WAR AND FASHION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3063, 26 April 1917, Page 2

WAR AND FASHION

"WHAT PARIS DECREES. The secret of the new spring and iunimer fashions is out (states a corespondent of the ','Daily News"). Umost since the age of beads and voad it has been the custom each yeai o release it in Paris on.or about Jeb-uai-y 16; for weeks previously the vorld waits gasping, prophecy is abunlant, and articles get into the papers. Uithentic nqws having now arrived rom the French capital, the tension s relieved. Civilisation and the war an roll on again. It is satisfactory to bo able to anlouncethat although the fashions aie ;o keep up their reputation by changng the change is tp be in the direction if sanity. TWdecrees of tho Ruo de la ?aix, backed by the Place Vendome, ire: That during 1917 the skirt of the well-dressed woman shall not be so full and wide as in 1916. That it shall bo rather longer. Thai a dress reaching to the floor may be worn indoors occasionally. -.■•.. That sleeves must be very 'long and necks very open. That no woman must on any ac-. count wear any kind of collar. ■ These decrees apply particularly to ;he women of .Europe, and most particularly to the women of belligerent ;ountries. American women are at iberty to adopt eccentricities such as the pog-top skirt and the what's-tlwt aodice, and specimens ■of these were to be found "in the Champs Elysoes. But tho threat of war by America has so greatly enfeebled the constitution jf the last goose laying golden eggs 'or the moutrosity maker that the miFevrier fete has been quite the prettiest on record. . ' Tile new fashions for Europe, are a on the' side of economy. Very full skirts have been killed by the scarcity and rapidly rising prico of material, but there is no need to send them to the wardrobe or cut them , up into dusters. They can easily bo remodelled on the new lines. ■ ■ ' ' ~ The 1917 skirt will.be about "ankle length." This should lead the sensible women to considerable economy in the matter of footwear—the abolition, or the top-boot and a return to the much cheaper shoe. In fact, the wheel of fashion, so far as the skirt is concerned, has, in a few years, made a full circuit, thus: Normal, sheath, hobble, sheath, umbrella, normal. The war has killed, for the present at least, all chance of a return to the crinoline. In the. matter of dress bodices it is interesting to hear that materials of two kinds in the same frock are to he very largely seen. This, again, v bo a help to economy, it being the simplest thing in the world'to-take out the stuff sleeves, of your 1916 Cor 1915) frock and substitute sleeves of chiffon or mousseline. Presto!—a new creation! ' , Long tea-gowns and evening drosses arc already to be seen here and there in London, but do not seem to be very favourably, commented upon, the eye needing to he trained hy # the anklelength transition now coming in.