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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 1922)
2 THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND. OCTOBER 8. 1922 Corset Factories Are Now Working Hull Time and the Demand Is . for Constantly De creasing Sizes. o . 23? fc!CTfc'Wviy iWiWvl W MMV t V&tS 1 in bowknois.. WUlJh, new oMhion demand ch.afectationf v " -I iiV'IWtl5i W rAv' W -A . ' : ' . '-2 ' IV'" ... BawaMMaiffliaiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiliiiiiiii kn liMIMHI1 "Girls cannot dance properly with the ' fy i I body bound. The benefit of the exercise ' ,. ,, J f - i j lies la free play of muscles which pro- f ' J r '"T , ' I f" st ' ' ' ' jh I ducebdomlnal development and to ere- i I -4 W C' 4": atecondiUon. for better motherhood by j. V ' - -J?7"-' ViT lli 11 "The notion that the feminine figure j teifS.?r , i J T- """ - -r-ii must be encased and distorted for beauty ? Irene Bordoni, famous fashion figure, who says: " We shall have walking barrels, not women, on the streets of , New. York and Paris if the corsefless form is continued . BY WINIFRED VAN DUZER. VR flapper bless her bobbed and rolled-down little heart is through. Up stage and out of the tright light, to figure only as a past fac tor in the continued action of the per petual feminine comedy. Or perhaps she will assume the important place of climax and turning point who knows? Anyway she is going; up stage and exit right. A lithe shape, down in the pro gramme as! athletic woman, moves out reluctantly at her side. She is the grace ful creature of flat hips and boyish form; the incarnation of panther-like freedom of limb and muscle. But she, too, is on lier way; up stage and exit left. And in the center, all poised and ready to move forward in triumph, there waits guess who? Why, the limp lily, the drooping,dove, the femaleish feminine of great-grandmamma'B day, with hips like a geography lesson in globe measurement and waist like the twisted-in portion of a sack of peanuts! For the waistline is coming back! It la easing in by degrees, craftily as it eased out of existence years ago. It Is bringing along its companions and sup porters, chiefest among these being Old ( Ironsides. And the last-named person age is supplied, say those who know, with an unusually strong set of whale bone and steel stays, and a long, long pair of draw strings. It is from a wholly practical source that the players in the feminine comedy are taking their cue. So the announce ment in a financial review by the manu facturer of corsets when these articles iiot only have come back but that they re appearing in constantly decreasing aizej, settles the matter so far as the American woman is concerned! Waistlines that averaged 28 and ran as high as 30 and 32 without detracting from the grace of the women they be longed to are shrinking to 23 Inches. And the very newest corsets are being put out in sizes of 21 and 22! Together with this announcement, one manufac turer declares that orders for all kinds ot corsets are increasing! There was a time, two or three gener ations back, when the test of figure of the lovely bride was the ability of the bridegroom to span her waistline inside the circle of his, thumbs and middle ringers. Perhaps this is to be the stand ard of beauty in the 1923 form. If It is, how some of the women who have frol icked through golf and swimming and all the other devices that develop muscle are going to struggle! Not only will Miss Modernism be cbliged to drop most of her mid-rlff stur diness, but she will be forced to learn a , new walk. Imagine, oh yearner after chose "good old days," any humaa wo- m " V Seven ages of style (1870't922). The masqueraders are (left to right): Mrs. F. R. Martin, society woman, 1396; Mrs. H. M. McDonald, woman of 1896; Mrs. W. A. D earing, woman of 1890; Mrs. '. M. Lincoln, Miss 1921; Mrs. A.M. Bridge, woman of 1870; Mrs: JR. M. Wood, woman 6f 1878; Mrs. W. H, Lindsay, .woman of 1900. man dodging the rush hour with grand mamma's mincing steps! It likewise presages a revolution Of amusements. Instead of playing tennis Miss Eighteen-inch-waist probably Will confine her physical exertions to lan guishing a fan. Emotional expression will be changed. Women will be obliged to take to fainting again to register pain cr joy. The waltx will figure as some what rough and tumble. The smaller he waistline the more likely it is that the minuet will return. Dr. Adolph Lorenz, the Viennese sur geon, stated, upon the occasion of his visit to this country recently, that the right sort of corset is an aid to female well-being. He made It very plain, how ever, that stays must be selected warily . snd worn with care. "The young girl does not need them," he said. "For older women the corset designed on 'common sense' lines some times forms a support for the vital or gans. The one that is a perfect fit, and worn loosely, prevents spinal troubles." But this alas for the new waistline vogue! means no encouragement for the squeezed-in method by which that curious concavity is obtained! And to controvert his theory comes Dr. Mary Halton, ' eminent specialist on wo men's ailments, modernist, and leader of feminine progress. She indorses the flapper, stands for all the athletic sports which develop women's bodies, and em phatically strikes out stays of any de scription, which she characterizes as a "relic of female bondage." Dr. Halton ' was one of the champions of unlaced dancing. She explained it this way: "Every sensible doctor will tell girls tc play, and particularly to dance, with their corsets off, if they wish health. "The fad for checking corsets outside ballrooms is the most commendable one the day and age produced. "Girls cannot dance properly with the body bound. The benefit of the exercise lies in free play of muscles which produce-abdominal development and to cre ate conditions for better motherhood by and by. "The notion that the feminine figure must be encased and distorted for beauty or for the sake of decency is a neurotic one. Fancy the Venus de Milo wearing a set of stays!" And another" physician. Dr. Kristlne Mann, offered an opinion which would indicate her theory to be about the lame in that she advanced it a few years ago before the athletic waistline became uni versal and when she found it necessary to criticise the uncorseted figure. She said: "The American girl is a rotten physical specimen. Of the girls working in de partment stores, 35 percent have diges tive troubles and 85 per cent have some thing the matter with their, backs. And a group of well-to-do American daughters will show just as many physical defects as the poor working girls!" Dr. Mann, a member of the health committee of the Women's Municipal league, at the time she mad this state medt, was medical director of the Depart ment Store Education association, in which Mrs. Edward Hewitt and Miss Anne Morgan were interested, and so was able to make physical examinations of hundreds of girls from all classes. She said further: "Compared with the women developed by the Greek civilization, even with 1 Our flapper is through. The limp tHy, the drooping dove . . . of great-' grandmamma's day is about to return." modern Scandinavian and German wo men, American girls are in bad shape. There are not more than eight to fifteen girls in every hundred that have flat, straight, normal backs. Out of the re maining 85 some backs hollow In too abruptly at the waist; others show lat eral curves of which the visible effect Is rounded shoulders or one shoulder high er than the other." However, the two fashion figures and professional beauties, Irene DordonI and Mae. Maurice de Rothschild, raise their plea for the corset. Miss Bordoni Is trying to rescue wo men from what she calls the "jelly-fish condition," due, she says, to absence of rtays. She declares that without them we soon will have "walking barrels, not women. In New York and Ferls." Madame seems to believe divorce and absence of corsets go together. "If you want your husband to stay at home, wear corsets," Is her advice. "Hus bands, tired after their day's work, are not satisfied to come home and look at corpulent wives. So they go elsewhere to find more pleasing feminine com panionship." This little French lady is heading a movement in Paris which alms to provide corsets free to workmen's helpmeets TIMID GIRL STANDS LITTLE CHANCE TO WIN SOCIALLY Spirit of Go-Ahead Necessary if Woman la to Make Large Circle of Enduring Friends. s EVERAti are the reasons for social unpopularity, writes Edith Johnson Jn the Kansas City Star. A timid girl stands small chance in . an era of aggressive womanhood when girls and women take the initiative in courting, when they get .up the dances, promote all kinds of outings and take the men about in their motor cars. A girl of today faces two alternatives unless she is extraor dinarily attractive or will have a dowry from her father's estate. She must accept the spirit and custom of the times, mak ing her own way socially as a man for merly made his, or she will sit at home and twirl her thumbs. Then sometimes the brightest girl in the crowd will not find favor with her associates, for ordi nary minds have a way of resenting su periority they find it disconcerting, op pressive and boresome from their point of view. Not infrequently it happens that this same girl who was a bit too clever for her young circle has a very good time in later life. The qualities that alienated the associates of her girlhood win for her a flattering popularity after she is 30 years of age. Her younger friends Could not appreciate the wit, the intelli gence, the kindness of heart, the gen erosity which greatly endear her to asso ciates in middle life. Chief Cause of Failure Cited. The chief cause for social failure, I am convinced, is lack of social enterprise. No woman seed live without a pleasant so cial circle, if she has the energy and ini tiative to form one, together with some leisure and a little money to spend. She need not wait in these days of the "go- getter" fpr others to create a social at mosphere for her she can do that for herself. When the women in a certain group organize a club and leave out one of thetr number, the latter will do one of two things, provided, of course, that she cares. She will brood over the slight and take out her displeasure in talking about it or she will brace up and, look ing about her, organize a club of her own. This has happened again and again in all strata of society. After a few years, the second climb may dominate and absorb the first one, to the amazement of its founders. Go-Ahead Spirit Is Required. So many are the cultural and civic op portunities open to women nowadays that no woman should be hampered by a sense of social helplessness. If a woman is not Invited into those circles where she longs to eee and be seen, she would better attend some of the affairs for which she requires no invitation, but where she can scrape acquaintance with congenial women whom, if she is clever, she may win for her social friends. Many a better-babies movement, swat- the-fly campaign or Americanization pro gramme has been turned to tha most satisfying social uses, and why should not that be so? Getting Into society Is like any other worldly undertaking It requires the spirit of go-ahead. No woman, unless be be a celebrity, dares to sit down and fold her hand while society of Its own accord makes a place for her. If you will watch any successful so ciety woman, you will discover that she is a clever saleswoman, and that those who seek and follow her are "sold," as we say, on the value of having ber friendship, on the delightful character of her entertainments and on the desira bility of having her as a girest ia their homes. Cobbler Finds $ loo la a fthoe. WARSAW, Ind Thomas Ross, Wi nona Lake, placed flOO In bills and reveral checks inside one of his shoes for safekeeping. Then he west to Florida snd forgot all shout the bills and cheeks. While repairing a pair of shoes for Rom', a Wsmsw cobbler dlncovered the greenbacks and checks and turned them over to the owner.