POIRET VS. THE WOMEN

Source: The Literary Digest for November 12, 1927

American women have seemed to stage a Waterloo for Monsieur Paul Poiret, the acknowledged king of the art of women’s clothes. He comes to us with complaints that they will not change their taste. Having put them in shorts, he now wants longs. But the women seem to have departed from his leadership, and the Philadelphia Record analyzes his plight:

“One of the oldest battles known to the fair sex has been that eternally waged between fashion and comfort. Of old, styles were notoriously uncomfortable. The smart clothes of the day were either too tight or too loose in the wrong places, or they were too long, and in other ways interfered with the free movement of the wearer. Did the dressmakers relent? Not at all. They simply offered a new style which by its difference distracted attention from the discomforts of the old; yet it had discomforts of its own which in time were perceived and caused demand for another new style, and so on. Thus the makers of clothing were kept busy, and profitably so.

“But of late women have desired more comfortable garments, threatening disobedience to the tenets of style. They have gained ground, and to-day’s garb is about as free from distortions as could be. Clothing is not too tight, too narrow, too bulky, nor does it scratch, speaking, of course, from a feminine point of view. Perhaps it does err on the ground of going to the other extreme beyond the actual requirements of comfort, but that is a characteristic of all rebellions.

“Styles in the last five years have not changed greatly, at least in that time no radically different garments have been seriously adopted by womankind. Very probably the reason is that they have at last found garments which may be worn with-out distress, either local or general. . . .

“Not only have present fashions had a long run, but a still longer one is predicted, because they are based on sound principles. Of course, they are becoming, but so is every fashion of the moment, and other generations claimed an outstanding beauty for their own modes, not without cause.”