Styles in Lingerie and Kindred Lines April 1915

Many exceedingly beautiful displays of French hand-made lingerie marked the month just past. New York specialty and retail stores have been able, regardless of the contingencies of the present unusual mercantile situation, to buy vast quantities of exquisitely hand-wrought lingerie.

This is now offered to the women of America at prices which at least are not at all above normal. There is a distinct appeal in the very words "Hand-made French lingerie," at present since most women purchasers realize that many French women of gentle breeding have turned to one of their significant accomplishments, namely hand embroidering, as a sole means of livelihood.

Sheer nainsook is employed in the fashioning of these garments, and the embroidery is done both in the eyelet and blind stitch. Embroidered eyelets, set in at the empire waistline and interlaced with satin ribbon, is one of the new touches.

Furthermore, fulness is introduced using groups of tiny, hand-run pintucks, set in, in groups below the low-neck opening. The prevalence of the deep, V-shaped neck opening is very marked.

Real Laces and Hand Embroidery

Real laces of great beauty of design are employed to trim the more expensive of the imported gowns, envelope chemises, combinations, and chemise. Both the combinations and the envelope chemises, not to overlook the plain chemise, are fashioned with the new empire yokes, the latter ornamented elaborately, in many instances, with hand embroidery and real lace.

A number show the entire empire yoke fashioned of real Val lace bandings set together with Irish lace insertion or formed of wide pieces of the lace which do not require an additional lace, in the making.

Then, too, many of the newer combinations and chemises are fashioned upon princess lines, in which case they close down the center back. Women of full figures particularly favor these, and the princess lines, also, are brilliant this season, since they are also shown in many of the most advanced gowns and dresses of the coming Spring and Summer seasons.

Franklin Simon & Co. recently arranged a most effective window display of French hand-made lingerie, at which time garments were retailing at specifically indicated prices, were grouped in the underwear department of this store. Hand-made, envelope chemises sold at that time for $3.95. These numbers were fashioned of sheer nainsook, embroidered in eyelet designs.

Embroidered eyelets held the wide ribbon which interlaced about the garment at the empire waistline. Franklin Simon & Co. also sold a fitted princess combination of nainsook, embroidered by hand and trimmed with Val lace insertion.

Ribbon was also interlaced through embroidered eyelets at the empire waistline, in this instance. Another number featured was a hand-made nightgown, of sheer silky nainsook. This gown was fashioned with a deep, V-cut neck, hand-scalloped and edged with lace as were the short elbow-length sleeves.

This gown was elaborately embroidered and trimmed with ribbon laced through eyelets at the empire line. It sold for $3.95 while a less elaborately embroidered gown, also trimmed with the interlacing, high-placed ribbon, sold for $2.95.

Crepe De Chine Garments Featured

Lord & Taylor are also featuring imported lingerie together with the new Spring domestic underwear. This firm places about equal importance upon the crepe de chine numbers of domestic make as upon those developed in nainsook or batiste.

Naturally, the crepe de chine numbers are higher priced, as all who are familiar with the prices of this material by the yard can well understand. Many women buy the crepe de chine garments for Spring and Summer wear, especially in the more elaborate lace trimmed numbers, although all buyers admit that most women prefer, for comfort's sake, the cooler garment of cotton material.

The daintily fashioned chemise and combination developed in sheer nainsook which has quite a silken sheen, stands out prominently this season, for its quaintness and chic, being fashioned almost without exception upon empire lines and with lace trimmed and hand embroidered yoke.

This is one of the most elegant and useful garments seen for many seasons and can well carry off the honors as the most popular innovation of the season, a fact due, no doubt, to the grace of the empire lines and their general becomingness and femininity.

Imported combinations developed with the empire, or normal waistline or upon princess lines, and beautifully embellished with hand embroidery and sometimes with lace insertion, are sold at Lord & Taylor's for $2.95, $3.95, $4.45 and $4.95.

Imported gowns are priced from $1.95 to $6.95 and petticoats for $1.25 to $3.95. Domestic gowns range in price from 98c to $2.95, the combinations from 98c to $1.95 and the petticoats from 98c to $3.95.

Crepe de chine garments include underbodices which range in price from 98c, $1.35 and $1.95, combinations from $2.95 to $3.95 and gowns which retail for from $3 95 to $7.95. Of course, there are always changes in prices from day to day, and garments of different prices are featured from time to time, but this table at least gives some idea of the average prices of the garments mentioned

A Novel "Three-In-One" Garment

Saks & Co. are featuring a new undergarment called "Tripelope," a three-in-one model in which the corset cover, drawers, and short petticoat are cleverly combined.

The novelty of this garment should make a great appeal to women generally as should the name, which is unique in undergarment nomenclature. The new "Tripelope" sells for $1.00 and $1.50. This store regularly features nightgowns which retail at $1, $1.50 and $1.95 These gowns are divided into groups according to their prices and are shown upon individual tables under this grouping.

White petticoats fashioned with the new circular flounces sell at $1, $1.50, $1.75 and $2, while very useful crepe de chine gowns retail under the general heading of $3.95. The latter are elaborately trimmed and are excellent values.

Among the novelties of the present season are nightgowns and combinations developed in china silk. Some of these numbers are lace trimmed, and others are plain. They sell for $1.95.

Larger Proportion of Lower-Priced Merchandise

The general tendency at the recent time among retailers is to meet the inclination toward cost-effective purchases which women give undeniable evidence.

Many of the largest retail stores in New York, long known as catering to the most exclusive clientele in the Metropolis, have determined to bend with the wind and to show, in addition to the beautiful band-embroidered merchandise previously referred to a goodly supply of more moderate priced undergarments.

They do say, however, that the less elaborately trimmed and cut garments are "specially priced" than the higher priced garments of past seasons, in this way explaining the deviation from their usual methods of merchandising.

While this has met with a hearty response, there is evidence that the feminine public, generally speaking, and with a few exceptions, has been forced into its present economic trend through dire necessity and that it greatly appreciates being met halfway.

At B. Altman & Co.'s it is possible to purchase silk undergarments at remarkably low prices. Silk night robes, for instance, are priced at $2.85, $4.25 and $6.25, envelope chemises at $1, $1.90, knickers at $1.85 and S2.75 and underbodices at 90c, $1.85 and $2.75.

Muslin undergarments, trimmed with Val and Cluny laces and tiny pintucks introduced in groups, garments which give evidence of the introduction of the empire idea in many instances, sell at remarkably low figures, the values being most extraordinary, even at a time when the public has become more or less accustomed to real bargains.

Muslin night robes, for instance, sell for 75c, 95c, $1.45, $1.85, to $3.75; chemises for 78c, 95c, and $1.15; envelope chemises for 95c and $1.45; drawers for 48c, 68c, 85c, to $1.65, and combination garments for from $1 to $2.90.

“Muslin Underwear” in The American Cloak and Suit Review: Devoted to the Women’s and Children’s Ready-to-Wear Trades, New York: John M. O’Connor & Co., Vol. IX, No. 4, April 1915, p. 179-181.