0m your book of W to
scene and epsrltlluswbrilliant.
“ dueling. ' magnificent. resplendent
‘ and scintillating. These words ought
to give you in impression of the
new evening frocks. At any rate
they are the words most often. used
in describing them. Purltanic sim-
plicity and Quakerish demureuess
are no longer admired traits of eve-
ning gowns. if you needs must find
a period of dress hi‘story‘comparable
to the present as regar the gor-
geousness of materials ed. you
-. - would have to go back to. the days
3 of Babylonian splendor. the de-
. ' cadence of Rome, the late ltelian
. .. Renaissance or the period of La
n. g . ‘ , I’ompadour and Louis XV in France.
0f one thing you may be sure,
4 you 'can no longer attract attention
' in an evening assemblage by wear-
4. ing cloth or lace of gold or silver.
‘ rubrics weighted down with metallic
embroidery and beadipz. brocades
rich with metallic encrustations.
These gorgeous materials are taken
for granted with evening clothes this
season.
All Gowns Sophisticated
Not very long ago we used to
speak of a certain class of evenlnz
gowns as being “sophisticated".
Now there seem to be no other sort.
As soon as girls are old enough to
wear evening gowns at all they wear
the sophisticated sort and the only
thing that any women can now do
to attract surprised attention is to
the words that, new gar-s
Whom I rVelveize .' Vie
turns—with a sort of disrespect quite
shocking to the elder English gentle-
man. vvho loolts upon the black
broadcloth evening cost with as
much veneratlon as he does upon
Westminster Abbey or the House of
Lords. Uncomfortable as he has
doubtless admitted this prescribed
evening costume to be. he hes never
felt the slightest desire to chance
the fashion in any particular what-
ever. in fact it has never occurred
to him that it could be changed in
any essential. And of course there
are many American men who have
much the same attitude toward the
clothes that custom has given them
for evening. To be sure. in the
course of live or six years. slight
changes creep in. And in twice that
length of time ,evening suits may
become positively‘passee. But they
continue to be black. and they con-
tinue to be broadcloth. Always there
is much the same combination of
block and white about them. it does
in truth seem as if the men of the
Occident had gone into mourning at
the time of the Wench Revolution
and had never come out of that
a «3'
\.
7
bucklcsmhowinn ot the front.
wear an evening gown that is very
simple and free from all glitter and
gorgeousnese.
. Undoubtedly the habit of wearing
conventional evening dress among
women in'this country is on the in-
crease. Our European neighbors
would probably see in this only a
natural tendency to become more
and more civilised. With the English
women even more than with the
French women it is a matter of sense
ond nature to slip out of day, clothes
into e frock with conventional low
neck and short sleeves at some con-
venient time before dinner; With
many Americans such a custom has
often been regarded as pertaining
only to the very rich or the very
distinguished. it would be easy to
establish the fact quite plainly from
the figures of .ssles of resdy~msde
evening frocks that the custom of
wearing evening dress is steadily in~
creasing throughout the length and
breadth of the" land. . fl ,. .
Doubtless Asset-inn .men. often
under feminine duress. inc doubt. are
unproving in the matter of wearing
evening clothes. ‘9 there is an
interesting counter! _ it is. you
know. considered quite swagger by
'p maverymoeerayounghnsibh man
to look with a sort offline-poet on
deleful state. ,This certainly applies
to their evening clothes.
Reaction Has Come
But some sort of reaction or pro-
test seems to have occurred. It is
still remembered that one evening, at
,the Casino et Deeuville last summer
a henchmen presented himself to
evening suit made of. a soft brown
broadcloth. The duty of the at-
tendant was to see that no one en-
tered who was not "dressed" for the
evening. But he let this iconoclast
in. a few years no. they. say. no
door attendant would have dared to
do that sort of thing. so there must
be somd’ sort of reaction estir. Then
~too young men in' London have sp-
posred at the theater and the ‘opera
in Fail-isle sweaters and four. pluses
and have gone to srnart dance clubs
at night wearing their golf reseller—
with danceshoes. if you please. .
ave" g oddss period of transi—
. ion in a history of costumer-y. if
we could buteee arlght. For gash-
ions are never settled and? move
steadilyVa’long at a remarksbly‘even
pace. But it does seem as if right
now we were experiencing a: real
change in the metter of' evening
dress. Sometimes it is rather dlill-
the conventional maispentng ”‘7,
cultio distinguish a formal after-
noon gown fio- e dinner or means
gown. in fact the formal afternoo-
frock is frequently likewise s dis-
ner gown. Bane of the elaborate
evening gowns have long sleeves and
some of them have chow dollars»
These are extremes of the mode.
Mmlsls Wdl Blended
Never before were mattisls
blended with such skill as in the
making of evening gowns this year.
Metallic lace or metallic brocade and
velvet brocade—velvet end chiffon-
velvet broceded chiffon and chiffon
-—-metalllc brocade and metal lace-
all these are so cleverly welded to-
gether that there seems to be no
herd line to tell where the one
fabric begins end the other ends.
Amheles Are Important
Armholes are matters of greet im-
portance on evening froolts this
season.» Following the general trend
of fashion bodicee ilt rather closely
about and over the shoulders. it is
no longer smart to hang clothes
upon our backs like frocks on clothes
hangers. They must show a really
the attendant at the door west-ingot: _
The draped Jroclr at the left shows a clever use of the crops side and the Modded side of com-color
brocade roan. At the right, a skirt and suflnders o! chinon are. worn over or bodies or silver cloth, danced
it
nice moulding and conformity to the
lines of the body. At the same time
srmholee on most of the "Iain:
frocks are fairly large. they are still
fairly low under the arms. There is
seldom anything in the we: of
drapery or other furbelo‘ws to de-
tract from the nice severity of this .
line of the armhole.
It is interesting therefore to look
at any collection of new evening
gowns from the best dressmalrers
just with an eye to the armholss.
They require somewhat more than
the skiliof the average amateur. In
fact the women who makes her own
frocks may ilnd this question of the
armhole the most dilllcult one to
encounter in the evening frock this
season. Very frequently the arm-
holes are simply finished with a
cording of the material with which
the gown is made. A lovelyevenins
flock of rose and sold brocade shows
srmlioles bound with cording which
is made entirely from the gold part
of the .broosdr—giving a neat g'old
line are d the arm. .
Follow g the example of Agnes
of Paris "soles of our dressmakers
are outlining the srmholes of sve-
nlng dresses with diamante trim-
ming. new"): a line of beads or
sequins. As the annholes do not set
no close around the arm thins lane glibly to evening shades. and in the“ This "color line" seems to be de-
. w. W m ”610“ “Wayland“
With Gleaming Metal In
,Gmeislcetishmdrcpedoocre
maid W W409, and trimmed
with s wide band of fur. There are '
two mm, m of brocade and one
of velvet.
danger of scratching the skin with
this. This trimming is sometimes stores you found 'satlns or velvcts
extended in along loop at the under or brocades in the "Evening Shades"
side of the armhole. and sometimes herded off by themselveaj'i‘here was
hung from the low- a very distinct difference ‘between
such shades and other shades which
V were suitable for afternoon. and still
others which were deemed suitable
a heavy team
set point ofdh loop.
'Ivenlng alludes"
Once doe-makers used to allude for morning wear.
finitely broken. The first surprise
came a year ago when women
took to wenrinp.‘ brown evening
frocks with enthusiasm and more-
over looked very charming in them.
The old theorists had it that brown
wouldn't do at all by artificial light.
Then women were sport frocks of
soft shades of pink and played golf
and tennis in orchid or~ lavender.
. Every prominent dressmaker of
course still retains certain prefer-
' shoes in this matter—certain. colors
‘ which he or she prefers for evening.
Perhaps no one would think of
- selecting navy blue for evening wear
-though even this may be at-
tempted. You may think of a. few
other lingering prejudices-but for
the most. part you wear any color
». you wish—anywhere. with the gen-
eral reservation that it sends rather
smarter not to wear bright. light
colors in the day time in town. For
the evening nothing is too light. or
too dark, {too pale or toojvvivid in
color. ‘
Gray has been chosen by some
fashionable women for angevening
gown or two. This was a-little un-
expected. perhaps. and of course will
not become generally copied. The
new soft. gleaming velvets look
lovely in gray when embellished
with embroidery in silver thread or
with silver or steel beads; .
Much Soft Yellow"
a dosen shades of yellow might
be found in the new eveninr. sowns.
They are decidedly smalfi'end owe
their importance at the present time
Evening Clothes
Mend goldbmwondfsron
claim-l1; ronvifrfcd into the smart
evening gown at the left of the big
circle; light gray ooh-ct is aided by
a chimp: hair at llw back and o
”(Ivor mnhroldm‘nd apron at the [10”
to fashion the dinner gown at the
right. The ulabomio rand rather
gorgeous rm‘nim/ gown .at the is]!
below is made of geranium and pole
pink velvet rmbroidcrcd with rhine~
steam. ’l'hv ornament is of green
studded with rhinestones. The gold
lam [rock at the riyht is posed over
a flesh-colored slip which is trimmed
with green ribbon and bands o]
more chiffon which show through
the bonds of lace on the over frock.
undoubtedly to the prominence of
gold cloth and gold lace. There is,
distinct charm about combining the
metallic cloth or lace with velvet
that exactly matches it rather than
introducing a strong note of con—
trast by way of some other color.
So there are lovely soft velvets to
go with the greenish Bold that re-
minds one of old jewelry. This is
almost chartreuse in tone. Then
there is a sunshiny yellow that goes
with the more golden tones and
other lovely shades that combine
better with other pinker shades of
gold.
The tendency for green is very
strong this season—d fact for which
Mr. Arlen doubtless takes full credit.
Various shades of green combine
rarely well with either gold or sil-
ver—this fact may have something
to do with it. And the new lustrous
velvets are really charming in the
green rnnge. ‘
.. Black has come into prominence—-
interesting this season which is
spoken of as the most colorful since
wnr times". Usually there is some-
thing either glittoring or colorful in
the way of the trimming of these
new black frocks. Perhaps this is
achieved by encrustations of head
embroidery or hugles. or trncery of
metallic threads. or possibly by a bit
of vivid color introduced as an un~
deri‘ncing. a panel or a band. A
neat little black satin dinner gown
simply made without sleeves and
with a deep V decolette at the back
shows a wide band of bright green
sntin running remind the skirt.
:1 .qu't. .= ctr.»
,. 5-“
’3 x'gimw‘
Loading scan from the Connecticut Digital Archive…
Norwalk Chronicler