Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 272, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1918 — TAKE CHOICE OF ANY NEW STYLES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TAKE CHOICE OF ANY NEW STYLES

New York.—Well, we are settled as far as the fashions go. The designers have done their work; now arises the time for us to do our work. The public insists, writes a fashion critic, that it has the harder job, or at least that is the conclusion one reaches after hearing the\ discussions* of countless women for knd against the purchase of a single garment. It is not easy to buy clothes in war time, whfen the slogan of judicious spending echoes and re-echoes from every point of the compass. Even poverty has rarely impressed upon us with such drastic emphasis the need to spend wisely and well. Apparel is not the only branch of Industry that demands judgment and caution in spending. We have somersaulted from a nation of extravagant Individuals to one of thrift and shrewdness. < There has been a story current for two decades among the French designers that the American Women are not helpful to them, except through their money power, for the reason that they do not approach the choosing and purchasing of clothes with that watchful discrimination displayed by the French woman. They buy a gown because it is in fashion, or because it is the kind of thing their menfolk like, or because they have seen it on some excessively smart woman at a restaurant. If some doctrine could only be burnt into a woman’s consciousness which would compel her to spend money wisely! She is handling funds, and usually they are the funds of another party, and “she has no right to toss them into\the coffers of the dressmaker, thU "grocer, the interior decorator or the butcher. Skirt Struggle Is Ended. < It is probable that America has won out in the length of the skirt. The short French garment did not go. It is worn by war workers as part of their uniforms, but the great majority of

end In sharp points. They are not placed simultaneously on one suit or frock, but are used in various methods over the majority of street clothes. There-are some short jackets. Doucet and Cheruit, and many of their American followers have adopted' a square hip-length jacket that does not give long lines, does not promote the established silhouette,, but achieves an air and prestige of its own, apart from the regular run of fashions. Doucet made one especially striking costume that has been taken up by smart women. It is in a deep tobaccobrown cloth. The jacket Is box shape, jmd on nearly the whole surface, except for about four Inches, is laid a flat piece of sealskin. It goes without saying that an excellent trick like this was taken up by everyone who demanded something new in coat suits. The desire of the United States government to promote Alaska sealskin as the most fashionable fur for American women bore agreeable results, and by some persuasion the French signers acceded to- the wish that American peltry should rule. It is true that Russian squirrel steadily advances, but it is also s true that most of these animals grow in the woods of America. New Fastenings on Jackets. .No woman who is interested in the subject of her coat suit, which is the usual first choice of the autumn, should be ignorant of the diagonal fastening which has leaped into fame as a substitute for the conventional opening down the front. A great many tailors, some of whom are among the best in this country, do not cater to this novelty, but the women like it One guesses that its inspiration was in the Sain Browne belt and women believe that the bias line across the bust is an attractive one. Buttons are sometimes used down this line, and often it is braided or run with tiny strands of tarnished gold

women accept the desire of the American designers to launch an anklelength skirt. Those who have been criticized tor exploiting this design at a time when the conservation of wool is necessary insist that they can cut such, a skirt out of less material than the short, flaring one which has been the fashion. An extremely narrow, short skirt has proved to be an impossibility because of the manner in which it rides above the knees when one is seated. There is an immense amount of velveteen, also soft velours, velvet and heavy satin. One does not have to use wool in order to have a warm or fashionable gown or suit. Velveteen has been accepted as a fabric for the commonest kind of usage, and it serves in the early morning for a coat suit with a waistcoat blouse of angora wool or heavily-embroidered jersey. There are homespuns and various types of mannish materials of which the tailors seem to have sufficient to make all the suits demanded; but there is no denying that both jackets and skirts are longer than they have been for several seasons since the summer of the war. The foremost designers of jackets play all sorts of tricks upon the hem, cutting it to points like a jester’s costume, and blocking it out In' battlements as If it were a medieval tower. One well-known dressmaker accentuates this jester effect in. frocks as well as jackets. He cuts long panels at the sieves which hang .from hip to berrf qf the sleeves that leave the arm at the elbow and drop to the knees, and he cuts the bodice into "a panel at the middle of the back, letting it drop below the knees. AU of these panels

braid, if the material is velvet or vel : veteen. ' It .is not possible to say that the other novelty in the method of fastening the jacket; which is in a straight line down the spine, is a new thing, but it is possible to say that it is a pleasing thing. It has spread like a prairie fire. There are jackets that .are modeled on straight cuirass bodices, built of deeply-colored broadcloth or velours, such- as Burgundy or bottle green, and these end at the hips, are cut in battlements at the hem, and fasten down the line of the spine with round bone buttons. There is another ingenious jacket which has no fastening at aU. It is cut off squarely at the hips and goes over a fitted cuirass blouse of deepcolored angora wool. This blouse Js longer than the coat, It clings to the hips, and it gives the jacket the appearance of a hastily donned sacque. Yet it is so well put together and the colors are so admirably composed that the woman who wears it cannot fail to achieve the distinction of being different from her neighbor. (Copyright, MM, ty McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) •

On the left, medieval gray gown trimmed with squirrel and sliver net studded with rhinestones. The cuirasa blouse, as shown In this gown, Is considered one of the best features of formal evening frocks. On the right, a dinner gown of taupe-colored velvet, with skirt and short train cut in one piece. It has long, tight sleeves, In the medieval manner. The waistline and the square decolletage are edged with ostrich tips dyed to match the belt. ■