MODERN FASHIONS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 69, 23 March 1914, Page 7

MODERN FASHIONS

■_•.'... . 'V* - ARE THEY IMMODEST?

VIEWS OF ACTRESSES AND CLERICS.

The condemnation by Prebendary j Webster, • a well-known London ■ Kvine, of the present feminine.» fashions as tending towards im-^ modesty, has aroused considerable in- { terest. . i "I feel that. I do not like to see!

ladies exposing so much of their necks I and upper parts of their body," he | told a Daily Chronicle representative. j "I think," he added, "the fashion of ' an open front for a dress in /the open | air is ridiculous." {

A tour of the West End costumiers showed that they resented clerical interference with the trend of the styles, although they were extremely interested-,'-'in the rector's views, and promised to bring them be"fore the notice of their customers. ,' Miss Phyllis Dare, f;he popular actress, agrees with the rector with regard to the extremes of fashion. , "Some women dress so grotesquely," she said, "tha/fc they do not look like women at all. They are hideous when they copy the exaggerated pictures of I Paris fashions, although they, would | be very charming if they modified j them. It is the same witl}, clothes as i in all things—to be really smart women must practice modera/biori. "It is disgusting to see skirts slit up at the sides and the decolletee neck j in the streets, and in my opinion many women forget that in Paris-it-self the besifc classes do not imitate the fashion plates. "I think a good deal of the blame mus;b rest Avith the wretched fashion pictures that, are advertised. Women should examine 'them not with a view of copying, them for their nex3t dress, but in the hope of gaining some ideas which they could use for themselves— thien, they would be dressed with good .tstst'er." .•■■■ ■"*..':■-'■': " :" ' • ■■.■"■• .: '■•..■',-■■'■ '.Mlie-;Rev.. F. B. Meyer', the leading Baptist minister; views the fashions with very real sorrow. ••■"I suppose (the first thought with many of us when we meet a girl who affects the modern style is pity/ 5 he said. "It seems to me a craze which will expend itself in time, and I don't wish to impute any other motive. .It will certainly be a gain to the whole community when .the present fashions are exchanged for a more beautiful and wholesome style."