THE MATTER OF DRESS
TO be comfortably and becomingly clothed is an acknowledged
aspiration of most women and many men. The time to be ashamed of such
an aspiration is now happily gone by with some other detrimental
puritanical notions, and we cheerfully give ourselves to the love
of pretty things for personal adornment as we do to beauty in other
directions. That too much time may be spent in the thought about, and
selection of, clothes is true, also that extravagance of expenditure
and other vices are the price of such vanity. On the other hand, it
is as true, though not so directly and obviously so, that a lack of
attention to dress leads equally to disaster. The badly-gowned woman
is apt to be self-conscious, not in possession of her best self; and
too often she carries the thought of dress exactly to the place where
her mind should be free of such reflections. One should not wear more
than one can successfully “carry off.” Care about the details of dress
should be left behind when one goes visiting or appears anywhere in
public. If one’s toilet has been thought out and attended to properly
before leaving home, one’s mind is then free for the entertainment of
other subjects. If this important matter is suggested to one only by
the unhappy contrast between one’s appearance and that of the people
about one, then unless one is possessed of a particularly strong mind,
the pleasure of the occasion in question is nullified, the possible
profit to be derived from it is cut off.
[Sidenote: THE GOSPEL OF GOOD GOWNS]
Self-consciousness does away with the easy use of one’s faculties
and renders them stiff and unpliable. Trim appropriate clothing has
a tendency to make the wearer happy and is an encouragement to a
comfortable and lively temper of mind. I remember hearing a humorous
old clergyman say that he was frequently called upon to endure the
recital of her miseries from a very untidy woman of his congregation
and to prescribe advice therefor. At last with him truth came to the
surface, and a thought that had long lain dormant in his mind found
expression on the final occasion of her request for counsel from
him. “Madam,” he said, “I believe you would be a much happier woman
if you combed your hair becomingly and put on a fresh gown oftener.”
The matter of dress is at once a serious and, to a beauty-loving
temperament, a charming consideration. To some extent it has to do
with character and much to do with happiness. Some moralists to the
contrary notwithstanding, the becomingness or the unbecomingness of
what one wears reacts upon the wearer and makes her distrustful or
confident, timid or courageous, and this in a not unworthy sense.
* * * * *
If the subject of dress is important, the consideration we give to it
should be of a correspondingly dignified and orderly character. There
is a happy medium between spending too much and too little time on
the thought of what we wear. At regular periods, say at least twice a
year, the matter should be taken up with some care, the needs of one’s
wardrobe investigated, the amount of money at one’s disposal for such
purposes be determined upon.
[Sidenote: IF THE PURSE IS SMALL]
If one’s purse is so large that the question is only one of purchase,
of consulting good outfitters and dressmakers, there is still room
for neat and methodical management. If one’s purse is small, orderly
and businesslike management is a necessity. One should study one’s
appearance and find out for one’s self what colors, what tendencies in
fashion are becoming to one, and resolutely strike others off the list.
Reason, not fancy, nor altogether fashion, should guide one in the
choice of fabrics and tints. One’s manner of life should be considered
in the selection of gowns, and the appropriate thing picked out for the
anticipated occasion. A train on the street, velvet in the morning, no
matter what may seem to be worn by extremists, could never be in taste.
Veils that are so heavy as to seem disguises or so ornamented that they
give the wearer, at a little distance, the appearance of having a skin
disease, should be left to the women who wish to startle.
[Sidenote: THE STREET GOWN]
The most important gown to be taken into account is the street gown,
the garb in which one appears every day and before the largest number
of people. That one should look well all the days of the week is
more important and convincing than that one should look well for the
particular and infrequent occasion. If one must choose between a good
day-in-and-day-out gown and one of a more elaborate and decorative
description, the preference should be given to the tailor or street
gown. One would better invest in a cloth costume of good material and
cut, and wear this unchanged through more than one season than indulge
in two or three of cheaper mold that reflect unsteadily the passing
mode. This gown may serve not only for street but, with various waists,
may develop other uses than that of outdoor wear. The changes possible
in accessories will make it available for calls, teas, afternoon
receptions and the theater.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: BETWEEN SEASONS]
Many women who dress fairly well in summer and in winter, fail to
provide themselves with suitable attire for the intervening seasons.
Spring finds them with only a fur-trimmed cloak, and in early fall they
are still wearing thin midsummer frocks. In our changeable climate,
clothing of various weights is absolutely necessary to make a good
appearance. All fur coats are seldom suitable, and for this reason
should be left for those who can buy as many garments as they choose.
Good separate furs are a much wiser investment for a woman of limited
means. White kid gloves for marketing and shopping, even if one can
afford them, are out of taste because out of place.
* * * * *
For a woman who goes to balls and dinners, however infrequently, a
good low-cut gown of some description is indispensable. Women who have
lived quiet provincial lives and are called upon to grace a wider
social sphere are not always aware of this. They provide themselves
with appropriate gowns of other descriptions, but they feel afraid of
the gown made especially for evening wear. They have a foolish fear
sometimes of trying, by this means, to look younger than they are
or of making themselves conspicuous in the wearing of such a frock.
Conspicuousness lies in the other direction. Full dress is the proper
wear for metropolitan entertainments after six o’clock in the evening,
and full dress means a dress coat for a man and a low-cut frock of
appropriate material for a woman. Avoidance of embarrassment means the
adoption of this conventional wear. A woman who has reached an age when
her neck has begun to wither in front is not, however, an object of
beauty when décolleté. She will do well to wear a jeweled collar or a
band of velvet or tulle.
[Sidenote: WHAT IS FULL DRESS]
To the indispensable items just mentioned may be added theater gowns,
dinner gowns, ball gowns, outing costumes, tea gowns, negligees,—a
bewildering variety of attire suited not only to every feminine need
but answering to every feminine caprice. Few words are necessary to
those women whose purse is equal to the purchase of all the feminine
fripperies dear to a woman’s heart. Dealers and experienced modistes
are always at hand to offer serviceable advice to those who have the
wherewithal to pay for it, though one should not take, without weighing
it, even the best advice of this sort. Try to be intelligent about your
clothes and to show a little individuality. Only this bit of counsel is
perhaps in season to those who may have measurably what they choose in
the way of wearing apparel. Preserve some sort of equality between the
different items of your toilet. Do not have a splendid theater gown and
a shabby negligee. Do not wear fine furs over an inferior street gown.
Do not wear heavy street boots with a velvet evening gown. Arrange the
articles of your wardrobe so that they bear some sort of happy relation
to one another, so that one article may not be ashamed to be found
in the company of any other, so that your clothes may seem to be the
harmonious possession of one person, not the happen-so belongings of a
half-dozen varying temperaments.
[Sidenote: THE GOWN AND ITS WEARER]
There are persons,—we all know them,—whose happy attire is always
calling forth some such remark as,—“That looks precisely like her,”
or “She and the gown were made for each other.” This sort of relation
between person and wardrobe is the most charming outcome possible to
the consideration of personal adornment. It gives dignity and distinct
esthetic value to the subject of clothes. Let us have no more red on
blondes, and let over-stout women leave plaids and checks alone. Thin
girls should wear frills and leave plain-tailored clothes to plumpness.
With the woman of means, this harmony need not be, though it often
is, occasional. It may be constant and if she is a person of esthetic
temperament she may gain from this happy relation between herself and
her clothes a soul-satisfying sense of bliss not to be gained from any
other source in the world. Over-dressing is, of course, avoided by
women of taste.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF ACCESSORIES]
Many women who have little to spend put nearly the lump sum into gowns.
This is a mistake of the gravest sort. The effect of the prettiest gown
may be spoiled by an ill-fitting corset, by gloves that are no longer
fresh and by shoes that are not trim and suitable to the occasion.
White gloves should be white, and white shoes likewise, or they should
not be worn. The proper accessories of dress, among which are veils,
belts, ruchings and collars, often give to an otherwise plain costume,
the effect of something chic and telling.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: HOW TO PUT ON A HAT]
Becoming head-gear is of the utmost importance. “A hat,” said an apt
society woman of the writer’s acquaintance, “should bear the same
relation to other parts of one’s costume that the title of a story
does to the story itself. This article of dress should be at once
the key and the consummation of the effect intended.” The fashion in
hats varies with great rapidity from year to year, and one should be
careful to avoid the extremes of style. Only a face of great beauty can
stand the precipitous, fantastic slants and curves that mark the ultra
fashionable in millinery. If one is so fortunate as to find sometime
a shape that is decidedly becoming, one should follow through life its
general outline with modifications sufficient to conform in a general
way to passing modes. Form the habit of putting your hats on from the
back, thus pushing the loose hair about the face slightly forward. The
plainest face is softened and beautified by a fluffy arrangement of the
hair about the temple. Nothing is more fatal to good looks than a high
bald forehead. Many women make a fatal mistake in their preference for
big hats. The picture-hat is only suited to the large and picturesque
type. Large hats make little women look like mushrooms, and frequently
they take away all distinction and individuality from the face beneath.
* * * * *
Many a charming costume is spoiled by a failure to realize that the
feet must be dressed in harmony with the rest of the costume. Too many
women, otherwise attractive in appearance, wear shoes with scuffed toes
and run-down heels, the latter due to a bad habit of turning the foot
over in walking. This can be corrected easily by having the shoe built
up at the sole on the opposite side by the insertion of a piece of
thick leather, which any shoe-mender will do very cheaply. One is then
forced to use the foot properly.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: CHOICE IN JEWELS]
Women otherwise tasteful in dress are often careless and unthoughtful
in the jewels they wear. In gowns and millinery they would not think
of wearing colors that clash and fight, yet they do not establish a
correspondence between clothes and jewels worn, between trinkets and
the quality of personal appearance. They wear the contents of their
jewel-boxes irrespective of suitability, indifferent as to season of
night or day. A profusion of jewels, or the wearing of various and
hostile stones at one time, is to be avoided as the pestilence. A
jewel, like a fine picture, needs background, space to show it off. In
the company of many other jewels it loses identity and distinction,
and fails in conferring these qualities upon the wearer. In choosing
precious stones it is a good rule to establish some sort of relation
between their color and the eyes of the wearer. Turquoise intensifies
the hue of blue eyes, topaz that of brown ones, and emeralds are
particularly becoming to women whose eyes have a greenish tinge.
Color is so important an element of success in every department of
dress that its study should be a part of the education of every woman
who wishes to be well gowned. The correspondence between the color of
the gown and the appearance of the person who is to wear it is of more
importance than the quality of the texture employed. Hue and fit make
for becomingness to a greater extent than elegance in material, though
the latter is also an element of beauty in an all-round conception of
the subject. A feeling for textures is rare, but it may be cultivated,
and the effort to do this is worth making.
[Sidenote: INDIVIDUALITY IN DRESS]
Some women who are timid as to their ability to combine colors and
tones, plunge into black as a safe refuge or adopt a standard color
which they regard as “safe” for all occasions. This is a poor way out
of the difficulty. Resolute study and a little experimenting will yield
better results and an agreeable variety. A woman should study her
“points” in the light of day before a full-length mirror, and once she
has really learned what becomes her she should allow no milliner or
modiste to coax her into “the latest cry.” There is no such thing as
the “tyranny of fashion” for the woman who dresses intelligently. She
will never be either in or out of the mode.
Neatness is unquestionably an element of that indefinable thing we call
style, though many women who are neat are not modish. Neatness is the
integrity of dress, the essential foundation to which all good things
may be added. To a woman whose love for dress is allied to the thirst
for perfection in that branch, untidiness is more than distasteful.
If “extra” hair must be worn, it should be moderate in quantity, of
the best quality and most skilfully arranged. Face powder, carelessly
put on, makes a woman look ridiculous. An open placket is viewed by a
fastidious woman as something like disgrace. Broken shoe-laces, gaps
between belt and skirt, soiled neckwear, crookedness in the arrangement
of gowns and other evidences of careless dressing are abhorrent to
her. Neatness, freshness and suitability in the wardrobe are more
important items than elaboration and cost. The person who suggests
these desirable qualities in the manner of her attire, whether she has
a large or a small amount of money to be expended in clothes, is sure
to present an agreeable appearance. If to these qualities she adds a
scent for novelty and style, she may hope to be, as far as clothes are
concerned, “very smart indeed.” If beyond this she have the artist’s
gift, she may make herself better than “smart,” she may be beautiful.
[Sidenote: MINOR POINTS IN DRESS]
One minor point: the handkerchief, when not in actual use, should be
invisible. It is a concession to nature, and to carry it in the hand,
tuck it in the belt or up the sleeve is provincial. A muff or a party
bag of dainty texture may serve to hide it in lieu of a pocket.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: HAPHAZARD DRESSING]
At women’s parties in this country one sees a variety of costumes not
all suited to the occasion. The hostess at a luncheon may wear a white
lingerie dress, one of her guests will be in a shirt-waist costume,
a second in white satin and the rest in quiet silks or in elegant
chiffon waists and cloth or velvet skirts. The picture is spoiled
by this haphazard dressing. The majority were correctly attired but
the shirt-waist and the white satin were equally wrong. The hostess
who knows that any one of her guests may be compelled to dress with
exceptional plainness will help to make that person comfortable by
wearing a quiet gown herself. Except at very intimate affairs it is
wiser, however, to decline an invitation than to make an embarrassingly
poor appearance.
At afternoon receptions one often sees the hostess and her assistants
in elaborate gowns, while many of the callers are in tailored street
costume. This again spoils the picture. If a woman expects to attend
afternoon affairs she should have an afternoon gown.
* * * * *
Highly polished finger-nails of a length to suggest claws, are bad
form though one sees them on women who ought to know better. The nails
should be carefully filed—not trimmed—to a shape only slightly pointed,
they should show the pretty half-moon at the base and may bear a slight
polish but no artificial coloring. To keep the half-moon plainly
visible, gently push back the scarf-skin at the base of the nail daily
with an orange-wood stick. A little cold cream rubbed in nightly around
the edges of the nails is a great help. No sharp instrument should ever
be used to clean the nails. The orange-wood sticks are best adapted to
this purpose. Peroxide will remove stains.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: A WORD ON GLOVES]
Suède gloves are softer in appearance and more elegant than the glacé
ones, but as they soil more quickly and clean less readily they should
not be attempted by women of limited means. A delicately colored glove
is more artistic with many costumes than a pure white one, but here
again practicability must be counted, as the light-colored glove will
seldom clean well and the white one does. A woman who must carefully
consider the cost of her dressing will, if she is clever, plan
mezzo-tinted costumes which are artistic and becoming and which do not
demand light or white gloves.
* * * * *
Transparent blouses that display the under-clothing are bad form. If
very sheer material is used, a special slip should be worn under the
blouse. Very thin hose are equally objectionable. Perfume of any sort
is now taboo beyond the elusive scent of lavender or violet sachets in
one’s dresser drawers, or a dash of toilet water in the bath.
[Sidenote: DRESSING FOR CHURCH]
One’s dress at church should invariably be quiet. This is prescribed
not only by taste but by consideration for others who may be present
and who may be of more limited means. A church is of all places the one
in which to avoid exciting envy by costly apparel.
* * * * *
One of the mistaken ideas held by women who are just becoming sensitive
to effects in dress is that everything should match. The result in such
cases if not positively bad is usually dull and monotonous. The woman
who wears with her blue suit a blue hat with a blue feather and a blue
veil, a blue waist and blue gloves and shoes, is a nightmare. A black
hat, an écru veil, gray gloves perhaps—in these ways relief and variety
must be obtained. In choosing colors, the skin, hair and eyes should
all be considered. It is an exploded idea that brunettes should cling
to brown. Much depends on the complexion.