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Some Modistes Scout Idea of Suggested Revival---Others Like It
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Special Correspondence THE NEW YORK TIMES

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LONDON, Sept. 4---The question whether the crinoline is really to be revived continues to be hotly debated. It is a question that apparently cannot at present be answered, for while some (apparently most) of the leading modistes of this city declare that the idea of crinoline is absurd, others are ready to welcome it.

Lady Duff Gordon ridicules the idea. "Really," said she, "one has to go to London to find out what the Paris fashion is. I have only left Paris two days, and when I was there, in the thick of all my designing, there was scarcely a breath of the crinoline about.

"There's only one man---I won't mention names, but he's a most original and popular designer---who is trying anything of the sort, and then it is not the crinoline, as we understand it, which he is aiming at. He has brought out a funnel-shaped affair, stiffened with whalebone, and not round. It terminates more than a foot from the ground, and underneath it is seen a tight skirt reaching over the ankles. But the whole thing is only an extravagance of his.

"The fashion for 1912 is anything but crinoline. The tight skirt is to be developed to extremes as yet unheard of. Petticoats will have to go. There's not a scrap of room for them. I have been to places like Trouville, where, of course, one hears the dernier cri in these affairs, and some of the sights made me shriek with laughter.

"You see, thin, dainty little women like Lily Elsie and Mistinguette are the popular figure, and they look ravishing in what are practically "tights"---as indeed they'd look ravishing in anything: But to see some of these big, fat women, with a skin-tight skirt (you can't call it 'skirts') reaching up to their shoulder blades, no sign of a waist, and the rest of their bodies squeezed up to where their chests ought to be, frilled collars up to their ears, and immense hats down to---well," and Lucile spread out her hands in speechless comment.

"The Parisienne is losing all her taste and style. Englishwomen nowadays look far better."