Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1918 — Buy Wisely and With Much Care [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Buy Wisely and With Much Care

pay’for clothes this season. w - .• Rrwin vtlifv ox iiiii • mm LLtvi ' kors for buildiDC

mass; the outstanding fact that interests the sellers of clothes, is that women deliberately ask more often for a high-priced gown than ever before and pay the price with seeming willingness. Why? The act is not explained by the word “extravagance.” It is level-head-ed conservation. . It does not take a woman with extraordinary shrewdness to know that cheap materials are not lasting. Nobody ever bought them with the belief that they would carry one with satisfaction throughout the season. They wefe bought by women who preferred to spread a' small income over many cheap costumes; women—and America is filled with them—-who like to, vary their costume every day or every two months rather than be compelled to wear the same thing throughout the weeks of a settled season. It Is their form of getting stimulation. Wisdom In Buying Gowns.

It is, no doubt, an actual hardship for a large mass of American women to deny themselves the pleasure of a constant procession of clothes at small prices, but they must economize in this, as in food. A cooking expert has mid that there are no such garbage palls in the world as here; that the kings of Europe did not have such garbage as the factory woman in the tenement districts of this country discards. This, it is true, has stopped; and even when garbage is plentiful, showing a spirit that is not unpatriotic but ignorant ot thrift, then the government steps In and gets all sorts of things useful to the war out of the pall that once was nosed by. the dogs and dumped into outer darkness. Why Women Buy With Care.

So even though the American woman may not wish to wear-one good costume throughout the season, her patriotism commands her to do it. This Is the kernel of the entire situation. She buys in order that her. clothes may .last She does not wish to take the time tn constantly mend cheap, clothes and renew them at odd moments. She has gone back to the ways of her great-grandmother, who chose material carefully and in many lights, paid a .good price- for It and expected It to live up to its reputation. A woman who goes into a shop this season to buy an everyday gown, pays S3O where she once paid $lB for it This is as near the average figure as the shops can get She asks if the material will wear, if it will hold Its dye, -if the seams and stitchery are good, and when she finds that they are just what they once were, but that they are not up to her modern standard of purchasing, she adds $lO or sls to the price and buys another gown that suits her judgment • No one is happier over the state of affairs than the shopkeepers. They prefer to sell fewer gowns at good prices, for, while it is not necessary to renew them in a few months they give greater satisfaction to both parties.’ Styles That Remain With Us.' The continuance of the chemise frock and the sandwich silhouette has given comfort to many women, because it allows them to wear, for a time, the frocks they possess. Whether or not this silhouette will die out as the season strengthens, no prophet wen,

| tell us > but there is uneasiness among a * comes^aS, 81 thTXw’ttemtee frocks or tunics will not have as much value as they have today. It is not only the Americans, but also the French, who have proposed this silhouette. It is not universal; one sees a continuance of the straight line on the great majority of French and American clothes, but with more tendency toward the peg-top outline in the home-made things than in the foreign ones, except front houses like Galiot The reason for this innovation is due to the military and it is strange that it did not occur before the fourth year of wan We have admired the silhouette of mannish wide hips and narrow ankles for many mouths without thought of introducing it in women’s clothes. Now it is here and It is carried out in almost the identical manner that the military tailors use with men’s trousers. Simplicity vs. Ornamentation. Another subtle change that has come across, the sky of fashions since the first French styles were shown is a tendency to eliminate much of the trimming with which the season began. There was an overelaboration of rich and massive embroidery, of tassels, of colored facings, of strips of metallic ribbons, and of other strange and capricious gewgaws that the mind can invent when large ideas are lackfog. The universality of all this ornamentation, such, for instance as miles of fringe, was its own undoing. It bordered, dangerously, on the ugliest period of mid-Victorianism. e It gave one an unpleasant memory, even if a far-off one, of beribboned milk stools and frying pans in the parlor. It was well done; no fault could be found with its quality, but why do it? This was the question asked by those who are apostles and disciples of simplicity. as the majority came to the conclusion that everyone was in danger of being over-ornamented, the dressmakers had calls for quieter frocks. No matter how severe a suit or cloth frock is, the use of good peltry lifts it out of the commonplace class. We do not need several yards of fringe, splashes of colored embroidery, a half dozen tassels, and a few fur’pompons to prove to our neighbor that we know what’s what. Getting Down to Essentials. Possibly there has not been enough cold weather to Justify the usage of the several weaves of the hairy and animal-like fabrics new to the season, but there is a noticeable absence of them in the clothes worn by women who have chosen well among the seasonal offerings. There is beaver, seal, mole a-plenty, but only a few Inches of their substitutes which gave the Paris Weavers sb many anxioqs and elated moments. They may arrive, apd, again, their full development may

not come until next winter. New things have a way of holding back and consolidating for a swift offensive the second year. This condition, therefore, leaves women with smaller choice of materials for their winter wardrobe and more puzzlement as to silhouette. The autumn is done. Our last spring clothes have served their second term. A sea. son faces us in which we must be true to one set of costumes for six months. Don’t buy cheaply, nor carelessly. Spend your money as if it belonged to the government , (Copyright, 1918, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) A young girl’s suit of black velveteen looks well with gray georgette crepe collar and cuffs.

The feature of thia black velvet frock is the panels back and front, which are of black and gold gauze and fall below the skirt The bodice is plain and finished at the neck with fur.

Sapphire blue velvet coat with stole and deep cuffs of beaver.