Comfort, Elegance, and Taste

It was decreed that the United States, after this last war, should impose its fashions, among the other things it imposes, upon the world. And so we find ourselves before a clamorous tide of nylon, of bright and garish colors, of jazz tunes, of magazines bare in winter and summer alike, of the "chewing gum" the boys hawk in the streets and alleys, and the rest of those matters and concerns which extend as well to cosmetics and adornment, and to the manners of love and passion...

And so it was that the home itself did not escape the visit of American taste. We find it touched by the simplicity, cheerfulness, clarity, and comfort for which the character of that people is famous. Perhaps a single glance at these models which you see, madam, around these lines, will convince you of the truth of what we maintain. What is beyond doubt is that the character of these models stands at the opposite pole from the character of the purely Arab house. For in our homes we incline to arrange the furniture in a way that shows forth complication, in the models we choose for seats and tables and the rest; gloom, in the atmosphere the colors cast over it all; and closedness, in the empty space we cannot bear to see around the sides and walls of the room, and which we set about filling with whatever odds and ends of furniture and trimmings come to hand.

And so our aristocratic houses turn into museums, and our common houses into fairgrounds where everything is jumbled together and the openings for light and air are choked.

And if we have criticisms and objections to make against American fashions, they do not, at all events, touch what these fashions are distinguished by: a restful simplicity, a cheerful elegance, and a free taste.