Fashions for May

From The Illustrated London News, May 1st, 1915.

FASHIONS FOR MAY.

The new modes are now settled, and it becomes plain that, as usual, evolution and not revolution is the order of the day.  Talk about skirts to measure six or eight yards wide at the hem proves to have been absurd; but the wider shirt has come to stay.  For the present, only a moderate “flare” is to be adopted, and the fulness is mainly around the lower part of the skirt.  Transparent and almost weightless fabrics are in the highest favour.  Ninon, voile, chiffon — and, above all, silk crepe-de-Chine — are used for afternoon and evening gowns, and full accordion pleatings and gathered flouncings in such dainty fabrics fall lightly and artistically into their own folds.  Two and a half to three and a half yards for the foundation skirt over-hung by these dainty transparent fabrics is the utmost measure of circumference allowed in the best houses; while the fragile fabric itself, if pulled out of its folds for measurement, will naturally be considerably wider. .....

The Mode of the Moment - A Charming Hat in Black and Grey

[Although in both cases, the new full skirt is the main subject, the gowns described here are in  different league from the plain, simple dress shown in the cover of the Woman's Own of the same date.  The construction is more complicated, and the fabrics used are finer, more expensive and much less practical. These gowns could only be worn by someone whose only role was to look decorative.]