FASHION AND COMMON SENSE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 449, 6 March 1909, Page 11

FASHION AND COMMON SENSE.

"The fftsliion doth wear out more apparel than tho woman/' so Shakespeare might have written in "Much Ado.' r The struggle between tho costumier and longsuffering humanity, therefore, goes back at least as far as the sixteenth century. The latest move in tho long fight, says tho London correspondent of an Australian paper, is announced from Italy, whore the two Queens and several ladiee of tho Italian Royal family have decided to form an association to put an end to the autocracy of the Parisian dressmakers. Tho step was arranged before the terrible disaster in tho Straits of Messina drove everything else out of the heads of the leaders of Italian society. But it is to be hoped that the movement will progress as soon as feminine Italy can once more turn its thoughts to frocks and frills. mThe purpose of tho association is to counter tho system which at present insists upon every woman being dressed almost alike, regardless of figure and age. There are times when the fashions are of an accommodating kind. Thin folk and stout folk—tall and petite—can all be more or less suited. Put the present craze for "sheath" gowns, and clinging robes of the Directoire style, docs not give a woman of comfortable proportion and medium height any chance at all. Turning over the fashion plates of the leading ladies' papers in search of a new design Buggcsts that every woman is at least six feet high, and of the slimmest build. When a choice is made, and the resulting gown is tried on, it naturally does not fit, and the only suggestion the dressmakers can make ia to "shorten it.' -. Needless to say, taking up the extra six inches of skirt is apt to alter tho whole appearance of tho costume, which looked so well upon the .willowy mannequin. If tho two Queens of Italy havo their way, a definite stand against this tyranny will'be made in one country, at any rate. It is, however, to bo hoped that tho movement may bo extended until it becomes international in its scope. If e'very European princess and half a score of tho uncrowned queens of American society were to band themselves together to secure to womanhood tlio right to ignore dressmaker-made conventions, nothing but good could come of the effort. Too often, the costumier forgets that he is the servant and not tho master.