can do this in Summer and Winter
alike, and with dancing frocks, tea gowns, negligees and even sport
suits. That is, if you have smart, up-to-date models to copy.

One woman we know bought the finest quality jersey cloth by the yard,
and had a little dressmaker copy exactly a very expensive skirt and
sweater. It seems incredible, but she saved on a ready made suit exactly
like it forty dollars, and on one made to measure by an exclusive house,
one hundred dollars! Remember, however, that there was an artist back of
it all and someone had to pay for that perfect model, to start with. In
the case we cite, the woman had herself bought the original sport suit
from an importer who is always in advance with Paris models.

If you cannot buy the designs and workmanship of artists, take advantage
of all opportunities to see them; hats and gowns shown at openings, or
when your richer friends are ordering. In this way you will get ideas to
make use of and you will avoid looking home-made, than which, no more
damning phrase can be applied to any costume. As a matter of fact it
implies a hat or gown lacking an artist's touch and describes many a one
turned out by long-established and largely patronised firms.

PLATE III

A Greek vase. Dionysiac scenes about 460 B.C.
Interesting costumes. (Metropolitan Museum.)

[Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
_Woman on Greek Vase_]

The only satisfactory copy of a Fortuny tea gown we have ever seen
accomplished away from the supervision of Fortuny himself, was the
exquisite hand-work of a young American woman who lives in New York, and
makes her own gowns and hats, because her interest and talent happen to
be in that direction. She told a group of friends the other day, to whom
she was showing a dainty chiffon gown, posed on a form, that to her, the
planning and making of a lovely costume had the same thrilling
excitement that the painting of a picture had for the artist in the
field of paint and canvas. This same young woman has worked constantly
since the European war began, both in London and New York, on the
shapeless surgical shirts used by the wounded soldiers. In this, does
she outrank her less accomplished sisters? Yes, for the technique she
has achieved by making her own costumes makes her swift and economical,
both in the cutting of her material and in the actual sewing and she is
invaluable as a buyer of materials.

CHAPTER II

THE LAWS