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WOMEN LIKE "AMUSING"
CLOTHES.
nave you ever watched a woman "trying
on" hats and gowns, asks Olive Dent in tlie
"Daily Mail."' If she smiles at her reflec
tion, then in nine cases out of ten she will
buy whatever garment she is trvine on.
Women like clothes that amuse them;
It is extraordinary that this 'fact ' has'
taken so long to receive recognition. It is
only since the war that the modiste has
said, "Let me show you some of tlie new
hats. 1 think you will find tliem amusing,"
or "The foulards are just in this morning.
Ihe patterns are quite amusing," or
"Rather amusing the way that leather
falls !"
And each and all are amusing. About
them there is some sense of fun, of making-
merry, something humorous, facetious, as
though the designer had given way to a
spirit of mischief and introduced some
little parting touch— with the eorner of her
mouth upturned the while. "
Some fashions were surely never evolved
but as a joke. Why else did women ever
have leg-o mutton sleeves, or beehive hats,
or adopt that present-day vogue of the
absurd yet rather fascinating monkey fur '/
Why else did we have -hats trimmed with
feathers like a spaniel's tail, or carry "tar-
got". sunshades '! Evidently it has. ahvays
been -tbe custom to smile at the fashions of
the past. We moderns are improving on
this. We are smiling at tho fashions of
the present — mid wearing them 1
Manifold are the reasons that have been
advanced as to why women take the in
terest they do in dress. "To please men"
is the hoariest of the group.
If that "were true there would be thou
sands of women with liour-glass waists
wearing tailor made:; "fitting like a riding
habit." There would be thousands more
in wliite muslin or "pile pink, soft, clinging
material," with a colored sash and a simple
picture hat.
But there aren't, because women only
dress to please a man when they are in
love with him. '
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