Why The French Dress Well

The Frenen woman is acknowledged to have learned tho secret of drossing well beyond all of other nationalities, says a writer in The Cleveland Leader. Isolated cases, exceptions to the rule, prove tho statement. Some American wornenare these isolated cases, not all. Foreigners say that Americans are among the most captivating, and often the bestdressed women they meet, but this comes of conglomérate circumstances for which the women as a nation should take little credit. We are not yet tho best dressed women 111 tho world. But we are on tho road to that distinction. We have loarned the secret of being "bien chasse, bien gante." That is one great point gained. Another rule we are learning slowly, to preserve the street costume plain, the earriage or visiting toilet elabórate, and all efïulgence, so lo speak, of costume for the ball or toilets of high cereruony. These rules are being adhered to more and more with us, withal, we need that appearanco of the "fitness" of things that is never absent from the toilet of the French woman of fashion. And herein is tho secret, an open one to all. The American woman seos a material, is caught by its beauty, its colors, lts heavy folds, lts tilmy lightness, any of its attributes that please the eye, and she buys it. Then she looks up the styles, hunts for patterns, consults the modisto and gets it made often without knowing for what occasion she will need it. Tho French woniau is too wise for this. She has made the subject of dross too serious a matter of study. She notes and analyzes tho different kinds of treatment given by artists to drapory on tho femalo forms of their canvas. She studies her own height, shape, color, carriage, and natural movements. She keeps a list of tho probable and possible times and occasions which sho thinks she will need preparation for. and when the time arrivés for her to havo a now costume made she has its general appearance and its minor details all familiar to her mind, even to color and cost. Then, and not till then, she goes to the mart and selects tho material that comes the nearest she can lind or afford to realizo the conception of the costunio she wants. In other words tho American woman purchases her goods, then finds her pattern; tho French woman solects her pattern, then buys her goods. Let some of our lady readers vvho have never tested this matter see if our idea is not correct. If this French plan were oftener followed there would be fewer magnificent and beautifnl fabricsspoiledin themaking, by no fault of the dressmaker. The ncongruity in the effect of many of tho most magnificent toilets is due to tho fact that the "fitness of things has been lost sight of."