Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1918 — Midsummer Calls For Cool Clothes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Midsummer Calls For Cool Clothes

American Worfien Adopt Costumery That Is Best Suited to the Season. ABANDON WHITE LINEN SKIRT Adopt French Fashion of. Meeting All Emergencies In Costume of Thin Cloth or Any of the Chi. nese Silks. e New -York— A woman who was looking at some snapshots of fashionable folks in the open on a mid-sum-mer day, remarked on the peculiarly old-fashioned effect of a certain cos-

tume. It was a short, white linen skirt buttoned.down the front, a white muslin blouse with a wide turn-over collar, a colored sweater opened in front, with pockets and a belt of itself. “Once upon a time,” said this woman, “this costume was considered the uniform of the American summer girl. It was adopted without cavil. It was accepted without comparison with the fashions of any other country. And yet, at this moment, it looks entirely out of the picture.” There has been no revolution, declares a prominent fashion writer. Changes In summer apparel have been in cities only. They are Americanized French fashions today. Even this summer has seen a distinct change from whab has been. The linen skirt, gored at the top, slightly flaring at the hem, and buttoned down the front, Is a thing of the past to a great majority of women who are well dressed by Instinct, or because they follow the movement of the crowds. Any skirt is worn but a linen one. Sweaters In Evidence. Certain shops say. that the sale of sweaters for the autumn is small, but they add that the spring sale was good. We see sweaters in every shop, despite the conservation of wool decree. We see women knitting sweaters for themselves and their children, and not for the soldiers and sailors. We read that colossal department shops have an unusual quantity of yarn and are willing to sell It at moderate prices. Yet, If one judges fashion by fashionable folk, the colored, knitted sweater has had Its day In silk or wool. It is sometimes worn under jackets, on days in the open that need warmth, when the affair is a picnic, a yachting trip or an automobile tour; Otherwise it hangs in the closets of the homes of fashionable women. However, Its lack of fashion has not depreciated Its monetary value, for yarn is an expensive thing to buy and a most intricate and difficult thing to obtain. What We Wear In the Open. • The economical reasons for discarding the white linen skirt, knitted woolen sweater and the ornamental, white muslin blouse are based on expensive laundry and scarcity of material, plus scarcity of labor. Those large sectors of American society that considered this three-piece costume the most reliable basis for their' summer wardrobes, Imagined their taste simple and inexpensive. It

was neither. Today the propaganda against non-essentials, and the conversion of them into active service forth® country have caused the scales to fall from the eyes of thousands of women as to the expense of the costumery they adopted. We expect six more weeks of warm weather, and therefore, we have no absorbing Interest in new October clothes. We want to know what is to be worn, and we are most interested id what we hear is being shown in Paris, but at this moment we are struggling with the proposition of enlivening our wardrobe in such a manner that it will keep us going until the first frost. As the nation has gotten into the habit of living in the country until Thanksgiving, there is a growing tendency to keep one’s August clothes in active service by means of top coats and woolen stockings. It must be admitted that the present emergency calls women into town nearly every day, and they may not continue to stay in the country as long as November, but the majority will insist on wearing their summer costumery as long as the climate and convention permit. And right here comes in the excellent good taste of the present mid-summer costumes. Their very departure from the sweater and the separate white skirt permits them to serve at-other seasons. This is the stringent motto that must run the warp and woof of our lives now: to buy that which can be worn on as many days, at as many occasions as economy dictates. In short, we have accepted the European way of dressing for hot weather. It may not appear cool on the surface, but, invention, which must go hand in hand with necessity, has shown women how to be cool and clean in dark costumes, or in combinations of dark and light clothes. Double-Duty Wardrobe. There are many women who are able to afford two separate wardrobes; one for the gayeties of the country anti one for the daily trips to town; but the average woman, and often she is a multi-millionaire, has arranged her wardrobe so that it will serve for both purposes from now until the first of October. She has taken up the French idea of wearing gowns or suits of very thin, checked material, and instead of an ornamental blouse, she inserts a waistcoat of pongee or colored crepe de chine. She has found out the good service, especially for afternoon wear, of knifeplaited skirts of w’hite crepe de chine or thin serge, which she tops with a velvet or satin jacket. She realizes the comfort of Chinese materials, as well as their durability,

and she finds that one-piece gowns, made with a long, flowing tunic, like the French resort frocks, are admirable costumes for the train and the motor, and that they serve from the morning war cqjnmlttee, through lunch at some restaurant, to the late afternoon or evening. (Copyright, 1918, by the McClure Mownair Yt' WWW Syndicate.)

The sketch of this gown shows a knifeplaited skirt of white crepe de chine, short and narrow. Above it Is an odd little black velvet coat, which is shaped out from the waist at ,one side and straight on the other. There is a collar of white chiffon and Vai lace, and a pink rose caught at the waist.

This sketch for which the French woman willingly posed, shows a mid-sum-mer frock of pale gray Chinese crepe de chine, with Its tunic coat pushed far back toward the sides to show a sailor blouse of /white" orepe de chine, with Its collar edged with French-blue velvet to match the “Blu'd Devil" cap on the head.