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kkfrWW-l '-W," ' HOW ABOUT THE LOW NECKS AND THE HIGH SKIRTS OF FASHION? Every so often the need of dress reform in America-penetrates to the press from whispers fir-women's club circles, and for a little while the hell of doom seems about to ring on the slimsy skirt and the peek-a-boo waist, the whalebone torture and the high heels "When the agitation has sim mered down we discover that the re form consists in women wearing high collars to protect their throats and cutting off six inches of their skirts, so that the cold winds blow on silken hose, and when needy reform stops at the top it is needed at the bottom, or vice versa. In Europe the feminist movement has quetly gone about reform in women's dress on a systematic basis that is slowly but surely emancipat ing the sex from its slavery to fa shion. German feminists have organized the German Union for the New Clothing for Women and Women's Culture, with branches in 26 Euro pean cities and a journal edited by Clara Sanders and Else Wirminghaus. The society holds a congress every two years; it sends out literature; it gives lectures and it spreads abroad constantly the propoganda of dress reform. The executive committee of 1913 sent out a statement to women in every woman's journal The state ment explained to the women of Ger many that in the midst of a troubled period when many" were uncertain of their daily bread the tendenoy to lux ury had increased, especially in wom en's clothes, and it concluded: "The fashion industry, with its allies of the press, its cleverly plan ned exhibits and seductive fashion plates, speculates upon the intellec tual immaturity of women and ex ploits their lack of the understanding of sound economics." Reform in women's dress had to start hygenically with theabQlition,Qf the whalebone torture, and when women consented to put aside corsets it was found that their back and ab dominal muscles were so weakened by the long usage of a whalebone support that it seemed the slavery of: the corset could never be done away with. The feminists used strategy to solve the problem. They began to reconstruct women. They introduc-s ed and encouraged Swedish gymnas tics, a series of exercises to develop the muscles; they backed physical culture clubs; they encouraged ski skating as a sport in winter and mountain climbing in summer and' they were ardent supporters of th& classic dances of Isadora Duncan in her Grecian costumes. Though it seems a radical depart ure to have emancipated women from the slavery of the whalebone,, it is as radical, from the viewpoint of the cartoonist, to have emanci pated woman from the slavery of the dress that she could not fasten her self, but, even this has been accom- plished. One of the modern dress forms was devised by Hedwig Buschmann in Berlin. She takes a piece of goods, cuts a square or round hole for the neck, puts a girdle around the waist and the costume is finished. There is also the shift form which opens in' the front and the one-piece dress that does away with the separate skirt that had to fit tightly around the waist. Beauty has not been sacrificed in the dress reform. Great latitude is allowed for individual tastes, but it is agreed that the rational dress must allow breathing space and free limb movement, consequently the tape- measure is no longer drawn tight about the flexible parts of. the bodj but the dressmaker loosely measure after milady had inflated her lung and she winds the tape about theiic lirf-(-i:2fu uiAjL'tH.- AJf-A, i.-, m