caused the work people a loss of sleep and threatened the heads of the departments with a nervous collapse. Naturally, women object to having their gowns copied, and there Is a hubbub in the apparel world concern Ing the well established fact that th gown which is imported at a cost <>. S6OO can be bought for S6O as a copy at one of the ready-to-wear shops. There is no remedy for this condition. The woman who insists upon wearing models that are exhibited in the early part of the season must face the fact that she is apt to be repeated through the streets or at parties as . though shq were gazing irko a maze of mirrors. There are experts who say that the remedy for this condition lies in the hands of the American designers. They say that if the latter will create hundreds of gowns which are as agreeable and satisfying to women as the French models, there will be a chance for individual dressing. This sounds well, but there are great difficulties in the way of establishing' it as a reliable theory. An American designer who has ma de a remarkable reputation for her clothes insists that she does not design more than a dozen models during a season and that she hopes to feell a thousand gowns from these models. There you are. Knowledge of Gowns Valuable. The knowledge of gowns —their silhouettes, their fabrics, their various movements —will be first aid to those who are seeking not to be Injured by buying what they don’t want. It is not necessary to purchase a gown merely because It strikes your fancy; it is a very good thing to see everything than can be arranged for your Inspection and then, out of all of them, choose the one which you like the best and which you think Is the least apt to be worn by all your neighbors. If you don’t mind this duplication on every side, then buy the gown which suits you, regardless of how often It will appear. But the main thing to remember is that you must not be disappointed If

you’re not individual. There are certain gowns that stand out as symbols of popularity. The first one that comes to mind is a Bulloz creation of a one-piece frock made in deep brown velours with a slight cascade effect down the side of, a moderately narrow skirt. The distinguishing feature is a wide chain made from gold mesh, which from around the neek drops to the waist and seems to support an immense square of this gold mesh which looks for all the world like a woman’s shopping bag spread out across the abdomen and attached to the belt. Another is a medieval gown of deep purple velvet, with long, angel sleeves and a sweeping skirt that goes to the floor.

Another is a edat suit in which th® Jacket has a deep' point in front and a rippling bustle at the back. There are a dozen more, but these come to mind more quickly than any of the others. The Oriental Skirt It is extraordinary hdw the Oriental skirt has held its own. Here it la with us again, and if one wanted to be historical, it would be necessary to go back to the early days of Paul Polret, then Mme. Cheruit and then Callot and write of their efforts to make this tucked-in, Oriental garment the fashion. Jenny has clung to it with a tenacity worthy of a better fashion. She

has not varied the rather ugly line of the skirt movement which she adopted. She gathers the skirt to the waistline, turns the fullness at the bottom up to a tight, narrow lining the legs as the wearer walks. This season she has produced a novelty in the form of a skirt that is more truly Oriental than the other, and in tine she Is side by side with half a dozen of the great French designers who have shown this skirt without any apology for its decided Orientalism. ——" The distinctive feature in which this new skirt differs from the old one, both being taken from the Orient, is that it has two openings for the feet and Is closed in the center. Such a trick being adopted by smart society gives the eccentric designers a chance to do daring and remarkable things. There is one gown which has an opening for the left foot, but not for the right one. There is another that has two pear-shaped openings for the feet directly in front, with the outer edges of the hem sewed together, alTowing the fullness to cling to the outside of the ankles. The only eccentric trick that remains for some French designer to do is to put the opening for the right foot at the back and the opening for the left foot at the front. Considering what has been created, one expects such a development of this particular fashion at any moment. There is no use arguing against this new type of Oriental skirt for evening wear. It will prevail without douht among those who like what is new and what Is graceful, and is no denying the exquisite grace of this type of Oriental cklrt, and the good setting it gives to a slim ankle and well-shaped foot. If there only could be a law against women with broad, thick, ankles and broad feet wearing this type of evening skirt, we would be a better dressed nation, but as yet no censor of fashions has arisen. Callot’s Gowns for America. This development of a new skirt is not the only interesting feature of fashions in this particular garment. A certain set of designers is endeavoring, despite the cry for economy in material, to establish a skirt that touches the ankles for the street and the toes for the evening. A few of the best American designers are back of this movement in an alliance with the French. There are such leaders as Callot, however, who make no compromise, but cut the hems of their skirts to the shoetops for the street and an inch lower for the evening. Another piece of bravado is the way Callot gives sleeves to her gowns. They are long sleeves, or, yes, quite covering the arms as well as the back, but they’re made of a single piece of tulle and are attached to nothing more or less than a moderately high girdle which does not reach the arms at the sides or back by several Inches. She has one gown with oyster white sleeves and back of floating tulle made from a piece of tulle drapery that is banded for twelve inches with apple green tulle, and across the front of the wrapped satin bodice is a bias band of brilliant green crystal such as th® queens wear In court costume. Opposed to these evening gowns, she produces the robe of the stainedglass saints. It is of swinging velvet. In cathedral colors, and cover® up th® entire body from neck Jo heels with the exception of a -few inches at th® neck in front. (Copyright, 1917. by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)

This gown is made of peach-colored de chine, and the girdle-bodice is held in place with a necklace of dark green beads, which is repeated in a girdle. The slightly full skirt falls to the ankles, where part of the hem is turned Into a Turkish trouser effect for one foot to pass through.

This is the Colonial type of hat worn in the street, it is made of cardinal velvet, with « frill and cockade of white grosgrain ribbon.