Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1918 — Spring Suits Gracefully Economical [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Spring Suits Gracefully Economical

Four and a half yards, no more, but as much less as your ingenuity can manage with, that is the edict as to the allowance of wool for this spring’s suits. Four and a half yards of 54inch goods will make a suit on accepted lines for the woman of average figure. It almost goes without saying that skirts are a yard and a half to two yards wide,, coats about 28 inches long and furbelows conspicuous by their absence. The new suits are excellent. Many of them are made of silk and many more of silk and wool combined and In others the accustomed order of things is changed, the suit is of silk and the trimmings and accessories—collar, cuffs, belt —of wool. Two of the new spring suits, pictured above, are representative models. Since the appearance of the wool suit at the left of the two, coats have

tended to grow shorter. It was among: the earliest arrivals, and compromised with the newest ideas by adopting a lengthened back panel which is laid 1 in three shallow, invested plaits. At the right a suit made of peacock satin is handsomely finished with embroidery in the same color of silk. A shaped band of it, about the waist, simulates a very graceful girdle in the coat, and the bottom of the skirt is embellished with it. The liking for large buckles Is revealed in a handsome circular one which is placed at the left side where the graceful coat fastens. One wholly new’spring suit in war time may be the meager allowance that our patriotism will concede, along with an easy conscience. But styles point the way to much remodeling and the transformation of last year’s leftovers into this year’s utility clothes.