The Summer Skirt in Its Manifold Variations 1922

The Skirt and the Blouse Charmingly Allied
(Below) A skirt of green Roshanara. Nathan Schuss & Co,
Peasant blouse of heavy crepe de chine. E. & J. Weinberg
(Centre) The skirt is combining white Canton crepe with black broadcloth border in points. John Bonwit Skirt Co.
Tailored blouse of Truhu with openwork tubular trimming. Jacobs-Wechsler, Inc,
(Extreme right) Vividly plaided light-weight velour skirt. David Crystal Co.
Tailored blouse of Radium with flutings stitched in black. Nelscraft, Inc.
Hats by Meyer & Edelson

Novelty Silks, Eponge and Flannels for Sports and Semi-Sports Wear

The designer of skirts has learned the secret of "follow-up" and is coming forth with fabrics for Summer skirts inspired by favored Spring versions. In the wake of the wool homespun comes a lightweight silk homespun with its suggestion of the rough surface of the original. It comes in many shades and lends itself entirely to the current fringed wrap-around mode.

A light tan silk homespun is shown by one house, marked by two rows of inch-wide black grosgrain ribbon drawn through broad slashes of the fabric, a few inches above the lower edge. The pocket flaps show a similar ribbon treatment.

Though collections of silk skirts for Summer are still quite incomplete, the indications are that novelty Canton crepes, and Roshanara will lead. A novelty among the Cantons is achieved by crossbars of a contrasting color consisting of silk strands varying in thickness and seemingly attached employing threads but in reality, woven in.

Copen crossbars of this type on a grey ground animate an unusually beautiful skirt which requires no other embellishment, not even pockets. Checks are suggested in another variety of Canton which introduces tiny woven-in blocks in contrasting colors as jade upon white, black upon white and all other combinations that are projected by the sweaters which promise to top many a silk skirt.

The white Canton skirt is animated by color in the form of wide inserted sections of jade or other high colors, extending, in one instance, from the hipline to the hemline.

Accordion pleats bring this contrast out gracefully and emphatically, as also does the long white sash tied in a bow at the waistline and falling in ends with deep jade borders.

Roshanara with many ingenious embroidered effects fashions attractive skirts, usually in the wrap-around mode. One white Roshanara skirt noted was trimmed with stripes of French knots in black floss, each of these vertical stripes terminating in a giant spiral of French knots.

Another of the Roshanara crepe revealed an elaborate border at the lower edge worked in floss and cotton thread in extraordinary shades on an orange ground.

Thoro-Bred with its different chenille stripes marked by narrow central lines of black, navy, gold or purple is an ideal fabric for the white skirt with just a touch of color.

Rajah silk with Baronet satin luster offers itself when a more elaborate skirt is required. In turquoise with a silver sheen, a skirt of this newer fabric suggests gored lines with three small picot edged bows of self-fabric punctuating the top of the left closing line, which is denned by a deep inverted pleat from waistline to lower edge.

Satin striped Roshanara interprets this particular mode with equal success.

Another medium for the comfort bringing wrap-around type is silk pongee in white and in a natural tone. With the question of fabric weight eliminated and with maximum ease assured by the styling, these pongee skirts should prove a boon to the Summer girl devoted to outdoor sports.

The Éponge Skirt in Demand In all white, in white with colored borders accenting the lower edge and the closing line, in extraordinary shades and vivid stripe effects, éponge skirts make their way into every skirt collection.

Beige, however, seems to be the favored tone both as a ground tone for animated stripes and as a plain tone.

On a white éponge skirt, a different border is introduced depicting conventional floral motifs in jade on white; the entire border made up of small loops of floss. Similar borders are shown in other high shades, also on white.

In the lightweight woolen skirts basket weave cloth in two tones, mixtures of wool and silk and such novelty fabrics as Golfana Cloth, an imported soft wool in white and high shades, are offered. Self-fringing is especially good on these somewhat open weaves.

Flannel as Skirt Fabric and Trimming

Flannel skirts in white, red, and jade are usually tailored, with the conventional trim cut-in pockets and narrow belt closing with a pearl button. One skirt house, however, has found an effective way of further adding to the sports dash.

A red flannel skirt, exemplifying this handling to best advantage, shows crescent-shaped cut-in pockets and an applied band of white flannel covering some ten inches of the closing line, with loops of white silk lacing at right angles to the band. These lacings drawn through eyelets are, no doubt, inspired by middy lacings.

Flannel piping and facings are used to some extent as embellishing notes on other fabrics. On a green and white basket weave, the decorative pockets are accented by white flannel piping.

Again, on a novelty worsted fabric showing woven-in crossbars of white upon black, green or red grounds, the closing defining a sharply oblique closing line from waistline to hemline is accented by a turned-up bias fold of the white flannel facing.

In another instance, the white flannel facing is permitted to show as an inch-wide border at the lower edge and along one side.

The decorative vertical white flannel band with white lacings drawn through white eyelets is also utilized on some high shade novelty éponges, including jade, lavender, sand and rose.

Few Novel Trimming Effects

• The curious inch-wide interlacing of self-fabric form two geometric patch pockets on a gathered orange Canton crepe skirt.
• In deeper orange, an accordion pleated silk crepe skirt recently displayed showed the use of narrow black Val edging set on at the lower edge, and Val insertion applied a few inches above, the orange crepe showing through.
• Fringed skirts of Fisher Maid are rendered more ornate by delicate metal buckles in lace motifs on the pocket straps.
• Shell scallops, resembling those utilized on tailored blouses, appear in self-fabric along the left closing line and on an obliquely cut-in pocket of a diagonal homespun in laurel shade.

“The Summer Skirt in Its Manifold Variations: Novelty Silks, Éponge and Flannels for Sports and Semi-Sports Wear,” 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. 4, April 1922, p. 129.