DRESS, AND ITS RELATION TO ART.
Art education should bring to every girl a greater appreciation of
beauty and a sufficient knowledge to enable her to beautify her home and
to dress herself becomingly. This is the real "applied art" or "applied
design" of which we have heard much but seen little.
The power and skill necessary to originate an intricate and artistic
design, and a technical knowledge of color-blending are worth something
to the individual, but the ability to apply this knowledge later to the
decoration of her home and to the selection of her own wardrobe is of
vastly greater importance.
An artist who paints the human figure, draws and erases and draws again,
and yet again, that the contour of the form he creates may be right in
proportion and graceful in line. He studies his coloring, he compares,
rejects and blends for a particular shade or tint that makes for
complete harmony. No discordant note of color nor turn of line that
detracts from the beauty of the whole is allowed. And there are artistic
makers-of-garments who put into the costumes they create the same
thought and care that the artist spends upon his canvas, but the prices
of both are within the reach of very few. Nearly every woman must plan
her own wardrobe and choose the furnishings for her home and this is
what "Art" and "Domestic Art" in the public schools should train the
girl of to-day--the woman of the future--to do.
Art on paper is the preparation for a journey--packing the suitcase, as
it were, necessary but toilsome; the application of art principles to
the problems of real life, the delightful excursion, opening the eyes to
real beauty and its possibilities. May the children in our schools have
something more than the drudgery of preparation.
Clothing was first designed in the early ages, no doubt, as a covering
and protection to the body; it has come, however, to mean something more
than this. It is an expression of the character, the nicety of taste--or
lack of it--the discrimination and judgment of the individual. In the
selection of one's garments there are a number of points which must be
taken into consideration, such as health and comfort, cost, fitness,
color and style, as well as beauty. And above all, the average woman
must pause and consider last season's garments, that are too good to be
discarded and must form a part of this year's wardrobe. It is quite
disastrous to plunge ahead and buy a blue dress, because blue happens to
be stylish, if the hat to be worn with it is a green or brown "left
over."
While a due regard to the opinions of others demands a certain
conformity to the customs of the time and place in which one lives,
there is always a latitude allowed which enables one to exercise
individual needs, taste and preference.
Health and comfort should take rank before everything else. A style
which interferes with either is an absurdity which anyone of good sense
will avoid.
Neatness should be considered above beauty or style. A soiled collar,
hooks, eyes and buttons missing, gloves out at finger ends, shoes dusty
and unpolished, braid hanging from the skirt, the waist and skirt
separated are all accidents which may befall anyone, but are most
deplorable when they become chronic.
It has been wisely said that the best dressed woman is she of whose
clothing one is unconscious, whose dress is neither conspicuous from
extreme style nor too noticeable from a total disregard of the custom of
the times. Good taste demands that one be not overdressed. Street and
business suits and young girls' school dresses should be plain, well
made and neat, of subdued and becoming color.
"Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy," wrote Shakespeare, and the
advice still holds good. Economy does not consist, however, of buying
cheap, shoddy material. Trimming can be dispensed with to the
improvement of the average garment, but a dress made of good cloth will
out-wear, look better, give greater self-respect, and in the end cost
less than several dresses made of cheap stuff, as the cost of making is
no more for the one than the other. This is a principle that applies as
well to underwear. Simple garments, well made of firm fine cambric are
much to be preferred to those overtrimmed with cheap lace and sleazy
embroidery.
Some colors and styles are becoming to certain complexions and forms
and are quite the reverse to others. A short stout person should avoid
plaids, while one overly tall should never select stripes. The lines of
the garment are equally important--any method of trimming that gives
length, the long lines of the "princess" and the "empire" styles are a
boon to the short figure, while the overskirt, the deep flounce, and the
bands of trimming running around the skirt, all help to break the long
lines for the tall woman. Belts that by contrast divide the figure are
not good unless one wishes to shorten the height. Waists and skirts of
the same color usually have more style and give better form.
Give careful heed to the selection of color, not only to the dress but
to the accessories, hat, gloves, collar, belt and shoes, as well. In
fact, consider the costume as a whole made up of parts, each one of
which must harmonize with every other.
Before sewing machines were to be found in every home and ready made
clothing in the stores styles did not change so rapidly. Commercial
conditions now make it to the advantage of a great army of people that
the styles in dress change often and radically. The manufacturers of
cloth, the wholesale merchants with their agents, the retailers and
their numerous clerks, wholesale garment-makers and their many employes,
pattern-makers, dress-makers, milliners and the manufacturers of all
minor articles of clothing are all benefitted by this oft recurring
change in style. This condition has come about so gradually that we
hardly realize to what extent we are victims of trade-tricks. It is not
necessary nor desirable that woman should enslave herself to follow all
the vagaries of style.
[Illustration: CHILD'S PICTURE BOOK.]