MODELS

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WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB >>

blood. The crude colour of the national costume and the sharp contrast in the folk

music are equally expressions of national character, the various art expressions of

which open up countless enticing vistas.

The contemplation of some of these vistas leads one to the conclusion that woman

decorative is so, either as an artist (that is, in the mastery of the science of line and

colour, more or less under the control of passing fashion), or in the abandonment to

the impulse of an untutored, unconscious, child of nature. Both can be beautiful; the

art which is so great as to conceal conscious effort by creating the illusion of

spontaneity, and the natural unconscious grace of the human being in youth or in

the primitive state.

CHAPTER XXVII

MODELS

N historical interest attaches to fashions in women's costuming, which

the practised eye is quick to distinguish, but not always that of the

novice. Of course the most casual and indifferent of mortals recognises

the fact when woman's hat follows the lines of the French officer's cap, or

her coat reproduces the Cossack's, with even a feint at his cartridge belt; but such

echoes of the war are too obvious to call for comment.

PLATE XXXII

Madame Geraldine Farrar as Carmen.

In each of the three presentations of Madame

Farrar we have given her in character, as

suggestions for stage costumes or costume

balls. (By courtesy of Vanity Fair.)

Courtesy of Vanity Fair

Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine

It is one of the missions of art to make subtle the obvious, and a distinguished

example of this, which will illustrate our theme,--history mirrored by dress,--was

seen recently. One of the most famous among the great couturières of Paris, who

has opened a New York branch within two years, having just arrived with her

Spring and Summer models, was showing them to an appreciative woman, a patron

of many years. It is not an exaggeration to say that in all that procession of

costumes for cool days or hot, ball-room, salon, boudoir or lawn, not one was

banal, not one false in line or its colour-scheme. Whether the style was Classic

Greek, Mediæval or Empire (these prevail), one felt the result, first of an artist's

instinct, then a deep knowledge of the pictorial records of periods in dress, and to

crown all, that conviction of the real artist, which gives both courage and discretion

in moulding textiles,--the output of modern genius, to the purest classic lines. For

example, one reads in every current fashion sheet that beads are in vogue as

garniture for dresses. So they are, but note how your French woman treats them.

Whether they are of jet, steel, pearl or crystal, she presses them into service as so

much colour, massing them so that one is conscious only of a shimmering,

clinging, wrapped-toga effect, à la Grecque, beneath the skirt and bodice of which

every line and curve of the woman's form is seen. Evidently some, at least, are to be

gleaming Tanagras. Even a dark-blue serge, for the motor, shopping or train, had

from hips to the bust parallel lines of very small tube-like jet beads, sewn so close

together that the effect was that of a shirt of mail.

The use of notes of vivid colour caught the eye. In one case, on a black satin

afternoon gown, a tiny nosegay of forget-me-not blue, rose-pink and jessamine-

white, was made to decorate the one large patch-pocket on the skirt and a lapel of

the sleeveless satin coat. Again on a dinner-dress of black Chantilly lace, over

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