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Show Quick Change in Style of Gowns . New York. It is time to change a few things in women's apparel, asserts a prominent fashion authority. Women Wom-en are leaping from uniforms into medieval gowns of gold, and crystal, and tulle in brilliant colors, and into smashing furs and red street apparel. There are significant changes working work-ing up from the ground. There is the new deeolletage which was prophesied in this department weeks ago and which is coming into view as smart women exploit it. Half a dozen new ways of cutting the neckline have leaped into existence and a dozen new collars claim the blue ribbon of excellence. ex-cellence. No matter whether we dress differently about the hips and feet, we are dressing decidedly differently about the neck and even the wrists. It is in these significant changes thai the great mass of women are interested in-terested who do not feel that they can afford entirely new gowns for the mid-season. mid-season. The artist who said that all changes in fashions for women consisted in the placement of the bulge, or the absence ab-sence of it, should have added that the open spaces in costumes were second in importance. Cut to the bone, there is no doubt that he was right. The contour is the thing. It is where a garment goes in or out that determines its fashion. fash-ion. Few women there are who are brave enough to go against the contour of the hour, even though it may not suggest the best there is in their figures. New Deeolletage. The change in the neckline is perhaps per-haps the most important to the average aver-age woman. She has belief in herself when it comes to cutting a new kind I of neckline. She feels that a good pair of scissors may be the medium of transforming an old gown into a new gown by the simple process of turning turn-ing an oblong neck into a round one, a square one, or a U-shaped one. ( iw ) V-shaped deeolletage in back of a black velvet evening gown which So cut high in front. This idea is worked out in many types of gowns, even those for street. Delta deeolletage shown in new brocade evening gown in white and gold. This neckline originated in the Elizabethan days. All history is filled with rapid changes in the neckline, and so far we have not had anything' new. AVe have rung the hells of history all over again. That is all. When Edward II was king of England the women wore the georgette, geor-gette, which wrinkled about the neck and spread outward over the chin and the back of the head. This was introduced intro-duced to fashion a few years ago through a dancer and her clever designer. de-signer. It is still worn by women who go motoring, and they make it of dark blue crepe or veiling, rather than of white satin. When Richard II was king his French queen brought .over the fashion of the low neck, and so, after centuries, women dropped the neckband neck-band of the gown from chin to collar bone. When Elizabeth was queen of England Eng-land the delta deeolletage was invented, invent-ed, and it ran along with another neckline neck-line that exposed all the chest and half the shoulders, and then, as if by a sudden spasm of prudery, hid the neck and ears by an immense ruff. When James I came to the throne of England his queen introduced intro-duced the very decollete, tight bodice with its immense, flaring collar of wired lace at the back, and when Charles I allowed Heuriette of France to leau uie his court, there was the low, round neckline that dipped well downward in the back and was finished with a depp Vandyke collar that ext"nded over the sleeves. In the picturesque days of Queen Anne women introduced the low, square chl deeolletage, guiltless of collar, col-lar, which our women have worn for two decades; and in the middle of th" eighteenth century, in the Georgian era, women used a simple decolleU-ge In a rounded V outlined with a wrinkled handkerchief as a part of their street attire. summary of historical changes in the deeolletage, it is easy to see that we have done nothing new; but here is what we are going to do at the immediate imme-diate moment : Revive the delta of the Elizabethan times, the deep square of Queen Anne, with its tight, high line at the side of the neck, and the U-shaped deeolletage of the end of vhe eighteenth century, with its modesty mod-esty piece of lace. Return of Lace Collars. We have gone through a season of medieval severity in the neckline. Women have aided nature which made them ugly or cheated ' nature which made them beautiful by going about without any softening effect at the neck, by wearing coat collars of heavy homespun unrelieved by white, and by the use of V-shaped lines of heavy velveteen vel-veteen and crepe which fashion kept unadorned. True to history this was, but not true to art. There were few women who looked their best in such severity. sever-ity. Today collars return slowly. There are still those who tell you they are not smart, but at the exclusive house there is a tendency to put precious lace on the new neckline. neck-line. It is not a V-shaped neckline; it is a deep U which calls for a softening soft-ening outline and an extremely soft arrangement of lace or tulle across the bust. The Queen Anne deeolletage which hugs the side of the neck and runs down into a narrow L-shaped opening is extremely smart, and it is banded with fur and then filled in with fine folds of silk net. It is felt by those who have their hands on the pulse of fashion that the oblong neckline of the Renaissance is no longer smart, although it is worn by some well-dressed women. Double Neckline. There is a disposition on the part of some designers to make a double i neckline, and this they do by a subtle arrangement of thin fabrics. A certain cer-tain designer has turned out a remarkably re-markably brilliant gown of raspberry chiffon having a deep U-shaped deeolletage outlined with chinchilla which swings the chiffon with the movement of the figure, as though It were a necklace. Beneath it, and hugging hug-ging the bust in the eighteenth century cen-tury manner, is a bodice with a rounded round-ed deeolletage. There will be an oblong Renaissance neckline that reaches from shoulder to shoulder, cut on a tight satin bodice, and over that will be swung a looser bodice of colored chiffon or tulle which is high at . the back and has a long, rounded line in front that drops to the waist. Black and seal brown velvet afternoon after-noon gowns have the Queen Anne deeolletage, dee-olletage, which follows the exact line where the neck is placed on the body, until it gets to the collar hone, where it dips into a straight, open space half way to the waist. This is outlined with fur. Again, it may be outlined with Venetian point. The delta deeolletage is considered the most becoming of all for evening wear. Cet out any picture of Elizabethan Eliza-bethan times and you will see what is meant. In that gorgeous era the women wore a jeweled piece of open net over the shoulder to the base of the neck at each side, and then the deeolletage spread downward and out- I ward to the ami-pits. Take this change in the neckline seriously. It will govern the clotliC3 of the next few weeks. (Copyright, ISIS, by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) |