WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB
Every now and then a sex war is predicted, and sometimes started,
usually by woman, though some predicted that when the present European
war is over and the men come home to their civilian tasks, now being
carried on by women, man is going to take the initiative, in the sex
conflict. We doubt it. Without deliberate design to prove this
point,--that a complete collaboration of the sexes has always made the
wheels of the universe revolve, many of the illustrations studied showed
woman with man as decoration, in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and during later
periods.
The Legend of Life tells us that man can not live alone, hence woman;
and the Pageant of Life shows that she has played opposite with
consistency and success throughout the ages.
The Sunday issue of the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_ for March 25,
1917, has a headline, "Trousers vs. Skirts," and, continues Margaret
Davies, the author of the article:
"This war will change all things for European women.
Military service, of a sort, has come for them in both
France and England, where they are replacing men employed in
clerical and other non-combatant departments, including
motor driving. The moment this was decided upon in England,
it was found that 30,000 men would be released for actual
fighting, with prospects of the release of more than 200,000
more. What the French demand will be is not known as I
write, but it will equal that of England.
"How will these women dress? Will they be given military
uniforms short of skirt or even skirtless? Of course they
won't; but the world on this side of the ocean would not
gasp should this be done. War industry already has worked a
revolution.
"Study the pictures which accompany this article. They are a
new kind of women's 'fashion pictures'; they are photographs
of women dressed as European circumstances now compel them
to dress. Note the trousers, like a Turkish woman's, of the
French girl munitions workers. Thousands of girls here in
France are working in such trousers. Note the smart liveries
of the girls who have taken the places of male carriage
starters, mechanics and elevator operators, at a great
London shop. They are very natty, aren't they? Almost like
costumes from a comic opera. Well, they are not operatic
costumes. They are every-day working liveries. Girls wear
them in the most mixed London crowds--wear them because the
man-shortage makes it necessary for these girls to do work
which skirts do not fit. All French trams and buses have
'conductresses.'
"The coming of women cabmen in London is inevitable--indeed,
it already has begun. In Paris they have been established
sparsely for some time and have done well, but they have not
been used on taxis, only on the horse cabs.
"I have spent most of my time in Paris for some months now,
and have ridden behind women drivers frequently. They drive
carefully and well and are much kinder to their horses than
the old, red-faced, brutal French cochérs are. I like them.
They have a wonderful command of language, not always
entirely or even partially polite, but they are
accommodating and less greedy for tips than male drivers.
"At Selfridge's great store--the largest and most
progressive in London, operated on Chicago lines--skirtless
maidens are not rare enough to attract undue attention. The
first to be seen there, indeed, is not in the store at all,
but on the sidewalk, outside of it, engaged in the gentle
art of directing customers to and from their cars and cabs
and incidentally keeping the chauffeurs in order.
"An extremely pretty girl she is, too, with her frock-coat
coming to her knees, her top-boots coming to the coat, and
now and then, when the wind blows, a glimpse of loose
knickers. She tells me that she's never had a man stare at
her since she appeared in the new livery, although women
have been curious about it and even critical of it. Women
have done all the staring to which she has been subjected.
"Within the store, many girls engaged in various special
employments, are dressed conveniently for their work, in
perfectly frank trousers. Among these are the girls who
operate the elevators. There is no compromise about it.
These girls wear absolutely trousers every working hour of
every working day in a great public store, in a great
crowded city, rubbing elbows (even touching trousered knees,
inevitably) with hundreds of men daily.
PLATE XXXIII
Madame Geraldine Farrar. The value of line was admirably
illustrated in the opera "Madame Butterfly" as seen this
winter at the Metropolitan Opera House. Have you chanced to
ask yourself why the outline of the individual members of
the chorus was so lacking in charm, and Madame Farrar's so
delightful? The great point is that in putting on her
kimono, Madame Farrar kept in mind the characteristic
silhouette of the Japanese woman as shown in Japanese art;
then she made a picture of herself, and one in harmony with
her Japanese setting. Which brings us back to the keynote of
our book--_Woman as Decoration_--beautiful _Line_.
[Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by
Thelma Cudlipp_
_Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly_]
"And they like it. They work better in the new uniforms than
they used to in skirts and are less weary at each day's end.
And nobody worries them at all. There has not been the
faintest suspicion of an insult or an advance from any one
of the thousands of men and boys of all classes whom they
have ridden with upon their 'lifts,' sometimes in dense
crowds, sometimes in an involuntary tête-à-tête.
"Other employments which girls follow and dress for
bifurcatedly in this great and progressive store are more
astonishing than the operation of elevators. A charming
young plumber had made no compromise whatever with
tradition. She was in overalls like boy plumbers wear,
except that her trousers were not tight, but they were well
fitted. A little cap of the same material as the suit,
completed her jaunty and attractive costume. And cap and
suit were professionally stained, too, with oil and things
like that, while her small hands showed the grime of an
honest day's competent, hard work.
"The coming summer will see an immense amount of England's
farming done by women and, I think, well done. Organisations
already are under way whereby women propose to help decrease
the food shortage by intelligent increase of the chicken and
egg supply, and this is being so well planned that
undoubtedly it will succeed. Eggs and chickens will be
cheap in England ere the summer ends.
"I have met three ex-stenographers who now are at hard work,
two of them in munition factories (making military engines
of death) and one of them on a farm. I asked them how they
liked the change.
"'I should hate to have to go back to work in the old long
skirts,' one replied. 'I should hate to go back to the old
days of relying upon some one else for everything that
really matters. But--well, I wish the war would end and I
hope the casualty lists of fine young men will not grow
longer, day by day, as Spring approaches, although everybody
says they will.'
"Mrs. John Bull takes girls in pantaloons quite calmly and
approvingly, now that she has learned that if there are
enough of them, dad and the boys will pay no more attention
to them in trousers than they would pay to them in skirts."
We have preferred to quote the exact wording of the original article,
for the reason that while the facts are familiar to most of us, the
manner of putting them could not, to our mind, be more graphic. Some
day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who
again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such
data will amuse.
That the women of Finland make worthy members of their parliament does
not prove anything outside of Finland. That the exigencies of the
present hour in England have made women equal to every task of men so
far entrusted to them, proves much for England. Women, like men, have
untold, untried abilities within them, women and men alike are
marvellous under fire--capable of development in every direction. What
human nature has done it can do again, and infinitely more under the
pressure of necessity which opens up brain cells, steels the heart,
hardens the muscles, and like magic fire, licks up the dross of
humanity, aimlessly floating on the surface of life, awaiting a leader
to melt and mould it at Fate's will into clearly defined personalities,
ready to serve. This point has been magnificently proved by the war now
waging in Europe.
Let us repeat; that from the beginning the story of woman's costuming
proves her many-sidedness, the inexhaustible stock of her latent
qualities which, like man's, await the call of the hour.
IN CONCLUSION
The foregoing chapters have aimed at showing the decorative value of
woman's costume as seen in the art of Egypt, Greece, Gothic Europe,
Europe of the Renaissance and during the seventeenth, eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. To prove the point that woman is a telling note in
the interior decoration of to-day, the vital spark in any setting, we
have not dwelt upon the fashions so much as decorative line,
colour-scheme and fitness for the occasion.
It is costume associated with caste which interests us more than folk
costume. We have shown that it is the modern insistence on efficiency
that has led to appropriate dress for work and recreation, and that our
idea of the chic and the beautiful in costume is based on
_appropriateness_. Also we have shown that line in costumes is in part
the result of one's "form"--the absolute control of the body, its
"carriage," poise of the head, action of legs, arms, hands and feet, and
that form means successful effort in any direction, because through it
the mind may control the physical medium.
It is the woman who knows what she should wear, what she can wear and
how to wear it, who is most efficient in whatever she gives her mind to.
She it is who will expend the least time, strength and money on her
appearance, and be the first to report for duty in connection with the
next obligation in the business of life.
Therefore let us keep in mind a few rules for the perfect costuming of
woman:
Appropriateness for each occasion so as to get efficiency,
or be as decorative as possible.
Outline.--Fashion in silhouette adapted to your own type.
Background.--Your setting.
Colour scheme.--Fashionable colours chosen and combined to
express your personality as well as to harmonise with the
tone of setting, or, if preferred, to be an agreeable
contrast to it.
Detail.--Trimming with _raison d'être_,--not meaningless
superfluities.
It is, of course, understood that the attainment of _beauty_ in the
costuming of woman is our aim when stating and applying the foregoing
principles.
The art of interior decoration and the art of costuming woman are
occasionally centred in the same individual, but not often. Some of the
most perfectly dressed women, models for their less gifted sisters, are
not only ignorant as to the art of setting their stage, but oblivious of
the fact that it may need setting.
Remember, that while an inartistic room, confused as to line and
colour-scheme can absolutely destroy the effect of a perfect gown, an
inartistic, though costly gown can likewise be a blot on a perfect room.