DRESS AND ECONOMY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 698, 6 May 1916, Page 6

DRESS AND ECONOMY.

AT HOME AND IN FRANCE. | Dress is ;i delicate question in those days when all women, no matter what their position in life, are asked to eco-! • noiniso (writes a correspondent in I'aris ; to ''The Times''). As tar as ran ho ..judged from the French side ol' the: ! Channel, Kngiishwomen are responding] splendidly to the national call, and if! any suggestions are ventured as to the; i way they might carry out their eeono- ' mios in the matter of clothes they are! made with all clue reservations. j We have, in tin; first place, to adjust our point of view to entirely now con-j ditions. it is a tiresome thing to have to do, because it rolis us of our dearest j prejudices, and makes the question of I dress a very relative matter. A soldier , homo from the front likes to see his wo- J men folk look pretty. On the other hand, that same warrior will defend gallantly I the women who go out to serve the 'armies as nurses, canteen workers, | chauffeurs, and whose dress may lie quite lacking in all beauty from the 'feminine point of view. "Let them l dress as they like, they are doing gooil I work," the soldier will say, and everyone agrees with him, although no one lilames theiu if they are feminine ■enough to desire extreme neatness and la good fit. War-time Smartness. I With the women at homo the standard may well bo applied. If a woman is j working on the hind she must lie dress,ed accordingly; but if her occupations are entirely domestic and in-door, it is •still allowed to her to be becomingly j dressed and in a fashion that is not of I last year's making, so as that fashion lias not cost her "the eyes out of I her head." The girls in Alsace are 'dressing bravely, and their charming .appearance is a bright spot in that warinfested land. The best of our own i nursing sisters are rarely careless about 'their appearance. There is scarcely a. ] shop-girl in all I'aris who has not widened her skirt and raised the crown of her hat; the suburban girl who takes the train to her daily work has had a I smart overcoat for the winter and will have a smart little tailor-made for the j spring. They will not. cost hot- much, land she will be careful how she sits I down so as not to crease their folds; . the upper classes are dressing with rejlative economy, and not a few women j who have for some time forsworn Die |severe tailor-made are now going back |to it as a suitable costume for wartime, with a very smart hat and irreproachable shoes and gloves. The strict tailor-made, the riding habit,' and other costumes for athletic I pursuits are the things in dress which I the Frenchwoman has borrowed from i England, while we, in our turn, go to i her to learn about the more domestic things. From as far back as we like to i look the Frenchwoman has led the way !in pretty clothes, and English beauty has not disdained them. "La Belle Allglaise" was the name of a shop in I'aris, and, like most of such things, its origin had a meaning. I'aris women who I occupy themselves with the question of dress as a profession always say that I" the Englishwoman is beautiful, but J has not the same cachet in wearing her clothes as the Frenchwoman." It lis not a reproach; it may even ho read las a compliment to the Knglishwoman. It is, moreover, said of all classes and by men and women alike. "You see so many pretty faces in Kugland ami so many pretty foot in France," was what an Englishman said only the other day. To-day, when sorrow ami economy are sobering all women's garb and the love of one's land is one's strongest emotion, the question of fashion is of small j account. .Men may wear frayed trousers if they have no wife to mend them, but scarcely otherwise. Women may | wear a tight skirt when it is out of! date if they have neither the skill nor the moans for making it a wide one. The patched bhie linen coat of many ! shades which the French workman [wears is the delight of the painter's eye, but if it wove ragged and uniform I in tone it would lose half its charm.