Class _71ZJ^ 
 Book 
 
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 Copyright M". 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 

 i. r 
 
 ''Holding the glas^ to fa.b-hion' 
 
THE MAGIC OF 
 DRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 GRACE MARGARET GOULD 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 E. M, A. STEINMETZ 
 
 Garden City New York 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 1911 
 
1 
 
 ^ 
 
 AXL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
 INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I91I, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 ^/ ' 
 
 V »■ « 
 
 THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 
 
 H'Strisof 
 
 ©Ci.A297599 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 I. 
 
 Dress as it is Developing 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 
 II. 
 
 The First Impression 
 
 10 
 
 III. 
 
 Things Desirable 
 
 17 
 
 IV. 
 
 Things to be Avoided 
 
 24 
 
 V. 
 
 The Moral Effect of Dress . 
 
 32 
 
 VI. 
 
 Inhumanity in Dress 
 
 39 
 
 VII. 
 
 Extremes in Dress 
 
 45 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Essentials to Smart Dressing . 
 
 51 
 
 IX. 
 
 Economy in Dress 
 
 . 58 
 
 X. 
 
 Colours 
 
 . Q5 
 
 XI. 
 
 Dress Accessories 
 
 74 
 
 XII. 
 
 Special Wardrobes . . . . 
 
 84 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Jewellery 
 
 94 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The Care of Clothes 
 
 . 103 
 
 XV. 
 
 Dress in its Relation to Age 
 
 . Ill 
 
 XVI. 
 
 The Afflicted in Appearance 
 
 . 119 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The Hat and the Coiffure . 
 
 . 132 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Shopping in Paris 
 
 . 140 
 
 XIX. 
 
 American Shops and American 
 
 
 
 Fashions .... 
 
 . 153 
 
 XX. 
 
 The Ideal in Dress . 
 
 . 160 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "Holding the glass to fashion . . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 "Trailing skirts and elaborate coats are 
 
 not appropriate for stormy weather" 22 
 
 "The children are packed off to bed" . 40 
 
 "The papers illustrate the new and what 
 
 they term 'fetching' style" ... 48 
 
 "This is the girl you remember" ... 80 
 
 "What a caricature she makes of her- 
 self — this woman who is growing 
 old" 112 
 
 *'Is there then a secret to hat success?" 136 
 
 "Then she becomes an inspiration and 
 
 dress has done its perfect work" . 164 
 
 u^ 
 
 :.&i»*' 
 
THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 
 
 MUCH has been said about the folly 
 and frivolity of woman's dress. But 
 let us think for a moment — per- 
 haps her dress is not as silly and frivolous 
 as it is said to be. 
 
 Take the prehistoric cave-woman. Her 
 clothes consisted of an uncured skin of some 
 wild animal. It was raw and unpleasant to 
 look at and had, you may be sure, no subtle 
 sachet concealed about it. It was far from 
 durable, for the rains would stiffen it and the 
 heat would cause it to decay. And as for 
 the style — well, that didn't count, for 
 no other woman was any better off. It 
 served the sole purpose of protection, but 
 covered her less and became her not so well 
 as it had the beast from whom it had been 
 torn. 
 
 3 
 
4 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 So much for the dress of the so-called 
 golden age. 
 
 Now take the fashionable woman of to- 
 day, on her way to the opera, for instance. 
 She is wrapped in sable furs. These priceless 
 pelts have been cured, dressed, and matched. 
 They will last so long that they may be handed 
 down as heirlooms in her family. They have 
 been adjusted to her figure. They have been 
 adapted to her individual style. Never did 
 they fit and suit the little creatures from whom 
 they were stripped so perfectly as they fit and 
 suit her. 
 
 Let us look at the details of their making. 
 They are lined with the richest of satins, silks, 
 and chiffons. The prehistoric woman never 
 could have dreamed of such dainty textures, 
 but gradually through the ages her daughters 
 came to require and expect them. And what 
 woman has asked for she has generally received. 
 
 Think of the wars that have been waged, 
 and the ships that have been built, and the 
 journeys that have been made, and the men 
 that have toiled and died in order that these 
 fabrics might be at woman's command. Such, 
 indeed, is the progress of the human race. 
 
 These sable furs, too, are wadded with cot- 
 ton. Perhaps the prehistoric woman may have 
 
DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 5 
 
 plucked a cotton boll for the little urchin 
 toddling behind her to play with, but she had 
 no more idea of the possibilities of warmth 
 and comfort concealed within it than the child 
 had. 
 
 Gradually, as woman came to demand a 
 fabric at once light, flexible, and warm, cotton 
 was cultivated and its fibres were spun into 
 cloth. Think of the employment for count- 
 less thousands and the wealth for countless 
 generations that have come from this manu- 
 facture of cotton goods. 
 
 And then there is the thread with which 
 the pelts are bound together. Is there any 
 single article of manufacture that has been so 
 useful to humanity as thread.'^ Why, the 
 needle that sprang into use at the same time 
 is in a way a symbol of home, and all the 
 pretty and sacred associations of home are 
 strung like gems upon the thread. 
 
 Then, oftentimes, these furs are elabo- 
 rately decorated. They have jewelled buckles 
 of great value, they have frills of rare lace 
 and loops of silken cords. These do not add 
 to the warmth of the garment but they make 
 it and the wearer more beautiful. Thus to 
 gain beauty has become one of the objects 
 of woman's dress. 
 
6 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 This feminine beauty so adorned is air in- 
 spiration. As it has gained in refinement, so 
 has the race become more cultivated. The 
 savage wooer of the prehistoric woman knocked 
 her down with a club and bore her off to his 
 lair. The modern wooer approaches his lady 
 love as if she were a queen and through her 
 favour feels himself become noble. 
 
 What, then, do these two extreme types, 
 the prehistoric woman in her skins and the 
 modern lady in her furs, teach.? 
 
 They teach that clothes, first and always, 
 are made to cover and protect. They teach 
 that as the race has progressed, clothes have 
 improved. They teach, furthermore, that the 
 desire for better clothes has been an inspiration 
 to further progress. They teach that dignity 
 and deference have come to woman through 
 the appeal she has made by dress. She has 
 gained modesty and beauty and with them 
 self-respect. Of course, all men defer to 
 her. 
 
 This development, however, has not been 
 like the coming up of a flower in a garden. It 
 often has been choked by crude or false ideas. 
 It has run to the seeds of folly and immodesty. 
 It has been crowded by the weeds of vanity 
 and extravagance. No wonder so much has 
 
DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 7 
 
 been said and written against dress, for women 
 themselves have furnished the texts. 
 
 Fashion plates of centuries ago might well 
 have been taken in a chamber of horrors. 
 Think of Queen Elizabeth in her monstrous 
 ruff and iron-bound farthingale. Think of 
 the tower-like coiffures of the day of Good 
 Queen Anne that were reared of false hair 
 and paste — of the inappropriate designs they 
 displayed, such as a full-rigged ship, or a 
 scene from mythology. 
 
 Think, too, of the uncleanliness they con- 
 cealed. It sometimes seems as if for one 
 beautiful and appropriate style gained a 
 thousand deformities had to be tried and 
 rejected. 
 
 Why has this progress in dress been so slow 
 and difficult .f^ Principally because women 
 have hesitated to think and act for themselves. 
 It is the case of the Chinese shoes. What it is 
 said should be worn, has been worn. Woman's 
 position, too, encouraged this habit of imitation. 
 She was at first almost a slave. Her mind 
 was a subject mind. It naturally followed. 
 
 Those who dealt in feminine apparel were 
 quick to take advantage of this feeling. From 
 making what they were ordered to make, they 
 came to make what they chose and to order 
 
8 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 it to be worn. Hence the tyranny of Fashion. 
 This Fashion, as its very name signifies, 
 was at first nothing more nor less than the proper 
 way of making or fashioning apparel, or the 
 art of Dress. It came, through the deference 
 paid by women to those who plied this art, 
 to be a sort of a god. What Fashion said 
 was. what had to be done or worn, though 
 the heavens fell or the earth gaped with 
 dismay. Woman absolutely refused to think 
 for herself, and so Fashion thought for her 
 and thus ruled. 
 
 In consequence of this lack of thought, 
 fashionable dress became and remained a 
 mystery to the average woman. Why she 
 put on this and took off that was something 
 she did not understand further than it was the 
 style to do so. 
 
 This state still continues, but with a differ- 
 ence. By looking back fifty or a hundred 
 years w^e are able to see that the tyranny of 
 Fashion is breaking from the weight of its 
 own nonsense. To heed it very much is be- 
 coming just as impossible for women as it now 
 is for them not to have property or minds 
 of their own. 
 
 Since the modern woman is able to manage 
 her husband, her husband's family, and their 
 
DRESS AS IT IS DEVELOPING 9 
 
 own family, it seems likely that she may 
 manage her own styles of dress. She listens 
 just as eagerly as ever, but she picks here 
 and there instead of swallomng it whole. 
 The mystery is fading away before the light 
 of refined taste and common sense. 
 
 By means of these two attributes each 
 and every woman should be able to dress her- 
 self according to that highest standard — 
 her ideal self. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FIRST IMPRESSION 
 
 THE first impression is generally a 
 lasting impression. It is the novelty 
 that fixes the memory. Think for 
 yourself how true this is of inanimate things. 
 We remember the beautiful view as we first 
 saw it; we remember the rare gem as its 
 sparkle first caught our eye; the rose remains 
 the rose that we first plucked. 
 
 If this is true — as it is — in nature, in archi- 
 tecture and in painting, it is even more true 
 in regard to people. 
 
 While everybody has many phases of appear- 
 ance and many sides of character, it is the 
 phase and the side first presented that remain 
 longest in the memory. 
 
 The mind naturally associates ideas; thus 
 any grace or defect first noticed is apt to be 
 associated with the woman showing it and 
 becomes a very part of her individuality. 
 
 Everyone admits that this is true of the 
 
 10 
 
THE FIRST IMPRESSION 11 
 
 expression of the face. It either invites or it 
 repels. It either inspires love, or it causes 
 distrust and dislike. The dress, too, has its 
 expression, which is even more effective, for 
 the expression of the face goes with it; com- 
 bined they form the personality. 
 
 Here again comes in the importance of look- 
 ing after every detail of dress. The eye has 
 a wandering way of its own. Involuntarily 
 it seizes upon some trifling peculiarity and the 
 memory holds it. Who does not remember 
 the woman with the wart on her nose by the 
 wart? Who does not at once notice that a 
 button is lacking from the otherwise perfect 
 shoe.'^ If the dainty gown is finished with a 
 soiled or crumpled collar of lace, the im- 
 pression that would have been pleasing is lost. 
 This is a mild way of putting it, for sometimes 
 a positive dislike is incurred. 
 
 The picture must be complete in order 
 that the first impression be an agreeable one. 
 It sometimes seems that the slighter the detail 
 of dress the more prominent it is. Of course, 
 the part it plays has something to do with 
 this. 
 
 The hand is always intelligent and active. 
 It is extended in greeting, it emphasizes con- 
 versation. The slightest rip ^in a glove. 
 
n THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 therefore, is big enough to mar the finest 
 costume. In fact, the finer the costume the 
 more it will be marred. 
 
 Beyond its pleasing or unpleasing effect, 
 the first impression is important, because it 
 is taken by many as an index to character. 
 Each little detail indicates some personal 
 quality. Such expressions as "frowzy-head" 
 and "down at the heel" have come to refer 
 even more to the character than to the appear- 
 ance itself. This is often unfair, for circum- 
 stances can be stronger than the best intentions, 
 but the unfairness does not change the fact. 
 
 First impressions are very strong in the life 
 of the home. Many a breakfast has been 
 spoiled by an untidy kimono, while bread 
 and butter is often glorified by the daintiness 
 of the housewife who serves it. Love at 
 first sight is a common phrase. When it is 
 a true one you may be sure that the object 
 of love has been appropriately and attrac- 
 tively dressed. 
 
 Indeed, the first impression of dress at home 
 may be said to affect the house and the day. 
 Slovenliness is contagious both in body and 
 spirit, while neatness is a pervading tonic. 
 
 In an age so commercial as this the first 
 impression in dress has also a business impor- 
 
THE FIRST IMPRESSION 13 
 
 tance. More and more the woman of to-day 
 is becoming a business woman of to-day. 
 Often her appearance is her chief recommen- 
 dation. The young woman who appears neat 
 and trim gives an impression of being apt and 
 clever. She who is slovenly in dress will be 
 careless in business; at least, the average man 
 thinks so. 
 
 Successful women, then, bear in them- 
 selves the marks and proofs of their success. 
 The young business woman should always 
 be neatly, trimly, and plainly gowned. Every 
 detail from the coil of her hair to the tip of 
 her shoe should be appropriately perfect. 
 There should be no fluffiness, no gay colours, 
 no artful attempt to display the person. 
 The business man who deserves any part of 
 that name employs a clerk, and nothing else. 
 
 Charles Dickens, in his "American Notes," 
 praised the fine, neat, and intelligent appear- 
 ance of the American girl at work in the mills 
 of Lowell. What would he say now could 
 he see the typical oflSce girl, on her way to 
 her work, in the New York subway? 
 
 One of the troubles is that a little learning 
 is a dangerous thing in fashion. So many 
 wrong and absurd ideas are put forward by 
 those pretending authority in style that it 
 
14 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 is no wonder that young and foolish girls, 
 anxious to please yet ignorant of how they 
 should do so, are misled. Their spirit is 
 right. They feel it is their duty to be well 
 dressed, but with them "fashionably" passes 
 for "well." 
 
 To be well dressed one must always be 
 appropriately dressed. If a fashion aids one 
 in being appropriately dressed, then that 
 fashion should be followed, but it should not 
 if it does not. 
 
 A man does not go down to business in 
 evening dress. 
 
 xAfter all, the business life is still ex- 
 perimental for women. When the time 
 comes, if it must, that she is an essential 
 factor in business life, there will be an evo- 
 lution in taste in the business dress just 
 as there has been, to an extent at least, 
 in the dress for the home and society. 
 
 Woman is rather slow to adapt herself to new 
 conditions. It was natural, though deplorable, 
 that in seeking for what would look best in 
 a business life she should choose only \ hat 
 might look best outside of a business life. 
 
 Let the business girl try to put herself in her 
 employer's place and think what sort of an 
 appearing young woman he would wish work- 
 
THE FIRST IMPRESSION 15 
 
 ing for him. Then let her try to give this 
 impression in dress. 
 
 Let there be no mistake, the correctly 
 dressed business woman does exist. She may be 
 found in every city, and wherever she is seen 
 she gives that impression of efficiency that 
 her success warrants. 
 
 She wears dark colours. Her tailored suit 
 has plain but proper lines. Her hat is small 
 and her veil inconspicuous. She wears man- 
 nish gloves and sensible shoes, both in perfect 
 condition. You never think twice about her 
 coiffure, it is so simple and right for herself. 
 There is nothing of the dowdy about her, for 
 whatever she wears she wears with distinc- 
 tion. The first impression is one of self- 
 respect, and she deserves it. 
 
 The first impression is a good criterion of 
 style. It is foolish to persist in wearing any- 
 thing that causes wonder or ridicule. Style 
 should never offend the sense of fitness. While 
 it is the duty of every woman to dress becom- 
 ingly, and while doing so to follow the trend 
 of fashion, she should avoid the freaks and fads 
 of the passing day. 
 
 These are no more real pictures than are 
 the caricatures of the papers or the comic 
 valentines of the store windows. There is 
 
16 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 an ideal of dress ever present, whatever the 
 dictates of dressmakers may be. 
 
 The woman who would give the best impres- 
 sion of herself at her best should always seek 
 to follow this ideal. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THINGS DESIRABLE 
 
 AND there are very many desirable things 
 in smart dressing, some of which are 
 sHghted as unimportant. But in a 
 general way it may be said that there are no 
 slight matters pertaining to dress. Dress 
 is the result of care and thought in every parti- 
 cular. It requires the finishing touch of an 
 artist. 
 
 There is nothing much smaller or slighter 
 than a pin, nor is there a more necessary article 
 for correct dress. It is very desirable for a wom- 
 an to have on hand all sizes and kinds of pins 
 and to be able instinctively to put her hand 
 on any kind or size of them. One is apt to 
 dress carelessly when one is flurried in dressing. 
 The pin may be taken as a general symbol of 
 the many little but important articles that 
 should always be present on the dressing table. 
 
 The pin is a faithful servant that does the best 
 work out of sight. A pin seen is generally a pin 
 
 17 
 
18 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 misplaced. It should never encourage neglect 
 any more than a faithful servant does. A 
 stitch in time will save nine, but nine pins 
 will not save one necessary stitch. There 
 is no more deplorable sight than a pinned-up 
 woman. It is the use, and not the abuse, of 
 the pin that is one of the things desirable. 
 
 A woman must first see well in order to 
 look well. Even if she has a maid to see for 
 her, the maid's eyes are not her eyes. A 
 mirror, then, is a thing most desirable, and if it 
 is a three-sided mirror, it is at least that many 
 times the more desirable. Some women dress 
 as if the front view were the only view. It 
 follows, too, that there should be plenty of 
 light, and the lights arranged so that they do 
 not cause confusing shadows. It is well to 
 know the worst. 
 
 Genius has been defined as infinite patience, 
 and the saying is certainly true of genius in 
 dress. Hence time is one of the things desir- 
 able. A hurried costume can never be a com- 
 pleted costume, and when the costume is hur- 
 ried the wearer is worried. 
 
 It is always desirable to adapt the clothes 
 to the woman and the woman to the clothes, 
 for together they produce the effect. It is 
 desirable to have clothes, but even more de- 
 
THINGS DESIRABLE 19 
 
 sirable to look as though you had them. Bor- 
 rowed ideas should be as impossible as borrowed 
 clothes, and, of course, no one will defend 
 the wearing of garments not one's own ex- 
 cept through absolute necessity. Very often, 
 though, a woman looks as if she were wearing 
 borrowed clothes, when in reality she is wear- 
 ing her own. But she owns them, while they 
 do not own her. They represent borrowed 
 ideas and not her own ideas. 
 
 The great study of woman is woman, and 
 first and foremost every woman should study 
 herself. When a woman comes to think of 
 her clothes as a part of herself, then they will 
 partake of her individuality, and charm with 
 her charm. 
 
 Centuries ago, each class was restricted to 
 its own costume by law. The merchant and 
 his good wife wore what was suitable for their 
 condition, and the law said that it was not 
 suitable for them to wear what the lord and the 
 lady were wearing. What the law did then, 
 correct taste should do now. 
 
 It is always desirable to fit the scene. If a 
 woman is preparing her own breakfast, she 
 should be dressed as a housewife, and there can 
 be no more dainty and charming figure than 
 a housewife correctly dressed. 
 
20 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 One is effectively dressed who is dressed just 
 as she should be under the circumstances. 
 
 Comfort is a desirable thing in dress, but 
 it should be stylish comfort. Reform dressing 
 is very apt to be deformed dressing, and while 
 the one who is dressed in accordance with it 
 may be comfortable, those who have to see 
 her are most uncomfortable. 
 
 Correct dressing blesses those who wear and 
 those who see. 
 
 There are many ways in which this fashion- 
 able comfort may be secured. A skilful 
 dressmaker is most desirable. She under- 
 stands the art of correct fitting, and that 
 saves a multitude of discomforts. Ready- 
 made clothes are only a near-fit at best. 
 They all should be refitted to suit the in- 
 dividual who buys them. When ready-made 
 clothes have thus been refitted, it is a desirable 
 thing to add some detail, such as different 
 buttons, or new facing for revers, or a dis- 
 tinctive collar. These will remove the sim- 
 ilarity which is such a detriment to ready-made 
 clothes. 
 
 Ready-made clothes, in a slight sense, are raw 
 material. The woman herself by her own taste 
 should convert them into an individual costume. 
 
 Light weight fabrics, of course, induce com- 
 
THINGS DESIRABLE 21 
 
 fort, but very often heavy clothing can be 
 comfortably worn because the weight has been 
 adjusted and distributed by a skilful dress- 
 maker. There is such a thing, too, as a sense 
 of comfort, which comes from the conscious- 
 ness of correct dress. This may seem ps}^- 
 chological, but it is very real. 
 
 The clergyman who praises a tranquil spirit 
 in preference to the pomps and vanities of the 
 world is often unconsciously giving his fair 
 parishioners a hint for effective dress. 
 
 It is desirable not to overwork one's clothes. 
 They look best for what they were made. 
 Besides, the most inanimate of things, such as 
 tools, for instance, or machinery, improve 
 through rest. This is especially true of clothes, 
 which seem to have a soul or a personality of 
 their own. 
 
 Light materials, trailing skirts and elaborate 
 coats are not appropriate for stormy weather. It 
 is desirable to have a rainy day outfit and the 
 woman who wears it rises superior to the storm. 
 But it is an affectation to wear a distinctive cos- 
 tume when the purpose for which it is designed 
 does not exist, like wearing a yachting costume 
 in summer, for instance, and not going near the 
 water. One's pride may be satisfied by wear- 
 ing automobile clothes when one must either 
 
22 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 walk or ride in the street car, but one's common 
 sense will suffer. 
 
 It is desirable to have a family chest filled 
 with the good things of other days. An aris- 
 tocratic air will often come from a scarf of 
 antique design, or a shawl which is no longer 
 on the market. Think of the fringed and em- 
 broidered crepe scarfs and the Paisley and 
 camel's-hair shawls. And then the antique 
 jewellery which is so much more valuable now 
 than in the day when it was bought. An old- 
 time pendant may be the one touch that makes 
 a commonplace costume a notable one. Old 
 lace, too, gives distinction, taking the wearer 
 back to the stately days of long ago. Again 
 this may seem psychological, but, like the lace, 
 it is very real. 
 
 All this talk of various clothes, modern and 
 ancient, implies much money. But if good 
 taste is a family characteristic, the amount is 
 not so great as it would seem. Money is 
 indeed a desirable thing in dress, but many a 
 woman has been crushed under the weight of it. 
 The money sense is seldom the artistic sense. 
 
 Very often the shop girl is better dressed than 
 the wealthy woman upon whom she waits. 
 She knows how to wear her clothes and the 
 other does not. It is this innate sense of the 
 
Z' * 
 
 'Trailing sJdrtfi and elaborate coats are not appropnaie 
 
 for storm y u^eather'' 
 
THINGS DESIRABLE 23 
 
 proper wearing of clothes that is one of the 
 most desirable things in dress. 
 
 How does it come? How then, do self-respect 
 and composure and dignity come? 
 
 They are outer signs of inner graces. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 
 
 A TRUE woman is always womanly. 
 She is proud of her sex and of the 
 ^ beauty and charm that belong to it. 
 Her dress should always be an additional part 
 of her beauty and charm and should in no way 
 change them. 
 
 How often, though, is the fashionable ideal 
 different from the womanly ideal! Of course, 
 it is not necessary to talk about the big waist 
 of the Venus de IMilo. She was essentially 
 an out-of-door woman. It is natural for the 
 modern woman to have a small waist, and 
 therefore it is all the more unnatural for her 
 to pinch it into a wasp-like one. It is a safe 
 rule always to avoid pinching in dress every- 
 where and at all times. 
 
 The ideal contour of the woman of the day 
 should be kept by her dress. There are no more 
 beautiful lines to a woman's figure than those 
 which join the bust to the waist and the waist 
 
 24 
 
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 25 
 
 to the hips. If these are harmoniously pro- 
 portioned the form is a beautiful form, whether 
 it be big or little. The woman of taste is 
 continually thinking of those things to wear 
 that will give her this harmonious contour. 
 She is not adopting freakish devices of fashion 
 that will really make her less beautiful. 
 There are no patent medicines for true 
 style. 
 
 This is not preaching the doctrine of common 
 sense, but of becoming dress, stylish dress, ef- 
 fective dress. Of course, one of the chief aims 
 of a woman's dress is charm. A shapeless 
 waist and a back as if hewn out of wood are 
 also things devoutly to be avoided. 
 
 Whenever fashions are treated as hard and 
 fast rules the form is apt to be distorted. 
 There is always need of the personal quality. 
 
 Women cannot be dressed by Fashion as if 
 Fashion were in charge of an institution and 
 they were the inmates. Fashion is a good 
 friend, not a hard taskmistress. She should 
 suggest, but not compel. 
 
 AVhat are the visible results of a slavish fol- 
 lowing of Fashion, or of what some one says is 
 Fashion? 
 
 Women cripple themselves with high heels 
 that are entirely too high. No one objects to 
 
26 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 a high heel. It is the too high heel that is the 
 abomination. 
 
 A corset is a good thing. Indeed it is a 
 necessary thing. Oftentimes, however, women 
 put themselves into a vise. This word might 
 be spelled the other way. As a result, the 
 beautiful curves of the figure are flattened or 
 bulged or sent off in some unnatural direction. 
 Each woman should wear a corset suited to her 
 own particular figure and not a long one, or a 
 short one, or a tight one, or a loose one, simply 
 because some one who knows nothing about 
 her requirements or needs says so. 
 
 The collar is an important detail in effective 
 dressing. Sometimes it is the one touch that 
 gives life and light to a sombre gown. But 
 the woman with the long, swan-like neck should 
 not wear the collar of the woman who hasn't 
 any throat to speak of and this rule is just as 
 strong exactly the other way. It certainly 
 is neither beautiful nor natural for a woman 
 to carry her head so that she seems to be 
 reaching to bite something. 
 
 Some collars are so stiffly and heavily 
 boned and so very high that a woman has to 
 turn her body in order to turn her head. The 
 skin of the throat is so delicate in women that 
 often an indelible mark is made through wearing 
 
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED «7 
 
 improper collars. Perhaps this ought to be a 
 good thing for the elderly woman who desires 
 to look young, because it will prevent her 
 from wearing the telltale low cut neck which, 
 very properly, is fashionable for those who can 
 wear it, but frightful for those who cannot. 
 
 Speaking again of the Venus de Milo, noth- 
 ing is more beautiful than the shape and curves 
 of her head and hair. This effect in the modern 
 woman would be just as beautiful if produced 
 by artificial hair. It is not what is worn, but 
 the way it is worn, that counts. Artificial hair 
 is a thing to be avoided when it distorts the 
 head, and there are Hottentot women in Africa 
 whose coiffure is less preposterous than that 
 worn by those who ape but do not appreciate 
 the coiffure fashions of the day. 
 
 Suggestive fashions should be avoided. 
 Oftentimes it is the wearer and not the fashion 
 that makes the suggestiveness. There is gen- 
 erally a good reason back of every fashion, but 
 unfortunately it doesn't always go with it. 
 Instances are as disagreeable to mention as 
 they are to see. But still, as horrible examples, 
 these few may be mentioned out of many: 
 
 There is the skirt moulded to the figure, and 
 therefore failing to perform one of the prime 
 purposes of the skirt. 
 
28 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 There is the lining which has the effect of 
 flesh and is much more suggestive than the 
 real flesh would be, because it is often worn 
 out of doors and under circumstances where 
 the wearer would not dare to go so thinly 
 clad. What purpose does it serve then except 
 suggestiveness? 
 
 Some women are very like ostriches. They 
 think that what they cannot see themselves, no 
 one else can see. This may be the reason why 
 they dare have their waists cut even lower in 
 the back than the front. 
 
 A word here for the neglected placket. 
 Why, oh why, will women strut along compla- 
 cently with their underwear exposed .^^ 
 
 These are but a few horrible examples. 
 Every woman can think of many more, and they 
 all should be avoided. This is in no sense a 
 sermon. Every woman can preach that for 
 herself. 
 
 The point is, that immodesty in dress is 
 unbecoming. A woman who knows she is 
 immodestly dressed is under a strain. She has 
 a difficult part to carry off. There is a bold- 
 ness that comes from daring to violate con- 
 ventions which leaves its trace not only on 
 the face but the character itself. 
 
 Two minor evils which may lead to this 
 
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 29 
 
 greater one — immodesty in dress — are over- 
 dressing and conspicuousness in dress. In 
 immodesty in dress women put too little on; 
 in these two instances they put too much on. 
 Squaws do, too, by the way. It is a sign of 
 barbaric taste. 
 
 Think of the little frail woman whom every 
 one knows and laughs at. She is like a grab 
 bag turned inside out or an animated Christ- 
 mas tree. She doesn't wear things — she 
 displays them. 
 
 A well-dressed woman should make herself a 
 pleasant detail, but not the principal detail of the 
 scene. When she puts herself forward she puts 
 charm backward. A woman is to be sought, not 
 to seek. It is the reserve power of knowing that 
 she is sought that makes woman so captivating. 
 A queen never has to advance from her throne 
 in order to have her hand kissed. 
 
 Conspicuous dressing is a bid for favour which 
 should be given without the bid. What then 
 is conspicuous dressing.^ It is something that 
 is inharmonious and out of place, perhaps 
 nothing more than a glaring colour or the poise 
 of a hat. It calls attention instead of attracting 
 attention. A well-dressed woman does not 
 require an advance-agent for advertisement. 
 
 Fashionable dress should be feminine dress. 
 
30 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 When a hen crows, the wonder is not that she 
 crows so poorly, but that she crows at all. 
 
 As a general rule, anything a man wears a 
 woman should disdain to wear. Of course, 
 there are exceptions, for men must know a few 
 things, and they do know the things that are 
 practical for business wear. If a woman must go 
 to business, she will probably do well to wear 
 mannish gloves, shoes, neckwear, and a tailored 
 suit made only as a man's tailor and not as a 
 dressmaker can make it. But at home let 
 the hen not try to crow at all. 
 
 True style implies quality. It is better to 
 have a very small painting than a very large 
 chromo. It is better to have a well-made, 
 correct-in-style costume than a dozen sham 
 costumes. It is hard to carry off an imposition. 
 But is there ever any doubt about the style of 
 the correctly gowned woman? 
 
 Cost has really very little to do with it. The 
 woman with taste may buy an attractive 
 costume with a little money, and a woman 
 without taste very often fails to buy an 
 attractive costume with a great deal of money. 
 When this woman without taste has only a 
 little money, she satisfies herself, but no one 
 else, with a cheap and gaudy imitation and it is 
 a little money absolutely thrown away. What- 
 
THINGS TO BE AVOIDED 31 
 
 ever the flashy woman has looks better to her- 
 self than it does to any one else. She should 
 therefore avoid trying to deceive others with 
 cheap imitations when in her heart she knows 
 she hasn't deceived herself. 
 
 These are a very few of the very many things 
 that women should trv to avoid in dress, the 
 more so because they are all avoidable. 
 
 There are so many more things that can't be 
 avoided, but must be endured as the penalty 
 of correct dress, like the weight and drag of 
 costumes, for instance, that these things that 
 cannot beautify, but always mar, should be 
 shunned. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 
 
 EVERY one admits at once the in- 
 fluence of environment on character 
 — well, dress is one's closest and 
 most intimate environment, isn't it ? 
 
 Now, don't you remember yourself — let 
 us hope a long time ago — when you had a 
 feeling that the back street and the shady 
 side of it were the places for you? And wasn't 
 it because your tailored suit was a last season's 
 suit, or your hat was a back number? Of 
 course it was. 
 
 If you had been dressed up to the moment 
 in style it would have been the avenue, and 
 the popular side of it, for you. There is dis- 
 couragement in old duds just as there is con- 
 fidence in a new and modish costume. The 
 new gown makes you instinctively put your 
 best foot forward, and the dainty shoe upon 
 it is not run down at the heel. 
 
 What else do the right clothes when cor- 
 
 32 
 
THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 83 
 
 rectly worn do? They cause a woman to have 
 self respect, and this is the first step toward 
 getting the respect of others. At least the 
 effects of untidiness are avoided and it is not 
 necessary to moralize on them. 
 
 It is practice not preaching that we are con- 
 sidering. Oh, but, it may be said, the fash- 
 ionably dressed woman is nothing but a doll 
 or a butterfly ! Even if this be true, the doll 
 is a source of harmless pleasure, while the 
 butterfly is a symbol of the soul. 
 
 If the woman be frivolous, where does the 
 fault lie — in the woman or in her dress .^^ 
 Might she not be less innocently idle were it 
 not that she is spending her time making her- 
 self attractive.'^ 
 
 Good style in dress is not something to 
 be acquired once for all. It conies gradually 
 and requires constant attention or lo! before 
 you know it, it is gone — that is to say, it 
 is educational. 
 
 Of course, selfishness is a peculiar danger 
 of devotion to dress. Oftentimes the more 
 a woman looks well the more she wants to 
 look at herself. Thus, she loses her interest 
 in others, which is such a large part of a true 
 woman's life. She not only becomes absorbed 
 in herself but also in her clothes. To ^o to 
 
84 THE ^L\GIC OF DRESS 
 
 the dressmaker's for endless fittings and to 
 pose before a long mirror at the milliner's 
 are the two things she likes best to do. Then 
 comes the last stage. She talks of dress, the 
 whole dress, and nothing but dress, until the 
 only living person not bored is herself. 
 
 What is the mental state of a person too 
 self-satisfied to realize that she is a bore? 
 She is narrow and flighty and selfish. 
 
 Here dress has done its worst work. How 
 is it when it has done its best work? 
 
 The woman of whom we oftenest think and 
 longingly dream is the home woman. She 
 is a queen and the home is her realm. She 
 makes herself attractive and then she makes 
 her surroundings attractive, going naturally 
 from her own dress to these, her larger dress. 
 It is a casket within a casket, and she is the 
 jewel. 
 
 On the other hand, what kind of a home 
 has the slattern? No kind at all. The poor 
 creature — she only boards with herself. 
 
 There is nothing better in life than the 
 habit of having habits — that is, good habits, 
 of course. From one good habit may come 
 many good habits like pretty little chickens, 
 one after another, from the same nest. 
 
 Thus, from personal order comes general 
 
THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 35 
 
 order. The woman with the beautiful clothes 
 and the more beautiful house comes to have a 
 most beautiful nature. An expert palmist 
 should be able to read a lady's character from 
 seeing her gloved hand. 
 
 Attractive women in a refined and elevat- 
 ing society have attributes in common which 
 hold them together like links in a chain. In 
 this chain cleanliness is next to godliness, 
 and then comes good style in dress. 
 
 Why, even an age may be judged by the 
 dress of its women. The glory that was Greece 
 and the grandeur that was Rome were re- 
 flected in the grace and dignity of woman's 
 apparel. 
 
 One can read the rigid ideas of the Common- 
 wealth in the prim Quaker-like garb of the 
 Puritan maiden, and the corruption of the 
 Restoration in the gay costumes of the court 
 of Charles the Second. It is woman that 
 sets the stride; sometimes it is the walk, by 
 which a goddess is revealed; sometimes it 
 is the pace that kills. 
 
 What story does the dress of the day tell 
 of our age.? There are lights and shades, but 
 the light keeps growing brighter and the shades 
 are left behind. The Grecian bend would be 
 impossible to-day. 
 
36 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Now and again the manufacturers have 
 tried to make the modern woman step into the 
 hoop skirt, but every time she daintily steps 
 around it. A woman will still make a guy 
 of herself as in the sheath skirt, the hobble 
 skirt, and the lamp shade hat, but she will 
 not make a monstrosity of herself. She will 
 still be unmoral in dress, but she will not be 
 immoral in dress. 
 
 There are absurdities enough, heaven knows, 
 whereby true modesty is violated, such as 
 the skin-tight skirt and the decollete, sleeve- 
 less bodice, but the semblance of covering 
 worn during the Directoire period in France 
 will never be revived for American women. 
 
 The costumes of to-day may be suggestive, 
 but they are not frankly sensual. 
 
 But the evening costume is really not the 
 characteristic costume. In general, the every- 
 day clothes of our women speak well for the 
 moral sense of those wearing them. 
 
 Women are more considerate now of their 
 health in their dress. The prints of fifty 
 years ago showed the American woman trip- 
 ping through a snowstorm in low-cut slippers, 
 for instance. Our great-grandmothers were 
 hothouse plants in a way, because they would 
 not dress for the open air. 
 
THE MORAL EFFECT OF DRESS 37 
 
 Women know more, too, now of hygiene, 
 and once in a while, at least, they heed what 
 they know in their dress. It is a slow process, 
 but still there is progress toward a charming 
 dress that at the same time is a sensible dress. 
 
 The very frivolity often condemned in 
 dress has a good effect upon the majority of 
 women, who might otherwise adopt it if it 
 were not that the living picture scared and 
 shamed them. 
 
 One moral tendency of modern dress is 
 that women no longer slavishly accept every 
 style. They do, sometimes, think for them- 
 selves in dress. Then comes a sense of re- 
 sponsibility, since they no longer have the 
 excuse of "Oh! it is the fashion." They do 
 not choose to do daring things when they no 
 longer feel themselves forced to do them. 
 Gradually, very gradually, individuality is 
 teaching each woman the better way, which 
 is the becoming way. 
 
 Have you thought of the moral influence 
 exerted collectively by very many well dressed 
 and refined women.? That is to say, by the 
 best society as it should be? From such an 
 atmosphere of fitness there must come a 
 sense of duty to each one to do his or her best, 
 which the French call noblesse oblige. 
 
38 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 It is through seeking higher things that man- 
 kind secures higher things. Of course, at the 
 most, dress is only one factor in this human 
 progress. But it is a real one, because it is 
 so very real and dear to every true woman. 
 Oftentimes our weaknesses may be stepping- 
 stones toward perfection. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 INHUMANITY IN DRESS 
 
 THE conventional angel as shown in 
 painting and sculpture is always 
 simply clad. Perhaps the lesson of 
 this simplicity in dress is that were the angels 
 concerned about an elaborate toilette they 
 would no longer be angelic. 
 
 The least trying part of a new dress is the 
 trying on of it. That is bad enough, but the 
 nerves and the temper are at the same time 
 tried to the straining point. Why is this so.'* 
 
 It is very often because the woman is doubt- 
 ful of herself, her taste, her dressmaker, and 
 the fashion itself. WTien women come to 
 know just what they want and how they are 
 to get it, there will be little of this fretfulness 
 in dress. 
 
 As it is, the average husband, when he 
 hears that a new hat or a new dress is coming 
 home, is very apt to think that he will go 
 around to the club for a little while. 
 
 39 
 
40 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 But there are members of the houseliold 
 who cannot go around to the club, even if 
 the husband is so fortunate as to manage to 
 escape. There are the children and there 
 are the servants in general, and the dressing 
 maid in particular. They have to stand the 
 excitement. 
 
 The cliildren are packed off to bed or else 
 they have to sit in corners and keep still, 
 while the debate in the kitchen grows hot as 
 to whether it isn't awfully extravagant and 
 whether she will like it, anyway. 
 
 Meanwhile, the chief victim of the sacrifice, 
 the dressing maid, is pulling and twisting, 
 and taking off and putting on again, and 
 standing this way and that way, and then 
 doing it all over again. At length comes the 
 fatal ending, a good, hard cry. 
 
 But it isn't the poor, tired little maid who 
 has this good, hard cry, for she has none of 
 the luxuries of life. They and it belong to her 
 mistress. But she is ha^4ng a cry of her own 
 in her attic room — the bitter tears that come 
 from hurt feelings and twisted nerves and 
 hopelessness of any of the pleasant things of 
 hfe. 
 
 Has it been worth while — all the tumult 
 in the household for a hat or a di'ess wliich. 
 
"77/r chUilrcn (ire parked ojf to hrd' 
 
INHUJVIANITY IN DRESS 41 
 
 if the purchaser had stopped for a moment 
 of sober thought, she never would have bought. 
 
 But this tragic crisis is by no means the 
 whole fretful story. There have been endless 
 discussions, before the article was ever chosen 
 as a last desperate resort, that spoiled the 
 pleasant gathering at meals and made the 
 evening lamp too heated for endurance. 
 Indeed, the trying-on season is a trying season. 
 
 If the home is so disastrously affected by 
 the dress perplexities and woes of one woman, 
 what is the effect of the combined dress per- 
 plexities and woes of womankind upon manu- 
 facture and trade? 
 
 In the hurry to satisfy woman's scramble 
 for the newest and latest thing, the seasons 
 have fairly been pushed out of place. Spring 
 styles are offered when the snow is flying at 
 Christmas-tide, while all the changes in winter 
 costumes are settled in mid-summer. 
 
 This would be well enough if these out-of- 
 season styles stayed long enough to make it 
 worth while, but there is hardly time for the 
 catching of breath before factories and work- 
 shops are booming and teeming over the 
 inevitable and never-present novelty which 
 is always coming but never stays long enough 
 to be seen. 
 
42 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose, without going 
 into the statistics of labour, that if the masters 
 are hurried and worried, the toilers are far 
 worse off. Only too often the silly and useless 
 extravagances of dress represent long hours, 
 scant pay, crowded work shops, the lack of 
 everything sanitary, and hence suffering and 
 sin. 
 
 If this is so of articles that have some worth 
 of their own, how is it with the cheap imita- 
 tions that simply resemble in a slight degree 
 the genuine article and that are sold to gratify 
 the vanity of those who should not expect or 
 try to have such things? Cheap wares imply 
 cheap labour, and God only knows what cheap 
 labour implies. 
 
 It is the sins that have been committed in 
 the name of novelty that make the very sound 
 of this word so odious. 
 
 What possible reason was there for makings 
 a wrap out of the skins of little lambs, still 
 unborn, except that such a wrap would be 
 a most unusual one? So, too, it may be noted,- 
 would be a wrap made of the skins of savages. 
 It is not impossible to imagine some heartless 
 beauty saying: "What of it? What else 
 were they made for?" 
 
 But that is not the voice of woman, true 
 
INHUMANITY IN DRESS 4S 
 
 woman, who is man's comforter, who loves 
 little children and cares for every living thing, 
 be it great or small. 
 
 This true woman is fond of birds. What 
 does she think, then, of the slaughter of the 
 countless thousands of these little friends that 
 are so glad to serve and cheer .^^ 
 
 What does she think of depriving the heron 
 of its chief glory and the cruel and bloody way 
 in which this is done? And then there is the 
 poor ostrich, which, however ungainly, has 
 feelings of its own. 
 
 What does my lady of the sealskin wrap say 
 of the slaughter of the female seals, slaugh- 
 tered often when carrying their young .^^ 
 
 What do the mothers think of all these cruel- 
 ties toward dumb creatures of their own sex, 
 that are also mothers? Does any one at this 
 particular point feel called upon to write a 
 poem on maternity? 
 
 The answer is that women do not think. 
 In the joys of possession, they refuse to con- 
 sider how the coveted article was got. They have 
 it and some one else hasn't, and that is the one 
 thing needful in heartlessly fashionable dress. 
 
 This hurry, worry and rush of manufacture 
 and trade is fittingly reflected in shopping. 
 
 In "shopping" — in quotation marks, of 
 
44 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 course — it is this always quoted shopping 
 that has a peculiar sense of its own, and that 
 is the only sense about it. It is the rush to 
 buy new things which, of course, is meant. 
 This rush has many of the characteristics of 
 a mob. It is thoughtless. It is set upon one 
 mad purpose and to achieve its purpose it is 
 inconsiderate and often cruel. 
 
 Does this sound too extreme? How many 
 women, on an opening day, spare the shop girl 
 or even think of sparing her? They ask her 
 to show many, many things which they 
 haven't the slightest idea of buying. They 
 expect her to answer all kinds of irrelevant 
 questions. They force her to lift down with- 
 out a care that she must put back, and all this 
 idle while they keep her standing. 
 
 Why should employers provide stools for 
 their girl clerks when their customers will 
 prevent them from ever using them? These, 
 poor girls, too, will have to stand up in the 
 cars on the way home, because it has suited 
 many women to *'shop" — again the quo- 
 tation marks — just before the rush hours. 
 
 It is sad to think how truly Johnson's lines 
 may be paraphrased into: 
 
 "Woman's inhumanitv for woman, 
 Makes couiitiess thousands mourn,'* 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 EXTREMES IN DRESS 
 
 IT IS a safe rule in dress to avoid extremes. 
 Folly flies while common sense sits down 
 and considers. Often, if a woman will 
 take time to think twice regarding some freak- 
 ish article of dress, it will be withdrawn from 
 the market before she can make up her mind 
 about it. 
 
 The scrap heaps of fashion if joined together 
 would make the mightiest mountain chain on 
 earth. But Folly in her latest aeroplane could 
 easily fly over it. 
 
 Too often new styles are merely a matter 
 of business. They are the result of the avarice 
 of trades people and not of the wishes of cus- 
 tomers. Ingenuity is used in making some 
 new and strange thing. Then it is stamped as 
 the latest mode, though nobody on earth knows 
 who does the stamping. 
 
 Yet, the average woman feels it her duty not 
 only to hurry up and buy it, but pay the highest 
 
 45 
 
45 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 possible price for it. This highest price is, of 
 course, the first price, for novelty alone gives 
 value. 
 
 Does any woman doubt it.^^ 
 
 Let her price the freakish costume she bought 
 at first sight three months afterward. If it 
 can be found tucked away out of sight, it will 
 be marked down a third or a half. This very 
 detestable phrase "marked down" shows in 
 itself the worthlessness of much of the stuff 
 that is made just to sell. 
 
 Do we ever hear of "marked down" sales 
 of ermine, for instance .^^ 
 
 Competition helps avarice in this mad race 
 for novelty. The moment the other shops have 
 the new thing which one shop has brought out, 
 it is no longer the new thing for the one shop. 
 Thus, no sooner is a novelty chased in than it is 
 chased out again. 
 
 Another result of this craze for something 
 that is new and is good only while it is new is 
 the inferiority of the materials used. This is 
 due to the hurry in which things are made and 
 the great quantity of them that is forced on the 
 market. Quality does not count when one 
 simply looks and grabs. 
 
 What a contrast exists between the wardrobe 
 of the average young woman of to-day and that 
 
EXTREMES IN DRESS 47 
 
 which her mother had forty or fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 Indeed, it is foolish to speak of the present- 
 day wardrobe because in most cases it doesn't 
 exist. Yet, dignifying the quick transition 
 from the shop to the rag bag by such a name as 
 wardrobe, what are the treasures we find in it? 
 
 Do we find any real lace, any bolts of silk, 
 or pieces of silk backed velvets, any India or 
 Paisley or Cashmere shawls.^ Do we find 
 any genuine jewellery? 
 
 If only standard goods were sold and worn, 
 half of the department stores would have to 
 close their doors. 
 
 Imitation is also accountable for many of 
 the extremes in dress. Women, like birds of a 
 feather, flock together and are only too apt to 
 peck at and drive out the uncommon bird. 
 And yet, sometimes it happens that they all 
 come to ape and copy this same uncommon bird. 
 
 It is the approval of Style that makes all 
 the difference. 
 
 Not long since, the poke bonnet, which had 
 been ridiculed on the stage for a hundred years, 
 came again into vogue. 
 
 The country girl has always been a stock 
 subject for ridicule on the stage. 
 
 Let us imagine her appearing a few years ago 
 
48 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 dressed according to the extremes of fashion of 
 to-day. She wears a hat, an inverted flower- 
 pot, that almost covers her eyes and rests on 
 her shoulders at the back. She wears a skirt 
 scant and tight and tied in so that graceful 
 walking is out of the question, and any walking 
 at all is a difficult matter. How loud and long 
 and deep would have been the laughter. 
 
 Suppose again, she had strolled up Fifth 
 Avenue in such an attire, on a pleasant 
 afternoon not more than two years ago, 
 would she not have been unanimously voted 
 a guy.? 
 
 Surely, there must be something else besides 
 custom that makes style desirable. Is it not 
 possible that it may be good taste .^^ 
 
 Years ago, especially in foreign countries, 
 many absurd fashions came into vogue through 
 imitation of royalty. Because a royal per- 
 sonage had a noticable defect, it was quite the 
 thing for every fashionable person so to dress 
 as to seem to have it also. It was the old 
 story of the fox without a tail. 
 
 This same story often has a force even at the 
 present day here. 
 
 While all men are equal in this country, all 
 women will agree that all women are not. 
 Some particular woman sets a pace in the lime- 
 
''The papers illiistrafe the nen and irhaf they term 
 
 \fetehiu(f style^^ 
 
EXTREMES IN DRESS 49 
 
 light, and all her sisters hurry out of the shadow 
 to follow her. 
 
 Let a fashionable society leader appear in 
 an exclusive New York restaurant for instance, 
 in a frock which has some new and eccentric 
 feature to it, such as balloon sleeves, when 
 small, tight sleeves are being worn. 
 
 Every other woman present gasps and whis- 
 pers to her neighbor, "What a fright she looks. 
 I wouldn't wear such sleeves, would yoxi? " 
 
 It isn't necessary to say what the answer is. 
 
 But on the next night, you may be sure big 
 sleeves will be worn by these same gasping 
 women. Then the papers illustrate the new 
 and what they term '* fetching" style, and every 
 poor little shop girl in the land scrimps and 
 starves the more until she has them. 
 
 Now, it is very possible that these big sleeves 
 were a fetching style for the enterprising woman 
 who wore them at the restaurant. She may 
 have been tall and sylph-like and may have 
 required just the breadth that they gave. 
 
 But how about the short woman, and the 
 dumpy woman, and the inevitable fat woman, 
 who always will try everything but the right 
 thing? When each woman learns to dress 
 for herself, imitation will be one of the arts 
 that are well lost. 
 
50 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 A lesson often may be taught by horrible ex- 
 amples. 
 
 Let us enumerate a few that speak for their 
 own absurd selves. In the last half century 
 women have worn and have been glad to wear 
 the hoop skirt, the tilting bustle, the water-fall 
 chignon, the pulled-back skirt, the shoe with 
 the extreme French heel, the pancake hat and 
 the hat with the tower-like crown, the high 
 stiff ruff, the sheath skirt, and the hobble 
 skirt. Suppose any one of them was now 
 condemned to wear all of these styles except 
 the latest ones. AYould she not think it a cruel 
 and unusual punishment.'* 
 
 A woman should always dress as if for a 
 portrait of which she will not be ashamed for 
 the rest of her life, and which her children will 
 cherish and point to with pride. 
 
 Extremes of fashion can never give this 
 lastins: charm. Let each woman choose for 
 herself the middle course. It is safest and 
 surest. 
 
CHAPTER \^n 
 
 ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 
 
 SOMETIjNIES the woman who is well 
 dressed doesn't know it. But generally 
 she does. That is to say, smart dressing 
 is more a matter of care than of good luck. 
 
 Of course, there is the very fortunate woman 
 who naturally looks well under all possible 
 circumstances, even as the angels do. But 
 to the average woman, smart dressing is a 
 matter of thought and preparation. 
 
 Perhaps the essentials of smart dressing can 
 be most quickly learned from actual examples. 
 Every one knows women who are models of 
 fit appearance. Now what are the qualities 
 that make them so.^ 
 
 Immaculateness first and foremost. There 
 can be no more grades to this in a woman than 
 there can be in a lily. She is either spotless 
 or spotted. Here, too, comes in a mental pleas- 
 ure to which reference w^ill often be made. The 
 woman who is spotless in person and attire 
 
 61 
 
52 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 feels so. And this gives her both confidence and 
 dignity of manner. 
 
 Close to this care of the person is the carriage, 
 which, of course, should be correct and easy, 
 with a touch of stateliness, and even haughti- 
 ness if the stiffness can be taken from one and 
 affability added to the other. The gusher is 
 never a model of either correct dress or manners. 
 How can she be when she is never still enough 
 even to be posed. There is a certain repose 
 that should be cultivated. One who doesn't do 
 what the gusher continually does has gone far 
 toward acquiring it. 
 
 The average woman is generally a little 
 behind time or very tired. Thus, she either 
 waddles and rushes or she lolls. Neither of 
 these states is beneficial to her dress. 
 
 Her dress, too, unless she has acquired the 
 art of dressing, is a hindrance. It is said 
 that Italian women who carry gi'eat weights 
 on their heads gain thereby a beautiful and 
 graceful walk. But a water jar or a heavy 
 bundle is a far different thing from the ponder- 
 ous weight of each season's millinery creation. 
 Think of the extreme and ferocious size of the 
 hat pin, and yet it is utterly inadeouate to 
 hold the average big hat in place. 
 
 Then the fashionable coiffure is an infirm 
 
ESSENTIALS TO SIVIART DRESSING 53 
 
 foundation. When it sways a little, the great 
 hat sways much more, and as a result the head 
 is thrown out of place and the neck and shoul- 
 ders distorted. 
 
 Many a little woman with a big hat becomes 
 a skillful contortionist, but the accomplishment 
 is not a charming one. 
 
 It is not the hat alone either that teaches this 
 art. There are very tight sleeves that bind 
 the arms to the body, and very tight skirts 
 that prevent an easy and graceful use of the 
 legs. There is the trailing skirt, too, that 
 impedes and entangles. Then there are the 
 many ways in which the hands are hampered, 
 being called upon to do quite too many things, 
 with gloves so tight that not one of them can 
 be done properly. 
 
 Shoes have something to do with the hobble 
 or shuffle that goes for a walk, and not lectures 
 but sermons might be written on the mis- 
 takes, yes, the sins, of the feet. It is positively 
 criminal the way some women outdo the Chi- 
 nese in foot torture and then wonder why they 
 are not comfortable and graceful. This is 
 indeed a basic fault. 
 
 Not far removed from this is the conventional 
 garter which is generally too short and too 
 tight, tending to throw the figure off its natural 
 
54 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 centre by pulling the body forward and giving 
 the stoop of old age to the shoulders. Many 
 women buy shoulder braces quite unnecessarily, 
 for if they would lengthen their garters there 
 would be no need of the braces. 
 
 Then, of course, there are the corsets, the 
 sleeves, the skirts and the coats. When these are 
 eccentric fads, instead of sensible fashions, they 
 impede free action and hold her as with a clog. 
 
 Atalanta herself would have a sorry time 
 of it encased in a corset almost down to her 
 knees, and what, oh! what, would she do in a 
 hobble skirt a yard and a half wide or in a 
 voluminous skirt suggesting crinolines? Then 
 coats are often far too heavy to be worn 
 gracefully. A woman about to select a coat is 
 often so charmed by its chic cut, rich material, 
 and elaborate trimmings that she fails to think 
 how hard it will be to carry such a weight. It 
 is often an instance of the pygmy trying to 
 wear the giant's clothes. 
 
 Every woman should bear in mind that the 
 carriage will help the figure, no matter how 
 poor the figure may be. Of course, physical 
 deficiencies do detract from smart dressing. 
 They should be corrected as far as possible, 
 and good carriage is the first step, and a long 
 one, too, toward this improvement. 
 
ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 55 
 
 Very much has been written, and truly, too, 
 of the physical benefits derived from walking. 
 But the walking should be correct walking, 
 and correct walking is graceful walking. 
 
 But walking is only one of the rational ways 
 by which physical defects may be helped, if 
 not remedied. Violent exercises should in all 
 cases be avoided, but calisthenics are helpful. 
 It is a great deal easier to persuade the body 
 than to drive it. There is something, too, in 
 having the physical ideal clearly in mind, 
 which is to say, a woman must know what she 
 wants to be before she can be it. 
 
 Habit is another essential. There can be 
 no vacations in correct dress. As the witty 
 man cannot afford to be stupid, so the well- 
 dressed woman must always be well dressed. It 
 is expected of her, and any lapse would be a 
 shock not only to her friends but to herself. 
 Things that are hard to do are those that we 
 do seldom. Habit makes them easy and a 
 pleasure, too. Of course, there is infinite de- 
 tail about this habit — not even the slightest 
 thing can stand neglect. 
 
 Vigilance is the price of good style as it is of 
 liberty. 
 
 However, it is the spirit that counts above 
 all. The carriage may be perfect, the form 
 
56 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 ideal, the materials rich and fashioned with 
 style, but if good taste is not there the result is 
 no more than a lay figure. 
 
 Good taste is the best dressmaker, and 
 thought is her ablest forewoman. What, 
 then, is good taste and how is it to be 
 acquired.'^ 
 
 It is what the best people like the most. It 
 is a sense of fitness that comes either naturally 
 or by education. Some women have it as a 
 flower has its own beautiful colour, but more 
 gain it through observation of others and study 
 of themselves. 
 
 There are women who, every one agrees, are 
 well dressed, and the woman who is anxious to 
 be refined in her dress taste should observe 
 them closely. So, too, should she observe 
 the modes, which, if they are not, at least 
 should be, the result of good taste. 
 
 All this observation will do much, but self- 
 study will do more. Again, habit comes in to 
 help. When once good taste becomes a habit 
 it becomes fixed and natural. Good taste 
 is particularly the close friend of the woman 
 of moderate means. A queen and a peasant 
 woman might put on the same cheap costume, 
 but the queen would look queenly and the 
 peasant woman would look countrified. 
 
ESSENTIALS TO SMART DRESSING 57 
 
 It is not the cost of the material but the way 
 in which it is worn that attracts. The woman 
 of taste makes the most of everything, but 
 the most of everything makes the ordinary 
 woman still look ordinary. 
 
 Shall another word be said here about horrible 
 examples? Every one can see and sight them. 
 Take low russet shoes with the satin dancing 
 gown, the tailored shirt waist with the picture 
 hat, the plain one-piece dress with the dressy 
 satin or velvet coat, the diamond pendant 
 with the tailored suit, and the fluffy silk and 
 chiffon frock worn with the mannish covert 
 jacket and hat, suitable only for an aviation 
 meet. Is it any wonder that angels weep 
 as often as they do. 
 
 Shun the horrible example. Study the 
 women of acknowledged good taste, for they 
 choose the good styles and leave alone the bad 
 ones. The woman who wishes to be well 
 dressed and who strives to do much on a little 
 soon learns that it is possible for little things 
 to please as much as great ones. 
 
 The eye of man is not analytical. When 
 it is pleased it rests content. Good taste 
 will cover a multitude of deficiencies. It will 
 do even more. It will give to deficiencies the 
 attribute of charm. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ECONOMY IN DRESS 
 
 FASHION may encourage extravagance, 
 but it does not compel it. It is al- 
 ways as possible to be temperate in 
 buying as it is to be temperate in eating or 
 drinking. One can look the other way, you 
 know. 
 
 There is nothing more foolish than to get in 
 the habit of buying. At many a bargain sale 
 it is the shrewd dealer who gets the bargain 
 and the silly customer who is sold. 
 
 Speaking of bargain sales, they show women 
 more as they used to be than as they are com- 
 ing to be — that is, as governed by a common 
 impulse instead of each by her own mind. It 
 is said that East Indian magicians hypnotize 
 their subjects by having them gaze steadily at 
 some bright object like a crystal. Women who 
 frequent bargain sales are often hypnotized by 
 a cheap and gaudy glitter. 
 
 Besides, jealousy is really not a good quality in 
 
 5S 
 
ECONOMY IN DRESS 59 
 
 making purchases. Simply because one woman 
 acts as if she couldn't live without a certain article 
 is no reason why you couldn't live very nicely 
 without it. How often does it happen that the 
 much-wished-for article, when taken home, 
 does not look as it seemed at the sale, but as it 
 really is, and gets the back shelf in consequence. 
 
 To buy for the sake of buying is like gambling 
 at cards. Too often all that one gets is the 
 excitement and the booby prize. 
 
 The provident woman, on the other hand, 
 when she goes to a bargain sale, knows what she 
 is after and generally gets it at a considerable 
 reduction. If she needs some new ribbon to 
 make a bow or a rosette for her hat, why buy 
 it one day at the regular counter and pay more 
 for it than wait until, perhaps, the next day 
 and get it at a much less price .^ Of course, in 
 all such cases a bargain sale is a good thing. 
 
 When a new stvle is announced, the best 
 course is to wait. First prices are always the 
 highest prices. They try it on the silly person 
 in order to see how far they can go with the 
 prudent person. 
 
 Besides, a new style is an experimental 
 style. The second thought as well as the second 
 sight may discard it. Many an extravagant 
 woman has a wardrobe full of fashionable 
 
60 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 things which even she may not wear. They are 
 not even good enough to give away, because she 
 must, at the same time, give herself away. 
 
 The economical woman in dress is the prov- 
 vident woman in dress. She buys what she 
 wants, but never what she doesn't want. 
 Things that are simply made to sell should be 
 avoided. They should be made to be worn. 
 The cheapest things are seldom the best, while, 
 on the other hand, the best things are often 
 the cheapest. 
 
 Think of the imitations that are worked off 
 on the unwary, especially the poor unwary. 
 There are the imitation furs, the plush that 
 passes for sealskin, and the cat that masquer- 
 ades as a fox. 
 
 There is the imitation jewellery often selected 
 in the hope of brightening an old dress or worn 
 hat. A woman is much better off without it 
 than with it. It soon reveals its own base 
 qualities and betrays her trust. 
 
 There are imitation dress fabrics often more 
 brilliant of hue than the standard goods, like 
 crepe de chine that is almost all cotton and 
 velvet with a shoddy back. Such fabrics are 
 a snare and a disappointment and never repay 
 the bent back and patient fingers for the hard 
 work of making them up. They spot and fade 
 
ECONOMY IN DRESS 61 
 
 and shrink and do all the evil things good 
 clothes would be ashamed to do. 
 
 It is extravagant to cast aside things as no 
 longer stylish when the new style is a mere 
 matter of rearrangement. When it comes to 
 the use of new and untried materials. Lady 
 Fashion is conservative and cautious. She 
 sticks to the old lines and seeks new effects. 
 Think of the centuries that velvet, feathers, 
 laces and furs have been worn, yet in every few 
 years worn in a very different way. 
 
 What the French dressmaker can do by a 
 twist and a turn, the woman of moderate 
 means can also do with her old but not worn 
 materials, when her hand has also the cunning. 
 
 It is economy to be able to do for one's self. 
 Why not, indeed, when, if a woman will use 
 her eyes and brain, the shop windows and the 
 magazines will give her practical instruction. 
 The ability comes with the doing. Gradually 
 a woman may learn what is best for herself 
 and how to make that best. 
 
 There is a friendliness, too, to these old 
 materials. They partake of the home; they 
 partake even of the personality. They give 
 back attractiveness in gratitude for being worn 
 so much. Very often old clothes like old friends 
 wear the best. 
 
69 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Care will do much to give these old clothes 
 the smartness but not the stiffness of the shop. 
 A good deal of awkwardness, by the way, 
 comes from the stiffness of clothes that have 
 not been broken in and trained. 
 
 The economical woman knows how to press 
 and freshen. She knows the art of making a 
 little new thing do much. Her wardrobe is a 
 sanitarium for clothes. When they come out, 
 it is as if they had been made over again. 
 
 But the economical woman has stock things 
 that are new. She has a tailor-made suit, 
 inconspicuous in colour and not extreme in its 
 style. The fabric of it is first class and it is 
 made just as it should be, with care in the 
 smallest detail. Such a suit becomes a standby 
 for several seasons. This enables her to buy 
 new and fetching accessories to wear with it 
 that both change and adapt the suit to many 
 and varied occasions. 
 
 With a severely tailored silk waist that 
 harmonizes with the colouring of the suit she 
 is appropriately dressed for shopping and 
 general everyday wear. With a costume blouse 
 of silk and chiffon, she turns her tailored 
 suit into a costume quite au fait for afternoon 
 teas. 
 
 A new belt will give this suit a new look. 
 
ECONOMY IN DRESS 68 
 
 A collar and cuff set of antique lace will give 
 the air of elegance to it. And there are no 
 end of effects that can be obtained by such little 
 trifles as neck bows and jabots and tulle rosettes. 
 
 Indeed, the resourceful woman with a single 
 suit is continually playing the game of now you 
 see it and now you don't. 
 
 The economical woman should have a feather 
 — such a long, beautiful feather, too, as the 
 fashionable and extravagant woman is sure 
 to have, but the economical woman takes care 
 of hers and wears it for a lifetime instead of a 
 season. It is nearly impossible to wear out a 
 good feather; while, on the other hand, you 
 can always wear it out — don't you see? 
 
 The economical woman should never buy 
 cheap shoes. They ruin an otherwise fetch- 
 ing costume by their purely commercial lines. 
 They soon wear out, and before they do you 
 wish they would. The foot, like the hand, 
 requires the finest covering. 
 
 The term "lady" is becoming so obsolete 
 that often one asks: **What is a lady?" One 
 thing is certain, a lady always wears the finest 
 gloves and the best of shoes. Perhaps those 
 who do not know what she is may recognize 
 her by them. 
 
 The economical woman will take care always 
 
64 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 to wear becoming clothes. The becoming 
 lines will hide much that is out of date. 
 
 The time is coming when such an admiring 
 remark as, "Why, that dress must have cost 
 a small fortune," will never be heard. The 
 gown of the perfectly dressed woman is never 
 costly — it is beyond cost. Why is this so.^ 
 Because there is no shop, even in Paris, where 
 good taste can be bought. 
 
 This should be an inspiration to the woman 
 of small means. She has it within herself 
 to present always an attractive appearance. 
 
 The mere material should be a slave rather 
 than a master. It is the impression of the 
 whole that does it — it is the impression in 
 dress that counts. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 COLOURS 
 
 LUCKILY, it was a man — Joseph, with 
 his coat of many colours — who set 
 the bad fashion of a lot of colours 
 in dress. 
 
 The woman of refinement, when devising 
 her dress, never uses a big brush or a well- 
 filled palette. She just touches with colour, 
 even as Dame Nature does, who is mistress 
 of the art of colour. 
 
 "But there is the rainbow, " one may object. 
 Well, the especial charm of the rainbow is 
 that it is a good way off and doesn't stay 
 long. Who would like to live with one.f^ 
 
 Now, the love of indiscriminate colour 
 dates back to primeval days. The tattooed 
 savage, the be-blanketed squaw, the gypsy, 
 picturesque only at a distance, all believe that 
 to be conspicuous is to be beautiful. The 
 truth is that beauty is conspicuous because it 
 is beautiful. 
 
 65 
 
66 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 The newer the wealth, the sharper this 
 craving for a confusion of colours. Some of 
 our new-rich women seem to have as their 
 motto, "Never put off until to-morrow what 
 you can put on to-day." They certainly live 
 up to it. 
 
 In colour, as in every other accessory of 
 dress, the middle course is the safest course. 
 Good taste is neither an alarmist nor an ex- 
 tremist. 
 
 Colour in dress depends much upon age 
 and existing conditions, such as environment 
 and climate. Colour combinations, excus- 
 able in the young, are unpardonable in the old; 
 and Nature herself teaches this lesson. The 
 birds when they mate are of gay plumage, 
 but the old bird is always the dark and sober 
 bird. 
 
 So, too, the young matron may wear what 
 the widow should never wear — though only 
 the Lord knows what some widows will wear, 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 Environment should influence the use of 
 colours. The average American woman can- 
 not dress in the vivid colours of the Spanish 
 belle. If she did, she would look as if on her 
 way to bal masque. She has not the romantic 
 setting of the senorita. The American woman's 
 
COLOURS 67 
 
 atmosphere is too sharp and clear; she is self- 
 conscious instead of unconscious. 
 
 Nor can she dress like the French woman, 
 for she has not her natural audacity. The 
 Parisienne's costume is as much a part of her 
 personality as her roguish glance, her expres- 
 sive gestures, shrugs, and postures, as even the 
 frou-frou of her gown. Whatever she wears 
 is a part of her fascination; and this natural 
 fascination is so compelling that one does 
 not stop to analyze it. It takes centuries of 
 inbreeding to wear red and green and yellow, 
 and yet seem perfectly dressed. While the 
 shadow of the Puritan lowers over the American 
 woman who dares. 
 
 Even the climate itself is against any such 
 exuberance of colour. Its tendency is to 
 exaggerate, to accentuate. There is no rose 
 so gorgeous as the American rose. One should 
 therefore be chary of solid colours. Like 
 solid food, they are apt to be a little too 
 hearty. 
 
 The nature of colours should also be care- 
 fully considered. Some are shrewish and 
 spiteful, while others are kind and greatly 
 to be trusted. The choice of a wrong colour 
 may ruin a costume. The choice of the 
 right colour may make it a success. 
 
68 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Every woman should have her favourite 
 colour; but there should be good reasons of 
 her own for its being her favourite colour. It 
 should be the colour that is most becoming 
 to her; that shows the best of her and shades 
 the worst of her. It is marvellous what can 
 be done by a skilful blending of the artificial 
 hues of dress with the natural hues of the 
 person. Harsh lines and surfaces are oblit- 
 erated; and there comes a soft loveliness like 
 the lingering of the afterglow in the twilight. 
 Such effects are seldom the result of elabora- 
 tion. The most effective colour is often the 
 simplest colour. 
 
 In choosing correct colours for individual 
 types, one should first have a definite idea of 
 what effect one wishes the ensemble to produce. 
 Is it harmony, or is it contrast? 
 
 For instance, a brunette with brilliant 
 colouring of her own may wear crimson, rich 
 blues and warm greens if she wishes the 
 general effect to be one of brilliancy. If, 
 on the other hand, she wishes to emphasize 
 her own colouring by the contrast of her dress, 
 then she will wear such dull, neutral colours 
 as sage green, blue, gray, and tan, which are 
 usually dedicated to the use of blondes. 
 
 This principle is illustrated in the pictures 
 
COLOURS 69 
 
 of Corot and many other painters of the 
 Barbion school where a crimson roof, the 
 scarlet blouse of a fisherman, the red cap of 
 a peasant or some other detail is introduced 
 to bring out the characteristically restful qual- 
 ity of the greens. 
 
 In considering the brunette with brilliant 
 colouring, the brunette with the sallow shades 
 must not be overlooked. She cannot wear 
 what she will. Her muddy complexion re- 
 quires skilful treatment. She must know the 
 curative power of colours before deciding. 
 Perhaps the best thing for her to do is to 
 match the eyes and the hair. 
 
 If the hair is "coal black," choose black 
 for your colour, with old or yellowish laces 
 near the face. Avoid white near the face, for 
 it will emphasize the yellow tones of the skin, 
 and make you look more sallow than you 
 really are. Dull gold jewellery you will find 
 becoming, but flee from blue as you would 
 from the wrath to come. Blue, favourite among 
 colours as it is, cannot always be depended 
 upon. For the sallow brunette, it is impos- 
 sible; since it is the complement of yellow 
 and must bring out all the yellow tints lurking 
 in the skin. 
 
 Of all types of women, the blonde with the 
 
70 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 brilliant hues has the easiest, happiest time 
 in choosing becoming colours. The blue of 
 her eyes, the reddish yellow of her hair and 
 the pink of her cheeks suggest the use of vio- 
 lets in which blues and reds are intermingled 
 proportionately to her eyes and complexion. 
 A warm violet gray is apt to be charming on 
 such a woman; but she must remember that 
 if her colouring is warm she should not choose 
 an absolutely cold colour for her dress, for 
 the contrast will be crude. Pink to match 
 her cheeks will be becoming, as will be a tint 
 of blue to blend with her eyes. Both black 
 and white may be worn effectively by this 
 brilliant blonde. 
 
 The woman with light hair and fair skin 
 inclined to pallor may wear soft pink, but 
 not a pink so deep as to overpower the delicacy 
 of her colouring. The rosy reflection will 
 serve the purpose of making her cheeks look 
 pinker than they really are. Oftentimes the 
 pale girl hears the greeting, "How well you 
 are looking." She smiles to herself, for she 
 knows that the remark is due solely to a well- 
 devised touch of colour. Brown, dark red, 
 and light blue will also be becoming colours 
 for her. 
 
 The girl with auburn hair will look well in 
 
COLOURS 71 
 
 deep plum, a brown that tones with her hair, 
 dark blue, dark green, or both light and dark 
 gray. 
 
 The woman w^hose hair is gray should wear 
 dark colours; especially if there is a yellowish 
 tinge to the gray that is reflected in her com- 
 plexion. She will look much younger if she 
 gets a dark note under her chin. Gray is 
 also her colour, but not a gray lighter than 
 her hair. She may also wear mauve, deep 
 shades of violet, and clear shades of black and 
 white in closely mingled patterns. 
 
 The use and abuse of colour in dress is a 
 study which never ceases. One can never 
 be finished with it. A woman should not fol- 
 low general rules without first studying her 
 individual colouring, precisely as an artist 
 would study it in order to determine on the 
 kind of background he should use for her 
 portrait. Such terms as red and blue, used 
 independently, mean nothing at all. 
 
 A red with purplish shadows may have the 
 effect of a cold colour; while a blue of the 
 robin's-egg variety, hovering between blue 
 and green, may be quite warm in tone. 
 
 I have seen a magnificent blonde, with 
 yellowish brown hair and eyes a bit browner, 
 and a creamy complexion heightened by the 
 
72 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 vivid red of cheeks and lips, look like a Vene- 
 tian beauty of the sixteenth century in a 
 costume of bronze velvet, gold in the lights 
 and tawny in the shadows, with feathers of 
 the same colour in her hat and a heavy gold 
 chain, with topaz ornaments, about her neck. 
 She was an artist's wife, and knew the par- 
 ticular harmony that could be made with her 
 colouring, which in the conventional blue or 
 green dedicated to blondes would have lost en- 
 tirely its glowing quality and have looked a 
 little heavy. So much for the touch of an 
 artist's hand. 
 
 A minor detail that should be studied in 
 order to wear becoming colours is artificial 
 light. The belles of long ago had an easier 
 time of it; for the glow of wax candles resembles 
 the daylight in that it does not change or 
 distort. Indeed, it has something of the 
 unreal charm of moonlight. With gas came 
 disheartening discoveries of how delicate and 
 changeable is the most reliable colour under 
 it; while electricity is apt to blight with its 
 deep, sharp shadows. 
 
 Colours, then, are a very important part 
 of a liberal education in dress. To wear one 
 colour well, one must be artistic; to wear more 
 than one well, one must be an artist. Indeed, 
 
COLOURS 73 
 
 unless the relationship and dependency of 
 colours each upon the other, and still more 
 the repugnancy which one colour may have 
 for another, are thoroughly understood, a 
 a safe rule for the use of various distinctive 
 colours in a costume is the old, familiar one, 
 "Don't." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 DRESS ACCESSORIES 
 
 OF COURSE, you know the woman 
 who dresses Hke every other woman? 
 You remember her in sort of a collec- 
 tive sense, and it is not a very pleasing sense 
 either. She is a duplicate that makes no 
 distinct impression on your mind. She lacks 
 personality. She simply goes along. 
 
 Perhaps it is her manner which is devoid 
 of character. Perhaps it is her dress which 
 is without individual charm. But whatever 
 the reason of the defect, there must be a remedy 
 
 for it. 
 
 Since these are dress talks, let us consider 
 
 the responsibility of dress in achieving dis- 
 tinctiveness, always remembering that when 
 dress reaches its perfection a perfect manner 
 attends it. 
 
 If all women dressed alike, no matter how 
 rich the fabric or how chic and clever the cut, 
 their dress would be accepted without being 
 noticed. A uniform has its greatest distinc- 
 
 74 
 
DRESS ACCESSORIES 75 
 
 tion either when it has never been seen except 
 on one person alone, and thus the sense of 
 uniformity is entirely eliminated, or when it 
 is worn by a number of persons acting together, 
 because then it gives the impression of an 
 individual type. 
 
 Charm in dress is hard to define, yet all are 
 swift to recognize it. There is always an unex- 
 pected quality in it. It piques and holds the 
 attention through a variation which is an im- 
 provement of the usual. 
 
 And this unexpected quality is most often 
 the expression of individual taste, introduced 
 into the costume by different smart little acces- 
 sories. These give the touch of life to dress 
 which saves it from monotony. 
 
 Of course, the wearing has much to do with 
 it. In identically the same dress a queen 
 would look queenly, while a milkmaid would 
 still be the milkmaid. But between these 
 extremes of class there is a vast multitude of 
 women who slavishly follow each season the 
 prevailing fashion, not only in dress but in 
 manner and carriage, even as the soldiers of 
 an army obey an order from headquarters. 
 To each one of these women who wishes 
 always to look her best the accessory is often 
 a saving grace. 
 
76 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 It is right here that self-knowledge and 
 taste have the better of wealth. The only 
 eye which cost first attracts is the eye of 
 the trader. The ordinary observer says, 
 " She is prettily dressed," before saying, 
 "she is richly dressed," The one expression 
 is a part of human nature; the other is a part 
 of human ceremony. Were it otherwise, our 
 millionairesses would be vying with one an- 
 other in costumes made of hundred and thou- 
 sand-dollar bills. 
 
 There is an incalculable fortune awaiting the 
 genius who is able to sell personal charm. 
 
 Style and fashion are the features of dress, 
 but accessories are its expression. The dress 
 which lacks accessories — touches of in- 
 dividual taste — is like the dress on a form in 
 the shop. It is dumb. The dress which is 
 vibrant with impressions is the dress -which 
 reveals the life of the wearer. It is distinctive, 
 because its accessories make it so. They sound 
 the personal note. 
 
 A wax flower may be a perfect copy of a 
 flower in natural bloom, but it still is as dead 
 as wax. Will any woman say that she loves it.^^ 
 
 A famous character in fiction became known 
 as "The Lady of the Camelias," Why? She 
 had rare jewels and laces and the costliest 
 
DRESS ACCESSORIES 77 
 
 of gowns. And yet the flower which she 
 intuitively wore was so associated with her as 
 to be her type. It was because that flower 
 became her most and gave her the most per- 
 sonal distinction. It was that and that alone 
 which was remembered of her even as she 
 herself was remembered. 
 
 An accessory may be a very humble detail 
 of dress and yet give tone to the whole costume. 
 In selecting accessories for different costumes, 
 it is important that the right accessory be 
 used with the right costume. 
 
 In an attractive face, you know, the features 
 and the expression match. Together they make 
 what charms. 
 
 Study the costume first in deciding on 
 the right accessories for it, even as you would 
 study a picture, but a picture not quite com- 
 plete. What are the touches that the picture 
 needs to bring out its true meaning and its 
 best points? Such are the accessories that a 
 particular costume requires. 
 
 Here are some mental pictures to consider 
 which may illustrate this point: There is 
 the typical American Summer Girl in her 
 shirt-waist suit. She is the tailor-made type. 
 Imagine her first in her smart linen skirt and 
 her plain shirt waist of the same material. The 
 
78 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 suit is white, and she wears with it a plain 
 linen turn-down collar, such as she and thou- 
 sands of other women buy in the shops at 
 two for a quarter. Say her belt is white 
 linen or white ribbon, equally commonplace. 
 How distinct an impression does she make 
 on you? Not a very significant one, unless 
 her personality happens to be such that you 
 forget the dress in the person. 
 
 Now, let us picture another girl who knows 
 how much the little accessories of dress count. 
 She is wearing the same white shirt-waist 
 suit made in the same style; but there is a 
 difference, a chicness, in the whole effect. 
 You are conscious of it at first glance, though 
 you don't know just what it is. But the 
 second glance, which is sure to follow, is sure 
 to tell you. 
 
 There are little individual touches in this 
 girl's shirt-waist suit that make it a specially dis- 
 tinctive and attractive costume. There is her 
 collar, for instance, a linen one to be sure, for 
 that is the only appropriate collar to wear with a 
 tailored shirt waist. But this one has a Httle 
 over-collar of Irish lace, and the jabot worn with 
 it has some of the same Irish lace as a finish. 
 It is a jabot of the finest of plaited linen and 
 it is in a new shape. The under part is plaited, 
 
DRESS ACCESSORIES T9 
 
 the centre forming a box plait which shows 
 an inset of Irish lace. The over jabot is 
 also plaited, but the linen before being plaited 
 is cut so that it falls in two deep points. Both 
 over and under jabots are edged with a narrow 
 frill of cream-colour Valenciennes lace. The 
 effect is novel and pretty. Then there is the 
 belt of linen, too, but fastening in front with 
 a buckle covered with the Irish crochet lace. 
 
 Perhaps, this shirt-waist girl, who looks 
 well to the accessories of her dress, intro- 
 duces a touch of colour in her otherwise 
 white suit. Her linen turn-down collar may 
 be embroidered in each corner with a small 
 violet worked in violet floss, and her double- 
 tab linen jabot may have its edges scalloped 
 in violet. Then a violet may be embroidered 
 in crest form on her pocket, or as a medallion 
 to ornament her belt. If she carries a parasol, 
 it is apt to be of violet silk, and her shoes and 
 stockings are violet-hued too. This is the 
 girl you remember, if for no other reason than 
 just her clothes; while the young man who 
 meets her carries aw^ay with him an ideal of 
 "The Lady of the Violets." 
 
 But there are pretty sure to be other reasons, 
 too, for remembering the girl who is capable 
 of studying out charming little effects in her 
 
80 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 clothes. She has resources of her own, and 
 the more you know her, the better you Hke 
 her. Insipidity of character predicates insipidity 
 in dress. 
 
 The young woman, or the older woman 
 for that matter, who has tried and found 
 becoming some special accessory, should wear 
 it so often that it is associated with her. She 
 should make it her own. A bow or rosette 
 in a certain unusual form, for instance, may 
 be developed in different colours and materials 
 and used in many different ways. 
 
 Take a rosette of black satin, framed in 
 narrow frills of very yellow lace. When made 
 rather large, it might be used as a finish for 
 the back of a girdle and have depending from 
 it two large black satin sash ends. The rosette 
 used in this way might serve as the one neces- 
 sary distinctive note to the costume. ' Then this 
 same rosette might be made in miniature and 
 be used to take the place of buttons on some 
 soft frock light in colour. Again, the rosette, 
 this time larger, might form a smart finishing 
 touch to a plain hat. 
 
 The accessory developed in black is very 
 apt to be becoming. 
 
 Just recall for yourself how well the woman 
 with a long slender throat looks if her throat is 
 
''This is Ihe (fir! you rememhei 
 
DRESS ACCESSORIES 81 
 
 enriched by a band of black velvet. It may be 
 plain; it may be caught with diamond buckles; 
 but just so long as it is black, it is becoming. 
 
 The black lace scarf has a magic touch of 
 becomingness lurking in its folds, especially 
 when worn with a white or delicately tinted 
 silk or satin gown. 
 
 Right here let us emphasize the power of 
 the scarf. It often gives the one redeeming 
 colour note to a characterless gown. It is 
 a help to the awkward woman, diverting] her 
 attention from herself. It is magic to the 
 graceful woman, the soft, waving web with 
 which she allures and binds and holds. There 
 is a fascination in the scarf. The Spanish 
 senorita knows it. So did the ladies of 
 Charles the Second's court, whose dreamy 
 loveliness Lely has immortalized. 
 
 Garnitures of jet, especially in fringed 
 effects, often transform a commonplace gown 
 into a distinctive costume. A flat, black 
 satin collar in a variety of shapes, with an 
 applique of old lace or embroidered batiste 
 upon it, may give this costume an almost unac- 
 countable charm. Its shape must be decided 
 upon according to its special adaptability to 
 the wearer. 
 
 Always, let it be repeated, there must be 
 
82 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 personal adaptation in order to secure personal 
 effect. 
 
 Even so little a thing as the handkerchief 
 may become a telling accessory of dress. 
 The handkerchief has always been idealized ; it 
 peculiarly has the personal quality. It is 
 dainty, or it is less than nothing. It retains 
 the essence of personality — the shade of an 
 individual perfume. It m^ay be both a me- 
 mento and a memory. Could all the hand- 
 kerchiefs be recovered that have been stolen 
 and treasured by lovers, the world's supply 
 would not need increase for many years. 
 
 Then there is the belt, of which the poets 
 of all ages have sung as the Girdle of Venus. 
 It is really impossible to number the scalps 
 that victorious woman has hanging from her 
 belt. It generally is in fashion, and always 
 should be; and to the woman who studies her 
 own individuality and has a sense of the 
 artistic it proves a fascinating accessory. 
 In the belt, many times, lies the one effective 
 touch of colour; while its odd buckle may 
 give a novel and refreshing tone to the whole 
 costume. Keep the belt inconspicuous if the 
 waist is large. You may have it as deep and 
 as unique of form as you please if the waist 
 is small and tapering. 
 
DRESS ACCESSORIES 88 
 
 The bag, like the belt, is an important 
 accessory; it also tells plainly the personality 
 of the wearer. It may harmonize in tone 
 with the costume, or it may smartly con- 
 trast with it; but it must be new in shape and 
 suggest the prevailing fashion through a 
 chicness of its own. There is but one thing 
 to do with an old, dowdy bag. Throw it away. 
 
 All these accessories, while actively giving 
 distinction, are themselves independent. They 
 are little things often that may escape notice 
 while causing notice. They are the blend 
 that itself may be lost in the perfect union it 
 produces. On the other hand, they are often 
 the keynote by which the strain that has 
 charmed is remembered. 
 
 Wealth may buy these things, or thrift may 
 make them; but it is taste that must put 
 them on. 
 
 Taste, then, is the one thing needful. With- 
 out it, a woman is clad; with it, a woman is 
 dressed. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 SPECIAL WARDROBES 
 
 THE twin sister of individuality in dress 
 is suitability in dress. The one suits 
 the dress to the person; the other 
 suits the dress to the occasion. In correct 
 dress they each play an important role. 
 
 Nowadays the composite American woman 
 is very busy in her work and play. It is a 
 duty of modern dress to make her work more 
 effective and her play more enjoyable. 
 
 The many and varied interests of the woman 
 of to-day are shown in the great diversity of her 
 dress; for as woman has developed, so her 
 dress has developed with her. 
 
 Let us see how dress may make or mar these 
 various parts a woman now fills on the stage 
 of life. 
 
 There is the home woman. Let us con- 
 sider her as a type first and foremost, as 
 she should be considered. Her morning 
 dress should reflect the home. It should be 
 
 84 
 
SPECIAL WARDROBES 85 
 
 as cheery and dainty as the breakfast over 
 which she presides. It should set an example 
 to children. A slattern may scold as much 
 as she pleases, but she will still have slatterns 
 about her. 
 
 Of course, the morning dress of the home 
 woman must suit her position in life. If she 
 is a busy housewife with the breakfast to super- 
 intend and the house to put in order, she should 
 wear a trim, one-piece gown of some washable 
 material like chambray or percale. 
 
 The colour should be becoming; the style 
 simple. A shirt-waist suit, with the waist and 
 skirt joined at the belt, will be found satisfac- 
 tory, and it should button straight up the 
 front, because the minutes in the morning have 
 special flying propensities, and each second 
 saved is a second that counts for twice as much. 
 A turn-down collar of the material may be 
 worn instead of a stiff linen collar, and sleeves 
 may be three-quarter length, a style which 
 always suggests charming domesticity. This 
 little morning dress, ho wever, should be modified 
 to suit the individuality of the wearer. It will 
 surely fulfil its mission if trimness is its chief 
 characteristic. 
 
 Now if the home woman is the woman of 
 leisure, her morning dress should reflect this 
 
86 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 fact. She should dress to set off and give 
 added charm to her surroundings. 
 
 She should have breakfast sacques, soft and 
 frilly and delicate of colour, and skirts to wear 
 with them. She may have wrappers, of course, 
 but they must be glorified wrappers, crisp and 
 pretty without a suggestion of a hurried rising 
 and toilette. They should not, however, be 
 elaborate tea-gowns, overtrimmed with ribbons 
 and lace. The silk and chiffon boudoir rest- 
 ing gown to wear when lights are dim is not 
 appropriate for breakfast wear in the broad 
 sunlight. 
 
 Let the breakfast dress of the woman whose 
 morning hours are not hurried emphasize 
 daintiness and freshness. An Empire gown of 
 challis, with a silk figure or stripe, trimmed with 
 ribbon velvet, or a cotton crepe, albatross or 
 India silk gown, having just a touch of lace to 
 add to its softness, would surely look well. 
 
 It is important, however, even with a negligee 
 that the design of the gown be becoming to the 
 wearer. No person of taste will look twice 
 at a gown that anybody may wear. 
 
 Clothes for morning wear are for outdoors 
 as well as indoors. In considering these special 
 wardrobes, only general suggestions can be 
 given — the outlines of the picture really — 
 
SPECIAL WARDROBES 87 
 
 the other details must be supplied by each 
 individual wearer. In the last analysis it is 
 individual taste that counts the most. 
 
 The correct costume for outdoor morning 
 wear is the coat and skirt suit of some such 
 fabric as serge, cheviot, or mannish suiting. 
 Of course, tailored styles are the best, and in- 
 conspicuous colours. Leave the broadcloths 
 md velvets for calling costumes, and let the 
 I'ads and frills of dress be introduced there too. 
 
 With the evening comes more elaborate dress. 
 The fashionable woman needs dinner gowns, 
 theatre and opera gowns and ball costumes. 
 The more cultivated she is, the more she has 
 made the art of dress the study it should be, 
 the finer and more appropriate are the dis- 
 tinctions between these attires. 
 
 In planning them she must first have a 
 definite idea of the prevailing mode as to 
 fabrics and outline. Then, if she is wise, she 
 will modify the present style to her own type; 
 and whether she is planning one gown or a 
 dozen gowns, let each be distinctive and each 
 suit the occasion on which it is to be worn. 
 
 It is well to bear in mind that the trimming of a 
 gown may give a distinctive touch to it, and 
 that in a measure it acts as an index to the 
 dress, putting the gown in its own class. 
 
88 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Never use the same type of trimming on your 
 evening gowns. If the dancing frock is 
 trimmed with artificial flowers of chiffon and 
 satin, have the ball gown trimmed with fur, or 
 gold or silver embroideries. A woman with 
 one trimming is a woman of one-dress idea, 
 and not much of an idea at that. 
 
 It goes without saying that a little good 
 trimming is better than a lot of inferior trim- 
 ming. When economy must be given at least a 
 passing thought, a good quality of velvet or 
 brocade is a better investment than some 
 prevailing fad in silks or even some exquisite 
 shade of chiffon. There is always the next 
 year to bear in mind. 
 
 The business woman has special dress needs 
 of her own. Negligees and dainty dressing 
 sacques play no part in her morning wardrobe. 
 Smart looking tailored shirt waists and well- 
 cut skirts take their place. The well-poised 
 young business woman is prepared for every 
 emergency. She never becomes an object of 
 solicitude to her employer. No matter how 
 varied and villainous the weather, she should 
 have clothes to suit it. 
 
 Her wardrobe must either be an extensive 
 one, or her clothes must all be selected to play 
 a double part. Among the necessities should 
 
SPECIAL WARDROBES 89 
 
 be a long separate coat, made in a conventional 
 style, a coat which will not soon look out of 
 date, a perfectly made tailored suit, and shirt 
 waists of both silk and durable wash fabrics; 
 also a generous supply of good shoes, walking 
 gloves, and smart belts and neckwear. At least 
 two hats are also necessary; a distinct suit 
 hat and a hat which will look well with any 
 clothes. 
 
 There are many special wardrobes for the 
 well-dressed woman which should be planned 
 along the same lines whether she goes out to 
 business or stays at home. Clothes for a rainy 
 day, for outdoor sports, and for travelling may 
 be mentioned. In all these instances, the 
 woman who would be correctly dressed must be 
 careful to avoid the incongruous note. 
 
 Don't put your money in awell-made, smart- 
 looking cravenette coat for instance, and then 
 wear with it a hat which has distinct picture 
 lines. The plain tailored soft felt or rough 
 straw walking hat or turban, with a quill or 
 merely a ribbon band and rosette for trimming, 
 belongs with the raincoat. Remember to 
 have every detail of the rainy day wardrobe in 
 harmony. Don't wear light gloves, or shoes 
 with French heels. Have stout shoes, and 
 rubbers, too, that will fit them. 
 
00 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 If you are going automobiling, dress as though 
 you were. Let your costume, even to the 
 minutest detail, be a protection. Remember 
 that dust and wind will go with you when 
 flying through the country in a motor car. 
 Don't wear motor togs to attract attention. 
 Just wear sensible clothes, and keep the colours, 
 if not dark, at least neutral. It is unwise 
 to look like either a fairy or a fright. 
 
 In special wardrobes for athletic sports 
 avoid masculine effects. Remember that she 
 who assumes mannishness admits the inferior- 
 ity of her sex. It is the womanly woman 
 that men fall in love v/ith, not poor copies of 
 themselves. 
 
 Don't wear mannish outing shirts, for in- 
 stance, with your golf or tennis skirt. You 
 can be just as comfortable and play the game 
 fully as well if you select a simple blouse which 
 has enough of a dainty look of femininity about 
 it to proclaim at first glance that it was made 
 for a nice girl and not for a mere man. The 
 first glance will not be the only glance, you may 
 be sure. 
 
 In travelling, more than under any other 
 circumstances, is a woman's sense of fitness 
 put to the test. 
 
 Some women have an idea that a journey 
 
SPECIAL WARDROBES. 91 
 
 is a time for display. It is — but only for a 
 display of common sense. When a woman 
 travels, she should dress inconspicuously. It 
 is not necessary for her to wear her fine clothes; 
 the consciousness that she has them will more 
 than answer the purpose. 
 
 If "By their clothes ye shall judge them" 
 is a fair test, it is a regretful truth that for- 
 eigners must think that many of our women 
 who travel abroad are fearfully and wonder- 
 fully made. 
 
 Don't take your fine frocks to Europe. 
 If an occasion comes up abroad when a fine 
 gown is needed, buy it there if possible, and pay 
 the duty on it, too, when you return. The less 
 clothes a woman takes with her on her travels 
 the better off she is. A fat pocketbook is 
 better than a big trunk. 
 
 But though the travelling wardrobe should 
 be small, it must be right. Every woman 
 who thinks can plan it best for herself. But 
 she will be wise not to forget the long coat 
 which will entirely cover the dress, the simply 
 made dinner gown which can be worn low neck 
 or high neck by means of a guimpe and which 
 should be of some material that will not lose 
 all its good looks in packing — like foulard 
 silk or pongee. Clothes never should travel 
 
9ft THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 for their health, by the way; for there is no 
 improvement in it for them. 
 
 Then there is the walking skirt, made a bit 
 shorter than usual, and the comfortable shirt 
 waists of outing flannels, cotton cheviot and 
 madras. Of course, the short skirt needs to 
 have a coat to match, and a coat set or two 
 to change the effect on occasions. Then 
 there are the very necessary veils and the com- 
 fortable shoes; to say nothing of a restful pair 
 of slippers. 
 
 Even for a long trip abroad, two hats are 
 quite sufficient; a travelling hat plain and tail- 
 ored in effect, and one with which a veil may 
 be nicely worn, and what is known as a demi- 
 dress hat of velvet or satin or straw, according 
 to the season. 
 
 This hat should be of the adaptable sort, 
 and different trimmings should be packed 
 with it, such as a band of gold and a satin 
 rosette, a crown of silver lace, a big chou 
 of some pretty bright shade of velvet — any 
 trimming novelty in fact which can be 
 packed without injury and has a transform- 
 ing quality. 
 
 There is a lesson for women to learn from 
 special wardrobes. It is that the well-dressed 
 woman is always the well-dressed woman. 
 
SPECIAL WARDROBES 93 
 
 No matter what the change or what the emer- 
 gency, she fits the scene. 
 
 First, one accepts her naturally as a very 
 part of the scene. Then one is impressed 
 with the fact that she is adding charm to it. 
 And then comes the knowledge that she is 
 able to do this through the suitability of her 
 dress. 
 
 The quality of dress is like to the quality 
 of a pair of scales. When it varies either too 
 much or too little, even by the merest trifle, 
 then it is incorrect. 
 
CHAPTER Xm 
 
 JEWELLERY 
 
 HAVE you ever thought of reading a 
 woman's character by the jewellery 
 she wears? If not, try it. You will 
 find it an interesting study; for it will tell you 
 much that neither you nor she knows. 
 
 In fact, jewellery is a key to the character of 
 its wearer. The woman who wears the right 
 jewels at the right time has gone far toward be- 
 ing the right woman in the right place. That is 
 to say, she is in harmony with her surroundings. 
 
 Through her study and understanding of her- 
 self and her adornment she realizes that 
 jewels count even m^ore for individual effective- 
 ness than do gowns. They have their special 
 harmonies of colour. When these match 
 with the harmony of the person, the effect 
 is most beautiful. When they do not, the 
 effect is barbaric and jarring. 
 
 Jewels of themselves are sympathetic — far 
 more so than flowers, which cannot endure. In 
 
 94 
 
JEWELLERY 95 
 
 a way they partake of their wearer's nature 
 and share in her fortunes. The ancients 
 firmly believed in the sympathy of jewels. 
 Pearls were said to fade or crumble when the 
 one who had worn them long or lovingly, died, 
 while the evil reputation which has so per- 
 sistently clung to the opal, diminishing much 
 the price if not the value of this rare and exqui- 
 site gem, is another trace of this old superstition. 
 
 The faith in talismans, amulets, and stones 
 of ill omen continued undisputed during the 
 middle ages and is strong to this day. The 
 truthlies in the association. Through their 
 durability, jewels gather unto themselves the 
 sweet and bitter memories of years. They may 
 represent a family or even an age; or again, 
 only one precious event in the life of the wearer. 
 When you see a woman who wears continuously 
 a ring or a brooch which is far less beautiful 
 than many of the gems she owns and shuns, 
 then you may know that such a jewel is an 
 intimate friend that encourages, comforts or 
 warns with a knowledge as full and true as 
 that which lies deep in her own bosom. 
 
 Now, women may draw a lesson worth 
 learning from the study of jewellery and its 
 indiscriminate use. 
 
 Individual taste should be followed in the 
 
\ 
 
 / 
 
 96 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 selection of jewellery, for it becomes in a way a 
 criterion of the taste of the wearer. If it be 
 crude, grotesque of design or gaudy, then she 
 who wears it advertises herself as lacking re- 
 refinement. 
 
 Many an ugly or inappropriate piece of 
 jewellery is but an emblem of membership 
 in the vast and ever increasing Society of the 
 Vulgar. 
 
 Therefore, don't buy jewellery indiscrim- 
 inately. It cannot be properly bought by the 
 weight or the sample. Let it have some other 
 value besides its commercial one. Buy, if you 
 can afford it, what especially appeals to you, and 
 then wear it lovingly. 
 
 In regard to imitation jewellery, the rule is 
 simple and without exception: The genuine 
 or none. But what about the poor who have an 
 inherent love of ornament as well as the rich.'* 
 Such a rule, it may be said, would bar the poor 
 from ever having any jewellery to wear with 
 their best clothes; and then they would never 
 feel well dressed. 
 
 Well, poverty does prevent many material 
 joys, but it may enhance that meek and 
 quiet spirit which the Bible advises for orna- 
 ment. And many a poor mother takes as 
 much pride in her children as did Roman 
 
JEWELLERY 97 
 
 Cornelia when she said, "These are my 
 jewels. " 
 
 After all, the heart is the mine which can pro- 
 duce the rarest and most precious of gems. 
 
 But even the poor woman or girl may have 
 one piece of jewellery through inheritance or 
 saving. To her there will be much more joy 
 of possession than ever comes to the woman 
 of wealth and fashion who keeps her jewels, rare, 
 for the most part, in a safety-deposit vault, and 
 is dogged by a detective when she does wear 
 them. The poor woman makes a friend of her 
 one gem; she treasures it, she loves it. It is 
 not so much having as knowing and prizing 
 that counts. 
 
 This woman of wealth, generally speaking, 
 is not on very intimate terms with her pro- 
 fusion of jewels — who ever does love a crowd .^^ 
 Many of them she scarcely knows by sight. 
 Frequently, one means no more to her than an- 
 other; for the meaning of each is its cost. They 
 are slaves that help to adorn her; and then, 
 when their duty is done, are put out of 
 sight. 
 
 Remember, a sham has no enduring qualities. 
 Imitation jewellery looks best on the day it is 
 bought, if it has any good looks at all. It 
 must be taken on faith — a most restricted 
 
98 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 faith — which no one can experience except the 
 wearer herself. 
 
 Cf course, it is only the cheap imitations 
 which are meant, like the large solitaire dia- 
 mond that can be purchased for $4.95. Such 
 imitation gems are generally displayed in shop 
 windows ablaze with electric lights. These 
 windows are lighted in this way for a twofold 
 purpose: one to allure the unwary passerby, 
 and the other to supply for the time of pur- 
 chase the essential sparkle and lustre. The 
 "solitaire" only shows its true nature when 
 away from these dazzling lights; and then it 
 looks like what it is in reality, a piece of glass. 
 But then it is too late, for both it and its pur- 
 chaser have been sold. 
 
 Now, it is unwise to pay $4.95 for a sham. 
 It is unwise to spend the money just to empha- 
 size a shoddy trait in one's character. It is 
 unwise, also, because for the same sum a 
 piece of hand- wrought jewellery may be bought, 
 something rather small, to be sure, but having 
 intrinsic worth and good of its kind. Why buy 
 a ring set with a bit of worthless though cleverly 
 cut glass for $4.95 when you can have a lace- 
 pin, for instance, of hand-wrought silver, set 
 with a small but genuine topaz or amethyst? 
 
 The semi-precious stones, like the aquama- 
 
JEWELLERY 99 
 
 rine, the turquoise, the oHvine and the tourma- 
 line, which are so much in vogue to-day, must 
 not, in any way, be confounded with imitation 
 "jewels. " They have an intrinsic value and 
 beauty of their own; and many times they give 
 the finishing and appropriate touch to the cos- 
 tume in a way no other ornament can. 
 
 These semi-precious stones are most used in 
 hand-wrought jewellery, which year by year, 
 since the revival of the handicrafts, has grown 
 more beautiful. To-day, no matter how varied 
 and costly her collection of conventional 
 jewellery may be, a woman of wealth and taste 
 wishes to possess at least one or two rings and 
 brooches that are hand wrought and have 
 been made exclusively for her, with the agree- 
 ment that the design shall never be duplicated. 
 In such as these there lies distinction. 
 
 Here again may be noted woman's growing 
 fondness for things individual. It is not only 
 the semi-precious stones that are a fad of 
 to-day, but there is a decided vogue for old- 
 fashioned jewellery which has good reason at its 
 back. It seems that the more old-fashioned 
 jewellery is, the more new-fashioned it may be- 
 come.. There is no deterioration for what was 
 good at the start. It remains good for all 
 time, with a chance of getting better. 
 
100 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Of course fashions change; but it is the change 
 of a revolution. Presently back again into 
 style come the corals, the jets, the long chains, 
 the pendant ear-rings, and all the rest. Fashion 
 is fleeting but jewellery is lasting. The heavens 
 may be clouded over, but behind the clouds the 
 stars still shine. So, too, tranquilly glow real 
 jewels, waiting again to come into their own, J 
 
 How to buy jeweller5% when to wear it, and 
 when not to wear it, are subjects well worth 
 considering. In buying jewellery it is wise to 
 go to the jeweller of highest reputation. And 
 this advice applies equally to the grande 
 dame selecting a string of matched pearls, and 
 the little shop-girl who has saved up so long and 
 so self-sacrificingly for a brooch or a collar pin. 
 
 The difference in price won't be much; 
 the difference in quality may be. Genuine 
 jewellery is aristocratic; cheap jewellery is 
 shoddy. ) 
 
 The jeweller's business is more than a trade. 
 It is an ancient and honourable craft. In some 
 lands, those who followed it were deemed 
 noble. Go, then, to an old-established house, 
 where proprietors and clerks have grown up 
 with their wares and both know and love them. 
 The purchase of a piece of jewellery from such a 
 place is a liberal education in how to wear 
 
JEWELLERY 101 
 
 jewellery and how to care for it; and it carries 
 its own guaranty. 
 
 Possibly one reason why the woman who loves 
 her jewels comes to believe that they have a 
 sympathy for her and that they look better 
 on her than on any one else is because she takes 
 care of them. All jewellery requires the daintiest 
 of care. It must be polished and kept from the 
 dust and dirt. Of course, it looks its best when 
 it is at its best; and the same may be said of its 
 wearer. When she is careful and particular 
 of her jewellery she is careful and particular 
 of herself. This is only an extension of that 
 nicety which gives to her her distinctive charm. 
 
 In considering when to wear jewellery, re- 
 member and keep remembering that jewellery 
 is sympathetic. It will look out of place when 
 it is out of place, like a diamond pin worn with 
 a linen shirt waist, or gold beads on a lately 
 bereaved widow's bowed neck ! [ It calls for fit- 
 ness more than any other accessory of dress; 
 and the louder it calls, the more conspicuous is 
 this lack of fitness, j 
 
 Ceremony alone 6an warrant a lavish display 
 of jewels. Some women go to a bridge party 
 as if to a coronation. 
 
 Some women, too, forget that jewels, if they 
 have the right lustre and the right colour. 
 
102 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 have actual beautifying qualities. Many a 
 woman with brown eyes and tawny brown hair 
 may add greatly to her appearance by wearing 
 topazes and old gold jewellery. Corals, which 
 are again in fashion, give just the needed note 
 of colour to the dark-haired woman who is 
 paler than she wishes to be. Wear jewels 
 that match your eyes in colour, if possible, 
 and observe how much prettier your eyes look 
 and how greatly their distinctive hue is 
 emphasized. 
 
 The woman who has studied her jewels in 
 relation to herself comes to use them as the 
 artist does the paints on his palette, each one to 
 produce the present effect or to be kept for some 
 other fitting occasion. Jewels used correctly 
 should blend and add beauty to the different 
 parts of the costume. They should light and 
 soften the features of the wearer. They should 
 give perfection to the picture. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE CARE OF CLOTHES 
 
 TREAT your clothes with disrespect, 
 neglect to care for them, and what will 
 happen? They w411 make you hide 
 your head in shame fast enough; not only on 
 their account because of their appearance, but 
 on your account because of yours. 
 
 There is no escaping the fact that clothes 
 will reveal; they will betray. 
 
 A comparison between French thrift and 
 American waste is often made in the matter 
 of food. A like comparison, even more in- 
 structive to our women and our homes, may be 
 made in the matter of clothes. 
 
 A French woman always looks nice, because 
 she is nice about her clothes. She takes the 
 utmost care of them; she never rags them out. 
 Like a good friend, they stand by her to the end. 
 How is it with very many American women? 
 After the first wearing they seem to lose in- 
 terest in their clothes. Indeed, it is the getting, 
 
 103 
 
104 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 and not the having that counts with them. In 
 the hurry to accompKsh all the many things 
 they crowd into a day, they give their clothes, 
 as far as their care is concerned, but a passing 
 thought. They hang them up carelessly, often 
 in a packed closet. They brush them occa- 
 sionally, when they happen to think of it and 
 they have the time, and they don't put their 
 hearts as they should into the brushing. They 
 are thinking of the Opening they have seen 
 advertised and of the new styles, you see. 
 
 And as a result? Well, the misused clothes 
 have a little revenge of their own. They look 
 shabby before their time. They persist in 
 wrinkling and ripping just when you want them 
 to look their best. Clearly do they illustrate 
 the perversity of inanimate things, which very 
 often are not as inanimate as they seem. 
 
 It is a prime duty for every woman to 
 care for her clothes. It means economy which 
 will count. It means more charm for herself. 
 It means that the story they inevitably tell she 
 will be glad to have every one hear. 
 
 The care of clothes is a vital matter in the 
 family of moderate means. The crying need of 
 more clothes and still more clothes to follow 
 would be less frequent if clothes after they were 
 bought were given perfect care. 
 
THE CARE OF CLOTHES 105 
 
 Habit gives this care — the persistent, watch- 
 ful habit which will not let up until everything 
 is "just so," as the saying is. Such a habit of 
 caring for clothes is well worth acquiring. 
 
 The careful woman always has two helpers 
 close at hand; a threaded needle and a brush 
 broom. When these have done their perfect 
 work, then there is a third helper that should 
 also be on call — a safe and sure cleaning fluid. 
 There are plenty such on the market — not gaso- 
 line, mark you, which never should be used 
 except in the open air, and generally not then. 
 
 Those trite sayings, "A stitch in time saves 
 nine" and "Never put off until to-morrow what 
 you can do to-day," should be remembered 
 and applied to the care of clothes. But the 
 truth is that often, too often, not even the 
 nine stitches are ever taken; nor is anything 
 done to-day that can possibly be put off until 
 to-morrow. Again the rush and scramble of 
 the times! 
 
 Get the habit of taking the needed stitch 
 and wielding the necessary brush before any 
 garment is put away. After a while you would 
 no more neglect to do so than you would neglect 
 to wash your face. 
 
 And where it is put away and how it is put 
 away are both matters of vital importance. 
 
106 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 To-day, of all days, there is a place for 
 everything. 
 
 This applies even to the close quarters of a 
 small apartment. So many are the new and 
 clever space-saving devices that it would seem 
 as if a new one appeared on the market every 
 day. There are hangers for coats, skirts, 
 waists, and for one-piece dresses. There are 
 special trunks for special garments. There are 
 wardrobes so arranged that they protect and 
 hold an almost incredible amount of clothes. 
 There are chiffonieres that are made with a door 
 and have the most surprising of compartments 
 inside. They contain drawers for waists and 
 underwear, and a lower, deeper drawer for 
 shoes, to say nothing of hat cushions for the 
 safe holding of four or more hats. 
 
 There are boxes galore, and most attractive 
 ones, too. They are frequently upholstered to 
 match the draperies of the room. They are 
 provided with castors so that they may be easily 
 moved about. Sometimes they are tucked 
 under the bed, and sometimes they are used as 
 seats; but at all times they are a convenience. 
 
 Then there are the rods for closets from which 
 coat and skirt hangers are suspended. These 
 are easily arranged, and they triple the capacity 
 of any closet. 
 
^THE CARE OF CLOTHES 107 
 
 But there is work to be done before the clothes 
 are put away. Brush your hat when you take 
 it off, and then put it in its own special box. 
 Many of the bandboxes to-day are quite fas- 
 cinating affairs. They are lined with silk or 
 cretonne and are fragrant with sachet. 
 
 Brush your skirt, see that its hooks and eyes 
 are not hanging, put in all the stitches necessary, 
 give it a vigorous shaking for good measure, 
 and then hang it on its form. To keep the 
 skirt in immaculate condition, it should be 
 slipped into a big, roomy bag. If space will 
 allow, a skirt bag of black silk or sateen made 
 with a drawstring at the top will be most effec- 
 tive in protecting the skirt from dust. 
 
 Remember that dust we not only are, but 
 that we live, move and have our being in dust. 
 Therefore, brush, sisters, brush with care, 
 whenever you come in from the air. 
 
 Clothes need the rest cure, and they are 
 very responsive to it. But don't send them off 
 to the cure until you have given them a taste 
 of active treatment. They should be brushed, 
 cleaned and pressed and then covered over 
 before they are marched away from the frivol- 
 ities of the world. A week of seclusion will do 
 wonders for tired-out clothes. 
 
 If furs are not sent to cold storage, they 
 
108 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 should be well shaken before they are put 
 away, and they never should be laid flat. The 
 best way to keep a muff is on a rod. In fact, 
 it is desirable to swing all fur garments on a rod 
 rather than store them in a box. If you can't 
 give your furs cold air, then give them fresh air. 
 
 Be sure, in using boxes to hold your waists, 
 scarfs, hosiery, etc., to have each box labelled 
 plainly; and never put an article in the box of 
 another article. That would be confusion worse 
 confounded. 
 
 The accessories of dress need special care. 
 Never put gloves away in a little bunch. Don't 
 roll them. They should be carefully smoothed 
 out. An inexpensive glove case can be made 
 out of a strip of sash ribbon, with a roll of pad- 
 ding at one end, which may be sacheted or not 
 as preferred. The other end is pointed, and 
 a ribbon is attached to it which is used to tie 
 the case together. This may be embroidered 
 with one's monogram. The same rather nar- 
 row ribbon is run down the centre of the 
 inside of the case. It is tacked with feather- 
 stitching here and there, according to how 
 many pairs of gloves the case is made to 
 hold. The gloves are folded and then slipped 
 under the ribbons, which keep them in place. 
 The case rolls up, and occupies but little room. 
 
THE CARE OF CLOTHES 109 
 
 A deep, narrow box is also convenient for hold- 
 ing gloves. 
 
 In caring for belts, first smooth them out, 
 and then roll and put in a box which will hold 
 them compactly. 
 
 Handkerchiefs of course must be folded and 
 piled in a box or case. Though the handker- 
 chief case is a time-honoured affair, especially 
 as a present for a young clergyman who will 
 never use it, the woman who cares for her things 
 will find that handkerchiefs rumple less in a 
 box, and so she won't use one either. 
 
 And veils? It is inspiring what some women 
 can do for their veils; just as it is awful what 
 some women will do to them. Veils should be 
 kept in a box. 
 
 It was a canny old lady who, being anxious 
 as to the character of the young woman her son 
 had chosen for a wife, managed to get a peep 
 at this young woman's bureau drawers. Talk 
 about the skeleton in every household! The 
 bureau is a favourite hiding place for the dread- 
 ful thing. Either the bureau is neat and 
 orderly with every compartment having its 
 separate use, with every box always in its own 
 place, and every loose article always where it 
 should be and as it should be, or it is a hopeless 
 jumble. Think of the frenzied hunt, the turn- 
 
110 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 ing over, the tossing about, the piHng up and the 
 casting down, with the inevitable man consum- 
 ing his soul with impatience in the parlour. 
 
 Eternal vigilance is the price of a faultless 
 wardrobe, whether it is a modest one or a most 
 elaborate and fashionable one. There is no 
 royal road to that distinction in dress which 
 comes from perfection of detail. It means 
 care and more care and still more care every 
 time. 
 
 Again comes the frequent lesson of indi- 
 viduality in dress. It cannot be escaped. As 
 the woman is — so her clothes are. 
 
 Give to your clothes, then, the dainty 
 personal habits of which you yourself are so 
 proud; and you may take pride in them, as 
 they will take pride in you. 
 
 Above all, remember, that if women would 
 devote themselves to the care of clothes rather 
 than to the care for clothes, they would be wiser 
 and happier. What is more to the point, they 
 would be far more attractive. There is no one 
 so fascinating as my lady immaculate. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 
 
 BEAUTY is said to be eternal. But it 
 is different with clothes. They should 
 not outlast the stage of life which 
 they mark. From babyhood to old age, 
 womankind is continually changing — trying 
 to keep pace with the years, sometimes to 
 hasten them, oftentimes to hide them. 
 
 In general, it is a rule worth following that 
 the clothes of one period are not the proper 
 clothes for any other period. 
 
 But how seldom is the rule adhered to and 
 how many and how pitiful are the mistakes 
 made. 
 
 Illustrating dress in its relation to age, 
 let us take first the most pitiful type of all 
 and then be rid of it — the woman who is 
 growing old and who is striving for youth 
 with a fierce, hopeful, hopeless zeal. In her 
 effort to look what she is not, she misses the 
 true meaning of dress. She does not know, 
 
 111 
 
112 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 and apparently does not care to know, that 
 dress should be the body's complement; that 
 they should always match and agree with 
 each other. 
 
 The more the woman who is growing old 
 strives to hide the fact in her dress, the more 
 evident it becomes. And how the struggle 
 must surprise old Father Time! 
 
 What a caricature she makes of herself — 
 this woman who is growing old. She dyes 
 her hair. She makes up her face. She dresses 
 as her granddaughter might. 
 
 And what happens .^^ Nature revolts, for 
 she hates things artificial. So she relent- 
 lessly exposes them. 
 
 The dyed hair has its revenge. Instead 
 of softening the features, it only brings out 
 the lines of age more sharply, and makes the 
 face glare out as ghastly as a death mask. 
 Indeed, such a face is a mask and no one knows 
 it better than the woman behind it. She never 
 dares to let her face express an emotion, for 
 she realizes that one little smile of welcome or 
 cheer might make it crack; so she keeps it 
 rigid. 
 
 Then her poor, exhausted body finds the 
 fashions and frills of extreme youth like a 
 giant's robe, too heavy to endure. 
 
\/ 
 
 "What a caricature she makes of herself — this icoman 
 
 who is groiring old^^ 
 
DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 113 
 
 Who would care to preserve this picture, 
 to hand it down as a sacred heirloom? 
 
 Old age, however, has its styles and fashions 
 that rightfully belong to it — the dress which 
 has grown old with the wearer. 
 
 Nature is always kindly toward her own 
 ravages, when they are accepted. She softens 
 the wrinkles by the smile and gives glory to 
 the crown of white hair. How lovable the 
 old lady who is appropriately dressed. 
 
 Women who are growing old need not 
 wear out-of -fashion styles to be appropriately 
 dressed. If it happens to be the day of the 
 close-fitting sleeve and the scant skirt, it is not 
 necessary, just because of their age, that they 
 wear big sleeves and voluminous skirts. They 
 should recognize in selecting their clothes 
 the trend of the modes, but the extremes of 
 fashion, of course, they should never consider. 
 
 Subdued colours are for the women who 
 are growing old, and soft laces and fabrics. 
 Dress should be a harmony, not a discord. 
 
 The woman in the sixties should not wear 
 clothes like the girl in her teens. If she does, 
 her dress will be a burlesque. 
 
 Dress not only bears an important relation 
 to age, but to youth as well. 
 
 How children should dress is not only of 
 
114 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 consequence to the welfare of the child, but also 
 the growing girl and the woman, for the over- 
 dressed little girl and young girl are apt to 
 become overdressed old women. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that children's 
 clothes should be adapted to work and play. 
 The wise father who pays the bills will attend 
 to that. 
 
 And the wise mother .^^ She will see that 
 her little girl's clothes are first of all com- 
 fortable, which means that they must be simple 
 of design, properly made and of the right 
 warmth and weight to suit the changing 
 seasons. And in addition they should be 
 artistic. 
 
 Beauty in dress will not come and will 
 not last without an effort. 
 
 A little girl should be taught to regard her 
 clothes as she does her person, as sacred. 
 Each should have scrupulous care. 
 
 Every mother knows, or should know, how 
 instructive a plaything the doll can be made. 
 The child who loves her doll will take pride 
 in keeping it pretty. She will soon learn to 
 discriminate in its dress. 
 
 First, dollie dear is hugged and treasured 
 whether she happens to be a thing of real 
 beauty or not. She may be a rag doll with 
 
DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 115 
 
 certain but pronounced peculiarities of feature, 
 but dress, right dress, brings a chance of 
 improvement even to a rag doll. And soon 
 her little mother says, "I'll make her lovelier 
 than she ever has been before." That's 
 the next step. 
 
 Few little mothers of dollie-dears, no matter 
 how youthful they may be, are lacking in a 
 knowledge of appropriate dress for their children. 
 
 Imagine a dollie-dear going to a real party, 
 the sort of party where cambric tea and lovely 
 sugar cookies are to be served, in anything 
 but a nice, fresh party dress. Her little 
 mother knows that she must be dressed to suit 
 the importance of the occasion; and you will 
 find she generally is. 
 
 The practice of dressing her doll correctly 
 will do much toward teaching the little girl 
 good taste in her own dress. She will soon 
 make dollie-dear a model for herself. 
 
 The mother who gives serious thought to 
 her little girl's dress-needs will think even 
 more seriously over the selection of clothes 
 for her young, growing daughter. There is 
 no prettier sight than the young girl whose 
 dress matches her years. If once it gets 
 ahead of them, it is apt to stay ahead of them, 
 making her old before she has been young. 
 
116 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Then, too, there is a special danger for the 
 young girl who wants to dress older than her 
 years. This desire in itself gives her wTong 
 habits of thought in regard to herself. She, 
 also, wants to be older than her years. 
 
 The young girl who seeks to look like a 
 young lady cannot be natural in her manner. 
 It might muss her clothes. She constantly 
 associates certain qualities with her grown-up 
 finery, just as flirting goes with a fan. She 
 thinks as a woman before she has learned to 
 think as a young girl. And what sort of a 
 woman, may we not ask? One who has to mas- 
 querade, apes. 
 
 Young womanhood is a less definite stage 
 than girlhood. Circumstance may prolong 
 it or cut it short, dragging it into spinsterhood 
 or enriching it into wifehood. 
 
 It is wise for the young woman in any event 
 to dress as young as she looks, but no younger. 
 
 It is wise for her to improve her good points 
 and lessen her bad points by dress just as she 
 may do it by her manner or disposition. But 
 paints, powders, pads and dyes should not 
 be used, because they are useless. Generally 
 speaking, they only make a bad matter 
 worse. 
 
 With youth, health, and beauty, the young 
 
DRESS IN ITS RELATION TO AGE 117 
 
 woman has a wide range of dress; indeed it 
 is only limited by good taste. 
 
 The world of dress also lies at the feet of 
 the young matron for her to pick and choose. 
 She may be a butterfly if only she will remember 
 she is a young matron. 
 
 There is a fine dignity to wifehood which 
 should not be hurt by frivolity or allurements. 
 The ideal young matron is a bit stately in 
 her assured style and position. She wins 
 admiration rather than excites it. The most 
 charming queen is the queen consort — the 
 queen of the home. 
 
 With years such queenliness increases in 
 charm. The finished woman doesn't dress 
 young. She doesn't dress old. She dresses 
 herself at her best as she is. No need to tell 
 her what is the style; she knows what is her 
 style, indeed, she herself is the style. 
 
 She has formed her own model of herself 
 as she would be; and to its ideal loveliness 
 she keeps approaching. 
 
 Does the world of dress lie at the feet of 
 the spinster to pick and choose? Does she 
 ever have the privilege of picking and choosing 
 anything .f^ 
 
 Well, there are spinsters and spinsters: 
 the sensible spinster who is attractive, and 
 
118 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 the foolish spinster who is deplorable. Each 
 in her own way picks and chooses, but the 
 one dignifies her own station by her dress, 
 while the other makes it ridiculous. 
 
 It is better to accept gracefully than to 
 struggle grotesquely and have to accept in 
 the end. 
 
 So many young women now prefer the 
 single life that there is no sting to being an 
 old maid unless it is self-inflicted. Therefore, 
 there should no longer be any such person 
 as the silly spinster. She was the outgrowth 
 of humiliating conditions long since past. 
 There really was no place for her so she kept 
 trying to step into some other place; only 
 she didn't step, she missed. The composed, 
 broad-minded, reliant, capable single woman 
 of to-day has no use for mitts and curls. She 
 has a dignified position of her own which she 
 keeps dignifying. No cast-off clothing for 
 her. She knows what to get and she gets it. 
 
 Women are gradually shaking off the fallacy 
 that only girlishness is charming. The fact 
 is that it is charming — in girls. No woman 
 is too old to be charming unless she becomes 
 artificial. Indeed charm is a jewel to which 
 each year should add a gem. 
 
^i 
 
 k 
 
 try 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ^^^y ' '/, 
 
 (t 
 
 Then she becomes an insviraiion and dress has done 
 
 its perfect icork** 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 
 
 DRESS may give an added touch of 
 charm to the beautiful woman. 
 Dress may yield an insight into 
 character to the thoughtful mind. 
 
 But to the aflflicted in appearance, the 
 anxious many, dress should come as an in- 
 spiration, a comforter; whispering confident 
 hope of better things. 
 
 They are a sorry lot, the afflicted in appear- 
 ance; and you meet them at every turn of 
 the way, each with her own pathetic tale of 
 woes peculiarly unjust and cruel. 
 
 There is the too-fat woman, who is always 
 sighing, or puffing, for the figure of a sylph. 
 There is the too-thin woman who has worn 
 herself thinner over her hapless condition. 
 JPien there is the homely girl who mutely 
 apologizes for living; the fussy woman whose 
 nerves are always on edge and who quickly 
 gets yours into the same condition; and the 
 
 119 
 
120 
 
 THE j\L\GIC OF DRESS 
 
 helpless, hopeless dowdy — young, middle-aged 
 and old — who is too tired to care. 
 
 Their collective case is a sad one; for woman 
 should and would be beautiful. The story 
 is told of the undeniably plain woman, who 
 upon hearing her clergyman pray for *' those 
 afflicted in mind, body or estate," murmured 
 despairingly, "I shouldn't mind all the rest 
 if only I were not afflicted in looks." 
 
 Well, dress is not a cure-all but it is an 
 alleviative. It can make bad better though 
 it may not make it best. Within the very 
 comfortable middle-land of attractiveness, there 
 is no reason why the afflicted in appearance 
 should not live and thrive. 
 
 But they must not lift their hands implor- 
 ingly to Fashion and then believe that their 
 part is ended; for this particular goddess 
 helps those who help themselves. They must 
 work as well as pray. 
 
 Style calls for intelligence; and to dress so 
 that defects are hidden and good points em- 
 phasized means hard study — the study of 
 form, colour, draping and above all of the 
 proper line. 
 
 One must learn how to lift dress from a 
 lifeless covering into a living part of oneself. 
 One must learn how to select and wear clothes 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 121 
 
 so that the simplest of them will be "just 
 the costume." One must know oneself — 
 know all of the worst before one can get back 
 some of the best. 
 
 The transformation of dress is not instan- 
 taneous. It is a picture which gradually devel- 
 ops into distinction and beauty. 
 
 Never forget that it is well for every woman, 
 no matter how afflicted she is in appearance, 
 to have in her own mind an ideal image of 
 herself. Some day, through study and prac- 
 tice, she will measure up to the full stature 
 of it. 
 
 Woman may not be her own best dress- 
 maker, but she should be her own best dress 
 adviser. The handiest maid a woman can 
 have to help her in dressing is self-knowledge. 
 
 As you meet them here and there along 
 the way, perhaps the most troubled of these 
 patients requiring skilful dress-treatment is 
 the fat woman, the too-fat w^oman. You all 
 know her, and you all know the humour of 
 her, that one joke which she alone cannot see. 
 She is so helpless — but often that is the 
 very trouble. Often the too-fat w^oman hopes 
 to keep all the ease and luxury, which has 
 bred her too, too, solid flesh, and yet have 
 it melt. Well, it won't do it. 
 
122 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 In some cases, she may reduce herself 
 becomingly through care and self-denial; but 
 not always. Sometimes obesity is natural; 
 and to pervert nature is both dangerous and 
 disappointing. The wisest thing to do with 
 all anti-fat nostrums is to throw them out of 
 the window; having been careful first to see 
 that the dog or cat w^on't be able to get them. 
 Every one knows how unbecoming is a dress 
 that is too large. Even more unbecoming 
 than this is a skin that hangs in folds from 
 improper reduction. 
 
 But in all cases intelligent dress will do 
 some good, and in no case will it do any harm. 
 It may give grace; it may even give charm. 
 The very fat woman often has fine hair and 
 features. She often has beautiful skin and 
 hands and feet. Dress may so enhance these 
 attractions that all the rest, yes, all the rest, 
 is overlooked. 
 
 Does not the ardent lover write sonnets to 
 his lady's eyebrows without a thought of her 
 pug nose underneath? Love is never so blind 
 as when enraptured by seeing just a little. 
 
 The too-fat woman must first take herself 
 severelv in hand. She must ciu-b the ex- 
 uberant fondness she always seems to have 
 for colours and fabrics which are possible 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 128 
 
 only for a slender, willowy figure. Of course 
 what she can't have, she most wants to have, 
 even though the having will bring its own worst 
 punishment. 
 
 Before she can have an ideal image of her- 
 self as she should be, she must first clearly 
 have an image of herself as she is. If she will 
 learn to array this first mental image in the 
 light shades, conspicuous designs and over 
 elaborate trimmings of her vagrant fancy and 
 to study their awful effect, there is no danger 
 of her choosing them for the second mental 
 
 image. 
 
 The stout woman then must avoid extremes 
 in style; they are designed for a model which 
 she knows very well she is not and cannot be. 
 She must wear clothes that suggest long lines. 
 She must shun costumes that fit as if moulded 
 to the form. She must not look as if she 
 were poured into her gowns; for there is so 
 very much of her that, in some places and 
 always in the wrong places, she is sure to look 
 as if she had spilled over a bit. This is one 
 of the instances where a perfect fit is fatal. 
 
 She must try to look comfortable in her 
 gowns, and as if they were fitted to her; and not 
 as if she had tried to fit herself to them, and 
 had had troubles of her own in so doing. 
 
124 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 She must consider every little detail of her 
 dress, for her natural tendency is to make a 
 big detail of it. For instance, if her shoulders 
 are narrow and her bust large, the way her 
 waist is trimmed is of vital importance. If 
 braid, an embroidered band or lace insertion is 
 used, it should run from the middle of the 
 shoulder seam straight down to the waist line. 
 There should be no cut-off effect; but the 
 longest line possible should be secured. 
 
 No matter what the latest Fashion edict 
 may be, the woman, with the large arm 
 should not wear a skin-tight sleeve; neither 
 should the arm-hole be emphasized nor trim- 
 ming be arranged in horizontal lines. One 
 does not look to the pin-cushion or the sau- 
 sage for an artistic type in dress. 
 
 The stout woman should never have her 
 waist cut round at the neck. The square 
 neck or the V shaped neck will prove much 
 more becoming. And here is a little sugges- 
 tion worth remembering. In cutting the 
 waist out either square or in a V have the 
 opening come as close to the collar line at 
 the shoulder as possible. 
 
 The very fat woman should give special 
 and intelligent thought to her corset. She 
 must not put her figure into a rigid, heavily 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 125 
 
 boned vise. She must wear a corset which 
 not only conforms to her own individual 
 figure, not the ideal figure, mind, but also 
 liygienically moulds it into graceful lines and 
 at least gives the effect of trimness. 
 
 Corset-making has reached such excellence 
 to-day that the right corset for every sort of 
 figure can readily be obtained; while many 
 corsets are really figure reducers or figure 
 builders, whichever the need requires. 
 
 The stout woman who has little money to 
 spend on dress should economize in her gowns 
 and their accessories rather than in her corset. 
 The corset is the foundation to build on; and 
 if that is wrong even a costly Paris frock, 
 designed by a dress artist, will prove a failure. 
 
 The too-fat woman should remember that 
 she will be happier and incidentally her friends 
 will be also, if she does not constantly dwell 
 on her size. Let her do her best for herself 
 with the aid of a competent dressmaker; and 
 then let her straightway forget that she is 
 any larger than she wishes to be. 
 
 Close up to the head of the procession of 
 the afflicted in appearance is the too-thin 
 woman. Though the too-fat woman may 
 sigh the louder, the too-thin woman sighs 
 even more soulfully. Indeed, she looks like 
 
126 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 a sigh long drawn out. She too, is unhappy. 
 But let her be comforted by this basic truth: 
 it is easier to build out than to trim down. 
 The too-thin woman is a frame; the too-fat 
 woman is an obstacle. Perfect health will 
 help the too-thin woman — indeed, there is no 
 one too afflicted in appearance to be beyond 
 the magic of health — and so, too, will a tran- 
 quil mind. Often the woman who worries 
 because she is thin, is thin because she worries. 
 
 That Fashion is capricious and everchang- 
 ing of mind is helpful to the thin woman, for 
 she is sure to find among the many styles some 
 one which will make her look her best. The 
 average thin woman comes to depend much 
 upon paddings. But in this, generally speak- 
 ing, she makes a mistake. It is hard to 
 breathe the breath of life into the artificial 
 form; and even then it is anything but depend- 
 able. Though the too-thin w^oman may think 
 there is nothing worse than no hips, she will 
 know better when her false hips slip out of place. 
 It is better to be nothing than grotesque. 
 
 The too-thin woman must avoid the straight 
 up-and-down-lines. She may look with ap- 
 proval at tunic skirts in all styles, and 
 fichus and large collars will add to the becom- 
 ingness of her waists. She may wear any 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 127 
 
 sort of sleeve but a long, tight one; and in 
 fabrics and colours she has a large variety to 
 choose from. Of course, she must never let 
 her eye rest for a moment on a striped fabric; 
 but then she knows this without being told; 
 or if she doesn't there is no use in telling her. 
 
 She may wear checks and big ones, too, 
 which her fat sister longs for yet must be denied. 
 She must study how to dress her neck, though 
 it would be impossible to hint that it is likely 
 to be scrawny. At all events, the guimpe 
 with the high stock collar should be her stand- 
 by — for reasons. Dutch necks and round 
 necks are not for her. 
 
 The most becoming way to dress her neck in 
 fact is to wear a guimpe, if this suits the style of 
 her gown, and to have this guimpe made of tulle 
 or fancy net, with the high collar finished at the 
 top with a band or fold of satin, either black or 
 matching the shade of the frock. This little 
 touch of colour at the throat is sure to prove 
 becoming; and it very successfully detracts 
 from the height of the collar. 
 
 Filmy materials, which drape gracefully, 
 are best for the too-thin woman. In street 
 clothes she should avoid severity of line. 
 For instance, she should never wear a severely 
 plain, mannish, tailored suit. 
 
128 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 She requires essentially feminine fashions; 
 softness and frills whenever they are possible 
 are always for her. 
 
 But, dear me; the too-thin woman's troubles 
 are nothing compared to those of the homely 
 girl — at least from the homely girFs dis- 
 couraged view-point. Generally speaking, she 
 is so young without being youthful; so faded, 
 so forlorn, without being passe. \Miy, a 
 frame to hang clothes on would really seem 
 a more hopeful model, and the worst of it is 
 she knows it. Plain Jane she is and plain 
 Jane she must be until the end of the chapter. 
 Haven't her sisters and her cousins and her 
 aunts all said so, to say nothing of her little 
 brother? 
 
 But no; this need not be so, if plain Jane 
 will only stop thinking that it is so. She must 
 learn to take a pride in herself. To the 
 pretty girl, pride is poison; but to the homely 
 girl, it is a tonic. One to dress well must 
 dress with spirit. 
 
 Very often this poor plain girl is nothing 
 more than what the farmers call a "late ripe." 
 She is sluggish of development. She needs 
 nurture. She too, should have an ideal image 
 of herself; a lovely-to-look-at-image. It vnLl 
 help her in impro\ang her own appearance. 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE U9 
 
 The homely girl should get a bit of dash 
 iu her clothes. She should avoid neutral 
 and sombre colours. She should wear hats 
 with decided lines, and faced with a colour 
 which she is sure would be becoming, if only 
 she were different. Well, let her wear it, and 
 she will be different. 
 
 If she has one good point, she should exert her- 
 self to make that good point beautiful. For in- 
 stance, if there are dull gold lights in her brown 
 hair, she should work over her tresses until 
 the gold lights shimmer and glow like sunshine. 
 
 The homely girl should strive to be the 
 personification of neatness. Once that, she 
 can take heart with reason; for the immaculate 
 girl is always good to look upon, from New 
 York to Cathay. 
 
 But what about the woman who doesn't 
 care — the dowdy woman who doesn't even 
 know she is afflicted in appearance because 
 she doesn't take the trouble to look at herself.^ 
 Really, she should be treated as one mentally 
 unsound; she should be taken in hand bv her 
 friends. She should be taught that with a 
 proper and pleasant appearance one may bear 
 sorrow more resignedly and trouble more 
 bravely; and that one may struggle on more 
 persistently and fight with a lighter heart. 
 
130 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 The dowdy woman should be made to see 
 herself exactly as she is. She should be 
 taught her dress faults. Undoubtedly she 
 will find that indifference is the first and the 
 worst of them; and that is easily overcome. 
 Let even the dowdy woman who says she 
 doesn't care see herself looking really charming 
 just once; and never again will she sink back 
 into her old ways. 
 
 It is the duty of each human being to try 
 to make the world brighter and happier. It 
 is all verv well for the woman who has lost 
 heart to turn herseK into a mere bundle of 
 clothes. There may be consolation in this 
 loss of self respect, to her; but it is an essen- 
 tially selfish proceeding. 
 
 What is the real meaning of the word 
 ** becoming" as applied to dress? 
 
 It is dress that is right, appropriate and 
 suited to the scene and the wearer. 
 
 Such a dress the world expects of every 
 woman; for it has come to be the mark of the 
 dignity and power of the sex. Dress is 
 woman's kingdom; it is cowardly of her to 
 abdicate. That was a fine example set by 
 the grand dames of the ancient regime when 
 they put on their richest costumes to ride on 
 the tumbril to the guillotine. 
 
THE AFFLICTED IN APPEARANCE 131 
 
 WTiatever the circumstance or crisis of life, 
 a woman is better off for being fitly dressed. 
 
 But she should remember to be pleasant 
 about it. The fussy woman is afflicted in 
 appearance, even though she be comely of 
 face and form, and appropriately attired. 
 She should cultivate ease of manner and bear- 
 ing. She should learn to let well enough alone. 
 The best effect is the unconscious effect. One 
 who is scratched by the thorns cares little 
 for the beauty of a rose. 
 
 There are other types, too, of those who 
 are haplessly or wilfully afflicted in appearance; 
 but much that mav be said to anv one of them 
 applies to all. Care of the health, care of 
 the person, self-knowledge and the appli- 
 cation of it in selecting the designs, materials 
 and colours for costumes, all these aid in the 
 attractiveness of dress. So, too, do a cheerful 
 and easy manner, and a regard for the comfort 
 and pleasure of one's fellows. 
 
 Let a woman add to her becoming dress a 
 becoming spirit, and not only will those she 
 meets be ignorant that she has been or could 
 be afflicted in appearance, but she herself will 
 be beyond the possibility of falling again into 
 such a state. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 
 
 THE hat and the coiffure go together, 
 let it be understood; and they go a 
 great way, too. In fact, they form 
 the dress for the head, part of which can be 
 laid aside, but the other part should never 
 be laid aside. 
 
 They are of first importance in dress, for they 
 dress that part of the body to which the atten- 
 tion is first directed. 
 
 It is the face by which we are remembered. 
 And the face is not a picture which never 
 changes — it is always changing and is always 
 affected by its environment, even as a lake is 
 by the clouds that float above it or the ripples 
 that cross it. 
 
 The face is an expression first and features 
 afterward. 
 
 Now the setting for a part of the body so 
 essentially individual and spiritual should be 
 adapted to all its phases. It must harmonize 
 
 132 
 
THE HAT AND THE COIFFUEE 133 
 
 or it will distort. The hat and the coiffure 
 form the capstone upon which depends whether 
 the whole structure is artistic or awkward. 
 
 They are attractive, too, by themselves, 
 like well behaved twins. In fact, each should 
 be on its best behaviour when by itself, while 
 together each adds to the other's charm. Such 
 quahties, however, come through thought and 
 training. What would the hair be if it simply 
 grew.? The very best type of such neglect 
 would be a squaw with a feather stuck in her 
 elfin locks. The hat is a development of this 
 feather just as the coiffure is of the elfin 
 locks. 
 
 It is care, then, that does it; the painstaking, 
 discriminating care which suits the material 
 to the face and not the face to the material. 
 When this care is exercised, the face always 
 responds a hundredfold like a bird that sings 
 for the gift of a seed. 
 
 But this care must be discriminating, let 
 it be repeated. General directions are of 
 little value. Here each case requires its own 
 good rules. 
 
 Where perfection can be so sublime the step 
 to the ridiculous is indeed a short one. 
 
 There is danger of inappropriateness. There 
 is danger of incongruity. There is danger of 
 
1S4 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 uniformity. But for all these dangers good 
 taste waves a warning signal. 
 
 It doesn't do, you know, to go to a formal 
 five o'clock tea wearing a stiff felt hat with a 
 wing at the side and your hair twisted in an 
 inconsequential knot at the nape of your neck 
 Nor does it do to go on a morning shopping 
 jaunt in your big picture, plume- trimmed, 
 Gainsborough, with your hair marcelled and a 
 mass of puffs and curls. 
 
 Convention counts whether at a picnic or 
 a ball. 
 
 It is the element of surprise that most arouses 
 laughter. 
 
 It surely is an element of surprise, too, when 
 this picture hat and elaborate coiffure, though 
 properly worn, are accompanied by dingy gloves 
 and shoes run down at the heel. 
 
 There must be fitness throughout or it is 
 to laugh. 
 
 Then there is the question of age — that 
 perpetual question that must be answered in 
 all dress talks. 
 
 Sometimes, and it may be said oftentimes, 
 it happens that on the streets or in the res- 
 taurants one's attention is caught by the very 
 latest hat creation which, in Yankee tongue, 
 "beats all creation." One, especially if a 
 
THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 135 
 
 feminine one, notes first the oddity of the new 
 shape and the chicness of the unusual trimming. 
 
 It is dramatic. It is audacious. But then 
 comes the shock. One looks beneath for the 
 piquant young face which surely must add 
 fascination to the hat, and alas, one sees the 
 lustreless eyes, the saggy cheeks, and the 
 hanging jaw of old age trying to be young. 
 Really, one feels like repeating the litany. 
 
 Then there is the model sent straight from 
 the cafes chantants of Paris. This is a hat 
 that should be seen at a distance and above the 
 footlights and in the middle of an elaborate 
 stage scene thronged with people in order to 
 convey its chic idea. But it is accepted se- 
 riously and without any reservation, fairly 
 swallowed, if such a gulp can be imagined. 
 
 Think of the slip of a girl weighing less 
 than a hundred pounds who balances this 
 enormity on her head and is proud of it. 
 Think of the fat and lean women of all ages 
 and conditions who look enviously upon her. 
 
 This is not a case of the girl wearing the hat, 
 but of the hat walking off with the girl. Verily 
 pride goeth before the fall of common sense. 
 
 Yet, this model if properly studied and 
 modified might really prove the artistic life of 
 the new designs. 
 
136 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Behold, too, the apple-faced, chubby woman 
 who really should wear a large sombre-hued 
 hat to give the due proportion. 
 
 What is this item from a doll's wardrobe she 
 is so blithely wearing? Perhaps, by means 
 of a microscope or spy glass, we may be able 
 to examine it sufficiently to detect that what 
 might be a wen is really a turban. 
 
 But even these examples, bad as they are, 
 are not productive of individual taste. There 
 is a lamentable lack of originality or what is 
 a better word, individuality, in the dressing of 
 the head. A group of penguins on a desert 
 island look no more alike than a gathering of 
 fashionable women. You can't tell one pen- 
 guin from another, and you surely can't tell 
 one woman from another if you judge her by 
 the hat and hair. 
 
 There is a distressing uniformity of puffs and 
 waves and curls, of slinky feathers and towering 
 aigrettes to be seen in the orchestra of a theatre 
 or in the pews of a fashionable church. Each 
 woman, without the slightest regard for her 
 individual attractions or defects, has adopted 
 a set fashion the same as a soldier who enlists 
 must adopt the uniform that is provided for 
 him. 
 
 Suppose each one of these women had been 
 

 c 
 -< 
 
 00 
 
 
 
THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 137 
 
 compelled as the soldier is to follow regulations. 
 How she would revolt! Really it sometimes 
 seems that the only way to bring about indi- 
 viduality in feminine dress would be to have 
 laws passed, regulating every particular item 
 of it under heavy penalties. Then you may 
 be sure women would dress as they please and 
 look all the better for it. 
 
 Is there then a secret to hat-success.^ Yes. 
 The hat must be artistic. Styles come and 
 styles go but art remains. 
 
 In other words, the hat must be becoming. 
 It must be appropriate. It must fit the person 
 and the costume. It must harmonize with 
 the face. It must conform to the trend of 
 style. 
 
 These conditions being carried out, it really 
 makes little difference what the shape, material 
 or the size may be. The woman who wears 
 such a hat wears a fetching hat. 
 
 After all, innovations in hats are more 
 apparent than real. It is easy enough to twist 
 a model out of shape, but the basic idea of the 
 model still remains. 
 
 As a matter of fact, there are a few hat 
 shapes that are always in style, and upon one 
 of these shapes the fad of the day is founded. 
 The woman of good taste wears the model upon 
 
138 THE IVIAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 which the fad is founded with but a suggestion 
 of the fad itself. 
 
 Moderation is the golden rule of hat lore. 
 What, then, are a few of these hat types? 
 
 First and foremost is the Gainsborough 
 with its glint of romance which time cannot 
 dim. 
 
 Then there is its direct opposite, the English 
 sailor, which like its namesake is handy to 
 have around under all conditions. The turban, 
 too, has been a model for ages, and its essential 
 idea has been modified into a hundred different 
 serviceable shapes. Wliat whole races have 
 accepted as almost a sacred style must have 
 some good to it. 
 
 Analyze the latest eccentricity from Paris 
 and you are very apt to find at least a trace 
 of one of these shapes in it. 
 
 Woman's chiefest glory is said to be her hair. 
 But it is a glory which must be acquired, not 
 one that is conferred. Hair even at its prettiest 
 is raw material. It requires care and taste and 
 art in order to make it the proper setting for 
 the face underneath. 
 
 Does it therefore require the expert treat- 
 ment of an artist? Practically no, because 
 there are no artists. The hair-dresser follows 
 a trade, and in his stock there is no such com- 
 
THE HAT AND THE COIFFURE 139 
 
 modity as originality. There are skilful maids 
 to be sure; for the wealthy, but the woman of 
 moderate means must be artist for her own hair. 
 
 If she but uses thought no maid can compare 
 with her any more than a nurse can compare 
 with a devoted mother. 
 
 When this is done, instead of the hair being 
 something to be fixed, or, let it be whispered, 
 put on, it truly becomes a vital part of the 
 person, sharing in and harmonizing w^ith the 
 individuality through which each one is known. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 SHOPPING IN PARIS 
 
 A COURSE in training would not come 
 amiss if you would shop as you should 
 ^ in Paris. There are certain essentials 
 that must be observed. Concentration is 
 one of them, and having an opinion of your 
 own and sticking to it, too, is another. A 
 knowledge of the French language, as it is 
 spoken in Paris and not taught in the average 
 school is a third. While more important than 
 all is to have a regulation figure, meaning 
 thereby a thirty-six-inch bust and a twenty- 
 four-inch waist. Paris never caters to stout 
 women. 
 
 Then courage and strength to resist the most 
 subtle and persistent of flattery is needed and, 
 even if you are able to do this, a purse full to 
 the overflowing. 
 
 In a word, there is no place in the world 
 where the American woman needs so much 
 to keep her own wits and those of her hus- 
 
 140 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 141 
 
 band's female relatives about her as while 
 shopping in Paris. 
 
 Of course, there is a reason why one must be 
 so fortified to shop successfully in Paris. And 
 there is; indeed its name is 'egion. 
 
 To the average American woman who visits 
 Paris for the first time there is a glamour, 
 and a glamour of long standing, surrounding 
 the shops and the big dressmaking establish- 
 ments. Paris is the synonym of style. It is 
 the Rome of the couturier. It is the Holy 
 of Holies of Fashion. 
 
 The ingenuous American woman feels as 
 if she should enter the shops and ascend 
 the broad steps of the old palaces, now 
 occupied by world-famed dressmakers, on her 
 knees. Well, after she is back from her pil- 
 grimage, she may still be on her knees — in 
 repentance. 
 
 Not to buy what is offered in Paris seems 
 almost an impossibility. The Frenchman is 
 a born trader. He will do about anything, 
 or almost anybody, to make a sale. Often- 
 times his nerve and wily tongue hypnotize 
 the will of the buyer. Besides, goods are not 
 simply offered in Paris; they are pressed, as I 
 suppose properly prepared goods always should 
 be in a way. 
 
142 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 There are many sides to the Fashion world 
 of Paris, and many phases to each side. 
 
 To the fair Americaine who comes well sup- 
 plied with American gold, the big doors of the 
 famous dressmaking establishments swing wide 
 open. 
 
 For the equally fair Americaine, who comes 
 ill supplied with American gold, there are the 
 department stores and the little shops in the 
 back streets which when ferreted out hold so 
 much that is charming, chic and delightfully 
 inexpensive. It may often prove that patience 
 and judgment will more than make up for this 
 lack of gold. 
 
 But, of course, it is the big dressmaking 
 establishments of Paris to which most of the 
 glamour clings. Here, though the doors are 
 wide open to wealth, there is much of formality 
 and much of mystery. The old palaces of the 
 nobility are the centres of Fashion. Here the 
 couturiers of the present day create their 
 new styles and offer them to their often newer 
 customers. 
 
 The ancient nobility is a thing of the past, 
 the shadow of a name; but these couturiers 
 form a caste as arrogant and exclusive. They 
 are girted about with form and precedent. It 
 is difficult to approach them; and then, when 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 14S 
 
 an audience is granted, one is expected to hear 
 and to obey — also, parenthetically, to pay. 
 
 "The Style — it is I" says the fashion master 
 with all the infallibility of Louis XIV. And 
 he is so cocksure of it that you have to believe 
 it yourself. 
 
 Nor is this a wonder. France has been 
 repeatedly swept by revolution. Monarchy, 
 democracy, imperialism and republicanism have 
 all succeeded to power and fallen from it; 
 but the rule of the dressmaker has remained 
 unbroken. It levies a tax on every nation 
 and holds its subjects in every clime. 
 
 Who, then are these Princes of the Power 
 of Vanity; these High Priests of Beauty and 
 Charm? Frenchmen and Frenchwomen, the 
 most of them; Austrians, Italians, Russians, 
 some of them; English, one of them; but not 
 one of them is American, nor does one of 
 them know or care for American qualities or 
 limitations or for aught that is American except 
 American extravagance and American gold. 
 
 The succession for the most part has been 
 hereditary and progressive; from father to son; 
 from artisan to artist; with trade secrets cun- 
 ningly devised and kept like a family treasure. 
 Intelligence and skill are at the command of 
 the rulers of these famous establishments, and 
 
144 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 also what is far more important, that undefin- 
 able something in cut, colour, combination and 
 finish which all women, and most men, the 
 world over recognize as French. 
 
 On the other hand, these lords of the needle 
 and scissors have long since forgotten, if indeed 
 they have ever known, that it takes nine tailors 
 to make one man. They take themselves 
 seriously; issuing edicts as if from the throne. 
 They have all the defects of long continued 
 power. They won't modify; they won't change. 
 Take it or leave it, is their ultimatum. 
 
 Yet, in many respects, perfection is theirs; 
 the perfection that comes from centuries of 
 thought, experience and practice; the perfec- 
 tion that can be exercised by experts inbred 
 for generations, who live, move, and have their 
 being like their fathers and mothers before 
 them in doing a few things and in doing them 
 well. 
 
 The work-people in these great establish- 
 ments are specialized. They do and keep 
 doing the same work, year in and year out. 
 One little seamstress may make collars or work 
 on sleeves all day and every day. Is it strange 
 that they each reach perfection in their special 
 work? 
 
 But now for the rulers, the fashion kings 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 145 
 
 themselves. Let us particularize. Each year 
 Paris changes, so the influence of one leader is 
 felt more than that of the others. In this way, 
 in time they all have a chance to let their own 
 personalities sway the mode of the day. 
 
 Recently, Paul Poiret has been the talk, 
 the very ruling spirit, of Paris fashions. But 
 Poiret is young and his enthusiasm has carried 
 him a bit too far. He is a lover of colour and 
 is original in its use. He lives in much elegance; 
 and his garden with its flower beds arranged 
 in striking combinations and contrasts has come 
 to be as much talked about as his gowns in 
 which the same taste is displayed. His estab- 
 lishment is like a private mansion. The 
 entrance is most imposing, and liveried servants 
 are here, there and everywhere. 
 
 It is the artistic side of dress rather than 
 the practical side that Poiret has always con- 
 sidered. Straight effects, simplicity, the high 
 waist line and unusual and marvellous colour- 
 blen dings are always seen in his costumes. He 
 is responsible for the harem skirt. This 
 trouser skirt was, indeed, his idea of the prac- 
 tical. It was his step too far, though no one 
 who wore it could take one. It proved a 
 failure, a striking illustration that even genius 
 should keep within its special lines. Poiret 
 
146 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 knows nothing about and cares even less for 
 the practical. It is the artistic that he loves 
 and is. 
 
 Years ago, when a trip to Paris was being 
 considered, it was always Worth who occupied 
 most the thoughts. The Worth dressmaking 
 establishment is one of the oldest and most 
 historic in Paris. It was the elder Worth who 
 dictated the crinoline and imposed the chignon 
 and treated his customers as a tyrant might 
 his slaves. Since his autocratic reign, the 
 establishment has had seasons when its in- 
 fluence was very slight; but it always swings 
 back into vogue again. The business now 
 belongs to the Worth family and is conducted 
 by the two Worth brothers, Jean Charles and 
 Gaston Worth. There are more ladies of the 
 nobility in Worth's clientele than in that of 
 any other dressmaking firm in Paris, The 
 specialty of the house is court and evening 
 gowns. 
 
 The kings of fashion in Paris to-day have 
 no monopoly of the sceptre. There are queens 
 of fashion, too, among the creators and dic- 
 tators of the modes. There is the house of 
 Callot, known as the Callot Soeurs. Two 
 sisters, elderly women, run this establishment 
 and exert a marked influence on Paris styles 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 147 
 
 notwithstanding the fact that every C allot 
 fashion is copyrighted. 
 
 Callot ScEurs have many of the most famous 
 actresses among their customers, and many 
 of the richest Americans. They are distinctly 
 French, and their establishment shows it in 
 every detail. Each little fitting room looks 
 like a society belle's boudoir. The walls are 
 covered with silk brocade, or plaited lace net, 
 and the colours of the furnishings are of the 
 daintiest and softest. The mannequins at 
 Callot Soeurs are much talked of for their 
 beauty. 
 
 The Paquin dressmaking establishment is 
 one of the landmarks of the Rue de la Paix. 
 The House of Paquin from the exterior looks 
 like a hanging garden of beautiful flowers. 
 The balconies and window ledges are always 
 abloom. The entrance is right off the street, 
 and on this ground floor is a typical French 
 shop, most interesting, where many of the 
 dainty little things of dress are to be found. 
 
 Since the death of her husband, Madame 
 Paquin is the ruling spirit of this establishment. 
 She is most ably assisted by Mile. Claire, her 
 premiere saleswoman, and M. Joire, her brother. 
 The House exerts one of the most dominant 
 style influences in Paris. 
 
148 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Very near Paquin's, just around the corner 
 on the Place Vendome, Madame Cheruit has 
 her establishment. She is an extremely charm- 
 ing woman, with a personality which has much 
 to do with her business success. No woman 
 can resist a Cheruit gown if it is first displayed, 
 worn by INIadame herself. 
 
 Thus, you will see, there is no longer one 
 dress ruler in Paris to-day. The kingdom of 
 Fashion is divided. Where once there was one 
 king, and that king the elder Worth first and 
 then Monsieur Paquin, there are now many 
 princes and princesses regnant. They do not 
 dare so far; but thev dare overmuch. 
 
 A most important feature, and one peculiarly 
 French, of shopping at these big dressmaking 
 establishments is the manner of displaying 
 the costumes. When the throne room is 
 reached where the model gowns are to be shown, 
 in glide the mannequins. These are the young 
 girls w^ith pretty faces and perfect figures who 
 have been selected as the living forms upon 
 which the gowns are displayed. They are a 
 distinct Parisian class, trained w^ith severity 
 for their work. They are graceful of movement 
 and cunning in all the turns and devices by 
 which the best is shown at its best. Nothing 
 can exceed the fit, the swing, the chicness of 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 149 
 
 the gowns as the mannequins wear them; for 
 the wearing is as fine an art as the making. 
 So indeed the American woman may find to 
 her cost when the poor httle jackdaw tries 
 to strut in the plumage which was meant for 
 one of these rare gay birds rather than for her. 
 
 She who would buy a French gown should 
 first be sure that she knows how to wear one. 
 
 The American woman, in making her selec- 
 tion, should have the prudence to enforce her 
 individual taste. She has been doing this 
 sometimes during the last few years, and it has 
 influenced Paris styles in no small degree. 
 
 The French couturier is cunning first and 
 creative and artistic afterward. For all his 
 arrogance and conceit, he will do anything 
 rather than lose good American money when 
 it is in sight. To use slang, he bluffs; but can 
 be quickly called by a display of nerve. 
 
 If his customers from the States now have 
 ideas of their own and insist on asserting them, 
 he will put aside some of his self-sufficiency, 
 and not only listen but yield, a compliance 
 unheard of until recently. 
 
 In Paris, even more than at home, women 
 must fight the good fight of taste against trade. 
 The old tyranny is there, still entrenched, as 
 has been shown, behind form and precedent; 
 
150 THE ^L\GIC OF DRESS 
 
 but even the strongest castle is \nilnerable 
 when the warder has an itching palm. 
 
 There is a broad dividing line between the 
 dressmaking establishments of Paris and the 
 French shops. 
 
 The American woman during her first visit 
 to Paris has to keep remembering and saying 
 over and over to herself: "These are the much 
 talked-of French shops — the Louvre, the Bon 
 Marche, the Printemps and the Gallerie La- 
 fayette," or she will gaspingly fear that she 
 hasn't arrived after all. In no way do they 
 compare with our big, beautiful, luxurious 
 shops. Such a thing as artistic window dress- 
 ing, for instance, is unkno^m in Paris. Why 
 should the dealers spend their good money to 
 attract those who are already attracted? 
 
 Liside the stores, there is a lack of system 
 in arrangement. The effect is second-hand, 
 however first-hand the wares offered may be. 
 Things seem to be in a jumble. But there is a 
 fascination, nevertheless, to this confusion 
 which comes from the combinations of colours 
 on every side. There is something inspired 
 about the French touch, so seemingly careless. 
 It can do an\i:hing with colours except make 
 them not match. 
 
 One must remember, however, that this 
 
SHOPPING IN PARIS 151 
 
 successful audacity thrives under the skies of 
 Paris and nowhere else. Many a fetching 
 combination there becomes a frightful combi- 
 nation here. May not the glamour of authority 
 have something to do with it? When a queen 
 limps, all her maids of honour limp also. 
 
 The comforts and luxuries in which the 
 American shops abound are lacking in the 
 Paris shops. They would seem insane extrava- 
 gances to the French dealer. It is the cus- 
 tomer's high office not his, you must under- 
 stand, to spend. He takes in, always the 
 shekels and sometimes the spender. 
 
 But not always are the customers taken in, 
 unless, as many of them do, they insist and 
 persist in taking themselves in. The shops 
 do show many novel, good and inexpensive 
 things well worth purchasing by the American 
 customer. Hats are invariably fetching in 
 Paris, even if some of them are a bit extreme; 
 and all millinery is cheap there compared 
 with here. Underwear is apt to be a real 
 bargain, while one can pick up silk petticoats 
 and adjustable silk and chiffon ruffles at the 
 most convenient and acceptable prices. All 
 the little accessories of dress also are worth 
 purchasing if one needs them. 
 
 Novelties may be found in the French shops. 
 
152 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 too, months before they are seen in New York; 
 but the American woman must take pains that 
 she is getting French novelties. Some of them 
 arrive by way of Germany or Connecticut, and 
 are daringly offered as quite the chicest 
 thing out. 
 
 *'But gloves?" the American woman may 
 ask who is now beginning to gasp without going 
 to Paris. Well, yes; there are gloves both 
 cheap and dear at almost any price. The 
 best ones are superlatively good; the worst 
 ones are horrid. In the general shops they 
 are arranged according to size, and you may 
 suit yourself if you can. The wisest plan is 
 to shun the glove grab-bag of the general 
 -shops and go to some standard glove house. 
 There you will find gloves fully as expensive 
 as here, but you will get your money's worth 
 and more in quality, make, and fit. 
 
 Some improvements are being made to-day 
 in the French department stores, just as the 
 couturiers are beginning to pay some heed 
 to individual taste; but in either case progress 
 is slow. Among people who for centuries 
 have been self satisfied and set in their ways, 
 with good reason, such reforms will only come 
 when they are profitable. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 AMERICAN SHOPS AND AMERICAN FASHIONS 
 
 IT IS not SO long ago that we had neither 
 American shops, nor American fashions 
 in America. 
 
 The progress has been from the wigwam 
 to the department store; and from imitation 
 toward independence. 
 
 The early colonists sent over their casks 
 of tobacco to their English agents who sent 
 back in turn bales of all sorts of goods. 
 
 After the Revolution the influence of the 
 French, who had come to America's aid, pre- 
 vailed. And to the close of the Civil War, 
 foreign goods and French styles were largely 
 the rule. This rule was tyrannical. Nothing 
 that was made in this country was of any 
 account except as a covering; while the dictum 
 of the French couturiers was as infallible 
 as the bull of a pope. Of course very few 
 women, comparatively, went to Paris for their 
 gowns, but gowns that were gowns either came 
 
 153 
 
154 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 from Paris or had the Parisian stamp in some 
 way upon them. 
 
 In the expanding years after the Civil War, 
 with manufacture encouraged and wealth plen- 
 tiful, it was inevitable that the small store 
 should develop into the big store. But the 
 store, however, was still mainly a place for the 
 sale of foreign goods and did not pretend to set 
 up styles of its own. The development was 
 nmterial, but so great that the big store of 
 one year was the small store of the next, one 
 might almost say. 
 
 One idea purely American, however, prevailed 
 from first to last and that was to please the 
 customer. The reason why distinctly Ameri- 
 can styles and fashions were not developed 
 at the same rate as convenience, luxury and 
 a marvellous display of the wares of the world 
 was that the customer had no use for them. 
 It was Parisian or nothing with the American 
 women up to twenty years ago. 
 
 There is no parallel to this material develop- 
 ment of the American shop except perhaps 
 that of the three-story building of a half 
 century ago into the towering skyscraper of 
 to-day. 
 
 The shop of the sixties was a specialized 
 shop. The housewife with many errands had 
 
AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 155 
 
 to go to many shops. The general store was 
 so uncommon that its name gave it a certain 
 distinction. It was, in fact, a citified country 
 store. In the main, each shopkeeper followed 
 a particular line of trade which he understood 
 very well, but being engaged only in a small 
 way, he carried only a limited stock. There were 
 crockery stores and linen stores and wooden- 
 ware stores and variety stores, but all of them 
 put together would not make a small-sized 
 department store of to-day. These were days 
 of small dealings rather than cheap dealings. 
 
 The woman of to-day can exhaust not only 
 her errands but her self before she begins to 
 exhaust the least of the stores. The develop- 
 ment indeed has been carried to such an extent 
 that a monstrosity has been evolved in some 
 instances. 
 
 Under one gigantic roof covering a block 
 may be found a conglomeration of the com- 
 modities of the world — a fair of every nation 
 and of every time resplendent in a brilliancy 
 peculiarly its own. 
 
 This conglomeration is confusing to even 
 the experienced shopper of to-day, in fact, it 
 often intoxicates her, and shopping under such 
 circumstances becomes the most confirmed of 
 habits. This woman will give up her friends, 
 
156 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 her home and her church, but never, oh, never, 
 her department store. 
 
 What, then, would be the mental effect of 
 it upon one of the specialized shoppers of a half 
 century ago could she be transported into the 
 midst of a vast and crowded scene wherein 
 if she had the money and strength she could 
 buy not only everything that she had ever 
 thought of, but everything that everybody 
 else who had ever existed had ever thought of, 
 and a bewildering profusion of unthought of 
 things besides. Talk about dreams or night- 
 mares — it would exceed delirium itself. 
 
 Let us particularize a little. You pass from 
 cheese and eggs and milk and little chickens, 
 running around, to sable coats and Gains- 
 borough hats with ostrich plumes. You step 
 from rowboats and tents and fishing rods and 
 shotguns to false hair and dyes and rouge and 
 powders and perfumes. 
 
 You turn from pots and kettles and pans to 
 lace-trimmed negligees and embroidered pet- 
 ticoats and nightgowns. 
 
 You eat ice-cream amid tropical palms. You 
 turn over the leaves of the latest novel, and 
 have your picture taken while you read. 
 
 The skilled physician or nurse takes your pulse. 
 The dentist gives the latest touch of perfec- 
 
AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 157 
 
 tion to your teeth. The chiropodist reheves 
 the fatigue of your feet, and what the beauty 
 specialist doesn't do for you isn't worth men- 
 tioning, at least, so she says. 
 
 There is the engagement ring, too, for the 
 loving couple, with the clergyman close in 
 attendance, and wedding presents — well, all 
 weddings since that at Cana in Galilee could 
 be amply supplied without need of reducing 
 the inventory. 
 
 There is the bank, too, for the young couple's 
 thrift, and the postoffice to take messages of 
 how happy they are; while a little beyond, as 
 is right for the dim future, there are cradles 
 and nursing bottles and complete layettes. 
 
 Since there is no question then about the 
 quantity of goods, how about the quality.'^ 
 
 Here American pride must look out for a fall. 
 Intelligent foreigners say that American things 
 are made to sell; that once they go off they don't 
 go much farther. There is a certain truth in 
 this criticism. Convenience counts, adapta- 
 bility counts, appearance counts most of all, 
 but durability is left behind the door. 
 
 But this monster store is only the exaggera- 
 tion of a tendency. The distinctive American 
 store is big, but not too big. It is compre- 
 hensive, but it is not unwieldy. It contains 
 
158 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 very many things, but they are selected with 
 discrimination and arranged with taste. 
 
 The care that is taken for the customer's 
 convenience in America is beyond all praise. 
 It is with pride that we say, too, it is purely 
 American. Nowhere in Great Britain, much 
 less on the Continent, can anything be found 
 like it. The American customer in America 
 is coddled. She sees what she w^ants before 
 she asks for it. There is invitation to ease 
 on every side. 
 
 The foreign shopkeeper is not afraid that 
 his customers may get tired except of course 
 tired of buying. After that he, too, is tired 
 of seeing them around, and the sooner they lug 
 off their purchases the better. 
 
 The American shopkeeper, on the contrary, 
 tries to give with a bargain all the privileges 
 of a rest cure and a club. 
 
 The danger is indeed that this attractive 
 luxury will be overdone and that shopping 
 will become too fascinating to the American 
 woman. 
 
 In time, as these shops kept increasing in 
 stock, ideas purely American of how the goods 
 should be fashioned and worn sprang up and 
 spread. Though at first few and far between, 
 these ideas kept increasing until now the Ameri- 
 
AMERICAN SHOPS AND FASHIONS 159 
 
 can shopkeeper is coming to have a mind of his 
 own, nor does he really have to go to Paris 
 to know what it is. 
 
 Already there is such a style as the American 
 style, though to-day no more than a modified 
 French style. In time, however, the French 
 couturier will have to come to America to 
 know what the style is and then go back home 
 to try his best to improve it. 
 
 The fault of imitation no longer lies with 
 the American shopkeeper. He has both a 
 will and a way of his own. It is the American 
 woman herself who still puts a limit on them 
 both. Years ago, as has been said, it was 
 Paris first and America nowhere with her. 
 Now America is somewhere, but Paris is still 
 first. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE IDEAL IN DRESS 
 
 DRESS sliould be more than a covering 
 or an ornament. It should be an 
 index to character. It should be a 
 picture painted by the wearer with her own 
 hands for public exhibition, showing herself 
 as she would wish to be. This picture at first 
 is an ideal picture, but every woman through 
 thought and the development of her own taste 
 may come to make it real. 
 
 Of course, this implies self-knowledge. 
 
 Foreigners are impressed by the peculiar 
 attractiveness of American women. They say 
 next to their own women it is the American 
 woman that charms the most. 
 
 Now why is this so? 
 
 It is because of the infinite variety of the 
 American woman which pleases the eye and 
 holds the imagination. When any large 
 number of women are under observation, 
 attractiveness must imply constant change, for 
 
 160 
 
THE IDEAL IN DRESS 161 
 
 human nature soon wearies of what is monot- 
 onous. If the first, last, and every other woman 
 that the foreigner saw all looked and dressed 
 alike, the first might well be the last for any 
 interest he would feel in them. 
 
 On the contrary, what is his common ex- 
 perience? He meets first the tall and stately 
 wife of his club friend, who takes pleasure in 
 introducing him into society. Her poise and 
 elegance are what strike him the most forcibly, 
 and he immediately concludes that the Ameri- 
 can woman is to be worshipped from afar rather 
 than near by. 
 
 Yet, straightway at dinner, he finds himself 
 the escort of a young pretty girl who hasn't any 
 poise at all and who is very well satisfied not 
 to have any. She is so confidential and con- 
 fiding, and tells him so much on every possible 
 subject, that before the evening is over he 
 feels himself to be her brother, though whether 
 an elder or a younger one he is not at all sure. 
 
 But soon he meets the blue-stocking girl, 
 who looks at him critically through her 
 lorgnette and who keeps saying things he 
 fears are sarcastic. 
 
 Then, to his relief, he is introduced to a 
 demure mouse-like girl, whose infrequent gaze 
 is soulful and who says but little, but who says 
 
162 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 it so intensely. Her effect is restful and 
 restorative. He is quite himself again, when 
 the flirtatious girl, as she is always able to do, 
 has some one or another of her subjects bring 
 him to her side. He is really limp when she 
 gets through with him, and it is only through 
 the breezy out-of-door talk of the athletic 
 girl, who strides by his side like another Diana, 
 that he feels he amounts to something after 
 all. 
 
 All this is exhausting and bew^ildering, yet 
 he remembers distinctively each one of these 
 American types. 
 
 And why is this so? Because each one by 
 her dress and her manner emphasized her 
 own identity. 
 
 It is well here to note that dress and manners 
 go together. They are inseparable compan- 
 ions. Now if this companionship is unnatural, 
 the effect produced is distressing. 
 
 Take the woman in a rich princesse robe of 
 velvet w^ith a long train and low cut decolle- 
 tage, and let her romp and giggle! Take the 
 girl in a fluffy chiffon frock decked with ruffles 
 and roses, and let her hold herself stiff and 
 repellent! In either case, don't we all want 
 to get away? 
 
 The point, though, to be driven home is 
 
THE IDEAL IN DRESS 163 
 
 that individuality in dress gives distinctiveness 
 in dress. Does it do more? It might give 
 grotesqueness in dress if the woman does not 
 consider her own charms and defects. It may 
 make her attractive or fascinating if she does 
 consider them and strives to adapt her dress 
 to them. 
 
 More and more the American woman in 
 seeking for beauty and style in dress should 
 learn to give two impressions: one of the 
 present style and the other of her own individ- 
 uality. When she combines these two features 
 with that judgment which comes from thought 
 and study, then there is a union of the best 
 that is fashionable with the best that is personal. 
 
 And thus comes about the distinction of 
 American dress. 
 
 But, some may say, such independence 
 in dress would lead to confusion, a jumbling 
 together of inharm.onious styles. This, how- 
 ever, will not be so if women have minds of 
 their own and use them. There are certain 
 principles in beauty just as there are in morals 
 or religion. The more women think and study, 
 the more they will come to have these princi- 
 ples in common. 
 
 The lines of the beautiful are well defined. 
 For centuries this ideal of beauty has been 
 
164 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 buried under the rubbish of false styles and 
 freak fashions. ^Yhen this rubbish is removed, 
 then the beautiful is revealed, just as when the 
 debris of ages is dug from a perfect statue. 
 
 How, then, is each woman to have a beauty 
 in dress of her own that agrees with the ideal 
 of beauty.'^ 
 
 She must seek the proper line, the becoming 
 line, in dress. This is a conforming of the dress 
 to the figure, as it should be. 
 
 She must study colour and learn to choose 
 only such shades as will harmonize with her. 
 
 She nmst dress to emphasize the good and 
 to hide the bad. 
 
 She must adapt her dress to her environment 
 and circumstances, so that she will never be 
 taken for what she is not. There is no bird so 
 distressful as the bird in borrowed plumage. 
 
 In her painting of her own dress portrait 
 woman must be an impressionist. 
 
 It is the effect always and not the material 
 that counts. Sometimes the slightest touch 
 gives character and charm. Why is it that 
 marionettes all look alike .'^ It is because they 
 haven't any little ways of their own. 
 
 The human eye is a very imperfect micro- 
 scope, but the soul looks out through it and 
 sees best what it likes the most. It is hard to 
 
THE IDEAL IN DRESS 165 
 
 define style, but the eye knows it at once, 
 sometimes finding it in the twist of a ribbon or 
 the fall of a lace ruffle. 
 
 Then there is the frame of this picture, which, 
 of course, is the scene in which the woman is 
 placed. She must in her dress become a living 
 part of this scene. It is only in the light operas 
 that a milkmaid in silks and laces is endurable. 
 When the portrait and frame match, then the 
 frock, the environment, and the woman come 
 to belong to one another, which, as all dress 
 experts know, is most desirable. 
 
 Such a condition is especially important 
 to the woman whose scant purse causes her to 
 heed all the little economies in dress. She may 
 far better be cheaply dressed and still be her- 
 self than richly dressed and be like some one 
 else, for it is herself and not this unknown 
 some one else whom her friends love to see. 
 Besides, who ever does pick a flower to pieces 
 before exclaiming, "How beautiful!" 
 
 If price means beauty, then the most beauti- . / 
 ful dress should be made of bank-notes. 
 
 The poetry of life of which becoming dress 
 is so great a part is beyond price. All may en- 
 joy it who will live it. It is a woman's peculiar 
 mission to give more and more poetry to life 
 and she can do this largely through her dress. 
 
166 THE MAGIC OF DRESS 
 
 Of course, it is not given to all to originate, 
 but it is possible for all to select and adapt. 
 Let each woman keep her own individuality, 
 and at the same time make the very best of it 
 by her dress. 
 
 Let her represent her own life and circum- 
 stances by her dress, but at their highest point 
 and not their lowest point. 
 
 Let her gladly avail herself of all the thought 
 and taste that have been and are devoted to 
 fashions, but let her wisely take what is fitting, 
 and leave what is inappropriate. 
 
 Let her mind dignify her dress and her dress 
 dignify her manners. 
 
 Then she becomes an inspiration, and dress 
 has done its perfect work. 
 
 i 
 
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