The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 4/Number 11/A touch of Slovak Beauty

by Sara Marshall Cook Keefer

A TOUCH OF SLOVAK BEAUTY.

By Sara Marshall Cook.

Among the novelties that have been launched for the fall are a number of dresses and coats that show the peasant embroideries of Czechoslovakia. This idea was first exploited by Jeanne Lanvin at her August openings in 1919, but at that time this maker was entirely alone in using distinctly Czechoslovak patterns and colorings. Since then many other dressmakers have taken up the idea, and now the fashion is in full swing. This is an interesting example of the way in which a fashion, if good, will live, no matter how extreme it may appear. It may not endure in its original form, perhaps because of its extremeness, but its offsprings are met for many a day. So few worthy ideas are brought out that dressmakers are not willing to let a really good thing escape.

We prophesied when this style first appeared that it would have a remarkable influence on fashion for a long time to come. While of a marked type, it was not bizarre in any way. The delicate thread embroidery was charming. Along with the black and white effects were lovely black embroideries on stone colored cloths. This has developed into black or white embroideries on all tones of gray.

Lanvin developed her costumes of Czechoslovak inspiration in the form of a long coat or overdress with a tight underskirt. Some of the costumes even had the loose hanging trousers of the rustic goat-herders. There were few women who cared to accept such an extreme movement in dress, so these were soon replaced by a short, tight skirt falling below a long tunic. The tunic did not allow more than a few inches of the underskirt to show. A great deal still is made of skirts of this type. The peasant or chemise type of overdress girdled at a low waistline has passed through many evolutions.

There is great variety in the embroideries from this new republic, as many different peasant peoples have been thus brought together. A dominant note is the black and white embroideries which may be according to the original Moravian dress from which they are taken, either black on white or white on black.

We now see the influence of the picturesque dress of these countries in both tailored suits and dresses. These ideas are carried out clearly and definitely, so that there is no mistaking the source from which they come. So distinctive are they that they would be completely spoiled if combined with any other motif. This idea is emphasized in colorings as well as embroideries. Its influence appears in the use of bright red as a trimming on dark suits. Plentiful use is made, too, of the white and black embroideries of the Moravian and the brilliant red, white and black geometrical patterns of the southern Slavic people.

A strong feature in the fashions of the moment, which is doubtless an outcome of the Czechoslovak movement, is the craze for combinations of black and white. This is another thing which goes to prove the farreaching effects of a fashion rich in ideas. Launching such a style is like throwing a pebble into a pond. The circles widen continually. Each maker of clothes gets her individual impression.—The (N. Y.) Tribune.