Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1917 — Reason Behind Each New Style [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reason Behind Each New Style

New York. —Everything that was invented in clothes this year had a reason. Skirts are narrow because the French government limited the use .of cloth to five meters. They are minus fasteners because these accessories were difficult to get and war-time activities demanded a speedy method of dressing, so frocks were made to go over the head and tie around the body in a primitive fashion. Certain dyes were exploited because there were no others to ’ be had. Fringed fabrics were introduced be-

cause applied ornamentation was costly and the supply was vastly decreased from that of former days. Immense top coats with inter-lin-ings were made by the dozens because the French women were compelled to walk through a lack of taxicabs, and the American women were supposed to have started on a system of economy which would compel them to walk instead of paying money for taxis. Voluminous peltry was applied to all costumes because of the intense cold on both continents last winter and because of the scarcity of coal in Paris last January and the promise of it in this country for this winter. The Paris designers have given all kinds of anecdotal reasons for their gowns, and some of the American dressmakers who are not given to eitheir narrative or reasons for their clothes, are repeating the French talk in an interesting way. Most Dominant Fashion. The most dominant fashion produced this winter is the garment that slips on over the head and has pieces of the material to tie it into place. This is quite as primitive as in days when Melisande-lived, loved and died. A year ago, the reporters who study clothes intently and with an inside knowledge of scarcity of certain materials, prophesied that the near future would bring about women’s clothes that were fashioned to be adjusted without fasteners. France sent up some trial balloons in gowns that were cut in two pieces and tied around the. hips by a sash that was a bit of the material of the front width and evidently these trial balloons proved that the air was safe for the sending out of dozens of such frocks. The Americans have accepted them in high glee. It is a novelty that tickles the mind of the novelty-hunt-ing American women. When you see a group of fashionably dressed women eagerly talking and gesticulating, pulling out pieces of a frock here and there and turning themselves around as on a pivot, you will realize that they are each explaining to the other how the frock is adjusted without a hook and eye, without a button and without a loop. Coat Suits Catch Fever. The new coat suits have caught the fever, and some of the best are adjusted with merely a loop of military braid run through a buttonhole and tied back on itself. < The smartest afternoon gowns have large buttonholes from neck to waist, through which are run pieces of braid or picot-edged ribbon tying the two fronts together. No woman who likes puzzles and who is fond of trying ouf novel schemes, can fail to be interested in this game. She can wear a new gown with a new kind of fastening and crow Over her neighbors as though she had

Leopard meets muskrat in this coat made by Callot. It serves for the street and the motor. The cap is arranged to match, with its leopard skin crown and its upturned muskrat brim.

taken In the largest subscription for the Liberty loan. It may develop Into a pastime, if the interest and excitement in this kind of clothing keep up. At the moment of writing, our government has not put an embargo on the amount of material to be used in each gown. Germany and France have both done this, and those who are in Paris say that the French dressmakers have taken the keenest delight in following the decree. A quantity of material In a gown has never appealed to a French designer, and with the government behind the elimination of fabrics, each of the gowns turned out this year shows originality of conception and treatment in achieving an artistic result with a very few meters of cloth. The French Silhouette. A few of the Anaerican clothes which were designed before the French silhouette was thoroughly accepted,- have taken their place a little behind the front row of fashions because theyybok bunglesome. Here is the FrencnSsllhouette as the bestdressed Americans have adopted it: A slim underskirt made in one piece that runs from the collarbone nearly to the ankle in a street frock, and from bust to within six inches of the ankle in an evening gown. It Is merely the skeleton of the gown, but on it are draped the few remaining yards of fabric that are allowed to complete the work. Therefore, it is quite fashionable to use transparent material for the afternoon and evening, in order to slow the slim little slip beneath. It is not necessary that the transparent fabric used over this slip should bo cut off to correspond. It may rise to the shoulders and drop to the instep, and in that very alluring transparency, you get the East Indian effect. The statement may be taken as authoritative that whatever gown has

a gathered drop skirt is out of the fashion. You may gather the top material, but the lining must be slim and cut closely to the lines of the figure, although it is not drawn in at the waist.

This durable coat for winter nights is of olive green velvet, with collar, cuffs and hem of Russian fitch. It is made on long, loose lines, like a cape, with the front held into the figure by a band that passes around the back.