Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1919 — New Blouse Has Call for Favor [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New Blouse Has Call for Favor

New York.—The blouse is a sartor£l robin. It heralds the approach of ►ring. It is the kind of accessory to a costume that both pleases and irritates. That it is usually wrong, is the verdict of most women. When it is right it is very, very right, and that is the best that can be said for it, observes a prominent fashion writer. Its possibilities for evil are not limited. Those who recognize that the neckline governs the appearance of the face know full well the chances for good and evil that rest in the collar of a separate waist. There is no* end to the making of blouses, as of books. No one can k cavil at the paucity of these garments. Any shop in any town, at any time, is

An American Indian blouse of dullblue kid embroidered In a pottery design of red and silver. The sash of red satin is knotted in front.

apt to confuse a woman with the multiple offerings hurled at her across the counter the moment she asks to look at blouses. These bits of the costume are the small change of the shopkeeper. They are taken in and out of stock, off and on the counter, throughout the different months of the year. They fill in spaces. They break the monotony of. business which arrives between the periods of high pressure. It is not true that what a woman wants she can always get in this department of dress, but it is overwhelmingly true that whatever she says she wants is answered by an avalanche of designs, offered to her as the best and the latest. Evil Possibilities of Blouses. Of course, there are new fashions in the blouses this spring. They have been shown to women; they have been purchased for the unusually large exodus to the South, and they will appeal to the majority of women during the next four weeks, when one’s thoughts turn to the rehabilitation of the winter wardrobe, or the acquisition of a new one. There is no more paucity of invention in blouses this year than last. France and America have both done their best—and it is in this vast variety that evil possibilities lie. • K women could be trained to regard the blouse as something fatal, unless well chosen, they would go about the business of getting together a half dozen with the precaution and precision necessary when walking on ic< They would not buy georgette because It is fashionable, tomato-red because it was the style, nor would they choose galloon embroidery, shoe-lace braiding or brass buttons because the designers had chosen to exploit these caprices. They would go among all the masses of waists with the precision of a bird flying to its nest. They would take the nearest straight Hne to what they want. If they did not find It they would go elsewhere; If it was not to be found in the shops they would have It made by a specialist or a seamstress, from a well-considered pattern. The part of a blouse that is very often fatal is the collar. There are few women who can stand more than two types of neckline. A woman should not rebel against this verdict. She should accept it and thus eliminate trouble. She should experiment with blouses that do not carry either one of these necklines. She must remember that no blouse is vv'orth its price if it hasn’t the kind of collar that offsets the neckline of her coat. She must also take well Into consideration the difference between a blouse which is to be worn as a part of a costume topped by a fur or cloth coat, and one that is merely a shirtwaist and part of a tailored suit. These are not all the requirements for success in buying blouses. A woman must have, or must acquire, a true knowledge of the juxtaposition of fabrics. She must know what material in a blouse goes best with the material of her suit or her separate skirt and top coat. For instance, georgette, beaded in a bold design, does not go with a homespun or a cheviot suit. That Is merely one example out of a dozen or two others’that could easily be enumerated. The truth about georgette—which is worth repeating because the fabric plays so dominant a role in separate

blouses this year—is that it looks far better as part of a costume than as au addition to a eoat suit. As a pep* ium blouse worn with a skirt of Its own color, or in harmonious contrast to it, it is very good; not as good as satin or silk jersey, but commendable. It may be ornamental, if one can adopt that type of blouse, and even trinogped with beads, which is a debatable form of ornamentation on a separate garment, but not impossible for certain types of women. Because of the adoption of uniforms through the war there is a strong recrudescence of the tailored linen shirtwaist for women, especially in horizon blue, shrimp pink and dead white edged with color. These have tucked fronts, long plain sleeves, regulation armholes, turnover cuffs with link buttons, and the collar of a French student of the Second Empire. Women have found that a rolling collar with a slight bit of starch, worn with a cravat, is an attractive neckline. Only the very young woman with a slim, smooth neck can attempt the high turnover collar, either starched or soft. Below a face that shows the marks of time this collar is impossible. Blouses as Part of Costumes. When the French designers made the peplum blouse and then sat back in watchful waiting for its success, which took long to come, they created something that was very worth while. American women see the light today, and" they grasp with eagerness the possibilities of this outside tunic blouse. It is difficult to persuade a certain set of women that there are other types ofblouses. Nothing could induce them to return to the kind that tucks in under the skirt belt. They feel they have eliminated this ’awkward line around the middle of the body, and they choose all their blouses after the tunic pattern, w’hether for railroad suits or for service with a separate skirt under a fur coat. It is sometimes permitted to tuck the back of the blouse the skirt, provided there is a front panel that drops, apron-wise, below the waist, and an ornamental belt which runs from each side of it to the back. This is the most ingenious compromise between the new and the old blouses. Blouse inspired by Fabrics are now chosen for these tunic-like garments that have nevef been considered in the making of short shirtwaists. Kid, for instance. That is a material unheard of among the weavers as part and parcel of women’s apparel. Yet the new kid tunic blouses, sent from France and copied in this country, are excessively smart and better liked by certain well-dress-' ed women than the hip blouses of caracul cloth worn during the midwinter. These kid tunics make a woman look

Peplum blouse of heavy black satin, with wide flat collar of fine cream lace. The hem is turned under to form a puff. It is tied at the waist with a narrow dull-silver cord.

amazingly like her Indian predecessors in this country. Colored skins are chosen, and on dark surfaces there is aiT ornamentation such as the Indians put on their pottery. Take a darkblue kid tunic worn with a black velveteen skirt, have it ornamented in a pottery design in yellow and black and a thread of dull red, and you get an exceedingly ingenious costume. The milliners are quite willing to match up these kid tunics with turbans and the woman who likes to look like an Indian chooses a turban, pot in kid, but in taffeta,- with upstanding quills painted at the tips. (Copyright, 1919, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.)