Women Like Flock of Shee" in Following Fashion The Anglo-Saxon, Raymond can, who walks about Paris in fowing robes and sandals, has been lecturing at the Sale des Hautes Etudes Sociales on the valeur clu multiple, Mr. Duncan tries to prove that men and women are but sheep who flock after a leader and show no originality of thought, Turning his theory to the question of dress, is he right?
Take the fashions of the moment, the small hat for instance. It locks very much as if we were, at any rate, slaves to our milliners, since women, young and old, tail and short, plump and thin, with large faces' and with small, have accepted the decree which condemns those who follow fashion closely to wear small hats whether they suit them or not.
You see a mignonne little creature with delicate features, her hair softly curling round her ears and caressing her checks, in a small black cap jauntily trimmed with a right little wing on one side; charming is the verdict, and women sing, the praises of the small hat.
'A woman built on Juno-like lines, with broad check bones and eyes set wide apart, is just as lovely as the mignonne litre creature I have referred to, yet she, too, chooses the small hat, and fails to look her best in it, Alli over Paris you-now see women and girls wearing these small, close-fitting hats, and you must' admit that many of them would look better in a hat with a really good brim.
The Danger.
Even the hat which "plunges" over the right ear, runs up over the brow, and dips but a shade over the left ear, is not so becoming as the gently "fashioned all-round brim, slightly irregular, which was in fashion a year ago.
The reproach is less well deserved where dresses are in question. The choice is wider, colour makes a difference, and the same dress on one woman looks so strikingly dissimilar when placed on another, that monotony of pattern is" easily avoided. But for all that, there is ways the danger of growing sheeplike in the hands of the dressmaker, who, it must be remembered, has to corn her living and sell her goods. To attract attention she introduces changes aa the seasons come and Une is being featured ind "pushes" them for all she On the other hand, when a woman out to be original, she has to know something of the subject on which she ig about to experiment. if she is to be successful in her choice, and she can never quite ignore the advice of her dressmaker, She has to impose her own taste while appearing to adopt that of the Shop Alone nothing is there a cloverer blending of knowledge of dress ani worldly tact than in the way some women manage the business of choosing new clothes in the shops of the rue de La Paix, An expert says that a woman should always go alone to look at the models, and alone discuss with her vender Which of the models she likes best; which suits her style; whether' colours should be changed; how an expensive drees can be lowered simplification, by the choice ial, without in any ]way taking away from its style To achieve these things without rubbing anyone the wrong way needs a great deal of human understanding and sympathy on the sid? of both cliente and vendeuse, You cannot get things done in the dress-making -world by going straight ahead, you have to follow a winding way, and walk warily all the time without once losing sight of what you want and mean to have, Many women are content to take what is given them so long as it is made by someone whose name counts. Others think they know where changes should be made in a model when they have no taste at all and no knowledge of dressmaking. Every time mistakes are made it is by lack of knowledge, lack of tact, lor the lack of a little' of both.
It is rumoured that the high waistline and the full skirt are details of great importance on which the dressmakers are working, seriously.
If this be trac, how many women in following fashion with closed eyes will make mistakes!
All sorts of liberties may be taken by the dressmaker when the woman she dresses is slim and young, but is not the slim young woman who spends most money in the rue de Paix if you take'an average from all felasses of society. The slim girl jean buy her frocks ready-made, and She likes to have clothes cheap enough for her to wear a few times and throw away.
It is the older woman, the woman whose figure is difficult to dress.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.