Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1919 — GAY FROCKS FOR THE YOUNG GIRLS [ARTICLE]

GAY FROCKS FOR THE YOUNG GIRLS

Increased Brilliancy of Wardrobes in Honor of Returning Soldiers. New York. —America has not yet found a fitting name for the girl of sixteen. The English call her the “flapper,” and the Anglo-Saxon world uses the expression, whether or not it approves of it. In America it is not liked, but no one has risen to put this type of young person in a niche and give her a name. And she is quite important, proclaims a fashion writer. She deserves a strong appellation —a quick, vibrant, significant name for her class, her type and her virility. We have buried under the cobwebs of oblivion the “sweet sixteen” phrase. Booth Tarkington has made the one word “seventeen” classify, at least for America, the youth of our land, with its awkward, stumbling tendencies toward manhood, its budding emotionalism sternly suppressed through pride and shame, its desire for girls’ company, and its contempt for that desire. But if we applied the single word “sixteen” to that gay, ecstatic, poised, self-assured, highly educated, superintelligent, adventurous class of tall, slim things that spread over the land, usually setting the pace for their mothers’■..fashioPSr it would-be

puerile. It is difficult to be pessimistic if one keeps close to the side of girls of that age: — r out look on life, their fa it h in themselves and the world, their unbounded ability to find pleasure unaided by anyone else, renews youth in middle age. They are no longer creatures held’ on a leash. They are rarely asked to obey; they are,, constantly consulted by their mothers, and they usually take an intelligent part in the management of their home, its social environments, its financial expenditures, its ideals, and its ambitions. Granting these things—and everyone does grant them who has had any close companionship with the typical American girl, it is natural that her interest in clothes should be strong, and not only strong but usually exceedingly good. She dresses herself, as a rule, better than her mother can dress her. - Many Cater to Girls. Working downward —or upward, rather—through these psychological phases of girlhood among the AngloSaxons, and especially the North Americans, one finds the reason for the establishments of many successful dressmaking houses which cater to young girls. Few of the great establishments here or abroad neglect the “flapper.” From the time she is twelve until she makes her bow to society at eighteen she is catered *to by Rouses that- expend much Ingenuity and brilliancy of workmanship on her especial type of clothing. Two of the important financial successes in the dressmaking world of New York started with th® schoolgirl. Fifth avenue houses which cater to dowagers and sensational young matrons have determined this year to place young girls’ clothes in their salons. v Youngsters who try to look like Maty Pickford are often used as mannequins, but they have not been a cess, because th,e sixteen-year-older doesn't wish to Ipok like Mary Pickford. She Wouldn’t be caught with curls down her hnek. a sweet smile, and~~chtibby ■ legs- brtww-* -short skirt < ■■ • r

She often produces the most extreme fashions, which her older sister' and her mother copy. She is the type, one might claim, for all the fashions of the civilized world today. That’s a sweeping statement, but just run over the gamut of fashionable clothes for the last five years and see if you don’t come to that conclusion. The bobbed hair, the short skirt, the round neek, the baby sleeves, the sashes, the but-toned-down-the-back frocks, the short coats—-these are the fashions that have ruled the world and have begun in the schoolroom. What She Wears Today. The youngster of sixteen chooses materials for her own clothes that are the same as those worn by her elders, whom she envies little these days, because she rules a world of Jier own, that everyone acknowledges. She doesn’t have to dress herself up in long clothes and high head dresses and play that she is old. She has been known to grudgingly loan some of her clothes to her young married sister for an especially smart affair! She likes georgette crepe for her evening gowns, and therefore she wears a good deal of it. Velveteen has found her approval, and she orders school frocks and afternoon dance frocks in it. • She has a tailored suit which was especially designed for her judgment,. and which-jshe acceptedr- It hasir coat that covers her hips, is cut on * straight line with a slight flare out at the back, and does not fasten. She ties it at the neck with a stiff cravat made Of ribbon, peltry, Chinese brocade, or the material of the coat. She may have six or eight of these cravats in her bureau drawer, or she hangs them on the electric light at the side of the bureau, in imitation of her brother. She likes her coat unfastened, for she never"admits that she is cold. She has just escaped the hardening process of bare legs, bare arms and a cold nursery. The winter has no terrors for. her and she dresses as she wishes, no matter what the thermometer. _ Her Furs and fiats. T The “flapper” who is tall enough to carry a big fox around her neck is sure to come into possession of one.. When her judgment goes against a bi® animal she chooses instead a coach-; man’s collar of sealskin or squirrels which rises about her face like the calyx of a flower and spreads downward over her shoulders, hugging them in the flat Victorian manner. She has appropriated for her own? use many accessories in peltry that the older woman has neglected. She knows the cleverness of-a fur cravat and the medieval splendor of a fur girdle. And, by the way, the “flappers” have no idea of being left sion of those wearing Victory clothes. They have no shrinking about their jCostumery and what it signifies; they pre instinctively psychological, and they wish to proclaim the side they took in the war by every manner of clothes that the dressmakers and milliners 'have thrown into the fashions to proclaim the day of peace. So the “flapper” wears red — bright glowing, triumphant, red. She doesn’t hesitate a second in choosing several garments of it. She is not weighted down by the anxieties of her elders that certain colors must be taboo because age is drawing d map on tha face. 1 . ■ (Copyright, »». by the McClure News* . upaper-, Syndicate.}.. ■ -z. L -