What Dress Makes of Us Part 3

The very tall, slender woman frequently ignores a jaunty jacket and takes a long coat like that shown in No. 36.

To even the sluggish fancy of an unimaginative observer she suggests a champagne bottle, and to the ready wit she hints of no end of amusing possibilities for caricature.

The very tall woman should know that long lines from shoulder to foot give height, and she must discerningly strive to avoid length of line in her garments until she dons the raiment of the angels.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOS. 36 AND 37]

Horizontal lines crossing the figure seem to decrease height, and should be used as much as possible in the arranging and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the tall woman's garments.

By selecting a shorter coat equally modish, as shown by No. 37, the too tall woman shortens her figure perceptibly.

The belt cuts off from her height in a felicitous way, and the collar, also horizontal, materially improves the size of her throat. The high collar, such as finishes the coat, in No. 36, adds to the length. Those who have too long arms can use horizontal bands on sleeves most advantageously.

The Coat the Short Stout Woman should Wear.

The short jacket that so graciously improved the appearance of the slender specimen of femininity is sinister in its effect on the short, stout woman, in sketch No. 38. It should be the study of her life to avoid horizontal lines. Length of limb is to be desired because it adds distinction. Her belt, the horizontal effect of the skirt of the jacket, the horizontal tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the bottom of the skirt, all apparently shortening her height, tend to make her ordinary and commonplace in appearance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOS. 38 AND 39]

If her hips are not too p.r.o.nounced she can wear the long coat, shown in picture No. 39. The V-shaped vesture gives her a longer waist, and the long lines of the revers add to the length of her skirt. If her hips are too prominent, she should avoid having any tight-fitting garments that bring the fact into relief. She should not wear the long coat, but she can effectively modify it to suit her needs, by only having a skirt, or tabs, or finis.h.i.+ng straps in the back. If her jacket or basque is finished off with a skirt effect, it is best to have the little skirt swerve away just at the hip-line, half revealing and half concealing it.

The front should be made in a jacket effect, finis.h.i.+ng just at the waist-line and opening over a blouse front that will conceal the waist-line. It is best for the too short, stout woman to obscure her waist-line as much as possible, to apparently give her increase of height.

To put the waist-line high up adds to length of limb, and, of course, is to be desired, but the fact that what is added below is taken from above the waist, should impel careful discrimination in the arrangement of this equatorial band.

The Cloak or Cape for a Tall Woman.

The long circular cloak is another graceful garment that can be worn with charming effect by the woman of cla.s.sic height, but should never be in the wardrobe of a very tall woman except for use at the opera, when its service is chiefly required in the carriage, or when its wearer is sitting. It is so obvious, in sketch No. 40, that the vertical lines the folds of the cloak naturally fall into give a steeple-like appearance to the tall woman it enfolds, that it is scarcely necessary to comment upon it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 40]

That her judicious selection should have been the short cape, which comes, as all capes should, to be artistic, well below the elbows, is clearly ill.u.s.trated in picture No. 41. The horizontal tr.i.m.m.i.n.g very becomingly plays its part in the generally improving effect.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 41]

The one who can wear the long cloak in an unchallengeable manner is the short, stout woman, shown in sketch No. 42.

By wearing the short cape with circular, fluffy collarette, sketched in No. 43, she gives herself the look of a smothered, affrighted Cochin China chicken; or, as an imaginative school-girl remarked of her mother who wore a cape of similar style, "she looks as if her neck were encircled by bunches of asparagus."

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOS. 42 AND 43]

The military dignity she acquires by wearing the long cape is becoming to a degree, and gives her distinction in form.

By remembering that horizontal tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs apparently decrease the height, and that vertical lines add to it, those who desire to appear at their best will use discernment in dividing their basques with yokes, or corsage mountings at the bust-line or frills at the hip-line.

A flounce on the corsage at the bust-line, another at the hip-line, and yet another at the bottom of the s.h.i.+rt, increases the impression of bulkiness most aggressively and gives a barrel-like appearance to the form of a stout woman that is decidedly funny, as may be seen in sketch No. 44.

A study of the lines of the form will not only aid one in adopting a more becoming style of dress, but will sharpen the artistic perceptions, thus adding to the joy of life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 44]

"A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face" and should be clothed so that its lines may appear at their best, and not be exaggerated and caricatured. The figure is seen many more times than the face, and the defects of the former are more conspicuous than those of the latter.

Do not be unjust to your beautiful body, the temple of your soul; above all, do not caricature it by selecting your clothes with indiscriminating taste.

NO MATTER WHAT THE PREVAILING MODE THESE RULES MAY BE PRACTICALLY APPLIED.

CHAPTER IV.

HOW PLUMP AND THIN BACKS SHOULD BE CLOTHED.

She was from the middle-West, and despite the fact that she was married, and that twenty-one half-blown blush roses had enwreathed her last birthday cake, she had the alert, quizzical brightness of a child who challenges everybody and everything that pa.s.ses with the countersign--"Why?" She investigated New York with unabashed interest, and, like many another superior provincial, she freely expressed her likes and dislikes for its traditions, show-places, and people with a commanding and amusing audacity.

Her objections were numerous. The chief one that made a deep impression upon her metropolitan friends was her disapproval of Sarah Bernhardt's acting. The middle-Westerner, instead of becoming ecstatic in her admiration, and at a loss for adjectives at the appearance of the divine Sarah, merely perked at the great French artist for some time and then demanded, querulously: "What's the matter with her? Why does she play so much with her back to the audience? I don't like it."

It was a shock to the adorers of Sarah Bernhardt to hear her so irreverently criticised. They loyally united in her defence, and sought to squelch the revolter by loftily explaining that the actress turned her back so often to the audience because she had such a n.o.ble, generous nature and desired to give the other actors a chance. "She lets them take the centre of the stage, as they say in the profession," remarked one of the party, who prided herself upon being versed in the _argot_ of the theatre.

"But she plays with her back to the audience when she is speaking and acting, and everybody else on the stage is still but herself,"

petulantly insisted the Western Philistine, showing no signs of defeat.

The situation was not wholly agreeable. The wors.h.i.+ppers of Sarah could say nothing more in justification of her turning her back on them, but, with true feminine logic, concluded, "If Sarah Bernhardt turns her back on the audience it is right, and that is all there is to say."

Just at this dramatic moment a voice from the adjoining row providentially interposed. The voice belonged to a well-known exponent of physical culture, who was never so happy as when instructing the intellectually needy. She said: "I will tell you why she plays with her back towards the audience more than any other actress upon the stage to-day." The middle-Westerner, no less impressed than her metropolitan friends, listened eagerly.

The exponent of straight backs and high chests explained didactically: "The back is wonderfully expressive; indeed it is full of vital expression. Bernhardt knows this better than any other actress because she has studied statuary with the pa.s.sion of a sculptor, and because she understands that, not only the face, but the entire physical structure, is capable of expressing dramatic emotions. Strong feeling and action may be strikingly revealed by the back. Imprecations, denunciations, even prayers, seem to be charged with more force when an actress delivers them with her back turned, or half-turned to the audience.

"Bernhardt's back expresses a storm of fury when she imprecates vengeance," said the voice of authority. "Not only on the stage is the expression of the back discernible, and a knowledge of its character valuable, but in every-day life in drawing-room and street. How many women consider their backs when they dress? Look at the backs here deformed by laces and fallals," she went on contemptuously. "The majority of women never look below their chins and I believe not one in ten ever looks thoughtfully at her back," she said emphatically.

The dramatic value of a well-poised, expressive back may only concern the thousands of young women who are aspiring to be a Sarah Bernhardt or a Rachel; but a knowledge of what const.i.tutes a properly and artistically clothed back should be of interest to all women in civilized countries.

That there is much truth in the a.s.sertion that "the majority of women never look below their chins, and not one in ten ever looks thoughtfully at her back," every observer of womankind might testify.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 45]

The open placket-hole and sagging waist-band, sketched in No. 45, is an all too familiar sight that advertises the fact that too few women take even a cursory look at their backs. Fathers and brothers who wish to protect their womankind from adverse criticism frequently give impromptu lectures upon this very subject, as this slovenly arrangement of skirt and basque is not only seen in Grand Street, Second Avenue, and equally unfas.h.i.+onable quarters, but in Fifth Avenue where the modish set are _en evidence_. If the dainty safety-pin displayed in No. 46, goes out of vogue, the time-honored custom of sewing hooks to the waist-band of the dress, is always in fas.h.i.+on. Indeed, many women prefer this way of connecting separate skirt and waist to using a conspicuous pin. This is almost too trivial a detail to discourse upon, but it is as true that details make dress as it is that "trifles make life"--and neither life nor dress is a trifle.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 46]

The offence in No. 45 is more the result of untidiness than of a lack of artistic discrimination. Nos. 46-1/2 and 47, on the contrary, outrage the laws of art, and display ignorance of the value and beauty of lines.

No. 46-1/2 might serve to conceal a deformity of the shoulders. That really seems its only excuse for being. The full, ugly, straight pleat that falls to just below the waist-line lends neither grace nor style to the figure. It is too short to give the distinction and dignity that handsome wraps with long lines almost invariably do, although they seem to add age to the form. There is a hint of youth in this ungraceful jacket to be sure, but it is not especially attractive in its suggestion of youthfulness.