Spring Skirts Stress Novelty Fabrics - January 1922

Crepes, Creponge, Homespun and Knitted Fabrics in High Colors

Collections of Spring skirts prove beyond a doubt that more thought has gone into the designing and fabric ends of skirts than ever before. There is something almost bewildering in the spectacle of the skirt world with its vivid colorings, new fabrics with strange names and endless versatility.

Skirts are rising to all occasions, anticipating the excellent sportswear season and reflecting general tendencies marking other departments of apparel. The call of the out-of-doors has been answered by the utilization of interesting rough-surface fabrics from Mutton Skin to every variety of homespun and tweed.

The general interest in peasant motifs may be satisfied by curious new knitted fabrics such as Bucharesta and Czechoknit. The demand for semi-sportswear is met by useful creponge skirts as well as the usual novelty silks.

In general, skirts are one or two inches longer than they were last season. The pleatless and pleated modes are both strongly featured despite the threatened abolition of the latter earlier in the season.

The novelty crepes are still loyal to the pleated mode, which in many cases brings out the beauty of the fabric much more effectively than the pleatless fashion could.

As Sports Wear Looms Today

As Sports Wear Looms Today

Knitted togs newly conceived introduce exciting hats as part of their ensemble. This modish white felt is worn above a knitted sweater-jacket of white with paddock green collar and cuffs. Green lines plaid the white skirt was so effectively worn by Julia Faye of the Paramount Pictures force.

Crepes Again to the Fore

Crepes are to dominate the silk group again with new weaves to strengthen their position. Among the new crepes are Follow-Through and Spiral Crepe, both of which lend themselves well to inverted box-pleating.

Spiral Crepe is especially striking when stripes or crossbars of black and white are introduced, or when an embroidered motif appears above the hem to form a border. Cambridge crepe is also elaborately embroidered with deep scallops marking the lower edge and making, on the whole, a rather elaborate Summer skirt.

Roshanara, either in one tone or figured, fashions some beautiful skirts. A favorite mode in this group is that calling for an embellishment defining the left closing line and continuing around the lower edge, as several rows of soutache applied to jade or tangerine Roshanara.

This same mode is successfully exemplified in pleatless skirts of silk ratine, the trimming note, in one instance, taking the form of a border of black and white floss embroidery.

Canton crepe with an all-over Paisley motif and one-tone Canton showing a deep border affected by tufts of chenille in self-color are exciting mediums for the gathered mode with a tie girdle as the finishing touch.

One is beginning to look to the lower edge as the place for unique embellishments in the form of borders and is not surprised to find tinted ribbozene applied in the relief forming crossbars on a tangerine Canton Crepe and a black broadcloth border in points on a white Canton skirt.

In addition to crepes, novelty silks include Baronet satin, Country Club sports satin, which numbers a giant checkerboard effect among its damask-like motif possibilities, and Sport-Spun, one variety of which displays groups of lustrous jade discs on jade and white ground.

While Baronet satin, usually in white and sometimes in the pastel shades, is fashioned into straight-line gathered skirts finished with a narrow belt and a pearl button, the other two fabrics invite box and knife pleating and insist on a tie-over sash.

Creponge Semi-Sports Skirts

Creponge gives promise of large-scale popular approval, both because of its attractive texture and its fondness for high colors. A vivid border of American beauty outlines' the lower edge and forms the belt of a white knife-pleated creponge skirt, while still another white creponge is animated by a purple border, and glimpses of purple beneath the vertical pocket slit of the cut-in pockets.

Scarlet in its brightest moods is not too bright for creponge. An all red skirt shows tiny tailored bows of self-fabric accenting the vertical pocket slits. The same idea is carried out in henna and white.

A black creponge shows inserted stripes of orange which extend from the lower edge to the hip line where small tailored bows of the orange mark the transition between the orange and the black. The tie-sash of black terminates in double bars of orange.

Blazer striped creponge of white combined with all the high colors of the season are also noted, while figured creponge appears, setting off stripes of thin-line navy crossbars on a white ground.

Homespun, Tweeds and Other Novelty Wool Fabrics

Homespun support creponge in the projection of striking color combinations. This is true of all qualities from the very finest, as exemplified in a favored red and white mixture, which in many cases is trimmed with white fringes of the fabric, to the coarsest varieties among which abound such combinations as orange and jade checks and wide jade stripes bisected by thin lavender stripes on an orange background.

The tweeds show bright heather mixtures on neutral grounds. Frequently a bright color in the heather peers forth in flannel piping down one side and around pocket flaps.

Among the other wool fabrics used for sports skirts are wool ratiné and diagonal sports cloth, both of which come in red, jade and white; wool Canton in tan, taupe and white; a silky quality of checked velour especially useful in tan with red and yellow crossbars; navy Prunella with high color creponge stripes; brown Mutton Skin with its novelty surface; grey and white Kasha cloth; light-weight natural-tone polo cloth; striped Bedford cord and striped silk duvetyn.

Colorful Knitted Fabrics

Separate skirts for Spring depend for their distinctiveness upon unique fabrics. There is an extensive vocabulary of new fabric names to master. It's true, some of the silk novelties appear at first glance to be new in name only, but then there are some real novelties in the knitted fabric class to justify part of the new vocabulary.

In this last class are:

  • Stripe-knit, combining two tones of silk stripes.
  • Brush-knit, showing bright crossbars on dark grounds.
  • Bucharesta knit, with rows of small triangles massed in vivid peasant hues on white and colors.
  • Czechoknit, displaying such alliances as brown wool stripes alternating with Roman stripes in silk.

“Spring Skirts Stress Novelty Fabrics: Crepes, Creponge, Homespuns and Knitted Fabrics in High Colors,” in The American Cloak and Suit Review: Devoted to the Women’s and Children’s Ready-to-Wear Trades, New York: John M. O’Connor & Co., Vol. XXIII, No. 1, January 1922, p. 136-137.

Note: We have edited this text to correct grammatical errors and improve word choice to clarify the article for today’s readers. Changes made are typically minor, and we often left passive text “as is.” Those who need to quote the article directly should verify any changes by reviewing the original material.

 

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