THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3197, 23 June 1915, Page 67

THE WEEK.

Of all the strange features of this strange time one of the most inexplicable is the fact that the mysterious arbiters who decide for us what we shall wear and what we shall not should have chosen just this moment to order a sudden and complete change in the fashions. Just when half the world is engaged in a terrible death-struggle, when men are laying down their lives day by day, when our spending power is reduced by raised prices and in some cases lowered incomes, when we are busy with work of various kinds, women are compelled, or think they are compelled, to turn their attention to the cut of a skirt, the set of a collar, and the length of a sleeve, and unless they take a firm stand will find themselves discarding their entire last year’s wardrobe and acquiring a complete new outfit all at once. A strange phenomenon truly, and one that has not passed without notice. Even the London Times opened its stately columns to a discussion of the subject, a discussion that waxed decidedly acrimonious before the correspondence was closed. The supporters of the new ideas seemed to me to make out a rather poor case. Their main arguments were that the change was good for trade and would result in benefit to many dressmakers and others thrown out of work at the beginin<r of the war, and that new clothes were in°the nature of a tonic to most women and would help them to bear better the inevitable anxieties of the time. To those the conservatives retorted that trade would benefit quite enough if those in a position to do so gave merely their usual orders to their tailors and dressmakers, as indeed most of them were doing; that if the wealthy gave way altogether to the -whims of fashion the pcor would either have to spend too much or look unpleasantly conspicuous; that women had no right to he wearing five or seven yard skirts when so much matei’ial was wanted for uniforms ; and that as for the women who could find no better support in a time of trouble than new clothes! —well, words could not express their poor opinion of hen In spite of all this, however, there is no doubt that the fashions have changed. Whether we choose to follow them or not is another matter. To follow them a certain wav will do us no harm, for anything would he better than the ridiculous way in which some women have fettered themselves during these last few years. In fact, the plea of the fashion-mongers is that a reaction against the absurdly narrow skirt had already set in and that new wide models for the coming winter had actually been designed in Paris before the war, only to be put away hastily when the Kaiser’s hordes came hammering almost at the gates of the gay city. Now Pa is is itself aga’n; the new designs have been resuscitated, and have found a ready welcome amongst many. There is jiO donbt that to some people it is a real relief to turn for a time to questions of clothes after having had their attention fixed for so long on deeper and graver matters. It is whispered too, that the wide skirt goes better with the military stride of the khaki-clad hero homo on leave from the front, and we can understand the feminine desire to look one’s best on these occasions; and certainly the full flounced frocks and quaint old-fashioned bodices that one sees pictured are vastly becoming to those young enough to wear them. I have very little quarrel with the new fashions as fashions. It is the prominence given to them at this particular time that seems a little out of place, though it may be a sign that all is going well with our cause when various journals devoted to women’s affairs can once more fill their pages with designs for new hats and blouses instead of making war articles their prominent

feature. After all, we must have clothes, and there is no reason why we should not have pretty ones, which means spending a certain amount of time and thought on them. It is the foolish ones who go to extremes who make their sex a byword and a reproach amongst the sensible, and it seems to me that here ■ is another chance —there are many just now—for women to show the good sense and capabilities which the great majority possess by refusing to become slaves to mere caprice. In many ways the new fashions are an improvement on the old. Let us make the most of the good points and decline the bad ones, and go our own ways, suiting our individual taste and comfort, and declining to follow' one another like sheep. I should like to see the woman who dresses extravagantly regarded with as much contempt as the man who shirks his duty to his country, for both are evidently unable to appreciate the larger issues of life and are a menace to a sane and healthy public opinion. If you would be well-dressed you should certainly not indulge in the bizarre and eccentric, either now or at any time, and if you do not trust my word m the matter I can refer you to headquarters. “Unmistakable signs of good dressing, at the present time,” says the Paris correspondent of the London Times, are to be found only when looked for, as nothing to be correct should be too obvious. The right sort of hoot and shoe, the proper gloves and the way to put them on and wear them, the nice choice of a hat and coiffure, the exact daintiness of the collar or cravat, the veil to he worn and how to wear it, are all details of even greater importance than the choice of a costume or dress.” ELIZABETH.