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Straw Hats Are Odd in Shape and Difficult to Pos
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like n warrior's liol
m«*t, is ntnilo of (Ini'
lilack straw trimmed
at carh side with blncU
aigrettes that rise and
confront each other at
the top of the crown.
When January Beg'ns New
Clothes Make Thoir Appear ncc
for Those Who Go to Pleasure
Resorts to Escape Whatever
Climate They’re In.—No Revo
lution Is Imminent in h Con
tour of Gowns.—Skirts Grew
Shorter and Rcdingotes Appear.
The Slim, Primitive Evening
Frock, Girdled at the Hips Over
the CorscJess Figure, Is Rival
to the Tulle Gown with Pan
niers at Hips.
IT la an old story that fashions and
the calendar do not go together.
This dlacrepancy rests upon the
shoulders of those In the trade. Another
reason to neeouilt for It is the vast
variety of our Amereiin climate. Our
crowds follow the birds, and fashion
follows the crowd. If people remained
at home, the trade would suffer, but out
crowded trains are very good evidence
of the fact that we all move to and
fro in a ceaseless stream.
Those In the apparel trade never rest.
Whether the;, ert.il. a demand or sup
ply a demand, It la hard to tell The
medical men are held re-pnnslhlc for
our constant traveling from one
climate to another, and th apparel
people may he held responsible fig the
restlessness of the pleasure-seekers
No one denies that I’altn ltea h In
February and Santa liarbara In M »rch.
that Aiken and Augusta at the New
Year, demand iHffercnt cloth s from
New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
With Bermuda, Havana and Porto
Rico thrown In as winter resort*, the
demand for thin elothi s, straw hats and
colored parasols becomes greater
Th<-re Is a feeling that pndiihttion
will drive the people to the latter re
sorts, but this store, like many others.
Is built on a foundation of sand Palm
Beach Is too marvelous u •p. t pi the
social life of this continent to lio easily
forsaken. The gorgeousneas of Cali
fornia is not to be sacrificed for a cock
tail. The clear, dry air, the pines and
the red sand of Augusta anti Atken
will not And a rival in a highball
The alluring Cities, with tle-ir foreign
atmosphere, that lie to the south of
us will get their share of tourists, tine
does not get away from the charm of
the tiny streets of Havana, its plazas.
Its blue Corrlbbean dashing against the
seu wall. Its boats with th blue sails,
and Ita houses with th. pi , shutters.
One never forgets Bermuda with Its
ability to relax the neri. « and make
ona a lotus-eater, Its color, its serenity,
It* roads. Yet. we have built our
houses In the American resorts, we
speak the language, we know each
other, and we hav - a feeling that we re
not tourists Therefore, the pl< leure
seekers und those aXter relaxation will
go, probably, to the places they know
the best.
For these places there must tv>
clothes, and new clothes at that
STRAW H\|s Th th st harbingers
IN JAM till t th, ith u t
are straw hat* They
make their appr.irar e with Phi i mas.
They are not for the tik osure seek
ers alone, nor for those who travel f .r
any reason They set the style for the
spring fashion For this reason they
ora slgnlllcant. They :,re wh.it the
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I tiiisual lint of gly
«• e r i n e <1 ribbon,
which lias an im
mense rosette nt one
side to Im Inure n
brim that extends
far out over the left
ear.
people at home will wear when the
calendar pronounces It time to change
one's winter clothes. The milliners have
been working on them since November
Just as the dressmakers have been
working on sport clothes, frocks of thin
serge, separate tunics, and thin after
noon gowns.
They will re-create these fashions
in other fabrics at flip end of March
Today they are carrying out certain
designs in white flannel, In corn-col
oeed crepe lie chine. In embroidered
pi* din. when March comes they will
re introduce these styles In serge. In
satin, and again in silk poplin.
The canny ones who take Paris for
their inspiration have always gone to
the Riviera after t'hrlstmas In order to
eet ahead of the crowd in the knowl
edge yf what would be worn In May.
they have even gone as far ns Madrid
and Home and d pp d down into Algiers
and Egypt in the days before the war.
They knew that tho master design
ers sent all their sartorial experiments
to these places Those who wore them
were women of fashion, the members
of that set that must he amused and
that finds Its chief amusement In con
gregating nt the various resorts.
These are the women who actually
start the fashions, and it Is they who
discard them as s,ioti as the mass picks
them up The same set exists In
America I: has become the custom
for dressmakers to design individual
clothes for Women who stand out from
the inn s by reason of wealth, social
opportunity or achievement.
It Is not an essential matter to the
designer whether the client Is famous
In one way or another; the object in
view is to make the new gown con
spicuous. It cannot play that part if it
la worn by an Inconspicuous woman.
In America ns In Europe, wo run after
the lenders In all things
Nothing so del ghts a designer as to
have an order for clothes that will bo
worn In a brilliant manner at an ex
pensive resort. To catch these orders,
one must design clothes prematurely.
One must he at the head of the game,
not in the middle or behind It. It Is
saut by the French that many a woman
hns made up her mtml to go to the
Riviera because she was lured into buy
ing a marvelous straw hat.
in America the same thing happens.
That I* why straw hats appear at
Christmas That la the reason for the
sweeping sales of winter finery In No
vember 0"' hurried are the people of
the apiuuvl trade to get out new thlnvx
that they discard what is seasonable
before the season sets In.
There is no shop which looks with
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Here' la a gown that goes to Palm orach for the afternoon
hours. It Is of water greet! taffeta, the sk rt covered with a
IHiinted overskirt o*lg«sl with an Immense ruffle of green silk
mull. The eighteenth century bodice is tight, square at Ihe ueck
and fastened with rh l neat one buttons.
anything but contempt upon winter
clothes today. The sales people yistst
upon off- ring white flannel suits to
these who intend to lAtnaln tn a
climate where the thermometer may be
hitting zero.
SHADOWS OK In a way It Is
COMING NTYI.KB well for ex-eryone
that this coml'tlon
exists. It gives hundreds of women a
chance to buy winter finery at a re
duced price. One gets thlrty-dollar hats
for ten dollars at Thanksgiving time;
one gets two-hundred-dollar frocks for
one hundred and twenty-five, and even
Copyright. i’JIS. by The McClure newspaper Syndicate.
furs at a slight reduction just when
the hour strikes for all these garments
to be worn.
Surely, that is a beneficent condition
for those who buy. It saves women
money and it keeps the stock moving
in the shops. The only women who
do not congratulate themselves are
those who bought' early and paid high
prices for what they purchased. They
have the satisfaction, however, of
knowing that the clothes are not shop
worn and that they have given two
months of service.
The women who are in a hurry and
flurry are those who are buying new
clothes to go south or west. They
want what ts new. They do not want
what was worn last year. They have
a reasonable satisfaction that, if they
stay long enough in mild climates, they
can wear these clothes when they re
turn to thetr homes.
And what are these clothes? Do thev
differ widely from what is established?
Is there any revolution In cut or con
tour? What are we to expect In the
spring? These are the questions that
all women ask all dressmakers at this
season of the year.
The answer l* that no revolution Is
imminent. No one seems to have any
striking prophecy about Paris. The
first of the exhibitions Of summer
clothes will take place there in Feb
ruary and we on this side will not
know much about what happens until
the middle of March. That is time
enough for us.
In the interim Americans will go
gleefully on with their designs for A hose
who insist upon new clothes now, and
these designs do not show anything
alarmingly new. There is to be no
devastation of what exists.
kirts are shorter, probably shorter
than we have worn them for three
years. They are narrow from shoulder
to hem. There is an absence of the
huge pannier and the hoopskirt, except
in gowns for the young who dance.
There is no disposition to relinquish
this style in the clothes for debutantes.
All the fashionable young girls who
have made their entrance into social
life this winter—and there was an lm-
(At left) The combination of a velvet suit and a straw hat
does not dismay a woman. She is in the fashion. The suit of
brown velvet Is edged with marten and made with a long coat
over a short skirt. The large hat hns a crown of brown straxv
and a Haring brim of brown saiin. (At right) Blue serge gown
for the South xvhich has a black satin redingote cut in an unusual
manner and braided with black.
mcnse crowd of them, owing to the re
pression of gayeties during the war—
wore' panniers on their tulle skirts.
There was very little difference be
tween these frocks and those worn by
the French matrons last summer.
Varl-colored tulle is used, especially
in the sea shell shades, and garlands
of roses or of leaves hold up the loops
of transparent fabric on the hips.
These gowns are repeated for the re
sorts.
Sometimes Jeweled leaves are used
as garlands to match a wreath in the
hair, and the Purls fashion of girdling
the hips with bunches of grapes has
had an unusual success over here. It
is, however, a bit too theatrical for
the conservative woman, for everyone
cannot curry out the part of a Bac
chante.
There Is no novelty In tulle gowns
that flare at the hips. One cannot
hope for this in so broadcast n fashion.
There is beauty of a kind, however, in
Garlands of Jeweled Leaves and
Colored Grapes Are Used at Waist a
Across Hips.—Brown and Black Hal
Are Preferred to Those in Color, an«
Depend Upon Shape for Their Allu
such gowns, and if they are made with
the tight bodice and an absence of
drapery over the arms, they have a
certain reminiscent grace of the
eighteenth century.
As opposed to them there are the
evening gowns that are strongly
mediaeval, or rather, Oriental. One
saw many of these in fascinating fab
rics worn by young women at the
large parties given in New York the
night of the Army and Navy game.
All the world seemed to be in that
city for that event, and everyone who
was there turned out for t’he gayeties
at night. Not since the last Army and
Navy game was there such brilliancy,
such crowding of restaurants and
theatres, such splendid eostumory.
Women of position and power chose
that night to give debutante dances,
and vast numbers of young people, also
old ones, went from ball to ball, from
theatre to restaurant, from theatre to
dance. Therefore, the clothes wore sig
nificant. They were the beat N w York
and its guests had to wear. And
among the clothes the tulle frocks with
panniers found strong rivals in the
slim, straight Oriental gowns gorge
ously girdled at the hips.
It would be difficult to Introduce a
new type of evening frock thnt did not
include one or the other ot tnese con
tours. One Is either wide at the hips
or flat. There is a choice between these
contours, but there is nothing as a
compromise,
There are new gowns that show a
new way of distending the hips;' not
really new, because it was show:
Paris during August and Peptem
but it is a variant from the wide j
held up by garlands and from
Jeeanne d’Arc pleats that are s !
fened to give width below the wai: !
This experiment in hip distensio I
shown in a remarkable frock that f
to Palm Beach. It is of water gr I
taffeta, the over-drapery of the s
arranged in two deep points, back j
front, and the edges finished with w k
full ruffles of green silk mull.
Doucet showed this skirt in y. ;
lavender taffeta in his collection of rJ
gowns last August in Paris. It waj
startling looking frock because the b I
ish looking mannequin who wore * ii
wore neither stockings nor knicki I
beneath it; the underskirt of that fr< !
was lavender tulle and the trunks 1
neath it were of lavender jersey
abbrebiated as those worn by a pr /
fighter. I
To get back to the taffeta gown fr< l
Palm Beach —which is far more demv
than the lavender one from Deauville
its overskirt stands out far onou>
from the hips to give the appearan
of crinoline, and the tight little bodi _
is reminiscent of those worn by t:
women of Paris who went to the guill
tine. It is slightly pointed in front, hi
a square decolletage, short sleeves, at
is fastened with rhinestone buttoi
down the front.
It is a significant frock, for it repr.
sents, undoubtedly fashions that w.
come in with the spring. It is ev
dent that women whose figlires ca
stand it will wear tight bodices an
full skirts—what might be called
flying kite contour.
STRAW H ATS, There is somethin.:
CLOTH FROCKS about a hat c
straw that sex
women can resist, if the hat is onl;
offered at an unseasonable hour. Evi
dently there are those who consider tha
winter is over when Christmas is past
if ona judges by the straw hats thal
have made their appearance with vel
vet and cloth gowns.
It would not astonish those who have
watched the American woman at play
to see her substitute a gayly-colored
sunshade for a somber-colored umbrella
in the first snowstorm. It may be
that she would be indulging in a bit 1 *
of mental science, thinking that if she
looks like spring she will believe it is
here.
The straw hats that have made their
appearance in the windows as well as
on the heads of women have their
rivals in hats of polished ribbons. The
latter appears to be the substitute for
the annual turban of flowers. The
glycerined ribbon of which it is mado
is not a new feature of millinery.
Suzanne Talbot invented it before the
war, and she and other milliners re
main loyal to it.
One of the new hats that go South
is made entirely of this polished ribbon
which shines as though it were covered
with isinglass, and there is an im
mense rosette on the right side over
one ear. It is a difficult hat to wear
on all counts. It is like many of its
companions in that it requires an ef
fective type of person to wear it—and
why, oh. why, will the woman with
the commonplace face, even if it is
pretty, attempt to wear the hat that
only a most unusual type can carry
off?
There is another kind of hat that
goes South which is easier to wear
than the one of ribbon, although it 1s
far from demure or commonplace. It
has a high crown of brown straw with
a widely flaring brim of brown satin,
and when correctly posed it covers tha
head and almost eclipses the eyes.
And there is still another shape, n
kind of helmet, made of fine black
straw on the sides of which are
mounted aigrettes that clash against
each other nt the top of the crown.
The lesson to be learned from these
hats that go South n'li that are be:, n
ning to npp ar on tile streets is that
we .are to have more trouble thrust
upon us. No hat can he well posed on
the head without time and thought,
but when Ihe h.at is nn extraordinary
shape, with many curves and angles.
It often requires a master hand and a
magician's skill to keep it from de
stroying whatever looks one may p'-s-
Th« average woman may well «sk
herself If this type of millinery is b tir
ing down upon us. Are we to enter
into a season es hats that are diffl-,
cult to pose? If so, there is that much
more labor added to what we h »c"