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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1914)
SECTION SIX Pages 1 to 8 MAGAZINE SECTION VOL. XXXIII. MRS. CHARLES H. ANTHONY'S contribution to the gaiety of life this summer has been to take a baggage car load of clothes made in Muncie, Ind., to Paris to show up French dressmakers. Once, only once remember, the silly season got by without Mrs. Anthony ad ding to its gaiety. She was away or sick or dead or something or it never would have happened. She returned, or got well or was raised from the dead or something after it was all over. Then she put a silly season of her own on. She packed her trunks and went to New York. When she got to New York she unpacked her trunks and went to a ball and at that ball she wore shoes that shocked New York silly. The shoes had high heels and the high heels were encrusted with diamonds as thick as they could be set. Society was shocked as it had never been shocked before by a woman out of the woolly West. The papers gave Mrs. Anthony reams of publicity. The Socialists and L W. W.'s got up in the public squares and shouted about "the diamond heels that were crushing the life out of the proletariat." Mrs. Anthony got all she wanted out of her diamond heels. The sensation was over as quickly as it had arisen. Mrs. Anthony rested on her laurels. She waited for the silly season of 1914 to come around. It came and Mrs. An thony came with it, primed with sensa tions to the muzzle. Again she went to New York. This time she took with her a baggage car full of trunks and when she had gath ered the New York reporters about her she told them the trunks were filled with gowns made by her Muncie, Ind., dressmaker with which she expected or rather hoped to shock Europe. She wore a few in New York just few enough to whet New York's appetite for more, And if the rest of the g wns are as violent in color and design as t e sam ples she showed there is no question that Europe will be shocked, though not per haps in the way that Mrs. Anthony would wish. And why does Mrs. Anthony do these things? The answer is not so easy to find. She comes from Indiana, the trans lation of which Is "the land of Indians." That may be one answer. She comes from Muncie in Indiana. And that may be another answer. Towns like Indian apolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend and even New Albany are down in the atlases for a paragraph or so of descriptive mat yier Gown1 p ter. Muncie is in the list of "other towns" and that is all the distinction it gets. Has Mrs. Anthony a patriotic desire to remedy this and is her civic pride so strong that it breaks her heart to see her own little town of Muncie unknown to the world? Perhaps. At any rate the fact remains that Muncie is getting all sorts of advertising, notoriety or fame, for better or worse, out of Mrs. Anthony. For nine months in the year Mrs. An thony remains in Muncie and the world neither hears nor cares about her or It Along about the tenth month Mrs. An thony bobs up. She comes Just at a time when the public is restless over the sane, serious and sensible, and is only too eager to have a moment's laugh over the sensational, the absurd and the friv olous. Hence Mrs. Anthony triumphs. Her baggage car full of trunks stocked with Muncie-made clothes for Paris wear arrived in New York Just at the psychological moment. It was a triumph for Mrs. Anthony. She had planned her arrival out to the second and was right on the crest of the silly season wave. In her trunks Mrs. Anthony has cos tumes de luxe, hats, gowns, slippers, jewels and frills, the like of which In loudness of color and craziness of design have seldom been seen on land or sea. She has a gown for every day and one for every dinner on the steamer, besides evening gowns, afternoon gowns, walk ing suits, motoring outfits, and train suits. She has satin and silk slippers to match every gown and dozens of pairs of delicately tinted kid slippers and the newest models in patent leathers. She has a hat for every gown and no two are similar in any way. Before sailing to shock Mr.- Poiret and others with her Muncie-made gowns, Mrs. Anthony left behind her in the ears of reporters some memorable words. "I love to attract attention by my clothes," she beamed. "I love to have persons turn around and look at me and know that I am Mrs. Anthony and that my clothes are made in Muncie. "The gown I shall wear on ship is a black and white striped taffeta, with an American beauty satin coatee. My hat is black with a feather around it and in the front there is an old fashioned rose. I dote on wearing a rose this way. "And I almost forgot. Don't forget PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, &UGUSS 9, Pari1 ! What Mrs. Anthony, of Muncie, Ind., Considers Proper Wardrobe List for One Year: Two hundred pairs of silk stockings Fifty pairs of gloves at $3.50 a pair; Fifty pairs of shoes at $15 a pair. Six. pairs of diamond shoes. One pair ruby shoes Three pairs of rhinestone-heeled sho.es . . Twenty-four silk petticoats at $10 each Seventy-five lace petticoats 1,875 Fifteen fans at $15 each. '. 225 Thirty afternoon gowns at $240 each.' ". . . .". . . ... 7,200 One black velvet gown, lj yards round 240 2,000 yards of ribbons, average price 50 cents 1,000 Twenty-five evening gowns at $400 each 10,000 Six beaded bags at $50 each 300 Fifteen negligees and kimonos 975 Four permanent sets of furs 7,000 Twenty tailored gowns at $125 each". 2,500 Forty hats at $125 each. . . . : . . 5,000 Lingerie 2,000 Other lingerie, not tabulated 2,000 Total $49,930 this: I will carry a most coquettish little parasol, only ten Inches wide, which is of American beauty satin and tilts over so you can see persons you want to see. "No, Indeed; I shall not wear any of my prize dresses aboard ship. They are going to be saved for Europe and my travels. But there will be plenty of ship gowns, traveling gowns. "What gown of all my wardrobe do I prefer? Why, I prefer one of lavender satin with a long tunic of every shade from lavender to red. The jacket also is of lavender, lined with brilliant green, and on the black hat are blue feathers. Oh, if you could see that costume you would be fond of It, too. "What sort of shoes go with it? Why, brown shoes. They exactly fit the color scheme. You know I have forty pairs of shoes boots, I call them. All are made by my Muncie bootmaker. They are perfect, all of them, and I shall wear them all through Europe." On one occasion recently Mrs. Anthony wore a startling gown that was described thus: Over a black and white striped taffeta dress the woman with the dia mond heels wore a scarlet coat, matching a hat equally brilliant. Beneath the scarlet hunting coat the bodice was a cloud of filmy, illusive, mysterious, pink tinted lace that made it hard to dis tinguish where fabric ended and flesh began. The diamond heels were Mrs. Arv coorrsioEX. ism. ' $ 400 175 750 7,500 400 450 240 r thony's biggest sensation, but recently she blossomed out with a diamond brace let that covered half her forearm with great gems, in fleur-de-lis shape, and then extended down over the hand to a marquise ring chain of diamonds, vary ing in size from one to three carats. And there have been gowns, hats and headdress that have made the populace sit up and take notice. Anything that is not at least a minute ahead of the very latest thing is to Mrs. ldtll si -OVK -VT I V Tflfflw !! tHIWMI i r T HIM Bfc WKW daai . mi Anthony so ancient that Cleopatra would have discarded it. Now It is a lorgnette, and it is some lorgnette that she has. Not that Mrs. Anthony needs a lorgnette, you know. Her eyes are just as bright and her complexion just as fresh and her figure just as trim as it ever was. Mrs. Anthony herself describes the lorgnette as a "nice little thing," but ad mits that It attracts a good deal of atten tion when she lifts it on its diamond and platinum chain and gazes through it at NO. 30. G 0hgtt u"oee 1000 Cuffoeioo. the world. It's rather a wonder the. the sparkle of the gems doesn't quit dazzle the wearer. The handle is solid platinum and on it are three diamonds of a size to confound a rajah. The chain of platinum is set at intervals very short intervals with large stones. The hand work alone upon the lorgnette cost a small fortune. "I do not agreo with certain society leaders and well dressed woman who call me extravagance personified," Bare the Muncie Sunburst. "Those women who find 'fault with me because I love beautiful dresses probably believe In the principle that money is not maae ror circulation. Did they ever consider that by spending my own money for hand some gowns and nice footwear, laces and other finery, I am giving employment to many people who are In need of employ ment? The more money I spend the bet ter for them. "I am proud of the fact that every one of my creations has been designed and made In America. My fair critics should call those women extravagant and unpatriotic who spend thousands abroad every year for their gowns In stead of giving our own modistes, tailors and dressmakers the work which they so richly deserve. Our American-made creations can successfully compete with the best models of Europe, and if I am spending a sum of money which, to cer tain people, seems extravagant, I spend it among my own countrymen, which Is probably more than they do. "I lose patience with American womea who go abroad for their dotting. My modiste visits foreign shops each rear and not only copies chic, new thiol there, but adds many original touchesof her own. My new armlet of llamnds was made by an American jeweller. One of my evening gowns of dell- at unri tnrnitninn in nn unric ht a .-lavmr artistic Indiana girl. "I love to feel when wearing ray pretty gowns that my buying them has given happiness to some American wom en, who, less fortunato than myself, must work for their living I inskt that a fair price be paid for my thing. I do not want any bargains In rlothea that must be paid for by the sweatshop labors and weary tears of my sisters who toll." Mrs. Anthony does not agree with the Federation of women's Clubs which re cently so sternly denounced ftmtnt fashions. .V