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Show Women Must Make Study of Clothes New York. An English paper has recently published an article dealing with the attempt and failure of American Ameri-can women and designers to be independent inde-pendent of Paris and congratulates us on our good sense, as it were, in returning re-turning to lite source. In truth, there was not a serious or 'onrert itit.inrit o tia itwlenendt'Dt Owl This evening gown has a separate bodice. The skirt is of cyclamen tulle, accordion pleated, with garland of embroidery em-broidery and formal bouquets. The bodice and sash are of black satin. of Paris. It was only natural that the American people should feel that the outbreak of the war In France would stop all the wheels of her commerce In clothes and that the other countries coun-tries would be compelled to go on their own. It would take us a century to accomplish ac-complish what we now buy from Paris In a week. We are too canny to give up the best source of fashion on the planet for no reason whatever. If we had to depend on our own creations for the commerce in clothes, three-quarters three-quarters of the firms engaged in this industry would fall within two years. It Is a happy piece of news to report re-port in support of this outlined sentiment sen-timent that the shipments of costumes from France which will take place this fall will be as heavy as in normal times. The number of buyers who have gone abroad has been reduced, on account of volunteering, conscription conscrip-tion and changes, therefore, in the personnel per-sonnel of many business houses, but the resident buyers and the important representatives for groups of houses have been able to transact the expected expect-ed business. Where America Comes In. So much for Paris. But, with all that she will do, the war places; an Important task on American women. Never before In the history of commerce com-merce in clothes has this especial demand de-mand been made upon them. It is this : they must work out their own salvation. Our heads of shops and dressmaking houses are far from being be-ing aids to the dumb. They must sell what they have bought and made and they have rarely studied the needs of the individual. The buyers who went to Paris In other days haunted the fashionable places where the women of pleasure and power foregathered. These women wom-en made and marred the fashions put but by the designers. When our buyers buy-ers saw that these leaders were featuring fea-turing certain fashions they brought them home for the American. But, and this Is the new situation, the women here are now confronted with the fact that thousands of new costumes will soon be unpacked from the boxes that brought them over the ocean, and as they were chosen from whatever the French houses had to offer, It will be our part to select from that heterogeneous mass that which brings out our special type and suits our environment. This is sane and sensible wartime adjustment of one's times and income, and possibly the lesson may be so thoroughly learned and digested that It will prove to be a lasting benefit to the national community. com-munity. Make a Study of Clothes. ' This will be really the millennium In ' dress. Paris, the center of art in the world, creates from a point in air, as the engineers say, and from the mass of material she sends we choose a thousand different types of costumes 1 if we wish. Look a bit into the history 1 of each costume, as Paris does, and say to yourself, Does my face and fig-" fig-" ure, my physical and mortal individ- uality reflect that period? If the an swer Is in the negative, don't let anyone any-one persuade y,ou to buy it. When the ships that dodge the man-made man-made sharks of the sea bring to us these cases of silks, brocades, metals, embroideries and velvets fashioned for the American woman, we will see that these clothes are the heirs to all the ages. China will dominate some bits of costutnery, the influence of Napoleon will be there, the Russian Cossacks who threw themselves before the retreating Eleventh army in Ga-licia Ga-licia will be another motive for certain cer-tain cut and color, and the recent exhibition ex-hibition of French clothes in Madrid is reflected in the things that were brought out of Spain. Not only will different countries be represented in the medley of costurn-ery costurn-ery that is coming to us, but various epochs in the history of places, especially espe-cially of France the First Empire, the Consulate, the swirling and transparent trans-parent draperies made famous by Mine. Tnllien, the Queen of Shreds and Patches, as she was nicknamed, (he biblike panels of embroidery worn by the queen of Itoumanla when she arrayed herself in the native costumes. cos-tumes. The polonaise will be revived from that day when the predecessor of Rose Berttin, who gowned Marie Antoinette, Antoi-nette, made fashionable the striking garment worn by the Polish princess, Marie, whom Louis XV made queen of France. Those Chinese wraps and sleeves and tassels worn by the noblemen noble-men who represented Pekin as the first embassy sent from China to France are recalled Into the new fash-Ions fash-Ions because China is with France and Is fighting, as she fought, to be a republic. re-public. Rakish Continental Hat. The green coque feathers flaunting from new hats have been borrowed from the hats of the sharpshooters, the bersaglleri of Italy, because the fighters of the Vosges and the Alpine passes have a 'comradeship. The rakish rak-ish continental hat was Included in the fashions because the land of that George Washington whom General Lafayette La-fayette came to assist Is spreading her soldiers over the pleasant valleys of the sister republic and sending her huge guns to protect the Road of Ladles La-dles as all gentlemen, good and true, should do. The pinched-in crown and the rollicking rol-licking brim have been included In the most fashionable hats because these VhT One of the new autumn suits in green velour with turned-up hem on coat and wide girdle forming sash in front. soldiers have been smiled at and, some say, kissed by the midinettes as they strolled the boulevards at noon hour. Why try to outline the conglomeration of episodes that are reflected in these autumn clothes that we will soon be asked to buy and mold to cwir individuality? indi-viduality? France has put the passing pass-ing panorama of the planet into cos-ttimery. cos-ttimery. If we adopt it all, we shall look like a procession of the ages staged by some Gargantuan stage director. di-rector. (Copyright, 1917, by the McCIure Newapa per Syndicate.) |