FASHION REPEATS ITSELF.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1491, 13 July 1912, Page 11

FASHION REPEATS ITSELF.

; IN -7000 YEAES, Seven thousand years ago id-day the Egyptian goddesses were wearing the scant, straight ekirt, the ''silhouette" of the present winter, ,1912. But the ladies' tailor to the goddess was himself a god. Hβ was above all human ehortcomings. His lines were divine. Hβ actually accomplished in cloth that about which modern modists and.ladies' tailors can only dream. Style repeats itself in seven years, in 7000 years. This is not the h'obble/ekirt or the tube skirt of a season or two agofar from it. This is the latest, tightest, straightest skirt. . But tight as is tho newest, tightest 'skirt, it can never attain the immortal tightness of tho great great Egyptian grandmother ■of all tho tight skirts. There, indeed, was a tightness beyond oil'humaii reach. We have the fashion plate—it is preserved > for us in bright pigments on many an ancient tomb and' temple—but we have-not the Egyptian figure. The scant, straight skirt of the -winter 1912 fails. It is tight, the tigheest skirt worn by mortal woman. But alas, we ore only-mortal. We.must breathe, we. must move. The Egyptian goddesses, being goddesses, wafted through epace. But woman, American woman, modern woman of the winter 1912, has now and then to move her feet. Truei she will do little of this. She is to be lifted on to the street :onrs by her husband as if 'she weTe a roll of linoleum. She will descend the stair' steps/ "hop, hop, hop." But there will bo times, occasion, on which she must bend and step.

Egyptian Skirt Still Unequalled. •Therefore and thereby the scant, straight ''silhouette" of the winter 1912 falls short of the divine tightness of the Egyptian skirt. It falls short, but the modern modist and the modern Indies' tailor is not altogether to blame. Thereis also : the figure to consider. The modern woman, alas, has faults of figure. As we "say in Tares, she is in'the'"wrong place. How can a tight skirt be made really, completely, sublimely tight; tight; with the admirable-tightness of the fashion plato, when the woman herself is so of a largeness?--'. Now, take the figure of the Lady of Thebes, the Goddess Mut. ,'There is; .a. figure! There- is the woman for the skirt! With such a divineness one could achievea skirt so tight—voila, it would fit like the paper on the cigarette! . The Goddess Mut as you see her here is not a young woman. Seven thousand years, of course; but also, otherwise. The Goddess Milt is no debutante. She 'is a matron, large of family. She v/as the counterpart'of Amen-Ra, king of the gods —and her figure deserved it. Ifer jinme means "mother." She was Mother Slut, a good old soul; the Egyptians were her descendants. And yet; and jet,' ah, gracious powers,; what a figure! Surely here ia 'an: example for the grandmothers of the winter 1912. No longer'need grandmamma hesitate. The "silhouette" with the early Victorian waist-line is hers by ancient right. The Goddess Mut, whose great-great-grand-children numbered, millions, could wear tlje slight, slim, svelte creation. Then so oan grandma. ■ ■ ' :

Others Follow Mut's Example,

But the Goddess Mut was not the only one who could wear the kid glove skirt. Their portraits, have been preserved to us on. many a temple wall. The r.ndying pigments of Egyptian art preserve the lines and the ladies of ancient Egypt. The modistes and the_ ladies' tailor of to-day may. burrow amid the buried chambers and find tho eketches, line and colour, for; the styles "of .1912 and many years thereafter. Among the svelte goddesses of the Nile are Isis and Apit and Isio-Sspt and Menqet andllesklienet and.Nut.and Tefnut and Anit and Ahoct ,and Soti and Hapi and .XTftihekau and Serpet. All these goddesses, all of them are of Hie figure beautiful. All of them .arc poured into ekirts of the thinness of a gaspipe. All- of them even in tho winter 1912Vould be adorable, divine, modish, and up-to-date on-Fifth 'Aveiiue or on State Sweet. ".'■-■ ■'■ , . Such lines, both of goddesses and goddesslike garment, speak words for the civilisation of Egypt 7000 years ago. Here we have—the Egyptian inural fragments leave no doubt—the ' Goddess Mut, a dowager, a, woman of. years and worries and family, with a figure so adorable the tightest tight skirt made in Paris this year would hang on like a bathrobe,- Here we have Apit and Hapi and Isis and Menket and other goddesses with .figures equally divine. Delsarte was but a weak imitator.' Somewhere underneath hhe sands, and ruins lies the master of a physical culture system and anti-fat remedy of auch as has been unknown on earth for 7000 years. Truly' the figure and the scant, straight ekirt are among the lost arts. ■ -. Another thing we may learn from the mural paintings of the Egyptian masters. Style in those days was adorable, ns tyrannical as noiv. Every modish woman of to'day must follow the mode, but no more so than in the year 5000 B.C.' Style arid the rapid change of style has been laid at the doors of the trades people or to the caprice of, some queen or social monarch. But here'wo have refutation at least of the first charge. Modern commercialism had no part in the life of Egypt 7000 years a'go. ' But— O, figures most divine!—<every goddess from every tomb, from Thebes and Memphis and the Upper Nile, is. a slave to fashion. Though a'goddess, she must follow the mode.' Of all the hundreds found no one but wears the scant, straight skirt, the ekirt of fashion in 5000 B.C. and in 1912 A.D. .-.-,. Moreover, if the slim princesses of. an-, cient,Egypt wear the skirt of the winter' Beasonj 1912, they also wear high, hideous, headgear like the high, hideous hats worn by modish women now. Look again upon the Goddess Mut, she of the .family and the cares and the years and tho glorious figure. How is ; that for a hat? Fashions repeat themselves in seren years or 7000 years'. -True,.we.have not quite got it yet. 'We arn but mortals. We strive in our dumb, blind wav. ' But we cannot quite follow the gods. The hat of-the Goddess Mut is as far beyond the best Paris creation as Paris is ahead of Little Rock. But though we are but mortal milliners, we are doing our best'. We have not achieved it yet, but we ate on the way. Our hats are high, O, nobly high in crown'; there has not Been a .year in years when they were half so high. And as for the single austere.feather, we achieved that months ago. . In the matter of hata there : is a wealth of idea. Many things are shown that are triumphs 'of tho milliner's art. Study these.well, for they may be the styles of the spring and summer, 1912. But it is in the garment and their lines that the E?yntians excel. Were the godHesses created first Hie skirts shrunk on, or were the skirts made first and the goddesses poured in ? Nothing, no other way, explains the figure and the lines. O, figures most glorious! . ' .

FACE POWDERS,

A CANDID WORD THEREON. There arc all sorts of powders in all Sorts of shops. To stnrt with,' there is the fact that all are sold indiscriminately lor every sort of skin—which is absurd. Some skins are dry, and some aTe moist and oily, and other again are "shiny." Impossible to havo one jiowder to suit nil those various conditions. Powder, of course, but only apply powHot that suits you.Now, Mile. Eubestein is the first specialist in the world to recognise the importance of tho?o distinctions. She therefore- supplies Valazo Complexion Powder for normal, moist, or greasy fkins. which h exceedingly adherent, and delicately ■perceivable, and Novena Eo'udre for dry skins,'which makes the'driest skin cool and supple. .Price Ss. 6d. a box each. Of liquid powders there is Valaza Snovr Lotion, which overcomes ijreosiness, coarseness, and redness, and imparts a beautiful whiteness to the skin. Price S3. Gd. a bottle. -.-_•. And now. concerning the chief of Mile. Rubenstein's specialties—Valazo Skin Food—Valaze j-ields stimulation, health, and beauty to the skin, ensures freedom from lanes and wrinkles, crows'-feot, and discolouration, freckles, sunburn, tan, and eallowness. Price, in jars 4s. nnd 7s. Mile. Rubinstein's instructive book. "Beauty in the Making," will be posted free to nny address on application. All Valazo preparations of leading Chemists, or dirret, nost free, from Mile. Helena Rubinstein, Maison Valaze, Brandon Street, AVellington.-Advt,