Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1918 — Sleeve Style Is Matter of Choice [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Sleeve Style Is Matter of Choice

New York.—The weather prophets and the fashion prophets do not go through life band in hand. There is no cordiality between them, it would seem, judging from the way in which they oppose each other, observes a leading fashion writer. You may have noticed this situation in some slight measure, as an observer on the side lines, caring more about the state of the weather than the state of fashions; but those who must deal with the latter as a daily issue, and must try to conform the output of fashions with the output of the sky, deplore the separation. The utter audacity that Women have shown since the beginning of time in regard to the caprices of the weather is a part of the history of the civilization of man. To return to that figleaf: it was probably the only time in history when the climate was met with the right sort of costume. Since then, the world of women has gone on the path thiat suggests obstinacy. Take, as an example of the perversity of the present moment, the incoming fashion of 5-inch sleeves at a time when kid gloves are difficult to pay for. The women of today, we are quite sure, have no ffiea of attempting the methods of the dlrectoire by going about the streets with entirely bare arms. Josephine, the empress of the French, may have believed that the short sleeve was correct for her time; but this is a workday world, full of the rush and Impetus of activity—and open-air activity at that. We might have a chance of looking like a group let loose from a boiler factory at midday in August, if we rushed about the streets with our athletic and slightly red arms protruding from 5-inch capes, without sleeves. Ideas In New Sleeves. One feels, in running full tilt against the tidal wave of new sleeves, the utter futility of trying to describe even the best of them. One would think that the world had gone quite mad over arm coverings. Possibly it is true that the French and American designers, realizing that they could not introduce anything especially brilliant or novel In the new costumery because of the lack of materials, put their genius to work in devising a vast variety of complex and stimulating minor details. However, this does not contribute

to the pleasure a woman thinks she will find in wearing her old clothes. We are wise enough to know that it is in the adoption of changing details that the majority of women show their knowledge of fashions. A woman may continue to wear a blue serge gown cut in the form of a coat and skirt, if she realizes that she must instantly adapt that gown to the tight or the loose cuff, the high or the low waistline, the gather or the plain hip. A soniersiip.lt in costumery is not always followed, even by well-dressed women, but they will do honor to a quick change in the minor detail of a costume. a million women wear sailor collars when they come into fashion, although they may attach them to a gown that has the. wrong line in certain places. These million women drop sailor collars when they go out of fashion and take up the long, rolling Tuxedo collar when it becomes the dominant feature. Therefore, when sleeves change women change with them. Whatever else the costume reflects that is wrong or right, good or bad, it nearly always keeps pace with the change in the arm covering and in the neckline. In summing up the situation of today, one feels sorry for the woman who would try to keep %p with the shifting kaleidoscope of-sleeve that the designers have turned upon us. However, a comforting solution of

this startling situation is that every sleeve seems to be in fashion, and It a woman becomes paralyzed from even regarding the over-production of new spring sleeves, she can merely go on with the sleeve she has and feel that she is in part of the picture, if not in the forepart of it. Long Sleeve* Fashionable. And to show you how capricious fashion is this year, the longer the sleeve the more fashionable it is; that

is, if it starts out to be long In an evening gown it may continue to the knees; giving the effect of extreme novelty. These long evening sleeves are of tulle, and sometimes of fine vermicelli lace caught in some manner against the arm, so that they will not fall away from the hand as it moves. This is pure medievalism. There are sleeves taken from the Italian renaissance. These are cut to immense bell-shaped openings at threequarter length, rolled back on themselves in a careless manner, and lined with Roman striped silk or with crepe de chine in a blazing color. There are pointed, bell-shaped sleeves which hang loose from a wide armhole, gaily faced at the lower edge, but held taut by a tight-folded wristlet that spreads over the hand, after the manner made fashionable by the early queens of France. There is a skin-tight sleeve of the dlrectoire, which also flares ovej the hand and sometimes has an ornate thumb-hole through Which that finger is thrust. There are sleeves for the street that are formed of wrinkled cloth, that reach from the knuckles of the hand to flare like a gauntlet well above the elbow, leaving just .enough space between the edge and the shoulder to show the cap sleeve of another color and fabric. £apes Are Numerous. There are as many capes as sleeves this season. Even if you are indifferent to new clothes you cannot escape these two features. There is no reason for your wanting to avoid them, for they cut many a Gordian knot. The cape covers much; the new sleeves redeem much.

The top coat is only admissible today when it is a double first cousin to. the cape. If it ripples from the shoulder ; if its sleeves seem to be a part of that ripple, and if its fastening down the front is negligible, then the top coat is admitted into the society of the best clothes. Otherwise, it must be barred. The cape rules the hour. It give* every woman with an attenuated costume, made according to the request of the government, a chance to tak* to herself the grace of a butterfly. She disguises the lack of material in her frock by ripping out her cape and looking like some winged summer creature that has a right to the beauty and joy of life. No woman should try to escape the cape. If she is stout she must arrange her garment in some way that will allow her to get this background -offcolor and grace. There are severe capes and gaj capes, ornate capes and simple ones. It is not necessary to inake one choice. Even women of small means seem to be able to possess two or three capes for different occasions. They are of chiffon edged with fur for the afternoon and for summer evenings; they are of gaberdine, severely stitched, for the street at eleven in the morning; they are of dark-blue silk serge lined with artillery red or Chinese yellow, for the country and for country clubs. (Copyright, 1918, by the McClure Newepaper Syndicate.)

This gown, In Bordeaux red, shows a novel skirt with draped sides and a harem hem. Front panel of biscuitcolored cloth embroidered in gold and red threads. Long sleeves of biscuit tulle.

The sketch shows a cape of sand-col-ored silk cashmere lined with Jadegreen crepe de chine. The high collar is edged with green silk, which also makes the long cravat