State

?cember 23, 1933 THE STATE Page Twenty-one Gone Are the Bustle, Corset and Petticoat ! WHEN Edward Bok was the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, he tried valiantly to establish a centre in America from which would emanate fashions pecu¬ liarly American and suited primarily American women. Having entrance into hundreds of thousands of Amer¬ ican homes through each monthly copy of the Ladies’ Home Journal, he tried most diplomatically to lead the thought of the average American woman toward that goal, but the idea failed to appeal. I wonder if the American woman of today would be more receptive to a imilar idea. I was once told that the fashions for woman's ttire come from a small group of European men thered — a mere liand- ul— in Paris, London, Vienna, as occasion re¬ quired; their pronuncia- mento being always awaited most eagerly throughout Europe and \merica. With all due deference Mrs. Grundy, fashion ■ften strikes one as ludi- rous and silly. Today certain thing is love- tomorrow the same thing is rather homely, and the day after tomor¬ row it has become quite hideous, and therefore relegated to limbo. dust for fun let’s sec what has been relegated to limbo by fashion's devotees of today. I^t’s start from the ground, up— literally. Let's start with foot-wear. No More Rubber Sandals For several winters I havo striven in vain to find rubber sandals, thought so dainty to wear on a rainy day just a few years ago. What was shown to me? Galoshes! Wiry? No one can truthfully say that galoshes transcend sandals in beauty: in utility, perhaps. Who sees today a pair of high top shoes? Recently reading about the dif¬ ficulty of supplying foot-wear for the needy, I learned that hundreds of women came seeking foot-wear at re¬ lief stations, but when high shoes — good high shoes — many direct from the shelves of shops were offered, they WOMEN don't wear as much today as they did thirty or forty years ago. Mrs. Grimes calls attention to some of the articles of wearing apparel which have entirely disap¬ peared. By ALICE DUGGER GRIMES AN example of styles of a former day. This is о picture of Mrs. Theodore Davidson, of Asheville, widow of Col. Davidson, attorney general from 1885 to 1893. It's beginning to look os if those large sleeves were coming back agoin. were refused because they were out of fashion. Beggars were certainly choos¬ ers there. Cotton Stockings Disappear Where, too, are the cotton stockings, especially the balbriggan? When black stockings first came into style they were frowned upon by ladies of the old school as being quite unsanitary, for it was impossible to get a pair for a moderate price which did not dye. Considerable improvement took place in the dyeing before a black stocking became popular. This applied, of course, to the cotton stocking. A silk- stocking of any color was a rarity. And garters, round garters — where are they ? Hoop-skirts, I remember only as worn by old ladies. Many quaint "lories have 1(0011 told concerning the difficulties of those elderly Indies in obtaining a new hoop-skirt when the old one became no longer wearable. Remember the Bustle? The bustle though, is another story. 1 remember them distinctly — large, medium, small — then back to nor¬ malcy. Such yards and yards of cloth for the dresses that covered those bustles! Yanis of fancy trimmings and lace, buttons galore and oodles of button holes. Those must have been the days of the moaning and groaning seamstress, dressmaker and tnnntua- maker. Mnntua-maker. by the way. is certainly as vanishes! a word as is the now vanished monstrosity, the bustle. Compared to those end¬ less dresses a frock of to¬ day is merely a child’s slip. Along with the early styles of bustles came the Grecian bend. This af¬ fected style of walking was the subject for much merry comment ami for much ridicule. It was still remembered, com¬ mented upon, and ridic¬ uled when Г was a child, but not practiced. Some¬ times, at my continued solicitations, my mother would "do” the Grecian bend for me. As silly as 1 remember it to have been, it regis¬ ters with mo now no sillier than the debutante slouch of recent years. Such voluminous sleeves in the nine¬ ties and such high, choking, boned col¬ lars! Let’s hope that neither of these uncomfortable styles will ever return, though a modified leg-of-mutton sleeve is slyly making its appearance. Here’s hoping it remains leg-o-lnmb and never grows into leg-o-mutton. Voluminous Petticoats And petticoats, and petticoats! It was quite natural that they should have had their vogue. How could n lady abandon the voluminous hoop- skirt and instantly accept the slinky, slanky silhouett of bloomers and bras¬ siere? Only could this be accomplished via petticoats, at first most stiffly