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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woman as Decoration, by Emily Burbank
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Woman as Decoration
+
+
+Author: Emily Burbank
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2006  [eBook #18901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Cori Samuel, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from
+page images generously made available by Home Economics Archive: Research,
+Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
+(http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/)
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+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/0/18901/18901-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History,
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. See
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+
+
+
+
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION
+
+by
+
+EMILY BURBANK
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1917
+Copyright, 1917
+By Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc.
+
+
+
+
+            DEDICATED
+               TO
+            V. B. G.
+
+
+
+
+    PLATE I
+
+    Madame Geraldine Farrar as Tha�s in the opera of that name.
+    It is a sketch made from life for this book. Observe the
+    gilded wig and richly embroidered gown. They are after
+    descriptions of a costume worn by the real Tha�s. It is a
+    Greek type of costume but not the familiar classic Greek of
+    sculptured story. Tha�s was a reigning beauty and acted in
+    the theatre of Alexandria in the early Christian era.
+
+    [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by Thelma Cudlipp
+    Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Greek Costume as Tha�s_]
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION is intended as a sequel to _The Art of
+Interior Decoration_ (Grace Wood and Emily Burbank).
+
+Having assisted in setting the stage for woman, the next logical step is
+the consideration of woman, herself, as an important factor in the
+decorative scheme of any setting,--the vital spark to animate all
+interior decoration, private or public. The book in hand is intended as
+a brief guide for the woman who would understand her own type,--make the
+most of it, and know how simple a matter it is to be decorative if she
+will but master the few rules underlying all successful dressing. As the
+costuming of woman is an art, the history of that art must be known--to
+a certain extent--by one who would be an intelligent student of our
+subject. With the assistance of thirty-three illustrations to throw
+light upon the text, we have tried to tell the beguiling story of
+decorative woman, as she appears in frescoes and bas reliefs of Ancient
+Egypt, on Greek vases, the Gothic woman in tapestry and stained glass,
+woman in painting, stucco and tapestry of the Renaissance, seventeenth,
+eighteenth and nineteenth century woman in portraits.
+
+Contemporary woman's costume is considered, not as fashion, but as
+decorative line and colour, a distinct contribution to the interior
+decoration of her own home or other setting. In this department, woman
+is given suggestions as to the costuming of herself, beautifully and
+appropriately, in the ball-room, at the opera, in her boudoir, sun-room
+or on her shaded porch; in her garden; when driving her own car; by the
+sea, or on the ice.
+
+Woman as Decoration has been planned, in part, also to fill a need very
+generally expressed for a handbook to serve as guide for beginners in
+getting up costumes for fancy-dress balls, amateur theatricals, or the
+professional stage.
+
+We have tried to shed light upon period costumes and point out ways of
+making any costume effective.
+
+Costume books abound, but so far as we know, this is the first attempt
+to confine the vast and perplexing subject within the dimensions of a
+small, accessible volume devoted to the principles underlying the
+planning of all costumes, regardless of period.
+
+The author does not advocate the preening of her feathers as woman's
+sole occupation, in any age, much less at this crisis in the making of
+world history; but she does lay great emphasis on the fact that a woman
+owes it to herself, her family and the public in general, to be as
+decorative in any setting, as her knowledge of the art of dressing
+admits. This knowledge implies an understanding of line, colour,
+fitness, background, and above all, one's own type. To know one's type,
+and to have some knowledge of the principles underlying all good
+dressing, is of serious economic value; it means a saving of time,
+vitality and money.
+
+The watchword of to-day is efficiency, and the keynote to modern
+costuming, appropriateness. And so the spirit of the time records itself
+in the interesting and charming subdivision of woman's attire.
+
+One may follow Woman Decorative in the Orient on vase, fan, screen and
+kakemono; as she struts in the stiff manner of Egyptian bas reliefs,
+across walls of ancient ruins, or sits in angular serenity, gazing into
+the future through the narrow slits of Egyptian eyes, oblivious of time;
+woman, beautiful in the European sense, and decorative to the
+superlative degree, on Greek vase and sculptured wall. Here in rhythmic
+curves, she dandles lovely Cupid on her toe; serves as vestal virgin at
+a woodland shrine; wears the bronze helmet of Minerva; makes laws, or as
+Penelope, the wife, wearily awaits her roving lord. She moves in august
+majesty, a sore-tried queen, and leaps in merry laughter as a care-free
+slave; pipes, sings and plies the distaff. Sauntering on, down through
+Gothic Europe, Tudor England, the adolescent Renaissance, Bourbon
+France, into the picturesque changes of the eighteenth century, we ask,
+can one possibly escape our theme--Woman as Decoration? No, for she is
+carved in wood and stone; as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven gleams in
+the jeweled windows of the church, looks down in placid serenity on
+lighted altar; is woven in tapestry, in fact dominates all art,
+painting, stucco or marble, throughout the ages.
+
+If one would know the story of Woman's evolution and retrogression--that
+rising and falling tide in civilisation--we commend a study of her as
+she is presented in Art. A knowledge of her costume frequently throws
+light upon her age; a thorough knowledge of her age will throw light
+upon her costume.
+
+A study of the essentials of any costume, of any period, trains the eye
+and mind to be expert in planning costumes for every-day use. One learns
+quickly to discriminate between details which are ornaments, because
+they have meaning, and those which are only illiterate superfluities;
+and one learns to master many other points.
+
+It is not within the province of this book to dwell at length upon
+national costume, but rather to follow costume as it developed with and
+reflected caste, after human society ceased to be all alike as to
+occupation, diversion and interest.
+
+In the world of caste, costume has gradually evolved until it aims
+through appropriateness, at assisting woman to fulfil her r�le. With
+peasants who know only the traditional costume of their province, the
+task must often be done in spite of the costume, which is picturesque or
+grotesque, inconvenient, even impossible; but long may it linger to
+divert the eye! Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland,
+Scandinavia,--all have an endless variety of costumes, rich in souvenirs
+of folk history, rainbows of colour and bizarre in line, but it is
+costuming the woman of fashion which claims our attention.
+
+The succeeding chapters will treat of woman, the vital spark which gives
+meaning to any setting--indoors, out of doors, at the opera, in the
+ball-room, on the ice--where you will. Each chapter has to do with
+modern woman and the historical paragraphs are given primarily to shed
+light upon her costume.
+
+It is shown that woman's decorative appearance affects her psychology,
+and that woman's psychology affects her decorative appearance.
+
+Some chapters may, at first glance, seem irrelevant, but those who have
+seriously studied any art, and then undertaken to tell its story
+briefly in simple, direct language, with the hope of quickly putting
+audience or reader in touch with the vital links in the chain of
+evidence, will understand the author's claim that no detour which
+illustrates the subject can in justice be termed irrelevant. In the
+detours often lie invaluable data, for one with a mind for
+research--whether author or reader. This is especially true in
+connection with our present task, which involves unravelling some of the
+threads from the tangled skein of religion, dancing, music, sculpture
+and painting--that mass of bright and sombre colour, of gold and silver
+threads, strung with pearls and glittering gems strangely broken by
+age--which tells the epic-lyric tale of civilisation.
+
+While we state that it is not our aim to make a point of fashion as
+such, some of our illustrations show contemporary woman as she appears
+in our homes, on our streets, at the play, in her garden, etc. We have
+taken examples of women's costumes which are pre-eminently
+characteristic of the moment in which we write, and as we believe,
+illustrate those laws upon which we base our deductions concerning
+woman as decoration. These laws are: appropriateness of her costume to
+the occasion; consideration of the type of wearer; background against
+which costume is to be worn; and all decoration (which includes jewels),
+as detail with _raison d'�tre_. The body should be carried with form (in
+the sporting sense), to assist in giving line to the costume.
+
+The _chic_ woman is the one who understands the art of elimination in
+costumes. Wear your costumes with conviction--by which we mean decide
+what picture you will make of yourself, make it and then enjoy it! It is
+only by letting your personality animate your costume that you make
+yourself superior to the lay figure or the sawdust doll.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+  CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+
+  FOREWORD                                                           xi
+
+  I A FEW HINTS FOR THE NOVICE WHO WOULD PLAN HER COSTUMES            1
+
+  Rules having economic value while aiming at
+  decorativeness.--Lines and colouring emphasised
+  or modified by costuming.--Temperaments affect
+  carriage of the body.--Line of body affects
+  costume.--Technique of controlling the physique.--The
+  highly sensitised woman.--Costuming an
+  art.--Studying types.--Starring one's own good
+  points.--Beauty not so fleeting as is supposed
+  if costume is adapted to its changing aspects.--Masters
+  in art of costuming often discover and
+  star previously unrecognised beauty.--Establishing
+  the habit of those lines and colours in
+  gowns, hats, gloves, parasols, sticks, fans and
+  jewels which are your own.--The intelligent
+  purchaser.--The best dressed women.--Value of
+  understanding one's background.--Learning the
+  art of understanding one's background.--Learning
+  the art of costuming from masters of the
+  art.--How to proceed with this study.--Successful
+  costuming not dependent upon amount of
+  money spent upon it.--An example
+
+
+  II THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN                      23
+
+  Appropriateness keynote of costuming to-day.--Five
+  salient points to be borne in mind when
+  planning a costume.--Where English, French,
+  and American women excel in art of costuming.--Feeling
+  for line.--To make our points clear
+  constant reference to the stage is necessary.--Bakst
+  and Poiret.--Turning to the Orient for
+  line and colour.--Keeping costume in same key
+  as its settings.--How to know your period; its
+  line, colours and characteristic details.--Studying
+  costumes in Gothic illuminations
+
+
+  III HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE                                         46
+
+  A FEW POINTS APPLYING TO ALL COSTUMES.--Background.--Line
+  and colour of costumes to
+  bring out the individuality of wearer.--The chic
+  woman defined.--Intelligent expressing of self
+  in _mise-en-sc�ne_.--Selecting one's colour scheme
+
+
+  IV THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES                                       54
+
+  Effect of clothes upon manners.--The natural
+  instinct for costuming, "clothes sense."--Costuming
+  affecting psychology of wearer.--Clothes
+  may liberate or shackle the spirit of women, be
+  a tyrant or magician's wand.--Follow colour
+  instinct in clothes as well as housefurnishings
+
+
+  V ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE              66
+
+  Woman's line result of habits of a mind controlled
+  by observations, conventions, experiences
+  and attitudes which make her personality.--Training
+  lines of physique from childhood; an
+  example.--A knowledge of how to dress appropriately
+  leads to efficiency
+
+
+  VI COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME                                       74
+
+  Colour hall-mark of to-day.--Bakst, Rheinhardt
+  and Granville Barker, teachers of the new
+  colour vocabulary.--PORTABLE BACKGROUNDS
+
+
+  VII FOOTWEAR                                                       85
+
+  Importance of carefully considering extremities.--What
+  constitutes a costume.--Importance
+  of learning how to buy, put on and wear each
+  detail of costume if one would be a decorative
+  picture.--Spats.--Stockings.--Slippers.--Buckles
+
+
+  VIII JEWELRY AS DECORATION                                         94
+
+  Considered as colour and line not with regard
+  to intrinsic worth.--To complete a costume or
+  furnish keynote upon which to build a costume.--Distinguished
+  jewels with historic associations
+  worn artistically; examples.--Know what
+  jewels are your affair as to colour, size, and
+  shape.--To know what one can and cannot
+  wear in all departments of costuming prepares
+  one to grasp and make use of expert suggestions.
+  How fashions come into being.--One of the rules
+  as to how jewels should be worn.--Gems and
+  paste
+
+
+  IX WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR                                111
+
+  Neglig�e or tea-gown belongs to this intimate
+  setting.--Fortuny the artist designer of tea-gowns.--Sibyl
+  Sanderson.--The decorative value
+  of a long string of beads.--Beauty which is the
+  result of conscious effort.--_Bien soin�_ a hall-mark
+  of our period
+
+
+  X WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER SUN-ROOM                                116
+
+  Since a winter sun-room is planned to give
+  the illusion of summer, one's costuming for it
+  should carry out the same idea.--The sun-room
+  provides a means for using up last summer's
+  costumes.--The hat, if worn, should suggest
+  repose, not action.--The age and habits of those
+  occupying a sun-room dictate the exact type
+  of costume to be worn.--Colour scheme
+
+
+  XI  I. WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER GARDEN                             124
+
+  In the garden the costume should have a
+  decorative outline but simple colour scheme
+  which harmonises with background of flowers.--White,
+  grey, or one note of colour preferable.--The
+  flowers furnish variety and colour.--Lady
+  de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) in her garden
+  at Newmarket, England
+
+      II. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE LAWN
+
+  One may be a flower or a bunch of flowers
+  for colour against the unbroken sweep of green
+  underfoot and background of shrubs and trees.--Chic
+  outline and interesting detail, as well as
+  colour, of distinct value in a costume for lawn.--How
+  to cultivate an unerring instinct for
+  what is a successful costume for any given occasion
+
+      III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH
+
+  If one would be a contribution to the picture,
+  figure as white or vivid colour on beach,
+  deck of steamer or yacht
+
+
+  XII WOMAN AS DECORATION WHEN SKATING                              134
+
+  Line of the body all important.--The necessity
+  of mastering _form_ to gain efficiency in any
+  line; examples.--The traditional skating costume
+  has the lead
+
+
+  XIII WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR                            145
+
+  The colour of one's car inside and out important
+  factor in effect produced by one's carefully
+  chosen costume
+
+
+  XIV HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME                     154
+
+  Period.--Background.--Outline.--Materials.--Colour
+  scheme.--Detail with meaning.--Authorities.--Consulting
+  portraits by great masters.--Geraldine
+  Farrar.--Distinguished collection of
+  costume plates.--One result of planning period
+  costumes is the opening up of vistas in history.--Every
+  detail of a period costume has its fascinating
+  story worth the knowing.--Brief historic
+  outline to serve as key to the rich storehouse
+  of important volumes on costumes and
+  the distinguished textless books of costume
+  plates.--Period of fashions in costumes developing
+  without nationality.--Nationality declared
+  in artistry of workmanship and the modification
+  or exaggeration of an essential detail according
+  to national or individual temperament.--Evolution
+  of woman's costume.--Assyria.--Egypt.--Byzantium.--
+  Greece.--Rome.--Gothic Europe.--Europe of the
+  Renaissance,--seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
+  century through Mid-Victorian period.--Cord tied about
+  waist origin of costumes for women and men
+
+
+  XV THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES                                   172
+
+      A R�SUM�.
+
+  Woman as seen in Egyptian sculpture-relief;
+  on Greek vase; in Gothic stained glass; carved
+  stone; tapestry; stucco; and painting of the
+  Renaissance; eighteenth and nineteenth century
+  portraits.--Art throughout the ages reflects
+  woman in every r�le; as companion, ruler,
+  slave, saint, plaything, teacher, and voluntary
+  worker.--Evolution of outline of woman's costume,
+  including change in neck; shoulder;
+  evolution of sleeve; girdle; hair; head-dress;
+  waist line; petticoat.--Gradual disappearance
+  of long, flowing lines characteristic of Greek
+  and Gothic periods.--Demoralisation of Nature's
+  shoulder and hip-line culminates in the Velasquez
+  edition of Spanish fashion and the Marie
+  Antoinette extravaganzas
+
+
+  XVI DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME                                 192
+
+  Gothic outline first seen as early as fourth
+  century.--Costume of Roman-Christian women.--Ninth
+  century.--The Gothic cape of twelfth,
+  thirteenth and fourteenth centuries made
+  familiar on the Virgin and saints in sacred
+  art.--The tunic.--Restraint in line, colour, and
+  detail gradually disappear with increased circulation
+  of wealth until in fifteenth century we
+  see humanity over-weighted with rich brocades,
+  laces, massive jewels, etc.
+
+      THE VIRGIN IN ART
+
+  Late Middle Ages.--Sovereignty of the Virgin
+  as explained in "The Cathedrals of Mont St.
+  Michel and Chartres," by Henry Adams.--Woman
+  as the Virgin dominates art of twelfth,
+  thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.--The girdle.--The
+  round neck.--The necklace, etc.
+
+
+  XVII THE RENAISSANCE                                              214
+
+      SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
+
+  Pointed and other head-dresses with floating
+  veils.--Neck low off shoulders.--Skirts part as
+  waist-line over petticoat.--Wealth of Roman
+  Empire through new trade channels had led to
+  importation of richly coloured Oriental stuffs.--Same
+  wealth led to establishing looms in
+  Europe.--Clothes of man like his over-ornate
+  furniture show debauched and vulgar taste.--The
+  good Gothic lines live on in costumes of
+  nuns and priests.--The Davanzati Palace collection,
+  Florence, Italy.--Long pointed shoes
+  of the Middle Ages give way to broad square
+  ones.--Gorgeous materials.--Hats.--Hair.--Sleeves.--
+  Skirts.--Crinolines.--Coats.--Overskirts
+  draped to develop into panniers of Marie
+  Antoinette's time.--Directoire reaction to simple
+  lines and materials
+
+
+  XVII EIGHTEENTH CENTURY                                           233
+
+  Political upheavals.--Scientific discoveries.--Mechanical
+  inventions.--Chemical achievements.--Chintz
+  or stamped linens of Jouy near Versailles.--Painted
+  wall-papers after the Chinese.--Simplicity
+  in costuming of woman and man
+
+
+  XIX WOMAN IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD                                 241
+
+  First seventy years of nineteenth century.--"Historic
+  Dress in America" by Elizabeth McClellan.--Hoops,
+  wigs, absurdly furbished head-dresses,
+  paper-soled shoes, bonnets enormous,
+  laces of cobweb, shawls from India, rouge and
+  hair-grease, patches and powder, laced waists,
+  and "vapours."--Man still decorative
+
+
+  XX SEX IN COSTUMING                                               244
+
+  "European dress."--Progenitor of costume
+  worn by modern men.--The time when no distinction
+  was made between materials used for
+  man and woman.--Velvets, silks, satins, laces,
+  elaborate cuffs and collars, embroidery, jewels
+  and plumes as much his as hers
+
+
+  XXI LINE AND COLOUR OF COSTUMES IN HUNGARY                        252
+
+  In a sense colour a sign of virility.--Examples.--Studying
+  line and colour in Magyar
+  Land.--In Krakau, Poland,--A highly decorative
+  Polish peasant and her setting
+
+
+  XXII STUDYING LINE AND COLOUR IN RUSSIA                           265
+
+  Kiev our headquarters.--Slav temperament
+  an integral part of Russian nature expressed
+  in costuming as well as folk songs and dances
+  of the people.--Russian woman of the fashionable
+  world.--The Russian pilgrims as we saw
+  them tramping over the frozen roads to the
+  shrines of Kiev, the Holy City and ancient
+  capital of Russia at the close of the Lenten
+  season.--Their costumes and their psychology
+
+
+  XXIII MARK TWAIN'S LOVE OF COLOUR IN ALL COSTUMING                276
+
+  Wrapped in a crimson silk dressing-gown
+  on a balcony of his Italian villa in Connecticut,
+  Mark Twain dilated on the value of brilliant
+  colour in man's costuming.--His creative,
+  picturing-making mind in action.--Other themes
+  followed
+
+
+  XXIV THE ARTIST AND HIS COSTUME                                   283
+
+  A God-given sense of the beautiful.--The
+  artist nature has always assumed poetic license
+  in the matter of dress.--Many so-called affectations
+  have _raison d'�tre_.--Responding to texture,
+  colour and line as some do to music and
+  scenery.--How Japanese actors train themselves
+  to act women's parts by wearing woman's
+  costumes off the stage.--This cultivates the required
+  _feeling_ for the costumes.--The woman
+  devotee to sports when costumed.--Richard
+  Wagner's responsiveness to colour and texture.--Clyde
+  Fitch's sensitiveness to the same.--The
+  wearing of jewels by men.--King Edward
+  VII.--A remarkable topaz worn by a Spaniard.--Its
+  undoing as a decorative object through
+  its resetting
+
+
+  XXV IDIOSYNCRASIES IN COSTUME                                     292
+
+  Fashions in dress all powerful because they
+  seize upon the public mind.--They become the
+  symbol of manners and affect human psychology.--Affectations
+  of the youth of Athens.--Les
+  Merveilleux, Les Encroyables, the Illuminati.--Schiller
+  during the Storm and Stress
+  Period.--Venetian belles of the sixteenth century.--The
+  _Cavalier Servente_ of the seventeenth
+  century.--Mme. R�camier scandalised London
+  in eighteenth century by appearing costumed
+  � la Greque.--Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore
+  belle, followed suit in Philadelphia.--Hour-glass
+  waist-line and attendant "vapours"
+  were thought to be in the r�le of a high-born
+  Victorian miss.--Appropriateness the contribution
+  of our day to the story of woman's costuming
+
+
+  XXVI NATIONALITY IN COSTUME                                       296
+
+  When seen with perspective the costumes of
+  various periods appear as distinct types though
+  to the man or woman of any particular period
+  the variations of the type are bewildering and
+  misleading.--Having followed the evolution of
+  the costume of woman of fashion which comes
+  under the general head of European dress, before
+  closing we turn to quite another field, that
+  of national costumes.--Progress levels national
+  differences, therefore the student must make the
+  most of opportunities to observe.--Experiences
+  in Hungary
+
+
+  XXVII MODELS                                                      306
+
+  Historical interest attaches to fashions in
+  woman's costuming.--One of the missions of
+  art is to make subtle the obvious.--Examples as
+  seen in 1917
+
+
+  XXVIII WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB                             313
+
+  The Pageant of Life shows that woman has
+  played opposite man with consistency and success
+  throughout the ages.--Apropos of this, we
+  quote from Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, for
+  March 25, 1917, an impression of a woman of
+  to-day costumed appropriately to get efficiency
+  in her war work
+
+      IN CONCLUSION                                                 324
+
+  A brief review of the chief points to be kept
+  in mind by those interested in the costuming
+  of woman so that she figures as a decorative
+  contribution to any setting
+
+
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  I MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN GREEK COSTUME AS THA�S (_FRONTISPIECE_) vi
+      Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+  II WOMAN IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE-RELIEF                       9
+
+  III WOMAN IN GREEK ART                                             19
+
+  IV WOMAN ON GREEK VASE                                             29
+
+  V WOMAN IN GOTHIC ART                                              39
+      Portrait Showing Pointed Head-dress
+
+  VI WOMAN IN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE                                 49
+      Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: The Virgin
+
+  VII WOMAN IN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE                                59
+      Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: Holy Women
+
+  VIII TUDOR ENGLAND                                                 69
+      Portrait of Queen Elizabeth
+
+  IX SPAIN--VELASQUEZ PORTRAIT                                       79
+
+  X EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND                                       89
+      Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough
+
+  XI BOURBON FRANCE                                                  99
+      Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Madame Vig�e Le Brun
+
+  XII COSTUME OF EMPIRE PERIOD                                      109
+      An English Portrait
+
+  XIII EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COSTUME                                   119
+      Portrait by Gilbert Stuart
+
+  XIV VICTORIAN PERIOD (ABOUT 1840)                                 129
+      Mme. Adeline Gen�e in Costume
+
+  XV LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY (ABOUT 1890)                           139
+      A Portrait by John S. Sargent
+
+  XVI A MODERN PORTRAIT                                             149
+      By John W. Alexander
+
+  XVII A PORTRAIT OF MRS. PHILIP M. LYDIG                           159
+      By I. Zuloaga
+
+  XVIII MRS. LANGTRY (LADY DE BATHE) IN EVENING WRAP                169
+
+  XIX MRS. COND� NAST IN STREET DRESS                               179
+      Photograph by Baron de Meyer
+
+  XX MRS. COND� NAST IN EVENING DRESS                               189
+
+  XXI MRS. COND� NAST IN GARDEN COSTUME                             199
+
+  XXII MRS. COND� NAST IN FORTUNY TEA GOWN                          209
+
+  XXIII MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN BALL COSTUME                          219
+
+  XXIV MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN AFTERNOON COSTUME--WINTER              229
+
+  XXV MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN AFTERNOON COSTUME--SUMMER               239
+
+  XXVI MRS. VERNON CASTLE COSTUMED � LA GUERRE FOR A WALK           249
+
+  XXVII MRS. VERNON CASTLE--A FANTASY                               259
+
+  XXVIII MODERN SKATING COSTUME--1917                               269
+      Winner of Amateur Championship of Fancy Skating
+
+  XXIX A MODERN SILHOUETTE--1917                                    279
+    TAILOR-MADE
+      Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy
+
+  XXX TAPP�'S CREATIONS                                             289
+      Sketched for _Woman as Decoration_ by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+  XXXI MISS ELSIE DE WOLFE IN COSTUME OF RED CROSS NURSE            299
+
+  XXXII MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN SPANISH COSTUME AS CARMEN          309
+      From Photograph by Courtesy of _Vanity Fair_
+
+  XXXIII MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN JAPANESE COSTUME AS
+      MADAME BUTTERFLY                                              319
+      Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+
+    "The Communion of men upon earth abhors identity more than
+    nature does a vacuum. Nothing so shocks and repels the
+    living soul as a row of exactly similar things, whether it
+    consists of modern houses or of modern people, and nothing
+    so delights and edifies as distinction."
+
+      COVENTRY PATMORE.
+
+    "Whatever piece of dress conceals a woman's figure, is
+    bound, in justice, to do so in a picturesque way."
+
+      _From an Early Victorian Fashion Paper._
+
+    "When was that 'simple time of our fathers' when people were
+    too sensible to care for fashions? It certainly was before
+    the Pharaohs, and perhaps before the Glacial Epoch."
+
+      W. G. SUMNER, in _Folkways_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A FEW HINTS FOR THE NOVICE WHO WOULD PLAN HER COSTUMES
+
+
+There are a few rules with regard to the costuming of woman which if
+understood put one a long way on the road toward that desirable
+goal--decorativeness, and have economic value as well. They are simple
+rules deduced by those who have made a study of woman's lines and
+colouring, and how to emphasise or modify them by dress.
+
+Temperaments are seriously considered by experts in this art, for the
+carriage of a woman and her manner of wearing her clothes depends in
+part upon her temperament. Some women instinctively _feel_ line and are
+graceful in consequence, as we have said, but where one is not born
+with this instinct, it is possible to become so thoroughly schooled in
+the technique of controlling the physique--poise of the body, carriage
+of the head, movement of the limbs, use of feet and hands, that a sense
+of line is acquired. Study portraits by great masters, the movements of
+those on the stage, the carriage and positions natural to graceful
+women. A graceful woman is invariably a woman highly sensitised, but
+remember that "alive to the finger tips"--or toe tips, may be true of
+the woman with few gestures, a quiet voice and measured words, as well
+as the intensely active type.
+
+The highly sensitised woman is the one who will wear her clothes with
+individuality, whether she be rounded or slender. To dress well is an
+art, and requires concentration as any other art does. You know the old
+story of the boy, who when asked why his necktie was always more neatly
+tied than those of his companions, answered: "I put my whole mind on
+it." There you have it! The woman who puts her whole mind on the
+costuming of herself is naturally going to look better than the woman
+who does not, and having carefully studied her type, she will know her
+strong points and her weak ones, and by accentuating the former, draw
+attention from the latter. There is a great difference, however, between
+concentrating on dress until an effect is achieved, and then turning the
+mind to other subjects, and that tiresome dawdling, indefinite,
+fruitless way, to arrive at no convictions. This variety of woman never
+gets dress off her chest.
+
+The catechism of good dressing might be given in some such form as this:
+Are you fat? If so, never try to look thin by compressing your figure or
+confining your clothes in such a way as to clearly outline the figure.
+Take a chance from your size. Aim at long lines, and what dressmakers
+call an "easy fit," and the use of solid colours. Stripes, checks,
+plaids, spots and figures of any kind draw attention to dimensions; a
+very fat woman looks larger if her surface is marked off into many
+spaces. Likewise a very thin woman looks thinner if her body on the
+imagination of the public _subtracting_ is marked off into spaces
+absurdly few in number. A beautifully proportioned and rounded figure
+is the one to indulge in striped, checked, spotted or flowered materials
+or any parti-coloured costumes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Never try to make a thin woman look anything but thin. Often by
+accentuating her thinness, a woman can make an effect as _type_, which
+gives her distinction. If she were foolish enough to try to look fatter,
+her lines would be lost without attaining the contour of the rounded
+type. There are of course fashions in types; pale ash blonds, red-haired
+types (auburn or golden red with shell pink complexions), dark haired
+types with pale white skin, etc., and fashions in figures are as many
+and as fleeting.
+
+Artists are sometimes responsible for these vogues. One hears of the
+Rubens type, or the Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hauptner, Burne-Jones, Greuse,
+Henner, Zuloaga, and others. The artist selects the type and paints it,
+the attention of the public is attracted to it and thereafter singles it
+out. We may prefer soft, round blonds with dimpled smiles, but that does
+not mean that such indisputable loveliness can challenge the
+attractions of a slender serpentine tragedy-queen, if the latter has
+established the vogue of her type through the medium of the stage or
+painter's brush.
+
+A woman well known in the world of fashion both sides of the Atlantic,
+slender and very tall, has at times deliberately increased that height
+with a small high-crowned hat, surmounted by a still higher feather. She
+attained distinction without becoming a caricature, by reason of her
+obvious breeding and reserve. Here is an important point. A woman of
+quiet and what we call conservative type, can afford to wear conspicuous
+clothes if she wishes, whereas a conspicuous type _must_ be reserved in
+her dress. By following this rule the overblown rose often makes herself
+beautiful. Study all types of woman. Beauty is a wonderful and precious
+thing, and not so fleeting either as one is told. The point is, to take
+note, not of beauty's departure, but its gradually changing aspect, and
+adapt costume, line and colour, to the demands of each year's
+alterations in the individual. Make the most of grey hair; as you lose
+your colour, soften your tones.
+
+Always star your points. If you happen to have an unusual amount of
+hair, make it count, even though the fashion be to wear but little. We
+recall the beautiful and unique Madame X. of Paris, blessed by the gods
+with hair like bronze, heavy, long, silken and straight. She wore it
+wrapped about her head and finally coiled into a French twist on the
+top, the effect closely resembling an old Roman helmet. This was design,
+not chance, and her well-modeled features were the sort to stand the
+severe coiffure, Madame's husband, always at her side that season on
+Lake Lucerne, was curator of the Louvre. We often wondered whether the
+idea was his or hers. She invariably wore white, not a note of colour,
+save her hair; even her well-bred fox terrier was snowy white.
+
+Worth has given distinction to more than one woman by recognising her
+possibilities, if kept to white, black, greys and mauves. A beautiful
+Englishwoman dressed by this establishment, always a marked figure at
+whatever embassy her husband happens to be posted, has never been seen
+wearing anything in the evening but black, or white, with very simple
+lines, cut low and having a narrow train.
+
+
+    PLATE II
+
+    Woman in ancient Egyptian sculpture-relief about 1000
+    B.C.
+
+    We have here a husband and wife. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief_]
+
+
+It may take courage on the part of dressmaker, as well as the woman in
+question, but granted you have a distinct style of your own, and
+understand it, it is the part of wisdom to establish the habit of those
+lines and colours which are yours, and then to avoid experiments with
+_outr�_ lines and shades. They are almost sure to prove failures. Taking
+on a colour and its variants is an economic, as well as an artistic
+measure. Some women have so systematised their costuming in order to be
+decorative, at the least possible expenditure of vitality and time
+(these are the women who dress to live, not live to dress), that they
+know at a glance, if dress materials, hats, gloves, jewels, colour of
+stones and style of setting, are for them. It is really a joy to shop
+with this kind of woman. She has definitely fixed in her mind the
+colours and lines of her rooms, all her habitual settings, and the
+clothes and accessories best _for her_. And with the eye of an artist,
+she passes swiftly by the most alluring bargains, calculated to
+undermine firm resolution. In fact one should not say that this woman
+shops; she buys. What is more, she never wastes money, though she may
+spend it lavishly.
+
+Some of the best dressed women (by which we always mean women dressed
+fittingly for the occasion, and with reference to their own particular
+types) are those with decidedly limited incomes.
+
+There are women who suggest chiffon and others brocade; women who call
+for satin, and others for silk; women for sheer muslins, and others for
+heavy linen weaves; women for straight brims, and others for those that
+droop; women for leghorns, and those they do not suit; women for white
+furs, and others for tawny shades. A woman with red in her hair is the
+one to wear red fox.
+
+If you cannot see for yourself what line and colour do to you, surely
+you have some friend who can tell you. In any case, there is always the
+possibility of paying an expert for advice. Allow yourself to be guided
+in the reaching of some decision about yourself and your limitations, as
+well as possibilities. You will by this means increase your
+decorativeness, and what is of more serious importance, your economic
+value.
+
+A marked example of woman decorative was seen on the recent occasion
+when Miss Isadora Duncan danced at the Metropolitan Opera House, for the
+benefit of French artists and their families, victims of the present
+war. Miss Duncan was herself so marvelous that afternoon, as she poured
+her art, aglow and vibrant with genius, into the mould of one classic
+pose after another, that most of her audience had little interest in any
+other personality, or effect. Some of us, however, when scanning the
+house between the acts, had our attention caught and held by a
+charmingly decorative woman occupying one of the boxes, a quaint outline
+in silver-grey taffeta, exactly matching the shade of the woman's hair,
+which was cut in Florentine fashion forming an aureole about her small
+head,--a becoming frame for her fine, highly sensitive face. The deep
+red curtains and upholstery in the box threw her into relief, a lovely
+miniature, as seen from a distance. There were no doubt other charming
+costumes in the boxes and stalls that afternoon, but none so successful
+in registering a distinct decorative effect. The one we refer to was
+suitable, becoming, individual, and reflected personality in a way to
+indicate an extraordinary sensitiveness to values, that subtle instinct
+which makes the artist.
+
+With very young women it is easy to be decorative under most conditions.
+Almost all of them are decorative, as seen in our present fashions, but
+to produce an effect in an opera box is to understand the _carrying
+power_ of colour and line. The woman in the opera box has the same
+problem to solve as the woman on the stage: her costume must be
+effective at a distance. Such a costume may be white, black and any
+colour; gold, silver, steel or jet; lace, chiffon--what you
+will--provided the fact be kept in mind that your outline be striking
+and the colour an agreeable contrast against the lining of the box.
+Here, outline is of chief importance, the silhouette must be definite;
+hair, ornaments, fan, cut of gown, calculated to register against the
+background. In the stalls, colour and outline of any single costume
+become a part of the mass of colour and black and white of the audience.
+It is difficult to be a decorative factor under these conditions, yet
+we can all recall women of every age, who so costume themselves as to
+make an artistic, memorable impression, not only when entering opera,
+theatre or concert hall, but when seated. These are the women who
+understand the value of elimination, restraint, colour harmony and that
+chic which results in part from faultless grooming. To-day it is not
+enough to possess hair which curls ideally: it must, willy nilly, curl
+conventionally!
+
+If it is necessary, prudent or wise that your purchases for each season
+include not more than six new gowns, take the advice of an actress of
+international reputation, who is famous for her good dressing in private
+life, and make a point of adding one new gown to each of the six
+departments of your wardrobe. Then have the cleverness to appear in
+these costumes whenever on view, making what you have fill in between
+times.
+
+To be clear, we would say, try always to begin a season with one
+distinguished evening gown, one smart tailor suit, one charming house
+gown, one tea gown, one neglig�e and one sport suit. If you are needing
+many dancing frocks, which have hard wear, get a simple, becoming
+model, which your little dressmaker, seamstress or maid can copy in
+inexpensive but becoming colours. You can do this in Summer and Winter
+alike, and with dancing frocks, tea gowns, neglig�es and even sport
+suits. That is, if you have smart, up-to-date models to copy.
+
+One woman we know bought the finest quality jersey cloth by the yard,
+and had a little dressmaker copy exactly a very expensive skirt and
+sweater. It seems incredible, but she saved on a ready made suit exactly
+like it forty dollars, and on one made to measure by an exclusive house,
+one hundred dollars! Remember, however, that there was an artist back of
+it all and someone had to pay for that perfect model, to start with. In
+the case we cite, the woman had herself bought the original sport suit
+from an importer who is always in advance with Paris models.
+
+If you cannot buy the designs and workmanship of artists, take advantage
+of all opportunities to see them; hats and gowns shown at openings, or
+when your richer friends are ordering. In this way you will get ideas to
+make use of and you will avoid looking home-made, than which, no more
+damning phrase can be applied to any costume. As a matter of fact it
+implies a hat or gown lacking an artist's touch and describes many a one
+turned out by long-established and largely patronised firms.
+
+
+    PLATE III
+
+    A Greek vase. Dionysiac scenes about 460 B.C.
+    Interesting costumes. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman on Greek Vase_]
+
+
+The only satisfactory copy of a Fortuny tea gown we have ever seen
+accomplished away from the supervision of Fortuny himself, was the
+exquisite hand-work of a young American woman who lives in New York, and
+makes her own gowns and hats, because her interest and talent happen to
+be in that direction. She told a group of friends the other day, to whom
+she was showing a dainty chiffon gown, posed on a form, that to her, the
+planning and making of a lovely costume had the same thrilling
+excitement that the painting of a picture had for the artist in the
+field of paint and canvas. This same young woman has worked constantly
+since the European war began, both in London and New York, on the
+shapeless surgical shirts used by the wounded soldiers. In this, does
+she outrank her less accomplished sisters? Yes, for the technique she
+has achieved by making her own costumes makes her swift and economical,
+both in the cutting of her material and in the actual sewing and she is
+invaluable as a buyer of materials.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN
+
+
+That every costume is either right or wrong is not a matter of general
+knowledge. "It will do," or "It is near enough" are verdicts responsible
+for beauty hidden and interest destroyed. Who has not witnessed the mad
+mental confusion of women and men put to it to decide upon costumes for
+some fancy-dress ball, and the appalling ignorance displayed when, at
+the costumer's, they vaguely grope among battered-looking garments,
+accepting those proffered, not really knowing how the costume they ask
+for should look?
+
+Absurd mistakes in period costumes are to be taken more or less
+seriously according to temperament. But where is the fair woman who will
+say that a failure to emerge from a dressmaker's hands in a successful
+costume is not a tragedy? Yet we know that the average woman, more
+often than not, stands stupefied before the infinite variety of
+materials and colours of our twentieth century, and unless guided by an
+expert, rarely presents the figure, _chez-elle_, or when on view in
+public places, which she would or could, if in possession of the few
+rules underlying all successful dressing, whatever the century or
+circumstances.
+
+Six salient points are to be borne in mind when planning a costume,
+whether for a fancy-dress ball or to be worn as one goes about one's
+daily life:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+First, appropriateness to occasion, station and age;
+
+Second, character of background you are to appear against (your
+setting);
+
+Third, what outline you wish to present to observers (the period of
+costume);
+
+Fourth, what materials of those in use during period selected you will
+choose;
+
+Fifth, what colours of those characteristic of period you will use;
+
+Sixth, the distinction between those details which are obvious
+contributions to the costume, and those which are superfluous, because
+meaningless or line-destroying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us remind our reader that the woman who dresses in perfect taste
+often spends far less money than she who has contracted the habit of
+indefiniteness as to what she wants, what she should want, and how to
+wear what she gets.
+
+Where one woman has used her mind and learned beyond all wavering what
+she can and what she cannot wear, thousands fill the streets by day and
+places of amusement by night, who blithely carry upon their persons
+costumes which hide their good points and accentuate their bad ones.
+
+The _rara avis_ among women is she who always presents a fashionable
+outline, but so subtly adapted to her own type that the impression made
+is one of distinct individuality.
+
+One knows very well how little the average costume counts in a theatre,
+opera house or ball-room. It is a question of background again. Also you
+will observe that the costume which counts most individually, is the one
+in a key higher or lower than the average, as with a voice in a crowded
+room.
+
+The chief contribution of our day to the art of making woman decorative
+is the quality of appropriateness. I refer of course to the woman who
+lives her life in the meshes of civilisation. We have defined the smart
+woman as she who wears the costume best suited to each occasion when
+that occasion presents itself. Accepting this definition, we must all
+agree that beyond question the smartest women, as a nation, are English
+women, who are so fundamentally convinced as to the invincible law of
+appropriateness that from the cradle to the grave, with them evening
+means an evening gown; country clothes are suited to country uses and a
+tea-gown is not a bedroom neglig�e. Not even in Rome can they be
+prevailed upon "to do as the Romans do."
+
+Apropos of this we recall an experience in Scotland. A house party had
+gathered for the shooting,--English men and women. Among the guests were
+two Americans; done to a turn by Redfern. It really turned out to be a
+tragedy, as they saw it, for though their cloth skirts were short, they
+were silk-lined; outing shirts were of cr�pe--not flannel; tan boots,
+but thinly soled; hats most chic, but the sort that drooped in a mist.
+Well, those two American girls had to choose between long days alone,
+while the rest tramped the moors, or to being togged out in borrowed
+tweeds, flannel shirts and thick-soled boots.
+
+
+    PLATE IV
+
+    Greek Kylix. Signed by Hieron, about 400 B.C. Athenian. The
+    woman wears one of the gowns Fortuny (Paris) has reproduced
+    as a modern tea gown. It is in two pieces. The characteristic
+    short tunic reaches just below waist line in front and hangs
+    in long, fine pleats (sometimes cascaded folds) under the
+    arms, the ends of which reach below knees. The material is
+    not cut to form sleeves; instead two oblong pieces of
+    material are held together by small fastenings at short
+    intervals, showing upper arm through intervening spaces. The
+    result in appearance is similar to a kimono sleeve.
+    (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Greek Art about 400 B.C._]
+
+
+That was some years back. We are a match for England to-day, in the
+open, but have a long way to go before we wear with equal conviction,
+and therefore easy grace, tea-gown and evening dress. Both _how_ and
+_when_ still annoy us as a nation. On the street we are supreme when
+_tailleur_. In carriage attire the French woman is supreme, by reason of
+that innate Latin coquetry which makes her _feel_ line and its
+significance. The ideal pose for any hat is a French secret.
+
+The average woman is partially aware that if she would be a decorative
+being, she must grasp conclusively two points: first, the limitations of
+her natural outline; secondly, a knowledge of how nearly she can
+approach the outline demanded by fashion without appearing a
+caricature, which is another way of saying that each woman should learn
+to recognise her own type. The discussion of silhouette has become a
+popular theme. In fact it would be difficult to find a maker of women's
+costumes so remote and unread as not to have seized and imbedded deep in
+her vocabulary that mystic word.
+
+To make our points clear, constant reference to the stage is necessary;
+for from stage effects we are one and all free to enjoy and learn.
+Nowhere else can the woman see so clearly presented the value of having
+what she wears harmonise with the room she wears it in, and the occasion
+for which it is worn.
+
+Not all plays depicting contemporary life are plays of social life,
+staged and costumed in a chic manner. What is taught by the modern
+stage, as shown by Bakst, Reinhardt, Barker, Urban, Jones, the
+Portmanteau Theatre and Washington Square Players, is _values_, as the
+artist uses the term--not fashions; the relative importance of
+background, outline, colour, texture of material and how to produce
+harmonious effects by the judicious combination of furnishings and
+costumes.
+
+To-day, when we want to say that a costume or the interior decoration of
+a house is the last word in modern line and colour, we are apt to call
+it � la Bakst, meaning of course Leon Bakst, whose American "poster" was
+the Russian Ballet. If you have not done so already, buy or borrow the
+wonderful Bakst book, showing reproductions in their colours of his
+extraordinary drawings, the originals of which are owned by private
+individuals or museums, in Paris, Petrograd, London, and New York. They
+are _outr�_ to a degree, yet each one suggests the whole or parts of
+costumes for modern woman--adorable lines, unbelievable combinations of
+colour! No wonder Poiret, the Paris dressmaker, seized upon Bakst as
+designer (or was it Bakst who seized upon Poiret?).
+
+Bakst got his inspiration in the Orient. As a bit of proof, for your own
+satisfaction, there is a book entitled _Six Monuments of Chinese
+Sculpture_, by Edward Chauvannes, published in 1914, by G. Van Oest &
+Cie., of Brussels and Paris. The author, with a highly commendable
+desire to perpetuate for students a record of the most ancient
+speciments of Chinese sculpture, brought to Paris and sold there, from
+time to time, to art-collectors, from all over the world; selected six
+fine speciments as theme of text and for illustrations.
+
+Plate 23 in this collection shows a woman whose costume in _outline_
+might have been taken from Bakst or even Vogue. But put it the other way
+round: the Vogue artist to-day--we use the word as a generic term--finds
+inspiration through museums and such works as the above. This is
+particularly true as our little handbook goes into print, for the reason
+that the great war between the Central Powers and the Entente has to a
+certain extent checked the invention and material output of Europe, and
+driven designers of and dealers in costumes for women, to China and
+Japan.
+
+Our great-great-grandmothers here in America wore Paris fashions shown
+on the imported fashion dolls and made up in brocades from China, by the
+Colonial mantua makers. So we are but repeating history.
+
+To-day, war, which means horror, ugliness, loss of ideals and illusions,
+holds most of the world in its grasp, and we find creative
+artists--apostles of the Beautiful, seeking the Orient because it is
+remote from the great world struggle. We hear that Edmund Dulac (who has
+shown in a superlative manner, woman decorative, when illustrating the
+_Arabian Nights_ and other well-known books), is planning a flight to
+the Orient. He says that he longs to bury himself far from carnage, in
+the hope of wooing back his muse.
+
+If this subject of background, line and colour, in relation to costuming
+of woman, interests you, there are many ways of getting valuable points.
+One of them, as we have said, is to walk through galleries looking at
+pictures only as decorations; that is, colour and line against the
+painter's background.
+
+Fashions change, in dress, arrangement of hair, jewels, etc., but this
+does not affect values. It is _la ligne_, the grand gesture, or line
+fraught with meaning and balance and harmony of colour.
+
+The reader knows the colour scheme of her own rooms and the character of
+gowns she is planning, and for suggestions as to interesting colour
+against colour, she can have no higher authority than the experience of
+recognised painters. Some develop rapidly in this study of values.
+
+If your rooms are so-called period rooms, you need not of necessity
+dress in period costumes, but what is extremely important, if you would
+not spoil your period room, nor fail to be a decorative contribution
+when in it, is that you make a point of having the colour and texture of
+your house gowns in the same key as the hangings and upholstery of your
+room. White is safe in any room, black is at times too strong. It
+depends in part upon the size of your room. If it is small and in soft
+tones, delicate harmonising shades will not obtrude themselves as black
+can and so reduce the effect of space. This is the case not only with
+black, but with emerald green, decided shades of red, royal blue, and
+purple or deep yellows. If artistic creations, these colours are all
+decorative in a room done in light tones, provided the room is large.
+
+A Louis XVI salon is far more beautiful if the costumes are kept in
+Louis XVI colouring and all details, such as lace, jewelry, fans, etc.,
+kept strictly within the picture; fine in design, delicate in colouring,
+workmanship and quality of material. Beyond these points one may follow
+the outline demanded by the fashion of the moment, if desired. But
+remember that a beautiful, interesting room, furnished with works of
+art, demands a beautiful, interesting costume, if the woman in question
+would sustain the impression made by her rooms, to the arranging of
+which she has given thought, time and vitality, to say nothing of
+financial outlay; she must take her own decorative appearance seriously.
+
+
+    PLATE V
+
+    Example of the pointed head-dress, carefully concealed hair
+    (in certain countries at certain periods of history, a sign
+    of modesty), round necklace and very long close sleeves
+    characteristic of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
+
+    Observe angle at which head-dress is worn.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Gothic Art Portrait showing pointed head-dress_]
+
+
+The writer has passed wonderful hours examining rare illuminated
+manuscripts of the Middle Ages (twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries), missals, "Hours" of the Virgin, and Breviaries,
+for the sole purpose of studying woman's costumes,--their colour, line
+and details, as depicted by the old artists. Gothic costumes in Gothic
+interiors, and Early Renaissance costumes in Renaissance interiors.
+
+The art of moderns in various media, has taken from these creations of
+medi�val genius, more than is generally realized. We were looking at a
+rare illuminated Gothic manuscript recently, from which William Morris
+drew inspirations and ideas for the books he made. It is a monumental
+achievement of the twelfth century, a mass book, written and illuminated
+in Flanders; at one time in the possession of a Cistercian monastery,
+but now one of the treasures in the noted private collection made by the
+late J. Pierpont Morgan. The pages are of vellum and the illuminations
+show the figures of saints in jewel-like colours on backgrounds of pure
+gold leaf. The binding of this book,--sides of wood, held together by
+heavy white vellum, hand-tooled with clasps of thin silver, is the work
+of Morris himself and very characteristic of his manner. He patterned
+his hand-made books after these great models, just as he worked years to
+duplicate some wonderful old piece of furniture, realising so well the
+magic which lies in consecrated labour, that labour which takes no
+account of time, nor pay, but is led on by the vision of perfection
+possessing the artist's soul.
+
+We know women who have copied the line, colour and material of costumes
+depicted in Gothic illuminations that they might be in harmony with
+their own Gothic rooms. One woman familiar with this art, has planned a
+frankly modern room, covering her walls with gold Japanese fibre,
+gilding her woodwork and doors, using the brilliant blues, purples and
+greens of the old illuminations in her hangings, upholstery and
+cushions, and as a striking contribution to the decorative scheme,
+costumes herself in white, some soft, clinging material such as cr�pe de
+chine, liberty satin or chiffon velvet, which take the medi�val lines,
+in long folds. She wears a silver girdle formed of the hand-made clasps
+of old religious books, and her rings, neck chains and earrings are all
+of hand-wrought silver, with precious stones cut in the ancient way and
+irregularly set. This woman got her idea of the effectiveness of white
+against gold from an ancient missal in a famous private collection,
+which shows the saints all clad in marvellous white against gold leaf.
+
+Whistler's house at 2 Cheyne Road, London, had a room the dado and doors
+of which were done in gold, on which he and two of his pupils painted
+the scattered petals of white and pink chrysanthemums. Possibly a
+Persian or Japanese effect, as Whistler leaned that way, but one sees
+the same idea in an illumination of the early sixteenth century; "Hours"
+of the Virgin and Breviary, made for Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of John
+II. The decorations here are in the style of the Renaissance, not
+Gothic, and some think Memling had a hand in the work. The borders of
+the illumination, characteristic of the Bruges School, are gold leaf on
+which is painted, in the most realistic way, an immense variety of
+single flowers, small roses, pansies, violets, daisies, etc., and among
+them butterflies and insects. This border surrounds the pictures which
+illustrate the text. Always the marvellous colour, the astounding skill
+in laying it on to the vellum pages, an unforgettable lesson in the
+possibility of colour applied effectively to costumes, when background
+is kept in mind. This Breviary was bound in green velvet and clasped
+with hand-wrought silver, for Cardinal Rodrigue de Castro (1520-1600) of
+Spain. It is now in the private collection of Mr. Morgan. The cover
+alone gives one great emotion, genuine ancient velvet of the sixteenth
+century, to imitate which taxes the ingenuity of the most skilful of
+modern manufacturers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE
+
+_A Few Points Applying to All Costumes_
+
+
+Needless to say, when considering woman's costumes, for ordinary use, in
+their relation to background, unless some chameleon-like material be
+invented to take on the colour of _any_ background, one must be content
+with the consideration of one's own rooms, porches, garden, opera-box or
+automobile, etc. For a gown to be worn when away from home, when
+lunching, at receptions or dinners, the first consideration must be
+_becomingness_,--a careful selection of line and colour that bring out
+the individuality of the wearer. When away from one's own setting,
+personality is one of the chief assets of every woman. Remember,
+individuality is nature's gift to each human being. Some are more
+markedly different than others, but we have all seen a so-called
+colourless woman transformed into surprising loveliness when dressed by
+an artist's instinct. A delicate type of blond, with fair hair, quiet
+eyes and faint shell-pink complexion, can be snuffed out by too strong
+colours. Remember that your ethereal blond is invariably at her best in
+white, black (never white and black in combination unless black with
+soft white collars and frills) and delicate pastel shades.
+
+
+    PLATE VI
+
+    Fifteenth-century costume. "Virgin and Child" in painted
+    terra-cotta.
+
+    It is by Andrea Verrocchio, and now in Metropolitan Museum.
+    We have here an illustration of the costume, so often shown
+    on the person of the Virgin in the art of the Middle Ages.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta:
+    The Virgin_]
+
+
+The richly-toned brunette comes into her own in reds, yellows and
+low-tones of strong blue.
+
+Colourless jewels should adorn your perfect blond, colourful gems your
+glowing brunette.
+
+What of those betwixt and between? In such cases let complexion and
+colour of eyes act as guide in the choice of colours.
+
+One is familiar with various trite rules such as match the eyes, carry
+out the general scheme of your colouring, by which is meant, if you are
+a yellow blond, go in for yellows, if your hair is ash-brown, your eyes
+but a shade deeper, and your skin inclined to be lifeless in tone, wear
+beaver browns and content yourself with making a record in _harmony_,
+with no contrasting note.
+
+Just here let us say that the woman in question must at the very outset
+decide whether she would look pretty or chic, sacrificing the one for
+the other, or if she insists upon both, carefully arrange a compromise.
+As for example, combine a semi-picture hat with a semi-tailored dress.
+
+The strictly chic woman of our day goes in for appropriateness; the
+lines of the latest fashion, but adapted to bring out her own best
+points, while concealing her bad ones, and an insistance upon a colour
+and a shade of colour, sufficiently definite to impress the beholder at
+a glance. This type of woman as a rule keeps to a few colours, possibly
+one or two and their varieties, and prefers gowns of one material rather
+than combinations of materials. Though she possess both style and
+beauty, she elects to emphasise style.
+
+In the case of the other woman, who would star her face at the expense
+of her _tout ensemble_, colour is her first consideration,
+multiplication of detail and intelligent expressing of herself in her
+_mise-en-sc�ne_. _Seduisant_, instead of _chic_ is the word for this
+woman.
+
+Your black-haired woman with white skin and dark, brilliant eyes, is the
+one who can best wear emerald green and other strong colours. The now
+fashionable mustard, sage green, and bright magentas are also the
+_affaire_ of this woman with clear skin, brilliant colour and sparkling
+eyes.
+
+These same colours, if subdued, are lovely on the middle-aged woman with
+black hair, quiet eyes and pale complexion, but if her hair is grey or
+white, mustard and sage green are not for her, and the magenta must be
+the deep purplish sort, which combines with her violets and mauves, or
+delicate pinks and faded blues. She will be at her best in shades of
+grey which tone with her hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES
+
+
+Has the reader ever observed the effect of clothes upon manners? It is
+amazing, and only proves how pathetically childlike human nature is.
+
+Put any woman into a Marie Antoinette costume and see how, during an
+evening she will gradually take on the mannerisms of that time. This
+very point was brought up recently in conversation with an artist, who
+in referring to one of the most successful costume balls ever given in
+New York--the crinoline ball at the old Astor House--spoke of how our
+unromantic Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks, ruffled shirts
+and knickerbockers, and as the evening advanced, were quite themselves
+in the minuette and polka, bowing low in solemn rigidity, leading their
+lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist, and swinging
+her beruffled, crinolined form in quite the 1860 manner.
+
+Some women, even girls of tender years, have a natural instinct for
+costuming themselves, so that they contribute in a decorative way to any
+setting which chance makes theirs. Watch children "dressing up" and see
+how among a large number, perhaps not more than one of them will have
+this gift for effects. It will be she who knows at a glance which of the
+available odds and ends she wants for herself, and with a sure, swift
+hand will wrap a bright shawl about her, tie a flaming bit of silk about
+her dark head, and with an assumed manner, born of her garb, cast a
+magic spell over the small band which she leads on, to that which,
+without her intense conviction and their susceptibility to her mental
+attitude toward the masquerade, could never be done.
+
+This illustrates the point we would make as to the effect of clothes
+upon psychology. The actor's costume affects the real actor's psychology
+as much or more than it does that of his audience. He _is_ the man he
+has made himself appear. The writer had the experience of seeing a
+well-known opera singer, when a victim to a bad case of the grippe,
+leave her hotel voiceless, facing a matinee of _Juliet_. Arrived in her
+dressing-room at the opera, she proceeded to change into the costume for
+the first act. Under the spell of her r�le, that prima donna seemed
+literally to shed her malady with her ordinary garments, and to take on
+health and vitality with her _Juliet_ robes. Even in the Waltz song her
+voice did not betray her, and apparently no critic detected that she was
+indisposed.
+
+In speaking of periods in furniture, we said that their story was one of
+waves of types which repeated themselves, reflecting the ages in which
+they prevailed. With clothes we find it is the same thing: the scarlet,
+and silver and gold of the early Jacobeans, is followed by the drabs and
+greys of the Commonwealth; the marvellous colour of the Church, where
+Beauty was enthroned, was stamped out by the iron will of Cromwell who,
+in setting up his standard of revolt, wrapped soul and body of the new
+Faith in penal shades.
+
+New England was conceived in this spirit and as mind had affected the
+colour of the Puritans' clothes, so in turn the drab clothes, prescribed
+by their new creed, helped to remove colour from the New England mind
+and nature.
+
+
+    PLATE VII
+
+    Fifteenth-century costumes on the Holy Women at the Tomb of
+    our Lord.
+
+    The sculpture relief is enamelled terra-cotta in white,
+    blue, green, yellow and manganese colours. It bears the date
+    1487.
+
+    Note character of head-dresses, arrangement of hair, capes
+    and gowns which are Early Renaissance. (Metropolitan
+    Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta:
+    Holy Women_]
+
+
+But observe how, as prosperity follows privation, the mind expands,
+reaching out for what the changed psychology demands. It is the old
+story of Rome grown rich and gay in mood and dress. There were of
+course, villains in Puritan drab and Grecian white, but the child in
+every man takes symbol for fact. So it is that to-day, some shudder with
+the belief that Beauty, re-enthroned in all her gorgeous modern hues,
+means near disaster. The progressives claim that into the world has come
+a new hope; that beneath our lovely clothes of rainbow tints, and within
+our homes where Beauty surely reigns, a new psychology is born to
+radiate colour from within.
+
+Our advice to the woman not born with clothes sense, is: employ experts
+until you acquire a mental picture of your possibilities and
+limitations, or buy as you can afford to, good French models, under
+expert supervision. You may never turn out to be an artist in the
+treatment of your appearance, instinctively knowing how a prevailing
+fashion in line and colour may be adapted to you, but you can be taught
+what your own type is, what your strong points are, your weak ones, and
+how, while accentuating the former, you may obliterate the latter.
+
+There are two types of women familiar to all of us: the one gains in
+vital charm and abandon of spirit from the consciousness that she is
+faultlessly gowned; the other succumbs to self-consciousness and is
+pitifully unable to extricate her mood from her material trappings.
+
+For the darling of the gods who walks through life on clouds, head up
+and spirit-free, who knows she is perfectly turned out and lets it go at
+that, we have only grateful applause. She it is who carries every
+occasion she graces--indoors, out-of-doors, at home, abroad. May her
+kind be multiplied!
+
+But to the other type, she who droops under her silks and gold tissue,
+whose pearls are chains indeed, we would throw out a lifeline. Submerged
+by clothes, the more she struggles to rise above them the more her
+spirit flags. The case is this: the woman's _mind_ is wrong; her clothes
+are right--lovely as ever seen; her jewels gems; her house and car and
+dog the best. It is her _mind_ that is wrong; it is turned _in_,
+instead of _out_.
+
+Now this intense and soul-, as well as line-destroying
+self-consciousness, may be prenatal, and it may result from the Puritan
+attitude toward beauty; that old New England point of view that the
+beautiful and the vicious are akin. Every young child needs to have
+cultivated a certain degree of self-reliance. To know that one's
+appearance is pleasing, to put it mildly, is of inestimable value when
+it comes to meeting the world. Every child, if normal, has its good
+points--hair, eyes, teeth, complexion or figure; and we all know that
+many a stage beauty has been built up on even two of these attributes.
+Star your good points, clothes will help you. Be a winner in your own
+setting, but avoid the fatal error of damning your clothes by the spirit
+within you.
+
+The writer has in mind a woman of distinguished appearance, beauty,
+great wealth, few cares, wonderful clothes and jewels, palatial homes;
+and yet an envious unrest poisons her soul. She would look differently,
+be different and has not the wisdom to shake off her fetters. Her
+perfect dressing helps this woman; you would not be conscious of her
+otherwise, but with her natural equipment, granted that she concentrated
+upon flashing her spirit instead of her wealth, she would be a leader in
+a fine sense. The Beauty Doctor can do much, but show us one who can put
+a gleam in the eye, tighten the grasp, teach one that ineffable grace
+which enables woman, young or old, to wear her clothes as if an integral
+part of herself. This quality belongs to the woman who knows, though she
+may not have thought it out, that clothes can make one a success, but
+not a success in the enduring sense. Dress is a tyrant if you take it as
+your god, but on the other hand dress becomes a magician's wand when
+dominated by a clever brain. Gown yourself as beautifully as you can
+afford, but with judgment. What we do, and how we do it, is often
+seriously and strangely affected by what we have on. The writer has in
+mind a literary woman who says she can never talk business except in a
+linen collar! Mark Twain, in his last days, insisted that he wrote more
+easily in his night-shirt. Richard Wagner deliberately put on certain
+rich materials in colours and hung his room with them when composing
+the music of The Ring. Chopin says in a letter to a friend: "After
+working at the piano all day, I find that nothing rests me so much as to
+get into the evening dress which I wear on formal occasions." In
+monarchies based on militarism, royal princes, as soon as they can walk,
+are put into military uniforms. It cultivates in them the desired
+military spirit. We all associate certain duties with certain costumes,
+and the extraordinary response to colour is familiar to all. We talk
+about feeling colour and say that we can or cannot live in green, blue,
+violet or red. It is well to follow this colour instinct in clothes as
+well as in furnishing. You will find you are at your best in the colours
+and lines most sympathetic to you.
+
+We know a woman who is an unusual beauty and has distinction, in fact is
+noted for her chic when in white, black or the combination. She once
+ventured a cerise hat and instantly dropped to the ranks of the
+commonplace. Fine eyes, hair, skin, teeth, colour and carriage were
+still hers, but her effectiveness was lessened as that of a pearl might
+be if set in a coral circle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE
+
+
+Woman's line is the result of her costume, in part only. Far more is
+woman's costume affected by her line. By this we mean the line she
+habitually falls into, the pose of torso, the line of her legs in
+action, and when seated, her arms and hands in repose and gesture, the
+poise of her head. It is woman's line resulting from her habit of mind
+and the control which her mind has over her body, a thing quite apart
+from the way God made her, and the expression her body would have had if
+left to itself, ungoverned by a mind stocked with observations,
+conventions, experience and attitudes. We call this the physical
+expression of _woman's personality_; this personality moulds her bodily
+lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes
+she wears; determines also whether she be a decorative object which says
+something in line and colour, or an undecorative object which says
+nothing.
+
+
+    PLATE VIII
+
+    Queen Elizabeth in the absurdly elaborate costume of the
+    late Renaissance. Then crinoline, gaudy materials, and
+    ornamentations without meaning reached their high-water mark
+    in the costuming of women.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Tudor England Portrait of Queen Elizabeth_]
+
+
+Woman to be decorative, should train the carriage of her body from
+childhood, by wearing appropriate clothing for various daily r�les.
+There is more in this than at first appears. The criticism by foreigners
+that Americans, both men and women, never appear really at home in
+evening clothes, that they look as if they felt _dressed_, is true of
+the average man and woman of our country and results from the lax
+standards of a new and composite social structure. America as a whole,
+lacks traditions and still embodies the pioneer spirit, equally
+characteristic of Australia and other offshoots from the old world.
+
+The little American girl who is brought up from babyhood to change for
+the evening, even though she have a nursery tea, and be allowed only a
+brief good-night visit to the grown-ups, is still the exception rather
+than the rule. A wee English maiden we know, created a good deal of
+amused comment because, on several occasions, when passing rainy
+afternoons indoors, with some affluent little New York friends, whose
+luxurious nurseries and marvellous mechanical toys were a delight,
+always insisted upon returning home,--a block distant,--to change into
+white before partaking of milk toast and jam, at the nursery table, the
+American children keeping on their pink and blue linens of the
+afternoon. The fact of white or pink is unimportant, but our point is
+made when we have said that the mother of the American children
+constantly remarked on the unconscious grace of the English tot, whether
+in her white muslin and pink ribbons, her riding clothes, or
+accordion-plaited dancing frock. The English woman-child was acquiring
+decorative lines by wearing the correct costume for each occasion, as
+naturally as a bird wears its feathers. This is one way of obviating
+self-consciousness.
+
+The Eton boy masters his stick and topper in the same way, when young,
+and so more easily passes through the formless stage conspicuous in the
+American youth.
+
+Call it technique, or call it efficiency, the object of our modern life
+is to excel, to be the best of our kind, and appropriate dress is a
+means to that end, for it helps to liberate the spirit. We of to-day
+make no claim to consistency or logic. Some of us wear too high heels,
+even with strictly tailored suits, which demand in the name of
+consistency a sensible shoe. Also our sensible skirt may be far too
+narrow for comfort. But on the whole, women have made great strides in
+the matter of costuming with a view to appropriateness and efficiency.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME
+
+
+Colour is the hall-mark of our day, and woman decoratively costumed, and
+as decorator, will be largely responsible for recording this age as one
+of distinct importance--a transition period in decoration.
+
+Colour is the most marked expression of the spirit of the times; colour
+in woman's clothes; colour in house furnishing; colour on the stage and
+in its setting; colour in prose and verse.
+
+Speaking of colour in verse, Rudyard Kipling says (we quote from an
+editorial in the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, Jan. 7, 1917):
+
+"Several songs written by Tommy and the Poilu at the front, celebrate
+the glories of camp life in such vivid colors they could not be
+reproduced in cold, black, leaden type."
+
+It is no mere chance, this use of vivid colour. Man's psychology to-day
+craves it. A revolution is on. Did not the strong red, green, and blue
+of Napoleon's time follow the delicate sky-blues, rose and
+sunset-yellows of the Louis?
+
+Colour pulses on every side, strong, clean, clear rainbow colour, as if
+our magicians of brush and dye-pot held a prism to the sun-beam; violet,
+orange and green, magentas and strong blue against backgrounds of black
+and cold grey.
+
+We had come to think of colour as vice and had grown so conservative in
+its use, that it had all but disappeared from our persons, our homes,
+our gardens, our music and our literature. More than this, from our
+point of view! The reaction was bound to come by reason of eternal
+precedent.
+
+Half-tones, antique effects, and general monotony,--the material
+expression of complacent minds, has been cast aside, and the blas� man
+of ten years ago is as keen as any child with his first linen picture
+book,--and for the same reason.
+
+Colour, as we see it to-day, came out of the East via Persia. Bakst in
+Russia translated it into terms of art, and made the Ballet Russe an
+amazing, enthralling vision! Then Poiret, wizard among French
+couturi�res, assisted by Bakst, adapted this Oriental colour and line to
+woman's uses in private life. This supplemented the good work of _le
+Gazette du Bon Ton_ of Paris, that effete fashion sheet, devoted to the
+decoration of woman, whose staff included many of the most gifted French
+artists, masters of brush and pen. Always irregular, no issue of the
+_Bon Ton_ has appeared of late. It is held up by the war. The men who
+made it so fascinating a guide to woman "who would be decorative," are
+at the front, painting scenery for the battlefield--literally that:
+making mock trees and rocks, grass and hedges and earth, to mislead the
+fire of the enemy, and doubtless the kindred Munich art has been
+diverted into similar channels.
+
+This Oriental colour has made its way across Europe like some gorgeous
+bird of the tropics, and since the war has checked the output of
+Europe's factories, another channel has supplied the same wonderful
+colours in silks and gauze. They come to us by way of the Pacific, from
+China and from Japan. There is no escaping the colour spell. Writers
+from the front tell us that it is as if the gods made sport with fate's
+anvil, for even the blackened dome of the war zone is lurid by night,
+with sparks of purple, red, green, yellow and blue; the flare of the
+world-destroying projectiles.
+
+
+    PLATE IX
+
+    A Velasquez portrait of the Renaissance, when the human
+    form counted only as a rack on which was heaped crinoline
+    and stiff brocades and chains and gems and wigs and every
+    manner of elaborate adornment, making mountains of poor
+    tottering human forms, all but lost beneath.
+
+    [Illustration: _Vienna Hofmuseum_
+    _Spain-Velasquez Portrait_]
+
+
+The present costuming of woman, when she treats herself as decoration,
+owes much to the prophets of the "new" theatre and their colour scale.
+These men have demonstrated, in an unforgettable manner, the value of
+colour; the dependence of every decorative object upon background; shown
+how fraught with meaning can be an uncompromising outline, and the
+suggestiveness of really significant detail.
+
+Bakst, Rheinhardt and Granville Barker have taught us the new colour
+vocabulary. Gordon Craig was perhaps the first to show us the stage made
+suggestive by insisting on the importance of clever lighting to produce
+atmosphere and elimination of unessential objects, the argument of his
+school being that the too detailed reproducing of Nature (on the stage)
+acts as a check to the imagination, whereas by the judicious selection
+of harmonics, the imagination is stimulated to its utmost creative
+capacity. One detects this creed to-day in certain styles of home
+decoration (woman's background), as well as in woman's costumes.
+
+
+_Portable Backgrounds_
+
+The staging of a recent play showed more plainly than any words, the
+importance of background. In one of the scenes, beautiful, artistic
+gowns in delicate shades were set off by a room with wonderful green
+walls and woodwork (mignonette). Now, so long as the characters moved
+about the room, they were thrown into relief most charmingly, but the
+moment the women seated themselves on a very light coloured and
+characterless chintz sofa, they lost their decorative value. It was
+lacking in harmony and contrast. The two black sofa cushions intended
+possibly to serve as background, being small, instantly disappeared
+behind the seated women.
+
+A sofa of contrasting colour, or black, would have looked better in the
+room, and served as immediate background for gowns. It might have been
+covered in dark chintz, a silk damask in one or several tones, or a
+solid colour, since the gowns were of delicate indefinite shades.
+
+One of the sofas did have a dark Chinese coat thrown over the back, with
+the intent, no doubt, of serving as effective background, but the point
+seemed to escape the daintily gowned young woman who poured tea, for she
+failed to take advantage of it, occupying the opposite end of the sofa.
+A modern addition to a woman's toilet is a large square of chiffon,
+edged with narrow metal or crystal fringe, or a gold or silver flexible
+cord. This scarf is always in beguiling contrast to the costume, and
+when not being worn, is thrown over the chair or end of sofa against
+which our lady reclines. To a certain degree, this portable background
+makes a woman decorative when the wrong colour on a chair might convert
+her lovely gown into an eyesore.
+
+One woman we know, who has an Empire room, admires the lines of her sofa
+as furniture, but feels it ineffective unless one reclines � la Mme.
+R�camier. To obviate this difficulty, she has had made a square (one and
+a half yards), of lovely soft mauve silk damask, lined with satin
+charmeuse of the same shade, and weighted by long, heavy tassels, at the
+corners; this she throws over the Empire roll and a part of the seat,
+which are done in antique green velvet. Now the woman seated for
+conversation with arm and elbow resting on the head, looks at ease,--a
+part of the composition. The square of soft, lined silk serves at other
+times as a couvrepied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FOOTWEAR
+
+
+Footwear points the costume; every child should be taught this.
+
+Give most careful attention to your extremities,--shoes, gloves and
+hats. The genius of fashion's greatest artist counts for naught if his
+costume may not include hat, gloves, shoes, and we would add, umbrella,
+parasol, stick, fan, jewels; in fact every detail.
+
+If you have the good sense to go to one who deservedly ranks as an
+authority on line and colour in woman's costume, have also the wisdom to
+get from this man or woman not merely your raiment; go farther, and
+grasp as far as you are able the principles underlying his or her
+creations. Common sense tells one that there must be principles which
+underlie the planning of every hat and gown,--serious reasons why
+certain lines, colours and details are employed.
+
+Principles have evolved and clarified themselves in the long journey
+which textiles, colours and lines have made, travelling down through the
+ages. A great cathedral, a beautiful house, a perfect piece of
+furniture, a portrait by a master, sculpture which is an object of art,
+a costume proclaimed as a success; all are the results of knowing and
+following laws. The clever woman of slender means may rival her friends
+with munition incomes, if only she will go to an expert with open mind,
+and through the thoughtful purchase of a completed costume,--hat, gown
+and all accessories,--learn an artist-modiste's point of view. Then, and
+we would put it in italics; _take seriously, with conviction, all his or
+her instructions as to the way to wear your clothes_. Anyone can _buy_
+costumes, many can, perhaps own far more than you, but it is quite
+possible that no one can more surely be a picture--a delightfully
+decorative object on every occasion, than you, who knows instinctively
+(or has been taught), beyond all shadow of doubt, how to put on and then
+how to sit or walk in, your one tailored suit, your one tea gown, your
+one sport suit or ball gown.
+
+
+    PLATE X
+
+    An ideal example of the typical costume of fashionable
+    England in the eighteenth century, when picturesqueness, not
+    appropriateness, was the demand of the times.
+
+    This picture is known as THE MORNING PROMENADE: SQUIRE
+    HALLET WITH HIS LADY. Painted by Thomas Gainsborough
+    and now in the private collection of Lord Rothschild,
+    London.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Braun & Co., New York, London & Paris_
+    _Eighteenth Century England Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough_]
+
+
+If you want to wear light spats, stop and think whether your heavy
+ankles will not look more trim in boots with light, glove-fitting tops
+and black vamps.
+
+We have seen women with such slender ankles and shapely insteps, that
+white slippers or low shoes might be worn with black or coloured
+stockings. But it is playing safe to have your stockings match your
+slippers or shoes.
+
+Buckles and bows on slippers and pumps can destroy the line of a shoe
+and hence a foot, or continue and accentuate line. There are fashions in
+buckles and bows, but unless you bend the fashion until it allows
+nature's work to appear at its best, it will destroy artistic intention.
+
+Some people buy footwear as they buy fruit; they like what they see, so
+they get it! You know so many women, young and old, who do this, that
+our advice is, try to recall those who do not. Yes, now you see what we
+aim at; the women you have in mind always continue the line of their
+gowns with their feet. You can see with your mind's eye how the slender
+black satin slippers, one of which always protrudes from the black
+evening gown, carry to its eloquent finish the line from her head
+through torso, hip to knee, and knee down through instep to toe,--a line
+so frequently obstructed by senseless trimmings, lineless hats, and
+footwear wrong in colour and line.
+
+If your gown is white and your object to create line, can you see how
+you defeat your purpose by wearing anything but white slippers or shoes?
+
+At a recent dinner one of the young women who had sufficient good taste
+to wear an exquisite gown of silk and silver gauze, showing a pale
+magenta ground with silver roses, continued the colour scheme of her
+designer with silver slippers, tapering as Cinderella's, but spoiled the
+picture she might have made by breaking her line and enlarging her
+ankles and instep with magenta stockings. This could have been avoided
+by the use of silver stockings or magenta slippers with magenta
+stockings.
+
+When brocades, in several colours, are chosen for slippers, keep in mind
+that the ground of the silk must absolutely match your costume. It is
+not enough that in the figure of brocade is the colour of the dress.
+Because so distorting to line, figured silks and coloured brocades for
+footwear are seldom a wise choice.
+
+To those who cannot own a match in slippers for each gown, we would
+suggest that the number of colours used in gowns be but few, getting the
+desired variety by varying shades of a colour, and then using slippers a
+trifle higher in shade than the general colour selected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JEWELRY AS DECORATION
+
+
+The use of jewelry as colour and line has really nothing to do with its
+intrinsic worth. Just as when furnishing a house, one selects pictures
+for certain rooms with regard to their decorative quality alone, their
+colour with relation to the colour scheme of the room (The Art of
+Interior Decoration), so jewels should be selected either to complete
+costumes, or to give the keynote upon which a costume is built. A woman
+whose artist-dressmaker turns out for her a marvellous green gown, would
+far better carry out the colour scheme with some semi-precious stones
+than insist upon wearing her priceless rubies.
+
+On the other hand, granted one owns rubies and they are becoming, then
+plan a gown entirely with reference to them, noting not merely the shade
+of their colour, but the character of their setting, should it be
+distinctive.
+
+One of the most picturesque public events in Vienna each year, is a
+bazaar held for the benefit of a charity under court patronage. To draw
+the crowds and induce them to give up their money, it has always been
+the custom to advertise widely that the ladies of the Austro-Hungarian
+court would conduct the sale of articles at the various booths and that
+the said noble ladies would wear their family jewels. Also, that there
+be no danger of confusing the various celebrities, the names of those
+selling at each booth would be posted in plain lettering over it.
+Programmes are sold, which also inform patrons as to the name and
+station of each lovely vendor of flowers and sweets. It is an
+extraordinary occasion, and well worth witnessing once. The jewels worn
+are as amazing and fascinating as is Hungarian music. There is a
+barbaric sumptuousness about them, an elemental quality conveyed by the
+Oriental combining of stones, which to the western European and
+American, seem incongruous. Enormous pearls, regular and irregular, are
+set together in company with huge sapphires, emeralds, rubies and
+diamonds, cut in the antique way. Looking about, one feels in an
+Arabian Nights' dream. On the particular occasion to which we refer, the
+most beautiful woman present was the Princess Metternich, and in her
+jewels decorative as any woman ever seen.
+
+The women of the Austrian court, especially the Hungarian women, are
+notably beautiful and fascinating as well. It is the Magyar �lan, that
+abandon which prompts a woman to toss her jewelled bangle to a Gypsy
+leader of the orchestra, when his violin moans and flashes out a
+czardas.
+
+But the rule remains the same whether your jewels are inherited and rich
+in souvenirs of European courts, or the last work of Cartier. They must
+be a harmonious part of a carefully designed costume, or used with
+discretion against a background of costumes planned with reference to
+making them count as the sole decoration.
+
+We recall a Spanish beauty, representative of several noble strains, who
+was an artist in the combining of her gems as to their class and colour.
+Hers was that rare gift,--infallible good taste, which led her to
+contribute an individual quality to her temporary possessions. She
+counted in Madrid, not only as a beautiful and brilliant woman, but as a
+decorative contribution to any room she entered. It was not uncommon to
+meet her at dinner, wearing some very chic blue gown, often of velvet,
+the sole decoration of which would be her sapphires, stones rare in
+themselves, famous for their colour, their matching, the manner in which
+they were cut, and their setting,--the unique hand-work of some
+goldsmith of genius. It is impossible to forget her distinguished
+appearance as she entered the room in a princess gown, made to show the
+outline of her faultless figure, and cut very low. Against the
+background of her white neck and the simple lines of her blue gown, the
+sapphires became decoration with artistic restraint, though they gleamed
+from a coronet in her soft, black hair, encircled her neck many times
+and fell below her waist line, clasped her arms and were suspended from
+her ears in long, graceful pendants. They adorned her fingers and they
+composed a girdle of indescribable beauty.
+
+
+    PLATE XI
+
+    MARIE ANTOINETTE IN A PORTRAIT BY MADAME VIG�E LE
+    BRUN, one of the greatest portrait painters of the
+    eighteenth century. Here we see the lovely queen of Louis
+    XVI in the type of costume she made her own which is still
+    referred to as the Marie Antoinette style.
+
+    This portrait is in the Mus�e National, Versailles.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Braun & Co., New York, London & Paris_
+    _Bourbon France Marie Antoinette Portrait by Madame Vig�e Le Brun_]
+
+
+Later, the same night, one would meet this woman at a ball, and
+discover that she had made a complete change of costume and was as
+elegant as before, but now all in red, a gown of deep red velvet or some
+wonderful soft satin, unadorned save by her rubies, as numerous and as
+unique as her sapphires had been.
+
+There were other women in Madrid wearing wonderful jewels, one of them
+when going to court functions always had a carriage follow hers, in
+which were detectives. How strange this seems to Americans! But this
+particular woman in no way illustrated the point we would make, for she
+had lost control of her own lines, had no knowledge of line and colour
+in costume, and when wearing her jewels, looked very much like the show
+case of a jeweller's shop.
+
+Jewelry must be worn to make lines, continue or terminate lines,
+accentuate a good physical point, or hide a bad one. Remember that a
+jewel like any other _object d'art_, is an ornament, and unless it is
+ornamental, and an added attraction to the wearer, it is valueless in a
+decorative way. For this reason it is well to discover, by
+experimenting, what jewelry is your affair, what kind of rings for
+example, are best suited to your kind of hands. It may be that small
+rings of delicate workmanship, set with colourless gems, will suit your
+hands; while your friend will look better in the larger, heavier sort,
+set with stones of deeper tones.
+
+This finding out what one can and cannot wear, from shoe leather to a
+feather in the hat (and the inventory includes even width of hem on a
+linen handkerchief), is by no means a frivolous, fruitless waste of
+time; it is a wise preparedness, which in the end saves time, vitality
+and money. And if it does not make one independent of expert advice (and
+why should one expect to be that, since technique in any art should
+improve with practice?) it certainly prepares one to grasp and make use
+of, expert suggestions.
+
+We have often been told, and by those whose business it is to know such
+things, that the models created by great Paris dressmakers are not
+always flashes of genius which come in the night, nor the wilful
+perversion of an existing fashion, to force the world of women into
+discarding, and buying everything new. It may look suspiciously like it
+when we see a mere swing of the pendulum carrying the straight sheath
+out to the ten-yard limit of crinoline skirts.
+
+As a matter of fact, decorative woman rules the fashions, and if
+decorative woman makes up her mind to retain a line or a limit, she does
+it. The open secret is that every great Paris house has its chic
+clientele, which in returning from the Riviera--Europe's Peacock
+Alley--is full of knowledge as to how the last fashions (line and
+colour), succeeded in scoring in the r�le designated. Those points found
+to be desirable, becoming, beautiful, comfortable, appropriate,
+_s�duisant_--what you will--are taken as the foundation of the next
+wardrobe order, and with this inside information from women who _know_
+(know the subtle distinction between daring lines and colours, which are
+_good form_, and those which are not), the men or women who give their
+lives to creating costumes proceed to build. These are the fashions for
+the exclusive few this year, for the whole world the next year.
+
+In conclusion, to reduce one of the rules as to how jewels should be
+worn to its simplest form, never use imitation pearl trimming if you are
+wearing a necklace and other ornaments of real pearls. The pearl
+trimming may be very charming in itself, but it lessens the distinction
+of your real pearls.
+
+In the same way rhinestones may be decidedly decorative, but only a
+woman with an artist's instinct can use her diamonds at the same time.
+It can be done, by keeping the rhinestones off the bodice. An artist can
+conceive and work out a perfect adjustment of what in the mind and hand
+of the inexperienced is not to be attempted. Your French dressmaker
+combines real and imitation laces in a fascinating manner. That same
+artist's instinct could trim a gown with emerald pastes and hang real
+gems of the same in the ears, using brooch and chain, but you would find
+the green glass garniture swept from the proximity of the gems and used
+in some telling manner to score as _trimming_,--not to compete as
+jewels. We have seen the skirt of French gowns of black tulle or net,
+caught up with great rhinestone swans, and at the same time a diamond
+chain and diamond earrings worn. Nothing could have been more chic.
+
+We recall another case of the discreet combining of gems and paste. It
+was at the Spring races, Longchamps, Paris. The decorative woman we have
+never forgotten, had marvellous gold-red hair, wore a costume of golden
+brown chiffon, a close toque (to show her hair) of brown; long topaz
+drops hung from her ears, set in hand-wrought Etruscan gold, and her
+shell lorgnettes hung from a topaz chain. Now note that on her toque and
+her girdle were buckles made of topaz glass, obviously not real topaz
+and because made to look like milliner's garniture and not jeweler's
+work, they had great style and were as beautiful of their kind as the
+real stones.
+
+
+    PLATE XII
+
+    The portrait of an Englishwoman painted during the
+    Napoleonic period.
+
+    She wears the typical Empire gown, cloak, and bonnet.
+
+    The original of this portrait is the same referred to
+    elsewhere as having moistened her muslin gowns to make them
+    cling to her, in Grecian folds.
+
+    Among her admiring friends was Lord Byron.
+
+    A descendant who allows the use of the charming portrait,
+    explains that the fair lady insisted upon being painted in
+    her bonnet because her curling locks were short--a result of
+    typhoid fever.
+
+    [Illustration: _Costume of Empire Period
+    An English Portrait_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR
+
+
+By the way, do you know that boudoir originally meant pouting room, a
+place where the ceremonious grande dame of the Louis might relax and
+express a ruffled mood, if she would? Which only serves to prove that
+even the definition of words alter with fashion, for we imagine that our
+supinely relaxed modern beauty, of the country club type, has on the
+whole more self-control than she of the boudoir age.
+
+Since a boudoir is of all rooms the most personal, we take it for
+granted that its decoration is eloquent with the individuality and taste
+of its owner. Walls, floors, woodwork, upholstery, hangings, cushions
+and _objects d'art_ furnish the colour for my lady's background, and
+will naturally be a scheme calculated to set off her own particular
+type. Here we find woman easily made decorative in neglig�e or tea gown,
+and it makes no difference whether fashion is for voluminous, flowing
+robes, ruffled and covered with ribbons and lace, or the other extreme,
+those creations of Fortuny, which cling to the form in long crinkled
+lines and shimmer like the skin of a snake. The Fortuny in question, son
+of the great Spanish painter, devotes his time to the designing of the
+most artistic and unique tea gowns offered to modern woman. We first saw
+his work in 1910 at his Paris atelier. His gowns, then popular with
+French women, were made in Venice, where M. Fortuny was at that time
+employing some five hundred women to carry out his ideas as to the
+dyeing of thin silks, the making and colouring of beads used as
+garniture, and the stenciling of designs in gold, silver or colour. The
+lines are Grecian and a woman in her Fortuny tea gown suggests a Tanagra
+figure, whether she goes in for the finely pleated sort, kept tightly
+twisted and coiled when not in use, to preserve the distinguishing fine
+pleats, or one with smooth surface and stenciled designs. These Fortuny
+tea gowns slip over the head with no opening but the neck, with its silk
+shirring cord by means of which it can be made high or low, at will;
+they come in black, gold and the tones of old Venetian dyes. One could
+use a dozen of them and be a picture each time, in any setting, though
+for the epicure they are at their best when chosen with relation to a
+special background. The black Fortunys are extraordinarily chic and look
+well when worn with long Oriental earrings and neck chains of links or
+beads, which reach--at least one strand of them--half-way to the knees.
+
+The distinction which this long line of a chain or string of pearls
+gives to the figure of any woman is a point to dwell upon. Real pearls
+are desirable, even if one must begin with a short necklace; but where
+it can be afforded, woman cannot be urged too strongly to wear a string
+extending as near to and as much below the waist-line as possible. A
+long string of pearls gives great elegance, whether wearer is standing
+or seated. You can use your short string of pearls, too, but whatever
+your figure is, if you are not a young girl it will be improved by the
+long line, and if you would be decorative above everything, we insist
+that a long chain or string of less intrinsic value is preferable to one
+of meaningless length and priceless worth. Very young girls look best
+in short necklaces; women whose throats are getting lined should take to
+jeweled dog-collars, in addition to their strings of pearls or diamond
+chains. The woman with firm throat and perfect neck was made for pearls.
+For those less blessed there are lovely things too, jewels to match
+their eyes, or to tone in with skin or hair; settings to carry out the
+line of profile, rings to illuminate the swift gesture or nestle into
+the soft, white, dimpled hand of inertia. Every type has its charm and
+followers, but we still say, avoid emphasising your lack of certain
+points by wearing unsuitable costumes and accessories, and by so doing
+lose the chance of being decorative.
+
+Sibyl Sanderson, the American prima donna, whose career was in Paris,
+was the most irresistibly lovely vision ever seen in a tea gown. She was
+past-mistress at the art of making herself decorative, and the writer
+recalls her as she last saw her in a Doucet model of chiffon, one layer
+over another of flesh, palest pink and pinkish mauve that melted into
+the creamy tones of her perfect neck and arms.
+
+Sibyl Sanderson was lovely as nature turned her out, but Paris taught
+her the value of that other beauty, the beauty which comes of art and
+attained like all art, only through conscious effort. An artistic
+appearance once meant letting nature have its way. It has come to mean,
+nature directed and controlled by Art, and while we do not resort to the
+artificiality (in this moment) of hoops, crinoline, pyramids of false
+hair, monstrous head-dresses, laced waists, low neck and short sleeves
+for all hours and all seasons, paper-soled shoes in snow-drifts, etc.,
+we do insist that woman be _bien soin�_--hair, complexion, hands, feet,
+figure, perfection _par tout_.
+
+Woman's costumes, her jewels and all accessories complete her decorative
+effect, but even in the age of powder and patches, hair oil and wigs, no
+more time nor greater care was given to her grooming, and what we say
+applies to the average woman of affairs and not merely to the parasite
+type.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER SUN-ROOM
+
+
+A sun-room as the name implies, is a room planned to admit as much sun
+as is possible. An easy way to get the greatest amount of light and sun
+is to enclose a steam heated porch with glass which may be removed at
+will. Sometimes part of a conservatory is turned into a sun-room,
+awnings, rugs, chairs, tables, couches, making it a fascinating lounge
+or breakfast room, useful, too, at the tea hour. Often when building a
+house a room on the sunny side is given one, two, or three glass sides.
+To trick the senses, ferns and flowering plants, birds and fountains are
+used as decorations, suggesting out-of-doors.
+
+
+    PLATE XIII
+
+    Portrait by Gilbert Stuart of Do�a Matilda, Stoughton de
+    Jaudenes. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    We use this portrait to illustrate the period when woman's
+    line was obliterated by the excessive decoration of her
+    costume.
+
+    The interest attached to this charming example of her time
+    lies in colour and detail. It is as if the bewitching Do�a
+    Matilda were holding up her clothes with her person. Her
+    outline is that of a ruffled canary. How difficult for her
+    to forget her material trappings, when they are so many, and
+    yet she looks light of heart.
+
+    For sharp contrast we suggest that our reader turn at once
+    to the portrait by Sargent (Plate XV) which is distinguished
+    for its clean-cut outline and also the distinction arrived
+    at through elimination of detail in the way of trimming. The
+    costume hangs on the woman, suspended by jewelled chains
+    from her shoulders.
+
+    The Sargent has the simplicity of the Classic Greek; the
+    Gilbert Stuart portrait, the amusing fascination of Marie
+    Antoinette detail.
+
+    The gown is white satin, with small gold flowers scattered
+    over its surface. The head-dress surmounting the powdered
+    hair is of white satin with seed-pearl ornaments.
+
+    The background is a dead-rose velvet curtain, draped to show
+    blue sky, veiled by clouds. The same dead-rose on table and
+    chair covering. The book on table has a softly toned calf
+    cover. Gilbert Stuart was fond of working in this particular
+    colour note.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Eighteenth Century Costume Portrait by Gilbert Stewart_]
+
+
+The woman who would add to the charm of her sun-room in Winter by
+keeping up the illusion of Summer, will wear Summer clothes when in it,
+that is, the same gowns, hats and footwear which she would select for a
+warm climate. To be exquisite, if you are young or youngish, well and
+active, you would naturally appear in the sun-room after eleven, in some
+sheer material of a delicate tint, made walking length, with any
+graceful Summer hat which is becoming, and either harmonises with colour
+of gown or is an agreeable contrast to it. By graceful hat we mean a hat
+suggesting repose, not the close, tailored hat of action. One woman we
+know always uses her last Summer's muslins and wash silks, shoes,
+slippers and hats in her sun-room during the Winter. In her wardrobe
+there are invariably a lot of sheer muslins, voiles and wash silks in
+white, mauve, greys, pinks, or delicate stripes, the outline following
+the fashion, voluminous, straight or clinging, the bodice tight with
+trimmings inset or full, beruffled, or kerchiefed. Her hats are always
+entirely black or entirely white, in type the variety we know as
+_picturesque_, made very light in weight and with no thought of
+withstanding the elements. The woman who knows how, can get the effect
+of a picture hat with very little outlay of money. It is a matter of
+line when on the head, that look of lightness and general airiness which
+gives one the feeling that the wearer has just blown in from the lawn!
+The artist's hand can place a few simple loops of ribbon on a hat, and
+have success, while a stupid arrangement of costly feathers or flowers
+may result in failure. The effect of movement got by certain line
+manipulation, suggesting arrested motion, is of inestimable value,
+especially when your hat is one with any considerable width of brim. The
+hat with movement is like a free-hand sketch, a hat without movement
+like a decalcomania.
+
+If the owner of the sun-room is resting or invalided then away with
+out-of-door costume. For her a tea-gown and satin slippers are in order,
+as they would be under similar conditions on her furnished porch.
+
+If the mistress of the sun-room is young and athletic, one who never
+goes in for frou-frous, but wears linen skirts and blouses when pouring
+tea for her friends, let her be true to her type in the sun-room, but
+always emphasising immaculate daintiness, rather than the
+ready-for-sport note. A sheer blouse and French heels on white pumps
+will transpose the plain linen skirt into the key of picturesque
+relaxation, the hall-mark of sun-rooms. More than any other room in the
+house, the sun-room is for drifting. One cannot imagine writing a cheque
+there, or going over one's monthly accounts.
+
+We assume that the colour scheme in the sun-room was dictated by the
+owner and is therefore sympathetic to her. If this be true, we can go
+farther and assume that the delicate tones of her porch gowns and tea
+gowns will harmonise. If her sun-room is done in yellows and orange and
+greens, nothing will look better than cream-white as a costume. If the
+walls, woodwork and furniture have been kept very light in tone, relying
+on the rugs and cushions and dark foliage of plants to give character,
+then a costume of sheer material in any one of the decided colours in
+the chintz cushions, will be a welcome contribution to the decoration of
+the sun-room. Additional effect can be given a costume by the clever
+choice of colour and line in a work-bag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+I. WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER GARDEN
+
+
+In your garden, if you would count as decoration, keep to white or one
+colour; the flowers furnish a variegated background against which your
+costume of colour, grey or white stands out. The great point is that
+your outline be one with pictorial value, from the artist's point of
+view. If merely strolling through your garden to admire it, keeping to
+the well-made paths, a fragile gown of sheer material and dainty shoes,
+with perishable hat or fragile sunshade, is in order. But if yours is
+the task to gather flowers, then wear stout linen or pretty, bright
+ginghams, good to the eye and easily laundered, while resisting the
+briars and branches.
+
+Smocks, those loose over-all garments of soft-toned linens, reaching
+from neck half-way to the knees and unbelted, are ideal for garden work,
+and to the young and slender, add a distinct charm, for one catches the
+movement of the lithe form beneath.
+
+You can be decorative in your garden in a large enveloping apron of
+gingham, if you are wise in choosing a colour which becomes you. One
+lover of flowers, who has an instinct for fitness and colour, may be
+seen on a Summer morning, trimming her porch-boxes in snowy
+white,--shoes and all,--over which she wears a big, encircling apron,
+extending from neck to skirt hem; deep pockets cross the entire front,
+convenient for clippers, scissors and twine. This apron is low-necked
+with shoulder straps and no sleeves. The woman in question is tall and
+fair, and on her soft curling hair she wears sun hats of peanut straw,
+the edges sewn over and over with wool to match her gingham apron, which
+is a solid pink, pale green or lavender.
+
+Dark women look uncommonly well in khaki colour, and so do some blonds.
+Here is a shade decorative against vegetation and serviceable above all.
+
+Garden costumes for actual work vary according to individual taste and
+the amount and character of the gardening indulged in.
+
+Lady de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) owns one of the most charming gardens in
+England, though not as famous as some. It is attached to Regal Lodge,
+her place at Newmarket. The Blue Walk is something to remember, with its
+walls of blue lavender flanking the blue paving stones, between the
+cracks of which lovely bluebells and larkspur spring up in irrelevant,
+poetic license.
+
+Lady de Bathe digs and climbs and clips and gathers, therefore she wears
+easily laundered garments; a white linen or cotton skirt and blouse, a
+Chinese coat to the knees, of pink cotton cr�pe and an Isle-of-Jersey
+sun-bonnet, a poke with curtain, to protect the neck and strings to tie
+it on. So while she claims never to have consciously considered being a
+decorative note in her own garden, her trained instinct for costuming
+herself appropriately and becomingly brings about the desirable
+decorative effect.
+
+
+    PLATE XIV
+
+    Madame Adeline Gen�e, the greatest living exponent of the
+    art of toe dancing. She wears an early Victorian costume
+    (1840) made for a ballet she danced in London several
+    seasons ago. The writer did not see the costume and
+    neglected, until too late, to ask Madame Gen�e for a
+    description of its colouring, but judging by what we know of
+    1840 colours and textures as described by Miss McClellan
+    (_Historic Dress in America_) and other historians of the
+    period as well as from portraits, we feel safe in stating
+    that it may well have been a bonnet of pink uncut velvet,
+    trimmed with silk fringe and a band of braided velvet of the
+    same colour; or perhaps a white shirred satin; or
+    dove-coloured satin with pale pink and green figured ribbon.
+    For the dress, it may have been of dove-grey satin, or pink
+    flowered silk with a black taffeta cape and one of black
+    lace to change off with.
+
+    [Illustration: _Victorian Period about 1840_
+    _Mme. Adeline Gen�e in Costume_]
+
+
+II. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE LAWN
+
+When on your lawn with the unbroken sweep of green under foot and the
+background of shrubs and trees, be a flower or a bunch of flowers in the
+colour of your costume. White,--hat, shoes and all, cannot be excelled,
+but colour has charm of another sort, and turning the pages of memory,
+one realises that not a shade or artistic combination but has scored, if
+the outline is chic. Since both outline and colour scheme vary with
+fashion we use the word chic or smart to imply that quality in a costume
+which is the result of restraint in the handling of line, colour and all
+details, whatever the period.
+
+A chic outline is very telling on the lawn; gown or hat must be
+appropriate to the occasion, becoming to the wearer, its lines following
+the fashion, yet adapted to type, and the colour, one sympathetic to the
+wearer. The trimming must accentuate the distinctive type of the gown or
+hat instead of blotting out the lines by an overabundance of garniture.
+The trimming must follow the constructive lines of gown, or have
+meaning. A buckle must buckle something, buttons must be used where
+there is at least some semblance of an opening. Let us repeat: To be
+chic, the trimming of a hat or gown must have a _raison d'�tre_. When in
+doubt omit trimming. As in interior decoration, too much detail often
+defeats the original idea of a costume. An observing woman knows that
+few of her kind understand the value of restraint. When turned out by an
+artist, most women recognise when they look their best, but how to
+achieve it alone, is beyond them. This sort of knowledge comes from
+carefully and constantly comparing the gown which is a success with
+those which are failures.
+
+Elimination characterises the smart costume or hat, and the smart
+designer is he or she who can make one flower, one feather, one bow of
+ribbon, band of fur, bit of real lace or hand embroidery, say a distinct
+something.
+
+It is the decorative value gained by the judicious placing of one object
+so that line and colour count to the full. As we have said in _Interior
+Decoration_, one pink rose in a slender Venetian glass vase against a
+green silk curtain may have far more decorative value than dozens of
+costly roses used without knowledge of line and background. So it is
+with ornaments on wearing apparel.
+
+
+III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH
+
+With a background of grey sand, steel-blue water and more or less blue
+sky, woman is given a tempting opportunity to figure as colour when by
+the sea. That it is gay colour or white which makes decorative effects
+on the beach, even the least knowing realise. _Plein air_ artists have
+stamped on our mental visions impressions of smart society disporting
+itself on the sands of Dieppe, Trouville, Brighton, and where not.
+Whatever the period, hence outline, white and the gay colours impress
+one. Most conspicuous is white on woman (and man); then each colour in
+the rainbow with its half-tones, figures as sweaters, veils, hats and
+parasols; the striped marquise and gay wares of the venders of nosegays,
+balloons and lollypops. The artist picks out the telling notes when
+painting, learn from him and figure as one of these.
+
+On the beach avoid being a dull note; dead greys and browns have no
+charm there.
+
+What is true of costuming for the beach applies equally to costumes to
+be worn on the deck of a steamer or yacht.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION WHEN SKATING
+
+
+To be decorative when skating, two things are necessary: first, know how
+to skate; then see to it that you are costumed with reference to
+appropriateness, becomingness and the outline demanded by the fashion of
+the moment.
+
+The woman who excels in the technique of her art does not always excel
+in dressing her r�le. It is therefore with great enthusiasm that we
+record Miss Theresa Weld of Boston, holder of Woman's Figure Skating
+Championship, as the most chicly costumed woman on the ice of the
+Hippodrome (New York) where amateurs contested for the cup offered by
+Mr. Charles B. Dillingham, on March 23, 1917, when Miss Weld again
+won,--this time over the men as well as the women.
+
+Miss Weld combined good work with perfect form, and her edges, fronts,
+ins, outs, threes, double-threes, etc., etc., were a delight to the eye
+as she passed and repassed in her wine-coloured velvet, trimmed with
+mole-skin, a narrow band on the bottom of the full skirt (full to allow
+the required amount of leg action), deep cuffs, and a band of the same
+fur encircling the close velvet toque. This is reproduced as the ideal
+costume because, while absolutely up-to-date in line, material, colour
+and character of fur, it follows the traditional idea as to what is
+appropriate and beautiful for a skating costume, regardless of epoch. We
+have seen its ancestors in many parts of Europe, year after year. Some
+of us recall with keen pleasure, the wonderful skating in Vienna and
+Berlin on natural and artificial ice, invariably hung with flags and
+gaily lighted by night. We can see now, those German girls,--some of
+them trim and good to look at, in costumes of sapphire blue, deep red,
+or green velvet, fur trimmed,--gliding swiftly across the ice, to the
+irresistible swing of waltz music and accompanied by flashing uniforms.
+
+In the German-speaking countries everyone skates: the white-bearded
+grandfather and the third generation going hand in hand on Sunday
+mornings to the nearest ice-pond. With them skating is a communal
+recreation, as beer garden concerts are. With us in America most sports
+are fashions, not traditions. The rage for skating during the past few
+seasons is the outcome of the exhibition skating done by professionals
+from Austria, Germany, Scandinavian countries and Canada, at the New
+York Hippodrome. Those who madly danced are now as madly skating. And
+out of town the young women delight the eye in bright wool sweaters,
+broad, long wool scarfs and bright wool caps, or small, close felt
+hats,--fascinating against the white background of ice and snow. The
+boots are high, reaching to top of calf, a popular model having a seam
+to the tip of the toe.
+
+No sport so perfectly throws into relief _command of the body_ as does
+skating. Watch a group of competitors for honours at any gathering of
+amateur women skaters and note how few have command of themselves--know
+absolutely what they want to do, and then are able to do it. One skater,
+in the language of the ice, can do the actual work, but has no form. It
+may be she lacks temperament, has no abandon, no rhythm; is stiff, or,
+while full of life, has bad arms. It is as necessary that the fancy
+skater should learn the correct position of the arms as that the solo
+dancer should. Certain lines must be preserved, say, from fingers of
+right arm through to tip of left foot, or from tip of left hand through
+to tip of right foot.
+
+
+    PLATE XV
+
+    A portrait by John S. Sargent. (Metropolitan Museum,
+    painted about 1890.)
+
+    We have here a distinguished example of the dignity and
+    beauty possible to a costume characteristic of the period
+    when extreme severity as to outline and elimination of
+    detail followed the elaboration of Victorian ruffles,
+    ribbons and lace over hoops and bustle; curled hair and the
+    obvious cameo brooch, massive bracelets and chains.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Late Nineteenth Century Costume about 1890
+    A Portrait by John S. Sargent_]
+
+
+"Form" is the manipulation of the lines of the body to produce perfect
+balance, perfect freedom and, when required, perfect control in arrested
+motion. This is the mastery which produces in free skating that
+"melting" of one figure into another which so hypnotises the onlooker.
+It is because Miss Weld has mastered the above qualifications that she
+is amateur champion in fancy skating. She has mastered her medium; has
+control of every muscle in her body. In consequence she is decorative
+and delightful to watch.
+
+To be decorative when not on skates, whether walking, standing or
+sitting, a woman must have cultivated the same feeling for line, her
+form must be good. It is not enough to obey the A. B. C.'s of position;
+head up, shoulders back, chest out, stomach in. One must study the
+possibilities of the body in acquiring and perfecting poses which have
+line, making pictures with one's self.
+
+In the _Art of Interior Decoration_ we insist that every room be a
+beautiful composition. What we would now impress upon the mind of the
+reader is that she is a part of the picture and must compose with her
+setting. To do this she should acquire the mastery of her body, and then
+train that body until it has acquired "good habits" in the assuming of
+line, whether in action or repose. This can be done to an astonishing
+degree, even if one lacks the instinct. To be born with a sense of line
+is a gift, and the development of this sense can give artistic delight
+to those who witness the results and thrill them quite as sculpture or
+music, or any other art does.
+
+The Greek idea of regarding the perfectly trained body as a beautiful
+temple is one to keep in mind, if woman would fulfil her obligation to
+be decorative.
+
+Form means efficiency, if properly understood and carried out according
+to the spirit, not the letter of the law. Form implies the human body
+under control, ready for immediate action. The man or woman with
+_form_, will be the first to fall into action when required, because, so
+to speak, no time is lost in collecting and aiming the body.
+
+One of the great points in the teaching of the late Theodore
+Leschetizky, the world's greatest master in the art of piano playing,
+was that the hand should immediately assume the correct position for
+the succeeding chord, the instant it was lifted from the
+keys;--preparedness!
+
+The crack regiments of Europe, noted for their form, have for years been
+the object of jests in those new worlds where brawn and muscle, with
+mental acumen, have converted primeval forests into congested commercial
+centers. But that form, so derided by the pioneer spirit, has proved its
+worth during the present European war. The United States and the Central
+Powers are now at war and military guards have been stationed at
+vulnerable points. Only to-day we saw one of Uncle Sam's soldiers, one
+of three, patrolling the front of a big armory,--standing in an
+absolutely relaxed position, his gun held loosely in his hand, and its
+bayonet propped against the iron fence. One could not help thinking;
+_no_ form, no preparedness, no efficiency. It goes without saying that
+prompt obedience cannot be looked for where there is lack of form, no
+matter how willing the spirit.
+
+The modern woman when on parole,--walking, dancing, driving, riding or
+engaged in any sport, to be efficient must have trained the body until
+it has form, and dress it appropriately, if she would be efficient as
+well as decorative in the modern sense of the term. No better
+illustration of our point can be found than in the popular sport cited
+at the beginning of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR
+
+
+It is not easy to be decorative in your automobile now that the
+manufacturers are going in for gay colour schemes both in upholstery and
+outside painting. A putty-coloured touring car lined with red leather is
+very stunning in itself, but the woman who would look well when sitting
+in it does not carelessly don any bright motor coat at hand. She knows
+very well that to show up to advantage against red, and be in harmony
+with the putty-colour paint, her tweed coat should blend with the car,
+also her furs. Black is smart with everything, but fancy how impossible
+mustard, cerise and some shades of green would look against that scarlet
+leather!
+
+An orange car with black top, mud-guards and upholstery calls for a
+costume of white, black, brown, tawny grey, or, if one would be a
+poster, royal blue.
+
+Some twenty-five years ago the writer watched the first automobile in
+her experience driven down the Champs Elys�es. It seemed an uncanny,
+horseless carriage, built to carry four people and making a good deal of
+fuss about it.
+
+A few days later, while lunching at the Caf� de Reservoir, Versailles,
+we were told that some men were starting back to Paris by automobile,
+and if we went to a window giving on to the court, we might see the
+astonishing vehicle make its start. It was as thrilling as the first
+near view of an a�roplane, and all-excitement we watched the two
+Frenchmen getting ready for the drive. Their elaborate preparation to
+face the current of air to be encountered en route was not unlike the
+preparation to-day for flying. It was Spring--June, at that--but those
+Frenchmen wearing very English tweeds and smoking English pipes, each
+drew on extra cloth trousers and coats and over these a complete outfit
+of leather! We saw them get into the things in the public courtyard,
+arrange huge goggles, draw down cloth caps, and set out at a speed of
+about fifteen miles an hour!
+
+
+    PLATE XVI
+
+    A portrait of Mrs. Thomas Hastings of New York painted by
+    the late John W. Alexander.
+
+    We have chosen this--one of the most successful portraits by
+    one of America's leading portrait painters--as a striking
+    example of colour scheme and interesting line. Also we have
+    here a woman who carries herself with form. Mrs. Hastings is
+    an accomplished horsewoman. Her fine physique is poised so
+    as to give that individual movement which makes for type;
+    her colour--wonderful red hair and the complexion which goes
+    with it--are set off by a dull gold background; a gown in
+    another tone of gold, relieved by a note or two of turquoise
+    green; and the same green appearing as a shadow on the
+    Victory in the background.
+
+    We see the sitter, as she impressed an observer, transferred
+    to the canvas by the consummate skill of our deeply lamented
+    artist.
+
+    [Illustration: _A Modern Portrait By John W. Alexander_]
+
+
+The above seems incredible, now that we have passed through the various
+stages of motor car improvements and motor clothes creations. The rapid
+development of the automobile, with its windshields, limousine tops,
+shock absorbers, perfected engines and springs, has brought us to the
+point where no more preparation is needed for a thousand-mile run across
+country with an average speed of thirty miles an hour, than if we were
+boarding a train. One dresses for a motor as one would for driving in a
+carriage and those dun-colored, lineless monstrosities invented for
+motor use have vanished from view. More than this, woman to-day
+considers her decorative value against the electric blue velvet or
+lovely chintz lining of her limousine, exactly as she does when planning
+clothes for her salon. And why not? The manufacturers of cars are taking
+seriously their interior decoration as well as outside painting; and
+many women interior decorators specialise along this line and devote
+their time to inventing colour schemes calculated to reflect the
+personality of the owner of the car.
+
+Special orders have raised the standard of the entire industry, so that
+at the recent New York automobile show, many effects in cars were
+offered to the public. Besides the putty-coloured roadster lined with
+scarlet, black lined with russet yellow, orange lined with black; there
+were limousines painted a delicate custard colour, with top and rim of
+wheels, chassis and lamps of the same Nattier Blue as the velvet lining,
+cushions and curtains. A beautiful and luxurious background and how easy
+to be decorative against it to one who knows how!
+
+Another popular colour scheme was a mauve body with top of canopy and
+rims of wheels white, the entire lining of mauve, like the body. Imagine
+your woman with a decorative instinct in this car. So obvious an
+opportunity would never escape her, and one can see the vision on a
+Summer day, as she appears in simple white, softest blue or pale pink,
+or better still, treating herself as a quaint nosegay of blush roses,
+for-get-me-nots, lilies and mignonette, with her chiffons and silks or
+sheerest of lawns.
+
+"But how about me?" one hears from the girl of the open car--a racer
+perhaps, which she drives herself. You are easiest of all, we assure
+you; to begin with, your car being a racer, is painted and lined with
+durable dark colours--battleship grey, dust colour, or some shade which
+does not show dirt and wear. The consequence is, you will be decorative
+in any of the smart coats, close hats and scarfs in brilliant and lovely
+hues,--silk or wool.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME
+
+
+Here is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:
+
+We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of
+Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your
+attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent.
+Granted that you decide on a court costume, one of those made so
+familiar by the paintings of the great Velasquez, let your first step be
+to get a definite impression of the _outline_ of such a costume. Go to
+art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for books on
+costumes, with plates.
+
+You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt
+periods, there are a variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope
+of the hip line and the outline of the skirt is the infallible hall-mark
+of each of these periods.
+
+Let it be remembered that the outline of a woman includes hair, combs,
+head-dress, earrings, treatment of neck, shoulders, arms, bust and hips;
+line to the ankles and shoes; also fan, handkerchief or any other
+article, which if a silhouette were made, would appear. The next step is
+to ascertain what materials were available at the time your costume was
+worn and what in vogue. Were velvets, satins or silks worn, or all
+three? Were materials flowered, striped, or plain? If striped,
+horizontal or perpendicular? For these points turn again to your art
+gallery, costume plates, or the best of historical novels. If you are
+unable to resort to the sources suggested, two courses lie open to you.
+Put the matter into the hands of an expert; there are many to be
+approached through the columns of first-class periodicals or newspapers
+(we do not refer to the ordinary dealer in costumes or theatre
+accessories); or make the effort to consult some authority, in person or
+by letter: an actor, historian or librarian. It is amazing how near at
+hand help often is, if we only make our needs known. If the reader is
+young and busy, dancing and skating and sleeping, and complains, in her
+winsome way, that "days are too short for such work," we would remind
+her that as already stated, to carefully study the details of any
+costume, of any period, means that the mind and the eye are being
+trained to discriminate between the essentials and non-essentials of
+woman's costume in every-day life. The same young beauty may be
+interested to know that at the beginning of Geraldine Farrar's career
+the writer, visiting with her, an exhibition of pictures in Munich, was
+amazed at the then, very young girl's familiarity with the manner of
+artists--ancient and modern,--and exclaimed "I did not know you were so
+fond of pictures." "It's not that," Farrar said, "I get my costumes from
+them, and a great many of my poses."
+
+
+    PLATE XVII
+
+    Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, patron of the arts,
+    exhibited in New York at Duveen Galleries during Winter of
+    1916-1917 with the Zuloaga pictures. The exhibition was
+    arranged by Mrs. Lydig.
+
+    This portrait has been chosen to illustrate two points: that
+    a distinguished decorative quality is dependent upon line
+    which has primarily to do with form of one's own physique
+    (and not alone the cut of the costume); and the great value
+    of knowing one's own type.
+
+    Mrs. Lydig has been transferred to the canvas by the clever
+    technique of one of the greatest modern painters, Ignacio
+    Zuloaga, an artistic descendant of Velasquez. The delightful
+    movement is that of the subject, in this case kept alive
+    through its subtle translation into terms of art.
+
+    [Illustration: _A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig.
+    By I. Zuloaga_]
+
+
+Outline and material being decided, give your attention to the character
+of the background against which you are to appear. If it is a ball-room,
+and the occasion a costume-ball, is it done in light or dark colours,
+and what is the prevailing tone? See to it that you settle on a colour
+which will be either a harmonious note or an agreeable, hence impressive
+contrast, against the prevailing background. If you are to wear the
+costume on a stage or as a living picture against a background arranged
+with special reference to you, and where you are the central figure, be
+more subtle and combine colours, if you will; go in for interesting
+detail, provided always that you make these details have meaning. For
+example, if it be trimming, pure and simple, be sure that it be applied
+as during your chosen period. Trimming can be used so as to increase
+effectiveness of a costume by accentuating its distinctive features, and
+it can be misused so as to pervert your period, whether that be the age
+of Cleopatra, or the Winter of 1917. Details, such as lace, jewels,
+head-dresses, fans, snuff-boxes, work baskets and flowers must be
+absolutely of the period, or not at all. A few details, even one
+stunning jewel, if correct, will be far more convincing than any number
+of makeshifts, no matter how attractive in themselves. Paintings, plates
+and history come to our rescue here. If you think it dry work, try it.
+The chances are all in favour of your emerging from your search
+spell-bound by the vistas opened up to you; the sudden meaning acquired
+by many inanimate things, and a new pleasure added to all observations.
+
+That Spanish comb of great-great-grandmother's is really a treasure now.
+The antique Spanish plaque you own, found to be Moorish lustre, and out
+of the attic it comes! A Spanish miracle cross proves the spiritual
+superstition of the race, so back to the junk-shop you go, hoping to
+acquire the one that was proffered.
+
+Yes, Carmen should wear a long skirt when she dances, Spanish pictures
+show them; and so on.
+
+The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one
+in touch, not only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the
+customs of the times. Once steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and
+artists, how quick the connoisseur is to recognize Spanish influence on
+the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your expert in costumes of
+nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of dynasties
+and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has
+extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them,
+and when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of
+studying history.
+
+If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one
+with inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data
+on periods in dress, as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of
+this there is verily no end.
+
+We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for
+one in pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.
+
+There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair
+is worn, from Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's
+sleeve, its ups and downs and ins and outs as shown in art; the
+separation of the waist from skirt, and ever changing line of both; the
+neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and how the necklace
+changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the Greeks
+into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.
+
+One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance,
+the joyous optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so
+simple with all the material,--old and new, lying about one.
+
+Ah, that is the pitfall--the very abundance of those plates in wondrous
+books, old coloured prints and portraits of the past. To some students
+this kaleidoscopic vision of period costumes never falls into definite
+lines and colour; or if the types are clear, what they come from or
+merge into remains obscure.
+
+For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of
+data a system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of
+the human body, a framework on which to build. If our historical outline
+be clear enough to impress the mental vision as indelibly as those
+primary maps of the earth did, then we feel persuaded, the textless
+books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve their end as
+never before. We humbly offer what we hope may prove a key to the rich
+storehouse.
+
+Simplicity, and pure line, were lost sight of when overabundance dulled
+the senses of the world. We could prove this, for art shows that the
+costuming of woman developed slowly, preserving, as did furniture, the
+same classic lines and general characteristics until the fifteenth
+century, the end of the Middle Ages.
+
+With the opening up of trade channels and the possibilities of easy and
+quick communication between countries we find, as we did in the case of
+furniture, periods of fashion developing without nationality. Nations
+declared themselves in the artistry of workmanship, as to-day, and in
+the modification and exaggeration of an essential detail, resulting from
+national or individual temperament.
+
+If you ask, "Where do fashions come from,--why 'periods'?" we would
+answer that in the last analysis one would probably find in the
+conception of every fashion some artist's brain. If the period is a good
+one, then it proves that fate allowed the artist to be true to his muse.
+If the fashion is a bad one the artist may have had to adapt his lines
+and colour or detail to hide a royal deformity, or to cater to the whim
+of some wilful beauty ignorant of our art, but rich and in the public
+eye.
+
+A fashion if started is a demon or a god let loose. As we have said,
+there is an interesting point to be observed in looking at woman as
+decoration; whether the medium be fresco, bas relief, sculpture, mosaic,
+stained glass or painting, the decorative line, shown in costumes,
+presents the same recurrent types that we found when studying the
+history of furniture.
+
+For our present purposes it is expedient to confine ourselves to the
+observation of that expression of civilisation which had root, so far as
+we know, in Assyria and Egypt, and spread like a branching vine through
+Byzantium, Greece, Rome, Gothic Europe and Europe of the Renaissance, on
+through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, down to
+the present time.
+
+Costumes for woman and man are supposed to have had their origin in a
+cord tied about the waist, from which was suspended crude implements
+(used for the slaying of beasts for food, and in self-defence); trophies
+of war, such as teeth, scalps, etc. The trophies suspended, partly
+concealed the body and were for decoration, as was tattooing of the
+skin. Clothes were not the result of modesty; modesty followed the
+partial covering of the human body. Modesty, or shame, was the emotion
+which developed when man, accustomed to decoration--trophies or
+tattooing--was deprived of all or part of such covering. What parts of
+the body require concealment, is purely a matter of the customs
+prevailing with a race or tribe, at a certain time, and under certain
+conditions.
+
+This is a theme, the detailed development of which lies outside the
+purpose of our book. It has delightful possibilities, however, if the
+plentiful data on the subject, given in scientific books, were to be
+condensed and simplified.
+
+
+    PLATE XVIII
+
+    Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) who has been one of the
+    greatest beauties of modern times and a marked example of a
+    woman who has always understood her own type, to costume it.
+
+    She agrees that this photograph of her, in an evening wrap,
+    illustrates a point she has always laid emphasis on: that a
+    garment which has good lines--in which one is a
+    picture--continues wearable even when not the dernier cri of
+    fashion.
+
+    This wrap was worn by Mrs. Langtry about two years ago.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES
+
+_A R�sum�_
+
+    "Our present modes of dress (aside from the variations
+    imposed by fashion) are the resultant of all the fashions of
+    the last 2000 years."
+
+    W. G. SUMNER in _Folkways_.
+
+
+The earliest Egyptian frescoes, invaluable pre-historic data, show us
+woman as she was costumed, housed and occupied when the painting was
+done. On those age-old walls she appears as man's companion, his
+teacher, plaything, slave, and ruler;--in whatever r�le the fates
+decreed. The same frescoed walls have pictured records of how Egypt
+tilled the soil, built houses, worked in metals, pottery and sculpture.
+Woman is seen beside her man, who slays the beasts, at times from boats
+propelled through reeded jungles; and hers is always that rigid
+outline, those long, quiet eyes depicted in profile, with massive
+head-dress, and strange upstanding ornaments, abnormally curled wig, and
+close, straight garments to the feet (or none at all), heavy collar,
+wristbands and anklets of precious metals with gems inset, or chased in
+strange designs. About her, the calm mysterious poise and childlike
+acquiescence of those who know themselves to be the puppets of the gods.
+In this na�vet� lies one of the great charms of Egyptian art.
+
+As sculptured caryatide, we see woman of Egypt clad in transparent
+sheath-like skirt, nude above the waist, with the usual extinguishing
+head-dress and heavy collar, bracelets and anklets. We see her as woman,
+mute, law-abiding, supporting the edifice; woman with steady gaze and
+silent lips; one wonders what was in the mind of that lotus eater of the
+Nile who carved his dream in stone.
+
+Those would reproduce Egyptian colour schemes for costumes, house or
+stage settings, would do well to consult the book of Egyptian designs,
+brought out in 1878 by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and available
+in the large libraries.
+
+On the walls of the Necropolis of Memphis, Thi and his wife (Fifth
+Dynasty) appear in a delightful hunting scene. The man in the prow of
+his boat is about to spear an enormous beast, while his wife, seated in
+the bottom, wraps her arm about his leg!
+
+Among the earliest portraits of an Egyptian woman completely clothed, is
+that of Queen Taia, wife of Amenophis, Eighteenth Dynasty, who wears a
+striped gown with sleeves of the kimono type and a ribbon tied around
+her waist, the usual ornamental collar and bracelets of gold, and an
+elaborate head-dress with deep blue curtain, extending to the waist,
+behind.
+
+Full of illuminating suggestions is an example of Woman in Egyptian
+decoration, to be seen as a fresco in the Necropolis of Thebes. It shows
+the governess of a young prince (Eighteenth Dynasty) holding the child
+on her lap. The feet of the little prince rest on a stool, supported by
+nine crouching human beings--men; each has a collar about his neck, to
+which a leash is attached, and all nine leashes are held in the hands
+of the child!
+
+The illustrations of the Egyptian funeral papyrus, The Book of the Dead,
+show woman in the r�le of wife and companion. It is the story of a
+high-born Egyptian woman, Tutu, wife of Ani, Royal Scribe and Scribe of
+the Sacred Revenue of all the gods of Thebes. Tutu, the long-eyed
+Egyptian woman, young and straight, with raven hair and active form, a
+Kem�it of Amon, which means she belonged to the religious chapter or
+congregation of the great god of Thebes. She was what might be described
+as lady-in-waiting or honorary priestess, to the god Amon. She, too,
+wears the typical Egyptian head-dress and straight, long white gown,
+hanging in close folds to her feet. One vignette shows Tutu with arm
+about her husband's leg. This seems to have been a na�ve Egyptian way of
+expressing that eternal womanliness, that tender care for those beloved,
+that quality inseparable from woman if worthy the name, and by reason of
+which with man, her mate, she has run the gamut of human experience,
+meeting the demands of her time. There is no dodging the issue, woman's
+story recorded in art, shows that she has always responded to Fate's
+call; followed, led, ruled, been ruled, amused, instructed, sent her men
+into battle as Spartan mothers did to return with honour or on their
+shields, and when Fate so decreed, led them to battle, like Joan of Arc.
+
+
+II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA
+
+In Egypt and Assyria the lines of the torso were kept straight, with no
+contracting of body at waist line. Woman was clad in a straight
+sheet-like garment, extending from waist to feet with only metal
+ornaments above; necklace, bracelets and armlets; or a straight dress
+from neck to meet the heavy anklets. Sandals were worn on the feet. The
+head was encased in an abnormally curled wig, with pendent ringlets, and
+the whole clasped by a massive head-dress, following the contour of head
+and having as part of it, a curtain or veil, reaching down behind,
+across shoulders and approaching waist line. The Sphinx wears a
+characteristic Egyptian head-dress.
+
+
+    PLATE XIX
+
+    Mrs. Cond� Nast, artist and patron of the arts, noted for
+    her understanding of her own type and the successful
+    costuming of it.
+
+    Mrs. Nast was Miss Clarisse Coudert. Her French blood
+    accounts, in part, for her innate feeling for line and
+    colour. It is largely due to the keen interest and active
+    services of Mrs. Nast that _Vogue_ and _Vanity Fair_ have
+    become the popular mirrors and prophetic crystal balls of
+    fashion for the American woman.
+
+    Mrs. Nast is here shown in street costume. The photograph is
+    by Baron de Meyer, who has made a distinguished art of
+    photography.
+
+    We are here shown the value of a carefully considered
+    outline which is sharply registered on the background by
+    posing figure against the light, a method for suppressing
+    all details not effecting the outline.
+
+    [Illustration: _Photograph by Baron de Meyer_
+    _Mrs. Cond� Nast in Street Dress_]
+
+
+III. EGYPT, BYZANTIUM, GREECE AND ROME
+
+During the periods antedating Christ, when the Roman empire was
+all-powerful, the women of Egypt, Byzantium, Greece and Rome, wore
+gilded wigs (see Plate I, Frontispiece), arranged in Psyche knots, and
+banded; sandals on their feet, and a one-piece garment, confined at the
+waist by a girdle, which fell in close folds to the feet, a style to
+develop later into the classic Greek.
+
+The Greek garment consisted of a great square of white linen, draped in
+the deft manner of the East, to adapt it to the human form, at once
+concealing and disclosing the body to a degree of perfection never since
+attained. There were undraped Greek garments left to hang in close,
+clinging folds, even in the classic period. It is this undraped and
+finely-pleated robe (see Plate XXI) hanging close to the figure, and the
+two-piece garment (see Plate IV) with its short tunic of the same
+material, extending just below the waist line in front, and drooping in
+a cascade of ripples at the sides, as low as the knees, that Fortuny
+(Paris) has reproduced in his tea gowns.
+
+An Englishwoman told us recently that her great-great-grandmother used
+to describe how she and others of her time (Empire Period) wet their
+clothes to make them cling to their forms, � la Grecque!
+
+The classic Greek costume was often a sleeveless garment, falling in
+folds, and when confined at waist line with cord the upper part bloused
+over it; the material was draped so as to leave the arms free, the folds
+being held in place by ornamental clasps upon the shoulders. The fitting
+was practically unaided by cutting; squares or straight lengths of linen
+being adjusted to the human form by clever manipulation. The adjusting
+of these folds, as we have said, developed into an art.
+
+The use of large squares or shawls of brilliantly dyed linen, wool and
+later silk, is conspicuous in all the examples showing woman as
+decoration.
+
+The long Gothic cape succeeds it, that enveloping circular garment, with
+and without the hood, and clasped at the throat, in which the Mother of
+God is invariably depicted. Her cape is the celestial royal blue.
+
+The stained silk gauzes, popular with Greek dancers, were made into
+garments following the same classic lines, and so were the gymnasium
+costumes of the young girls of Greece. Isadora Duncan reproduces the
+latter in many of her dances.
+
+In the chapter entitled "The Story of Textiles" in _The Art of Interior
+Decoration_, we have given a r�sum� of this branch of our subject.
+
+The type of costume worn by woman throughout the entire Roman Empire
+during its most glorious period, was classic Greek, not only in general
+outline, but in detail. Note that the collarless neck was cut round and
+a trifle low; the lines of gown were long and followed each other; the
+trimming followed the hem of neck and sleeves and skirt; the hair, while
+artificially curled and sometimes intertwined with pearls and other
+gems, after being gilded, was so arranged as to show the contour of the
+head, then gathered into a Psyche knot. Gold bands, plain or jewelled,
+clasped and held the hair in place.
+
+In the Gold Room of the Metropolitan Museum; in noted collections in
+Europe; in portraits and costume plates, one sees that the earrings worn
+at that period were great heavy discs, or half discs, of gold; large
+gold flowers, in the Etruscan style; large rings with groups of
+pendants,--usually three on each ring, and the drop earrings so much in
+vogue to-day.
+
+Necklaces were broad, like collars, round and made of hand-wrought links
+and beads, with pendants. These filled in the neck of the dress and were
+evidently regarded as a necessary part of the costume.
+
+The simple cord which confined the Greek woman's draperies at the waist,
+in Egypt and Byzantium, became a sash; a broad strip of material which
+was passed across the front of body at the waist, crossed behind and
+then brought tight over the hips to tie in front, low down, the ends
+hanging square to knees or below.
+
+In Egypt a shoulder cape, with kerchief effect in front, broadened
+behind to a square, and reached to the waist line.
+
+We would call attention to the fact that when the classic type of
+furniture and costume were revived by Napoleon I and the Empress
+Josephine, it was the Egyptian version, as well as the Greek. One sees
+Egyptian and Etruscan styles in the straight, narrow garment of the
+First Empire reaching to ankles, with parallel rows of trimming at the
+bottom of skirt.
+
+The Empire style of parted hair, with cascade of curls each side,
+riotous curling locks outlining face, with one or two ringlets brought
+in front of ears, and the Psyche knot (which later in Victorian days
+lent itself to caricature, in a feather-duster effect at crown of head),
+were inspired by those curled and gilded creations such as Tha�s wore.
+
+Hats, as we use the term to-day, were worn by the ancients. Some will
+remember the Greek hat Sibyl Sanderson wore with her classic robes when
+she sang Massenet's "Ph�dre," in Paris. It was Chinese in type. One sees
+this type of hat on Tanagra Statuettes in our museums.
+
+Apropos of hats, designers to-day are constantly resurrecting models
+found in museums, and some of us recognise the lines and details of
+ancient head-dresses in hats turned out by our most up-to-date
+milliners.
+
+Parasols and umbrellas were also used by Assyrians and Greeks. Sandals
+which only covered the soles of the feet were the usual footwear, but
+Greeks and Etruscans are shown in art as wearing also moccasin-like
+boots and shoes laced up the front.
+
+Of course, the strapped slippers of the Empire were a version of classic
+sandals.
+
+As we have said, the Greek gown and toga are found wherever the Roman
+Empire reached. The women of what are now France and England clothed
+themselves at that time in the same manner as the cultured class of
+Rome. Naturally the Germanic branch which broke from the parent stem,
+and drifted northward to strike root in unbroken forests, bordering on
+untried seas, wore skins and crudely woven garments, few and strongly
+made, but often picturesque.
+
+Though but slightly reminiscent of the traditional costume, we know that
+the women of the third and fourth centuries wore a short, one-piece
+garment, with large earrings, heavy metal armlets above the elbow and at
+wrists. The chain about the waist, from which hung a knife, for
+protection and domestic purposes, is descendent from the savage's cord
+and ancestor to that lovely bauble, the chatelaine of later days, with
+its attached fan, snuff-box and jewelled watch.
+
+
+    PLATE XX
+
+    Mrs. Cond� Nast in an evening gown. Here again is a costume
+    the beauty of which evades the dictum of fashion in the
+    narrow sense of the term.
+
+    This picture has the distinction of a well-posed and finely
+    executed old master and because possessing beauty of a
+    traditional sort will continue to give pleasure long after
+    the costume has perished.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Cond� Nast in Evening Dress_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME
+
+
+To the Romans, all who were not of Rome and her Empire, were
+foreigners,--outsiders, people with a strange viewpoint, so they were
+given a name to indicate this; they were called "barbarians."
+
+Conspicuous among those tribes of barbarians, moved by human lust for
+gain to descend upon the Roman Empire and eventually bring about its
+fall, was the tribe of Goths, and in the course of centuries "Gothic"
+has become a generic term, implying that which is not Roman. We speak of
+Gothic architecture, Gothic art, Gothic costumes, when we mean, strictly
+speaking, the characteristic architecture, art and costuming of the late
+Middle Ages (twelfth to fifteenth centuries).
+
+But we find the so-called Gothic outline in costume as early as the
+fourth century. Over the undraped, one-piece robe of classic type, a
+second garment is now worn, cut with straight lines. It usually fastens
+behind, and the uncorseted figure is outlined. The neck is still
+collarless and cut round, the space filled in with a necklace. The
+sleeves of the tunic appear to be the logical evolution of the folds of
+the toga, which fall over the arms when bent. They cling to the outline
+of the shoulder, broadening at the hand into what is called "angel"
+sleeves; in art, the traditional angel wears them.
+
+Roman-Christian women wore their hair parted, no Psyche knot, and
+interesting, large earrings. The gowns were not draped, but were in one
+piece and with no fulness. A tunic, following lines of the form, reached
+below the knees and was _belted_. This garment was trimmed with bands
+from shoulders to hem of tunic and kept the same width throughout, if
+narrow; but if wide, the bands broadened to the hem. The neck continued
+to be cut round, and filled in with a necklace.
+
+The cape, fastening on shoulders or chest, remnant of the Greek toga,
+was worn, and veils of various materials were the usual head coverings.
+
+Between the fifth and tenth centuries there are examples of the
+overgarment or tunic having a broad stomacher of some contrasting
+material, held in place with a cord, which is tied behind, brought
+around to the front, knotted and allowed to hang to bottom of skirt.
+
+Byzantine art between 800 and 1000 A. D. still shows women wearing
+tunics, but hanging straight from neck to hem of skirt, fastened on
+shoulders and opened at sides to show gown beneath; close sleeves with
+trimming at the wrists, often large, roughly cut jewels forming a border
+on tunic, and the hair worn in long braids on each side of the face; the
+coil of hair, which was wrapped with pearls or other beads, was parted
+and used to frame the face.
+
+This fashion was carried to excess by the Franks. We see some of their
+women between 400 and 600 A. D. wearing these heavy, rope-like braids to
+the hem of the skirt in front.
+
+In the fourteenth century the Gothic costume was perhaps at its most
+beautiful stage. The long robe, the upper part following the lines of
+the figure, with long close sleeves half covering hands, or flowing
+sleeves, that touched the floor. About the waist was worn a silk cord
+or jewelled girdle, finely wrought and swung low on hips; from the end
+of which was suspended the money bag, fan and keys.
+
+The girdle begins now to play an important part as decoration. This
+theme, the evolution of the girdle, may be indefinitely enlarged upon
+but we must not dwell upon it here.
+
+In some cases we see that the tunic opened in the front and that the
+large, square, shawl-like outer garment of Greece now became the long
+circular cape, clasped on the chest (one or two clasps), made so
+familiar by the art of the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Turn to the
+illuminated manuscripts of those periods, to paintings, on wood,
+frescoes, stained glass, stucco, carved wood, and stone, and you will
+find the Mother of God invariably costumed in the simple one-piece robe
+and circular clasped cape.
+
+In most of the sacred art of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth,
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Virgin and other saints are
+depicted in the current costume of woman. The Virgin was the most
+frequent subject of artists in every medium, during the ages when the
+Church dominated the State in Europe.
+
+The refurnishing of the Virgin's wardrobe has long been and still is, a
+pious task and one clamoured for by adherents to the churches in which
+the Virgin's image is displayed to worshippers. We regret to say, for
+�sthetic reasons, that there is no effort made on the part of modern
+devotees to perpetuate the beautiful medi�val type of costume.
+
+In some old paintings which come under the head of Folk Art, the Holy
+Family appears in national costume. The writer recalls a bit of
+eighteenth century painting, showing St. Anne holding the Virgin as
+child. St. Anne wears the bizarre f�te attire of a Spanish peasant; a
+gigantic head-dress and veil, large earrings, wide stiff skirts, showing
+gay flowers on a background of gold. The skirt is rather short, to
+display wide trousers below it. Her sleeves have filmy frills of deep
+white lace executed with skill.
+
+
+    PLATE XXI
+
+    Mrs. Cond� Nast in a garden costume. She wears a sun-hat
+    and carries a flower-basket, which are decorative as well as
+    useful.
+
+    We have chosen this photograph as an example of a costume
+    made exquisitely artistic by being kept simple in line and
+    free from an excess of trimming.
+
+    This costume is so decorative that it gives distinction and
+    interest to the least pretentious of gardens.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Cond� Nast in Garden Costume_]
+
+
+To return to the girdle, as we have said, it slipped from its position
+at the waist line, where it confined the classic folds, and was allowed
+to hang loosely about the hips, clasped low in front. From this clasp a
+chain extended, to which were attached the housewife's keys or purse and
+the dame of fashion's fan. In fact one can tell, to a certain extent,
+the woman's class and period by carefully inspecting her chatelaine.
+
+The absence of waist line, and the long, straight effect produced in the
+body of gown by wearing the girdle swung about the hips, gives it the
+so-called Moyen Age silhouette, revived by the fashion of to-day.
+
+In the thirteenth century the round collarless neck, low enough to admit
+a necklace of links or beads, persists. A new note is the outer sleeve
+laced across an inner sleeve of white.
+
+Let us remember that the costume of the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries was distinguished by a quality of beautiful, sweeping line,
+massed colour, detail with _raison d'�tre_, which produced dignity with
+graceful movement, found nowhere to-day, unless it be on the Wagnerian
+stage or in the boudoir of a woman who still takes time, in our age of
+hurry, to wear her neglig�e beautifully.
+
+In the fourteenth century the round neck continued, but one sees low
+necks too, which left the shoulders exposed (our 1830 style).
+
+Another new note is the tunic grown into a garment reaching to the feet,
+a one-piece "princess" gown, with belt or girdle. Sometimes a Juliet cap
+was worn to merely cover the crown of head, with hair parted and
+flowing, while on matrons we see head coverings with sides turned up,
+like ecclesiastical caps, and floating veils falling to the waist.
+
+Notice that through all the periods that we have named, which means
+until the fourteenth century, the line of shoulder remains normal and
+beautiful, sloping and melting into folds of robe or line of sleeve. We
+see now for the first time an inclination to tamper with the shoulder
+line. An inoffensive scallop appears,--or some other decoration, as cap
+to sleeve. No harm done yet!
+
+The fifteenth century shows another style, a long sleeveless
+overgarment, reaching to the floor, fastened on shoulders and swinging
+loose, to show at sides the undergown. It suggests a priest's robe. Here
+we discover one more of the Moyen Age styles revived to-day.
+
+The fourteenth century gowns, with necks cut out round, to admit a
+necklace with pendants, are still popular. The gowns are long on the
+ground, and the most beautiful of the characteristic head-dresses--the
+long, pointed one, with veil covering it, and floating down from point
+of cap to hem of flowing skirt behind, continues the movement of
+costume--the long lines which follow one another.
+
+When correctly posed, this pointed head-dress is a delight to the eye.
+We recently saw a photograph of some fair young women in this type of
+Medi�val or Gothic costume worn by them at a costume ball. Failing to
+realise that the _pose_ of any head-dress (this means hats as well) is
+all-important, they had placed the quaint, long, pointed caps on the
+very tops of their heads, like fools' caps!
+
+The angle at which this head-dress is worn is half the battle.
+
+The importance of every woman's cultivating an eye for line cannot be
+overstated.
+
+In the fifteenth century we first see puffs at the elbow, otherwise the
+outlines of gown are the same. The garment in one piece, the body of it
+outlining the form, its skirts sweeping the ground; a girdle about the
+hips, and long, close or flowing sleeves, wide at the hem.
+
+Despite the fourteenth century innovation of necks cut low and off the
+shoulders (berated by the Church), most necks in the fifteenth century
+are still cut round at the throat, and the necklace worn instead of
+collar. Some of the gowns cut low off the shoulders are filled in with a
+puffed tucker of muslin. The pointed cap with a floating veil is still
+seen.
+
+Notice that the restraint in line, colour and detail, gradually
+disappears, with the abnormal circulation of wealth, in those
+departments of Church and State to which the current of material things
+was diverted. We now see humanity tricked out in rich attire and
+staggering to its doom through general debaucheries.
+
+Rich brocades, once from Damascus, are now made in Venice; and so are
+wonderful satins, velvets and silks, with jewels many and massive.
+
+Sometimes a broad jewelled band crossed the breast from shoulder
+diagonally to under arm, at waist.
+
+The development of the petticoat begins now. At first we get only a
+glimpse of it, when our lady of the pointed cap lifts her long skirts,
+lined with another shade. It is of a rich contrasting colour and is
+gradually elaborated.
+
+The waist-line, when indicated, is high.
+
+A new note is the hair, with throat and neck completely concealed by a
+white veil, a style we associate with nuns and certain folk costumes. As
+fashion it had a passing vogue.
+
+Originally, the habit of covering woman's hair indicated modesty (an
+idea held among the Folk), and the gradual shrinking of the dimensions
+of her coif, records the progress of the peasant woman's emancipation,
+in certain countries. This is especially conspicuous in Brittany, as M.
+Anatol Le Braz, the eminent Breton scholar, remarked recently to the
+writer.
+
+Note the silk bag, quite modern, on the arm; also the jewelled line of
+chain hanging from girdle down the middle of front, to hem of
+skirt,--both for use and ornament.
+
+To us of a practical era, a mysterious charm attaches to the
+long-pointed shoes worn at this period.
+
+In the fifteenth century, the marked division of costume into waist and
+skirt begins, the waist line more and more pinched in, the skirt more
+and more full, the sleeves and neck more elaborately trimmed, the
+head-dresses multiplied in size, elaborateness and variety. Textiles
+developed with wealth and ostentation.
+
+In the sixteenth century the neck was usually cut out and worn low on
+the shoulders, sometimes filled in, but we see also high necks; necks
+with small ruffs and necks with large ruffs; ruffs turned down, forming
+stiff linen-cape collars, trimmed with lace, close to the throat or
+flaring from neck to show the throat.
+
+The hair is parted and worn low in a snood, or by young women, flowing.
+The ears are covered with the hair.
+
+
+    PLATE XXII
+
+    Mrs. Cond� Nast wearing one of the famous Fortuny tea
+    gowns.
+
+    This one has no tunic but is finely pleated, in the Fortuny
+    manner, and falls in long lines, closely following the
+    figure, to the floor.
+
+    Observe the decorative value of the long string of beads.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Cond� Nast in a Fortuny Tea Gown_]
+
+
+_The Virgin in Art_
+
+When writing of the Gothic period in _The Art of Interior Decoration_,
+we have said "... Gothic art proceeds from the Christian Church and
+stretches like a canopy over western Europe during the late Middle Ages.
+It was in the churches and monasteries that Christian Art, driven from
+pillar to post by wars, was obliged to take refuge, and there produced
+that marvellous development known as the Gothic style, of the Church,
+for the Church and by the Church, perfected in countless Gothic
+cathedrals, crystallised glorias, lifting their manifold spires to
+heaven; ethereal monuments of an intrepid Faith which gave material form
+to its adoration, its fasting and prayer, in an unrivalled art...."
+
+"Crystallised glorias" (hymns to the Virgin) is as concise a defining of
+the nature and spirit of this highest type of medi�val art--perfected in
+France--as we can find. Here we have deified woman inspiring an art
+miraculously decorative.
+
+Chartres Cathedral and Rheims (before the German invasion in 1914) with
+Mont Saint Michel, are distinguished examples.
+
+If the readers would put to the test our claim that woman as decoration
+is a beguiling theme worthy of days passed in the broad highways of
+art, and many an hour in cross-roads and unbeaten paths, we would
+recommend to them the fascinations of a marvellous story-teller, one
+who, knowing all there is to know of his subject, has had the genius to
+weave the innumerable and perplexing threads into a tapestry of words,
+where the main ideas take their places in the foreground, standing out
+clearly defined against the deftly woven, intelligible but unobtruding
+background. The author is Henry Adams, the book, _The Cathedrals of Mont
+St. Michel and Chartres_. He tells you in striking language, how woman
+was translated into pure decoration in the Middle Ages, woman as the
+Virgin Mother of God, the manifestation of Deity which took precedence
+over all others during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries;
+and if you will follow him to the Chartres Cathedral (particularly if
+you have been there already), and will stand facing the great East
+Window, where in stained glass of the ancient jewelled sort, woman, as
+Mother of God, is enthroned above all, he will tell you how, out of the
+chaos of warring religious orders, the priestly schools of Abelard, St.
+Francis of Assisi and others, there emerged the form of the Virgin.
+
+To woman, as mother of God and man, the instrument of reproduction, of
+tender care, of motherhood, the disputatious, groping mind of man agreed
+to bow, silenced and awed by the mystery of her calling.
+
+In view of the recent enrolling of womanhood in the stupendous business
+of the war now waging in Europe, and the demands upon her to help in
+arming her men or nursing back to life the shattered remains of fair
+youth, which so bravely went forth, the thought comes that woman will
+play a large part in the art to arise from the ashes of to-day. Woman as
+woman ready to supplement man, pouring into life's caldron the best of
+herself, unstinted, unmeasured; woman capable of serving beyond her
+strength, rising to her greatest height, bending, but not breaking to
+the end, if only assured she is _needed_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE RENAISSANCE
+
+_Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_
+
+
+The marked departure is necks cut square, if low, and elaborate jewelled
+chains draped from shoulders, outlining neck of gown and describing a
+festoon on front of waist, which is soon to become independent of skirt
+to develop on its own account.
+
+As in the fifteenth century, when necks were cut low off the shoulders,
+they were on occasions filled in with tuckers.
+
+The skirt now registers a new characteristic; it parts at the waist line
+over a petticoat, and the opening is decorated by the ornamental, heavy
+chain which hangs from girdle to hem of gown.
+
+One sees the hair still worn coiled low in the neck, concealing the ears
+and held in a snood or in Italy cut "Florentine" fashion with fringe on
+brow.
+
+Observe how the wealth of the Roman Empire, through its new trade
+channels opening up with the East (the result of the crusades) led to
+the importation of rich and many-coloured Oriental stuffs; the same
+wealth ultimately established looms in Italy for making silks and
+velvets, to decorate man and his home. There was no longer simplicity in
+line and colour scheme; gorgeous apparel fills the frames of the
+Renaissance and makes amusing reading for those who consult old
+documents. The clothes of man, like his over-ornate furniture, show a
+debauched and vulgar taste. Instead of the lines which follow one
+another, solid colours, and trimmings kept to hem of neck and sleeve and
+skirt, great designs, in satins and velvet brocades, distort the lines
+and proportions of man and woman.
+
+The good Gothic lines lived on in the costumes of priests and nuns.
+
+Jewelry ceased to be decoration with meaning; lace and fringe, tassels
+and embroidery, with colour combinations to rival the African parrots,
+disfigured man and woman alike.
+
+During November of 1916, New York was so fortunate as to see, at the
+American Art Galleries, the great collection of late Gothic and early
+Renaissance furniture and other art treasures, brought together in the
+restored Davanzati Palace of Florence, Italy. The collection was sold at
+auction, and is now scattered. Of course those who saw it in its natural
+setting in Florence, were most fortunate of all. But with some knowledge
+and imagination, at the sight of those wonderful things,--hand-made all
+of them,--the most casual among those who crowded the galleries for
+days, must have gleaned a vivid impression of how woman of the Early
+Renaissance lived,--in her kitchen, dining-room, bedroom and
+reception-rooms. They displayed her cooking utensils, her chairs and
+tables, her silver, glass and earthenware, her bed, linen, satin damask,
+lace and drawn work; the cushions she rested against; portraits in their
+gorgeous Florentine frames, showing us how those early Italians dressed;
+the colored terra-cottas, unspeakably beautiful presentments of the
+Virgin and Child, moulded and painted by great artists under that same
+exaltation of Faith which brought into being the sister arts of the
+time, imbuing them with something truly divine. There is no disputing
+that quality which radiates from the face of both the Mother and the
+Child. One all but kneels before it. Their expression is not of this
+world.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIII
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle who set to-day's fashion in outline of
+    costume and short hair for the young woman of America. For
+    this reason and because Mrs. Castle has form to a
+    superlative degree (correct carriage of the body) and the
+    clothes sense (knowledge of what she can wear and how to
+    wear it) we have selected her to illustrate several types of
+    costumes, characteristic of 1916 and 1917.
+
+    Another reason for asking Mrs. Castle to illustrate our text
+    is, that what Mrs. Castle's professional dancing has done to
+    develop and perfect her natural instinct for line, the
+    normal exercise of going about one's tasks and diversions
+    can do for any young woman, provided she keep in mind
+    correct carriage of body when in action or repose. Here we
+    see Mrs. Castle in ball costume.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume_]
+
+
+That is woman as the Mother of God in art Woman as the mother of man,
+who looked on these inspired works of art, lived for the most part in
+small houses built of wood with thatched roofs, unpaved streets, dirty
+interiors, which were cleaned but once a week--on Saturdays! The men of
+the aristocracy hunted and engaged in commerce, and the general rank and
+file gave themselves over to the gaining of money to increase their
+power. It sounds not unlike New York to-day.
+
+Gradually the cities grew large and rich. People changed from simple
+sober living to elaborate and less temperate ways, and the great
+families, with their proportionately increased wealth gained through
+trade, built beautiful palaces and built them well. The gorgeous
+colouring of the frescoed walls shows Byzantine influence. In _The Art
+of Interior Decoration_ we have described at length the house furnishing
+of that time. Against this background moved woman, man's mate; note her
+colour scheme and then her r�le. (We quote from Jahn Rusconi in _Les
+Arts_, Paris, August, 1911.)
+
+"Donna Francesca dei Albizzi's cloak of black cloth ornamented on a
+yellow background with birds, parrots, butterflies, pink and red roses,
+and a few other red and green figures; dragons, letters and trees in
+yellow and black, and again other figures made of white cloth with red
+and black stripes."
+
+Extravagance ran high not only in dress, but in everything, laws were
+made to regulate the amount spent on all forms of entertainment, even on
+funerals, and the cook who was to prepare a wedding feast had to submit
+his menu for approval to the city authorities. More than this, only two
+hundred guests could be asked to a wedding, and the number of presents
+which the bride was allowed to receive was limited by law. But wealth
+and fashion ran away with laws; the same old story.
+
+As the tide of the Renaissance rose and swept over Europe (the awakening
+began in Italy), the woman of the gorgeous cloak and her
+contemporaries, according to the vivid description of the last quoted
+author, were "subject to their husbands' tyranny, not even knowing how
+to read in many cases, occupied with their household duties, in which
+they were assisted by rough and uncouth slaves, with no other mission in
+life than to give birth to a numerous posterity.... This life ruined
+them, and their beauty quickly faded away; no wonder, then, that they
+summoned art to the aid of nature. The custom was so common and the art
+so perfect that even a painter like Taddeo Gaddi acknowledged that the
+Florentine women were the best painters in the world!... Considering the
+mental status of the women, it is easy to imagine to what excesses they
+were given in the matter of dress." The above assertions relate to the
+average woman, not the great exceptions.
+
+The marriage coffers of woman of the Renaissance in themselves give an
+idea of her luxurious tastes. They were about six feet long, three feet
+high, and two and a half feet deep. Some had domed covers opening on
+hinges--the whole was carved, gilded and painted, the background of
+reds and blues throwing the gold into relief. Scenes taken from
+mythology were done in what was known as "pastille," composition work
+raised and painted on a gold background. On one fifteenth century
+marriage coffer, Bacchus and Ariadne were shown in their triumphal car
+drawn by winged griffins, a young Bacchante driving them on. Another
+coffer decorated in the same manner had as decoration "The Rape of
+Proserpine."
+
+Women rocked their infants in sumptuous carved and emblazoned walnut
+cradles, and crimson satin damask covered their beds and cushions. This
+blaze of gold and silver, crimson and blue we find as the wake of
+Byzantine trade, via Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Florence on to
+France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Flanders and England. Carved wood,
+crimson, green and blue velvets, satin damask, tapestries, gold and
+silver fringe and lace. Against all this moved woman, costumed
+sumptuously.
+
+Gradually the line of woman's (and man's) neck is lost in a ruff, her
+sweeping locks, instead of parted on her brow, entwined with pearls or
+other gems to frame her face and make long lines down the length of her
+robe, are huddled under grotesque head-dresses, monstrous creations,
+rising and spreading until they become caricatures, defying art.
+
+In some sixteenth century Italian portraits we see the ruff flaring from
+a neck cut out square and low in front, then rising behind to form a
+head covering.
+
+The last half of the sixteenth century is marked by gowns cut high in
+the neck with a close collar, and the appearance of a small ruff
+encircling the throat. This ruff almost at once increased to absurd
+dimensions.
+
+The tightly laced long-pointed bodice now appears, with and without
+padded hips. (The superlative degree of this type is to be seen in
+portraits by Velasquez (see Plate IX).)
+
+Long pointed toes to the shoes give way to broad, square ones.
+
+Another sixteenth century departure is the absurdly small hat, placed as
+if by the wind, at a careless angle on the hair, which is curled and
+piled high.
+
+Also we see hats of normal size with many plumes, on both men and women.
+
+Notice the sleeves: some are still flowing, with tight undersleeves,
+others slashed to show full white sleeve beneath. But most important of
+all is that the general license, moral and artistic, lays its ruthless
+hand on woman's beautiful, sweeping shoulder line and distorts it. Anne
+of Cleves, or the progressive artist who painted her, shows in a
+portrait the Queen's flowing sleeves with medi�val lines, clasped by a
+broad band between elbow and shoulder, and then _pushed up_ until the
+sleeve forms an ugly puff. A monstrous fashion, this, and one soon to
+appear in a thousand mad forms. Its first vicious departure is that
+small puffy, senselessly insinuated line between arm-hole and top of
+sleeve in garments for men as well as women.
+
+Skirts button from point of basque to feet just before we see them, in
+the seventeenth century, parting down the front and separating to show a
+petticoat. In Queen Elizabeth's time the acme of this style was reached
+by Spanish women as we see in Velasquez's portraits. Gradually the
+overskirt is looped back, (at first only a few inches), and tied with
+narrow ribbons.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIV
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in Winter afternoon costume, one which
+    is so suited to her type and at the same time conservative
+    as to outline and detail, that it would have charm whether
+    in style or not.
+
+    [Illustration: _Victor Georg--Chicago_
+    _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Winter_]
+
+
+The second quarter of the seventeenth century shows the waist line drawn
+in and bodice with skirts a few inches in depth. These skirts are the
+hall-mark of a basque.
+
+Very short, full coats flaring from under arms now appear.
+
+After the skirt has been pushed back and held with ribbons, we find
+gradually all fulness of upper skirt pushed to hips to form paniers, and
+across the back to form a bustle effect, until we have the Marie
+Antoinette type, late eighteenth century. Far more graceful and
+_s�duisant_ than the costume of Queen Elizabeth's time.
+
+The figures presented by Marie Antoinette and her court, powdered wigs
+and patches, paniers and enormous hats, surmounting the horsehair
+erections, heavy with powder and grease, lace, ribbon flowers and
+jewels, are quaint, delightful and diverting, but not to be compared
+with the Greek or medi�val lines in woman's costume.
+
+Extremely extended skirts gave way to an interlude of full skirts, but
+flowing lines in the eighteenth century English portraits.
+
+The Directoire reaction towards simplicity was influenced by English
+fashion.
+
+Empire formality under classic influence came next. Then Victorian hoops
+which were succeeded by the Victorian bustles, pantalets, black velvet
+at throat and wrists, and lockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+The eighteenth century is unique by reason of scientific discoveries,
+mechanical inventions and chemical achievements, coupled with the
+gigantic political upheaval of the French Revolution.
+
+It is unique, distinguished and enormously fruitful. For example, the
+modern frenzy for chintz, which has made our homes burst into bloom in
+endless variety, had its origin in the eighteenth century looms at Jouy,
+near Versailles, under the direction of Oberkampf.
+
+Before 1760 silks and velvets decorated man and his home. Royal
+patronage co-operating with the influence of such great decorators as
+Percier and Fontaine gave the creating of beautiful stuffs to the silk
+factories of Lyons.
+
+Printed linens and painted wall papers appeared in France
+simultaneously, and for the same reason. The Revolution set mass-taste
+(which is often stronger than individual inclination), toward
+unostentatious, inexpensive materials for house furnishing and wearing
+apparel.
+
+The Revolution had driven out royalty and the high aristocracy who, with
+changed names lived in seclusion. Society, therefore, to meet the
+mass-desire, was driven to simple ways of living. Men gave up their
+silks and velvets and frills, lace and jewels for cloth, linen, and
+sombre neck-cloths. The women did the same; they wore muslin gowns and
+their own hair, and went to great length in the affectation of
+simplicity and patriotic fervour.
+
+We hear that, apropos of America having at this moment entered the great
+struggle with the Central Powers, simplicity is decreed as smart for the
+coming season, and that those who costume themselves extravagantly,
+furnish their homes ostentatiously or allow their tables to be lavish,
+will be frowned upon as bad form and unpatriotic.
+
+These reactions are inevitable, and come about with the regularity of
+_tides_ in this world of perpetual repetition.
+
+The belles of the Directorate shook their heads and bobbed their pretty
+locks at the artificiality Marie Antoinette et cie had practised. I fear
+they called it sinful art to deftly place a patch upon the face, or make
+a head-dress in the image of a man-of-war.
+
+Mme. de Sta�l's familiar head-dress, twisted and wrapped around her head
+� la Turque, is said to have had its origin in the improvisation of the
+court hairdresser. Desperately groping for another version of the
+top-heavy erection, to humour the lovely queen, he seized upon a piece
+of fine lace and muslin hanging on a chair at hand, and twisting it,
+wrapped the thing about the towering wig. As it happened, the chiffon
+was my lady's chemise!
+
+We begin the eighteenth century with a full petticoat, trimmed with rows
+of ruffles or bands; an overskirt looped back into paniers to form the
+bustle effect; the natural hair powdered; and head-dress of lace,
+standing out stiffly in front and drooping in a curtain behind.
+
+It was not until the whim of Marie Antoinette decreed it so, that the
+enormous powdered wigs appeared.
+
+Viennese temperament alone accounts for the moods of this lovely tragic
+queen, who played at making butter, in a cap and apron, over simple
+muslin frocks, but outdid her artificial age in love of artifice (not
+Art) in dress.
+
+This gay and dainty puppet of relentless Fate propelled by varying moods
+must needs lose her lovely head at last, as symbol of her time.
+
+
+    PLATE XXV
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in a summer afternoon costume
+    appropriate for city or country and so adapted to the
+    wearer's type that she is a picture, whether in action;
+    seated on her own porch; having tea at the country club; or
+    in the Winter sun-parlour.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon
+    Costume--Summer_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WOMAN IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
+
+
+The first seventy years of the nineteenth century seem to us
+of 1917 absolutely incredible in regard to dress. How our
+great-great-grandmothers ever got about on foot, in a carriage or
+stage-coach, moved in a crowd or even sat in any measure of serenity at
+home, is a mystery to us of an age when comfort, convenience, fitness
+and chic have at last come to terms. For a vivid picture of how our
+American society looked between 1800 and 1870, read Miss Elizabeth
+McClellan's _Historic Dress in America_, published in 1910 by George W.
+Jacobs & Co., of Philadelphia. The book is fascinating and it not only
+amuses and informs, but increases one's self-respect, if a woman, for
+_modern_ woman dressed in accordance with her r�le.
+
+We can see extravagant wives point out with glee to tyrant mates how, in
+the span of years between 1800 and 1870 our maternal forebears made
+money fly, even in the Quaker City. Fancy paying in Philadelphia at that
+time, $1500 for a lace scarf, $400 for a shawl, $100 for the average
+gown of silk, and $50 for a French bonnet! Miss McClellan, quoting from
+_Mrs. Roger Pryor's Memoirs_, tells how she, Mrs. Pryor, as a young girl
+in Washington, was awakened at midnight by a note from the daughter of
+her French milliner to say that a box of bonnets had arrived from Paris.
+Mamma had not yet unpacked them and if she would come at once, she might
+have her pick of the treasures, and Mamma not know until too late to
+interfere. And this was only back in the 50's, we should say.
+
+Then think of the hoops, and wigs and absurdly furbished head-dresses;
+paper-soled shoes, some intended only to _sit_ in; bonnets enormous;
+laces of cobweb; shawls from India by camel and sailing craft; rouge,
+too, and hair grease, patches and powder; laced waists and cramped feet;
+low necks and short sleeves for children in school-rooms.
+
+Man was then still decorative here and in western Europe. To-day he is
+not decorative, unless in sports clothes or military uniform; woman's
+garments furnish all the colour. Whistler circumvented this fact when
+painting Theodore Duret (Metropolitan Museum) in sombre black
+broadcloth,--modern evening attire, by flinging over the arm of Duret,
+the delicate pink taffeta and chiffon cloak of a woman, and in M.
+Duret's hand he places a closed fan of pomegranate red.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SEX IN COSTUMING
+
+
+"European dress" is the term accepted to imply the costume of man and
+woman which is entirely cosmopolitan, decrying continuity of types (of
+costume) and thoroughly plastic in the hands of fashion.
+
+To-day, we say parrot-like, that certain materials, lines and colours
+are masculine or feminine. They are so merely by association. The modern
+costuming of man the world over, if he appear in European dress (we
+except court regalia), is confined to cloth, linen or cotton, in black,
+white and inconspicuous colours; a prescribed and simple type of
+neckwear, footwear, hat, stick, and hair cut.
+
+The progenitor of the garments of modern men was the
+Lutheran-Puritan-Revolutionary garb, the hall-mark of democracy.
+
+It is true that when silk was first introduced into Europe, from the
+Orient, the Greeks and early Romans considered it too effeminate for
+man's use, but this had to do with the doctrine of austere denial for
+the good of the state. To wear the costume of indolence implied
+inactivity and induced it. As a matter of fact, some of the master
+spirits of Greece did wear silks.
+
+In Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Media, Persia and the Far East, men and women
+wore the same materials, as in China and Japan to-day. Egyptian men and
+their contemporaries throughout Byzantium, wore gowns, in outline
+identical with those of the women. Among the Turks, trousers were always
+considered as appropriate for women as for men, and both men and women
+wore over the trousers, a long garment not unlike those of the women in
+the Gothic period.
+
+Tha�s wore a gilded wig, but so did the men she knew, and they added
+gilded false beards.
+
+Assyrian kings wore earrings, bracelets and wonderful clasps with
+chains, by which the folds of their draped garment,--cut like the
+woman's, might be caught up and held securely, leaving feet, arms and
+hands free for action.
+
+When the genius of the Byzantine, Greek and Venetian manufacturers of
+silks and velvets, rich in texture and ablaze with colour, were offered
+for sale to the Romans, whose passion for display had increased with
+their fortunes, and consequent lives of dissipation, we find there was
+no distinction made between the materials used by man and woman.
+
+It is no exaggeration to say that the Renaissance spells brocade. Great
+designs and small ones sprawled over the figures of man and woman alike.
+
+Lace was as much his as hers to use for wide, elaborate collars and
+cuffs. Embroidery belonged to both, and the men (like the women) of
+Germany, France, Italy and England wore many plumes on their big straw
+hats and metal helmets. The intercommunication between the Orient and
+all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere, and the abundance and
+variety of human trappings bewildered and vitiated taste.
+
+Unfortunately the change in line of costume has not moved parallel to
+the line in furniture. The revival of classic interior decoration in
+Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England, etc., did not at once revive the
+classic lines in woman's clothes.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVI
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle costumed � la guerre for a walk in the
+    country.
+
+    The cap is after one worn by her aviator husband.
+
+    This is one of the costumes--there are many--being worn by
+    women engaged in war work under the head of messengers,
+    chauffeurs, etc.
+
+    The shoes are most decidedly not for service, but they will
+    be replaced when the time is at hand, for others of stout
+    leather with heavy soles and flat heels.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed � la Guerre for
+    a Walk_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+LINE AND COLOUR OF COSTUMES IN HUNGARY
+
+
+The idea that man decorative, by reason of colour or line in costume, is
+of necessity either masquerading or effeminate, proceeds chiefly from
+the conventional nineteenth and twentieth century point of view in
+America and western Europe. But even in those parts of the world we are
+accustomed to colour in the uniforms of army and navy, the crimson
+"hood" of the university doctor, and red sash of the French Legion of
+Honour. We accept colour as a dignified attribute of man's attire in the
+cases cited, and we do not forget that our early nineteenth century
+American masculine forebears wore bright blue or vivid green coats,
+silver and brass buttons and red or yellow waistcoats. The gentleman
+sportsman of the early nineteenth century hunted in bright blue tailed
+coats with brass buttons, scarlet waistcoat, tight breeches and top
+hat! We refer to the same class of man who to-day wears rough, natural
+coloured tweeds, leather coat and close cap that his prey may not see
+him.
+
+In a sense, colour is a sign of virility when used by man. We have the
+North American Indian with his gay feathers, blankets and war paint, and
+the European peasant in his gala costume. In many cases colour is as
+much his as his woman's. Some years ago, when collecting data concerning
+national characteristics as expressed in the art of the Slavs, Magyars
+and Czechs, the writer studied these peoples in their native settings.
+We went first to Hungary and were disappointed to find Buda Pest far too
+cosmopolitan to be of value for the study of national costume, music or
+drama. The dominating and most artistic element in Hungary is the
+Magyar, and we were there to study him. But even the Gypsies who played
+the Magyar music in our hotel orchestra, wore the black evening dress of
+western Europe and patent leather shoes, and the music they played was
+from the most modern operettas. It was not until a world-famous
+Hungarian violinist arrived to give concerts in Buda Pest that the
+national spirit of the Gypsies was stirred to play the Magyar airs in
+his honour. (Gypsies take on the spirit of any adopted land). We then
+realised what they could make of the Recockzy march and other folk
+music.
+
+The experience of that evening spurred us to penetrate into southern
+Hungary, the heart of Magyar land, armed with letters of introduction,
+from one of the ministers of education, to mayors of the peasant
+villages.
+
+It was impossible to get on without an interpreter, as usually even the
+mayors knew only the Magyar language--not a word of German. That was the
+perfect region for getting at Magyar character expressed in the colour
+and line of costume, manner of living, point of view, folk song and
+dance. It is all still vividly clear to our mind's eye. We saw the first
+Magyar costumes in a village not far from Buda Pest. To make the few
+miles quickly, we had taken an electric trolley, vastly superior to
+anything in New York at the time of which we speak; and were let off in
+the centre of a group of small, low thatched cottages, white-washed,
+and having a broad band of one, two or three colours, extending from
+the ground to about three feet above it, and completely encircling the
+house. The favourite combination seemed to be blue and red, in parallel
+stripes. Near one of these houses we saw a very old woman with a long
+lashed whip in her hand, guarding two or three dark, curly, long-legged
+Hungarian pigs. She wore high boots, many short skirts, a shawl and a
+head-kerchief. Presently two other figures caught our eye: a man in a
+long cape to the tops of his boots, made of sheepskin, the wool inside,
+the outside decorated with bright-coloured wools, outlining crude
+designs. The black fur collar was the skin of a small black lamb, legs
+and tail showing, as when stripped off the little animal. The man wore a
+cone-shaped hat of black lamb and his hair reached to his shoulders. He
+smoked a very long-stemmed pipe with a china bowl, as he strolled along.
+Behind him a woman walked, bowed by the weight of an immense sack. She
+wore boots to the knees, many full short skirts, and a yellow and red
+silk head-kerchief. By her head-covering we knew her to be a married
+woman. They were a farmer and his wife! Among the Magyars the man is
+very decidedly the peacock; the woman is the pack-horse. On market days
+he lounges in the sunshine, wrapped in his long sheepskin cape, and
+smokes, while she plies the trade. In the farmers' homes of southern
+Hungary where we passed some time, we, as Americans, sat at table with
+the men of the house, while wife and daughter served. There was one
+large dish of food in the centre, into which every one dipped! The women
+of the peasant class never sit at table with their men; they serve them
+and eat afterwards, and they always address them in the second person
+as, "Will your graciousness have a cup of coffee?" Also they always walk
+behind the men. At country dances we have seen young girls in bright,
+very full skirts, with many ribbons braided into the hair, cluster shyly
+at a short distance from the dancing platform in the fair grounds,
+waiting to be beckoned or whistled to by one of the sturdy youths with
+skin-tight trousers, tucked into high boots, who by right of might, has
+stationed himself on the platform. When they have danced, generally a
+czardas, the girl goes back to the group of women, leaving the man on
+the platform in command of the situation! Yet already in 1897 women were
+being admitted to the University of Buda Pest. There in Hungary one
+could see woman run the whole gamut of her development, from man's slave
+to man's equal.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVII
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in one of her dancing costumes.
+
+    She was snapped by the camera as she sprang into a pose of
+    mere joyous abandon at the conclusion of a long series of
+    more or less exacting poses.
+
+    Mrs. Castle assures us that to repeat the effect produced
+    here, in which camera, lucky chance and favourable wind
+    combined, would be well-nigh impossible.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle_
+    _A Fantasy_]
+
+
+We found the national colour scheme to have the same violent contrasts
+which characterise the folk music and the folk poetry of the Magyars.
+
+Primitive man has no use for half-tones. It was the same with the
+Russian peasants and with the Poles. Our first morning in Krakau a great
+clattering of wheels and horses' hoofs on the cobbled court of our
+hotel, accompanied by the cracking of a whip and voices, drew us to our
+window. At first we thought a strolling circus had arrived, but no, that
+man with the red crown to his black fur cap, a peacock's feather
+fastened to it by a fantastic brooch, was just an ordinary farmer in
+Sunday garb. In the neighbourhood of Krakau the young men wear frock
+coats of white cloth, over bright red, short tight coats, and their
+light-coloured skin-tight trousers, worn inside knee boots, are
+embroidered in black down the fronts.
+
+One afternoon we were the guests of a Polish painter, who had married a
+pretty peasant, his model. He was a gentleman by birth and breeding, had
+studied art in Paris and spoke French, German and English. His wife, a
+child of the soil, knew only the dialect of her own province, but with
+the sensitive response of a Pole, eagerly waited to have translated to
+her what the Americans were saying of life among women in their country.
+She served us with tea and liquor, the red heels of her high boots
+clicking on the wooden floor as she moved about. As colour and as line,
+of a kind, that young Polish woman was a feast to the eye; full scarlet
+skirt, standing out over many petticoats and reaching only to the tops
+of her knee boots, full white bodice, a sleeveless jacket to the waist
+line, made of brightly coloured cretonne, outlined with coloured beads;
+a bright yellow head-kerchief bound her soft brown hair; her eyes were
+brown, and her skin like a yellow peach. On her neck hung strings of
+coral and amber beads. There was indeed a decorative woman! As for her
+background, it was simple enough to throw into relief the brilliant
+vision that she was. Not, however, a scheme of interior decoration to
+copy! The walls were whitewashed; a large stove of masonry was built
+into one corner, and four beds and a cradle stood on the other side of
+the room, over which hung in a row five virgins, the central one being
+the Black Virgin beloved by the Poles. The legend is that the original
+was painted during the life of the Virgin, on a panel of dark wood.
+Here, too, was the marriage chest, decorated with a crude design in
+bright colours. The children, three or four of them, ran about in the
+national costume, miniatures of their mother, but barefoot.
+
+It was the same in Hungary, when we were taken by the mayor of a Magyar
+town to visit the characteristic farmhouse of a highly prosperous
+farmer, said to be worth two hundred thousand dollars. The table was
+laid in the end of a room having four beds in it. On inquiring later, we
+were told that they were not ordinarily used by the family, but were
+heaped with the reserve bedding. In other words, they were recognised by
+the natives as indicating a degree of affluence, and were a bit of
+ostentation, not the overcrowding of necessity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+STUDYING LINE AND COLOUR IN RUSSIA
+
+
+From Hungary we continued our quest of line and colour of folk costume
+into Russia.
+
+Strangely enough, Russia throws off the imperial yoke of autocracy,
+declaring for democratic principles, at the very moment we undertake to
+put into words the vivid picturesqueness resulting largely from the
+causes of this astounding revolution. Have you been in Russia? Have you
+seen with your own eyes any phase of the violent contrasts which at last
+have caused the worm to turn? Our object being to study national
+characteristics as expressed in folk costume, folk song, folk dance,
+traditional customs and f�tes, we consulted students of these subjects,
+whom we chanced to meet in London, Paris, Vienna and Buda Pest, with the
+result that we turned our faces toward southern or "Little" Russia, as
+the part least affected by cosmopolitan influences.
+
+Kiev was our headquarters, and it is well to say at once that we found
+what we sought,--ample opportunity to observe the genuine Russian, the
+sturdy, dogged, plodding son of toil, who, more than any other European
+peasant seems a part of the soil, which in sullen persistency he tills.
+We knew already the Russians of Petrograd and Moscow; one meets them in
+Paris, London, Vienna, at German and Austrian Cures and on the Riviera.
+They are everywhere and always distinctive by reason of their Slav
+temperament; a magnetic race quality which is Asiatic in its essence. We
+recognise it, we are stirred by it, we are drawn to it in their
+literature, their music, their painting and in the Russian people
+themselves. The quality is an integral part of Russian nature; polishing
+merely increases its attraction as with a gem. One instance of this is
+the folk melody as treated by Tschaikowsky compared with its simple form
+as sung or danced by the peasant.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVIII
+
+    A skating costume worn by Miss Weld of Boston, holder of
+    the Woman's Figure Skating Championship.
+
+    This photograph was taken in New York on March 23, 1917,
+    when amateurs contested for the cup and Miss Weld won--this
+    time over the men.
+
+    The costume of wine-coloured velvet trimmed with mole-skin,
+    a small close toque to match, was one of the most
+    appropriate and attractive models of 1916-1917.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of New York Herald_
+    _Modern Skating Costume 1917 Winner of Amateur Championship
+    of Fancy Skating_]
+
+
+Some of the Russian women of the fashionable world are very decorative.
+Our first impression of this type was in Paris, at the Russian Church on
+Christmas (or was it some other holy day?) when to the amazement of the
+uninitiated the Russian women of the aristocracy appeared at the morning
+service hatless and in full evening dress, wearing jewels as if for a
+function at some secular court. Their masculine escorts appeared in full
+regalia, the light of the altar candles adding mystery to the glitter of
+gold lace and jewels. Those occasions are picturesque in the extreme.
+
+The congregation stands, as in the Jewish synagogues, and those of
+highest rank are nearest the altar, invariably ablaze with gold, silver
+and precious stones, while on occasions the priest wears cloth of gold.
+
+In Paris this background and the whole scene was accepted as a part of
+the pageant of that city, but in Kiev it was different. There we got the
+other side of the picture; the man and the woman who are really Russia,
+the element that finds an outlet in the folk music, for its age-old
+rebellious submission. One hears the soul of the Russian pulsating in
+the continued reiteration of the same theme; it is like the endless
+treadmill of a life without vistas. We were looking at the Russia of
+Maxim Gorky, the Russia that made Tolstoy a reformer; that has now
+forced its Czar to abdicate.
+
+We reached Kiev just before the Easter of the Greek Church, the season
+when the pilgrims, often as many as fifty thousand of them, tramp over
+the frozen roads from all parts of the empire to expiate their sins,
+kneeling at the shrine of one of their mummied, sainted bishops.
+
+The men and women alike, clad in grimy sheepskin coats, moved like
+cattle in straggling droves, over the roads which lead to Kiev. From a
+distance one cannot tell man from woman, but as they come closer, one
+sees that the woman has a bright kerchief tied round her head, and red
+or blue peasant embroidery dribbles below her sheepskin coat. She is as
+stocky as a Shetland pony and her face is weather-beaten, with high
+cheekbones and brown eyes. The man wears a black astrachan conical cap
+and his hair is long and bushy, from rubbing bear grease into it. He
+walks with a crooked staff, biblical in style, and carries his worldly
+goods in a small bundle flung over his shoulder. The woman carries her
+own small burden. As they shuffle past, a stench arises from the human
+herd. It comes from the sheepskin, which is worked in, slept in, and,
+what is more, often inherited from a parent who had also worn it as his
+winter hide. Added to the smell of the sheepskin is that of an unwashed
+human, and the reek of stale food, for the poorest of the Russian
+peasants have no chimneys to their houses. They cannot afford to let the
+costly heat escape.
+
+Kiev, the holy city and capital of Ancient Russia, climbs from its
+ancestral beginnings, on the banks of the River Dneiper, up the steep
+sides and over the summit of a commanding hilltop, crowned by an immense
+gold cross, illumined with electricity by night, to flash its message of
+hope to foot-sore pilgrims. The driver of our drosky drove us over the
+rough cobbles so rapidly, despite the hill, that we were almost
+overturned. It is the manner of Russian drosky drivers. The cathedral,
+our goal, was snowy-white, with frescoes on the outer walls,
+onion-shaped domes of bronze turned green; or gold, or blue with stars
+of gold.
+
+We entered and found the body of the church well filled by peasants,
+women and men in sheepskin. One poor doe-eyed creature crouched to press
+his forehead twenty times at least on the stone floor of the church.
+Eagerly, like a flock of sheep, they all pushed forward to where a
+richly-robed priest held a cross of gold for each to kiss, taking their
+proffered kopeks.
+
+The setting sun streamed through the ancient stained glass, dyeing their
+dirty sheepskin crimson, and purple, and green, until they looked like
+illuminations in old missals. To the eye and the mind of western Europe
+it was all incomprehensible. Yet those were the people of Russia who are
+to-day her mass of armed defenders; the element that has been counted on
+from the first by Russia and her allies stood penniless before an altar
+laid over with gold and silver and precious stones. Just before we got
+to Kiev, one of those men in sheepskins with uncut hair and dogged
+expression, who had a sense of values in human existence, broke into
+the church and stole jeweled chalices from the altar. They were traced
+to a pawnshop in a distant city and brought back. It was a common thing
+to see men halt in the street and stand uncovered, while a pitiful
+funeral cortege passed. A wooly, half-starved, often lame horse, was
+harnessed with rope to a simple four-wheeled farm wagon, a long-haired
+peasant at his head, women and children holding to the sides of the cart
+as they stumbled along in grief, and inside a rough wooden coffin
+covered with a black pall, on which was sewn the Greek cross, in white.
+Heartless, hopeless, weary and underfed, those peasants were taking
+their dead to be blessed for a price, by the priest in cloth of gold,
+without whose blessing there could be no burial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MARK TWAIN'S LOVE OF COLOUR IN ALL COSTUMING
+
+
+The public thinks of Mark Twain as being the apostle of _white_ during
+the last years of his life, but those who knew him well recall his
+delightfully original way of expressing an intense love for _bright
+colours_. This brings to mind a week-end at Mark Twain's beautiful
+Italian villa in Reading, Connecticut, when, one night during dinner, he
+held forth on the compelling fascination of colours and the American
+Indian's superior judgment in wearing them. After a lengthy
+elaboration--not to say exaggeration--of his theme, he ended by
+declaring in uncompromising terms, that colour, and plenty of it,
+crimson and yellow and blue, wrapped around man, as well as woman, was
+an obligation shirked by humanity. It was all put as only Mark Twain
+could have put it, with that serious vein showing through broad humour.
+This quality combined with an unmatched originality, made every moment
+passed in his company a memory to treasure. It was not alone his theme,
+but how he dealt with it, that fascinated one.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIX
+
+    One of the 1917 silhouettes.
+
+    Naturally, since woman to-day dresses for her
+    occupation--work or play--the characteristic silhouettes are
+    many.
+
+    This one is reproduced to illustrate our point that outline
+    can be affected by the smallest detail.
+
+    The sketch is by Elisabeth Searcy.
+
+    [Illustration: _Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy_
+    _A Modern Silhouette--1917 Tailor-made_]
+
+
+Mark Twain was elemental and at the same time a great artist,--the
+embodiment of extreme contradictions, and his flair for gay colour was
+one proof of his elemental strain. We laughed that night as he made word
+pictures of how men and women should dress. Next morning, toward noon,
+on looking out of a window, we saw standing in the middle of the
+driveway a figure wrapped in crimson silk, his white hair flying in the
+wind, while smoke from a pipe encircled his head. Yes, it was Mark
+Twain, who in the midst of his writing, had been suddenly struck with
+the thought that the road needed mending, and had gone out to have
+another look at it! It was a blustering day in Spring, and cold, so one
+of the household was sent to persuade him to come in. We can see him
+now, returning reluctantly, wind-blown and vehement, gesticulating, and
+stopping every few steps to express his opinion of the men who had made
+that road! The flaming red silk robe he wore was one his daughter had
+brought him from Liberty's, in London, and he adored it. Still wrapped
+in it, and seemingly unconscious of his unusual appearance, he joined us
+on the balcony, to resume a conversation of the night before.
+
+The red-robed figure seated itself in a wicker chair and berated the
+idea that mortal man ever _could_ be generous,--act without selfish
+motives. With the greatest reverence in his tone, sitting there in his
+whimsical costume of bright red silk, at high noon,--an immaculate
+French butler waiting at the door to announce lunch, Mark Twain
+concluded an analysis of modern religion with "--why the God _I_ believe
+in is too busy spinning spheres to have time to listen to human
+prayers."
+
+How often his words have been in our mind since war has shaken our
+planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE ARTIST AND HIS COSTUME
+
+
+The world has the habit of deriding that which it does not understand.
+It is the most primitive way of bolstering one's limitations. How often
+the woman or man with a God-given sense of the beautiful, the fitting,
+harmony between costume and setting, is described as poseur or poseuse
+by those who lack the same instinct. In a sense, of course, everything
+man does, beyond obeying the rudimentary instincts of the savage, is an
+affectation, and it is not possible to claim that even our contemporary
+costuming of man or woman always has _raison d'�tre_.
+
+We accept as the natural, unaffected raiment for woman and man that
+which custom has taught us to recognise as appropriate, with or without
+reason for being. For example, the tall, shiny, inflexible silk hat of
+man, and the tortuous high French heels of woman are in themselves
+neither beautiful, fitting, nor made to meet the special demands of any
+setting or circumstance. Both hat and heels are fashions, unbeautiful
+and uncomfortable, but to the eye of man to-day serve as insignia of
+formal dress, decreed by society.
+
+The artist nature has always assumed poetic license in the matter of
+dress, and as a rule defied custom, to follow an inborn feeling for
+beauty. That much-maligned short velvet coat and soft loose tie of the
+painter or writer, happen to have a most decided _raison d'�tre_; they
+represent comfort, convenience, and in the case of the velvet coat,
+satisfy a sensitiveness to texture, incomprehensible to other natures.
+As for the long hair of some artists, it can be a pose, but it has in
+many cases been absorption in work, or poverty--the actual lack of money
+for the conventional haircut. In cities we consider long hair on a man
+as effeminate, an indication of physical weakness, but the Russian
+peasant, most sturdy of individuals, wears his hair long, and so do many
+others among extremely primitive masculine types, who live their lives
+beyond the reach of Fashion and barbers.
+
+The short hair of the sincere woman artist is to save time at the
+toilette.
+
+There is always a limited number of men and women who, in ordinary acts
+of life, respond to texture, colour or line, as others do to music or
+scenery, and to be at their best in life, must dress their parts as they
+feel them. Japanese actors who play the parts of women, dress like women
+off the stage, and live the lives of women as nearly as possible, in
+order to acquire the feeling for women's garments; they train their
+bodies to the proper feminine carriage, counting upon this to perfect
+their interpretations.
+
+The woman who rides, hunts, shoots, fishes, sails her own boat, paddles,
+golfs and plays tennis, is very apt to look more at home in habit,
+tweeds and flannels, than she does in strictly feminine attire; the
+muscles she has acquired in legs and arms, from violent exercise, give
+an actual, not an assumed, stride and a swing to the upper body. In
+sports clothes, or severely tailored costume, this woman is at her best.
+Most trying for her will be demi-toilette (house gowns). She is
+beautiful at night because a certain balance, dignity and grace are
+lent her by the d�colletage and train of a dinner or ball gown. English
+women who are devotees of sport, demonstrate the above fact over and
+over again.
+
+While on the subject of responsiveness to texture and colour we would
+remind the reader that Richard Wagner hung the room in which he worked
+at his operas with bright silks, for the art stimulus he got from
+colour, and it is a well-known fact that he derived great pleasure from
+wearing dressing gowns and other garments made from rich materials.
+
+Clyde Fitch, our American playwright, when in his home, often wore
+velvet or brocaded silks. They were more sympathetic to his artist
+nature, more in accord with his fondness for wearing jewelled studs,
+buttons, scarf-pins. In his town and country houses the main scheme,
+leading features and every smallest detail were the result of Clyde
+Fitch's personal taste and effort, and he, more than most men and women,
+appreciated what a blot an inartistic human being can be on a room which
+of itself is a work of art.
+
+
+    PLATE XXX
+
+    Souvenirs of an artist designer's unique establishment, in
+    spirit and accomplishment _vrai Parisienne_. Notice the long
+    cape in the style of 1825.
+
+    Tapp� himself will tell you that all periods have had their
+    beautiful lines and colours; their interesting details; that
+    to find beauty one must first have the feeling for it; that
+    if one is not born with this subtle instinct, there are
+    manifold opportunities for cultivating it.
+
+    His claim is the same as that made in our _Art of Interior
+    Decoration_; the connoisseur is one who has passed through
+    the schooling to be acquired only by contact with
+    masterpieces,--those treasures sifted by time and preserved
+    for our education, in great art collections.
+
+    Tapp� emphasises the necessity of knowing the background for
+    a costume before planning it; the value of line in the
+    physique beneath the materials; the interest to be woven
+    into a woman's costume when her type is recognised, and the
+    modern insistence on appropriateness--that is, the simple
+    gown and close hat for the car, vivid colours for field
+    sports or beach; a large fan for the woman who is mistress
+    of sweeping lines, etc., etc.
+
+    Tapp� is absolutely French in his insistence upon the
+    possible eloquence of line; a single flower well poised and
+    the chic which is dependent upon _how a hat or gown is put
+    on_. We have heard him say: "No, I will not claim the hat in
+    that photograph, though I made it, because it is _mal
+    pos�_."
+
+    [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by Thelma
+    Cudlipp_
+    _Tapp�'s Creations_]
+
+In England, and far more so in America, men are put down as effeminate
+who wear jewelry to any marked extent. But no less a person than King
+Edward VII always wore a chain bangle on his arm, and one might cite
+countless men of the Continent as thoroughly masculine--Spaniards in
+particular--who wear as many jewelled rings as women. Apropos of this, a
+famous topaz, worn as a ring for years by a distinguished Spaniard was
+recently inherited by a relation in America--a woman. The stone was of
+such importance as a gem, that a record was kept of its passing from
+France into America. As a man's ring it was impressive and the setting
+such as to do it honour, but being a man's ring, it was too heavy for a
+woman's use. A pendant was made of the stone and a setting given it
+which turned out to be too trifling in character. The consequence was,
+the stone lost in value as a Rubens' canvas would, if placed in an art
+nouveau frame.
+
+Whether it is a precious stone, a valued painting or a woman's
+costume--the effect produced depends upon the character of its setting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+IDIOSYNCRASIES IN COSTUME
+
+
+Fashions in dress as in manners, religion, art, literature and drama,
+are all powerful because they seize upon the public mind.
+
+The Chelsea group of revolutionary artists in New York doubtless
+see,--perhaps but dimly, the same star that led Goethe and Schiller on,
+in the storm and stress period of their time. We smile now as we recall
+how Schiller stood on the street corners of Leipzig, wearing a
+dressing-gown by day to defy custom; but the youth of Athens did the
+same in the last days of Greece. In fact then the darlings of the gilded
+world struck attitudes of abandon in order to look like the Spartans.
+They refused to cut their hair and they would not wash their hands, and
+even boasted of their ragged clothes after fist fights in the streets.
+Yes, the gentlemen did this.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was a cult that wore furs
+in Summer and thin clothes in Winter, to prove that love made them
+strong enough to resist the elements! You will recall the Euphuists of
+England, the Precieuses of France and the Illuminati of the eighteenth
+century, as well as Les Merveilleux and Les Encroyables. The rich during
+the Renaissance were great and wise collectors but some followed the
+fashion for collecting manuscripts even when unable to read them. It is
+interesting to find that in the fourth and fifth centuries it was
+fashionable to be literary. Those with means for existence without
+labour, wrote for their own edification, copying the style of the
+ancient poets and philosophers.
+
+As early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Venetian women were
+shown the Paris fashions each Ascension Day on life-size dolls,
+displayed by an enterprising importer.
+
+It is true that fashions come and go, not only in dress, but how one
+should sit, stand, and walk; how use the hands and feet and eyes. To
+squint was once deemed a modest act. Women of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries stood with their abdomens out, and so did some in
+1916! There are also fashions in singing and speaking.
+
+The poses in portraits express much. Compare the exactly prim Copley
+miss, with a recent portrait by Cecilia Beaux of a young girl seated,
+with dainty satin-covered feet outstretched to full extent of the limbs,
+in casual impertinence,--our age!
+
+To return to the sixteenth century, it is worthy of note that some
+Venetian belles wore patines--that is, shoes with blocks of wood,
+sometimes two feet high, fastened to the soles. They could not move
+without a maid each side! As it was an age when elemental passions were
+"good form," jealous husbands are blamed for these!
+
+In the seventeenth century the idle dancing youth of to-day had his
+prototype in the Cavalier Servente, who hovered at his lady's side,
+affecting extravagant and effeminate manners.
+
+The corrupt morals of the sixteenth century followed in the wake of
+social intercourse by travel, literature, art and styles for costumes.
+
+Mme. R�camier, the exquisite embodiment of the Directoire style as
+depicted by David in his famous portrait of her, scandalised London by
+appearing in public, clad in transparent Greek draperies and scarfs.
+Later Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore belle, quite upset Philadelphia
+by repeating Mme. R�camier's experiment in that city of brotherly love!
+We are also told on good authority that one could have held Madame's
+wedding gown in the palm of the hand.
+
+Victorian hoops for public conveyances, paper-soled slippers in
+snow-drifts, wigs immense and heavy with powder, hair-oil and furbelows,
+hour-glass waist lines producing the "vapours" fortunately are no more.
+
+Taken by and large, we of the year 1917 seem to have reached the point
+where woman's psychology demands of dress fitness for each occasion,
+that she may give herself to her task without a material handicap. May
+the good work in this direction continue, as the panorama of costumes
+for women moves on down the ages that are to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+NATIONALITY IN COSTUME
+
+
+When seen in perspective, the costumes of various periods, as well as
+the architecture, interior decoration and furnishings of the homes of
+men appear as distinct types, though to the man or woman of any
+particular period the variations of the type are bewildering and
+misleading. It is the same in physical types; when visiting for the
+first time a foreign land one is immediately struck by a national cast
+of feature, English, French, American, Russian, etc. But if we remain in
+the country for any length of time, the differences between individuals
+impress us and we lose track of those features and characteristics the
+nation possesses in common. To-day, if asked what outline, materials and
+colour schemes characterise our fashions, some would say that almost
+anything in the way of line, materials and colour were worn. There is,
+however, always an epoch type, and while more than ever before the law
+of _appropriateness_ has dictated a certain silhouette for each
+occasion,--each occupation,--when recorded in costume books of the
+future we will be recognised as a distinct phase; as distinct as the
+Gothic, Elizabethan, Empire or Victorian period.
+
+
+    PLATE XXXI
+
+    Costume of a Red Cross Nurse, worn while working in a
+    French war hospital, by Miss Elsie de Wolfe, of New York. An
+    example of woman costumed so as to be most efficient for the
+    work in hand.
+
+    Miss de Wolfe's name has become synonymous with interior
+    decoration, throughout the length and breadth of our land,
+    but she established a reputation as one of the best-dressed
+    women in America, long before she left the stage to
+    professionally decorate homes. She has done an immeasurable
+    amount toward moulding the good taste of America in several
+    fields. At present her energies are in part devoted to
+    disseminating information concerning a cure for burns, one
+    of the many discoveries resulting from the exigencies of the
+    present devastating war.
+
+    [Illustration: _Miss Elsie de Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse_]
+
+
+As we have said, in studying the history of woman decorative, one
+finds two widely separated aspects of the subject, which must be
+considered in turn. There is the classifying of woman's apparel
+which comes under the head of European dress, woman's costume affected
+by cosmopolitan influences; costumes worn by that part of humanity
+which is in close intercommunication and reflecting the ebb and flow of
+currents--political, geographical and artistic. Then we have quite
+another field for study, that of national costumes, by which we mean
+costumes peculiar to some one nation and worn by its men and women
+century after century.
+
+It is interesting as well as depressing for the student of national
+characteristics to see the picturesque distinguishing lines and colours
+gradually disappear as railroads, steamboats and electric trolleys
+penetrate remote districts. With any influx of curious strangers there
+comes in time, often all too quickly, a regrettable self-consciousness,
+which is followed at first by an awkward imitation of the cosmopolitan
+garb.
+
+We recall our experience in Hungary. Having been advised to visit the
+peasant villages and farms lying out on the p�stas (plains of southern
+Hungary) if we would see the veritable national costumes, we set out
+hopefully with letters of introduction from a minister of education in
+Buda Pest, directed to mayors of Magyar villages. One of these planned a
+visit to a local celebrity, a Magyar farmer, very old, very prosperous,
+rich in herds of horses, sheep and magnificent Hungarian oxen, large,
+white and with almost straight, spreading horns, like the oxen of the
+ancient Greeks. There we met a man of the old school, nearly eighty, who
+had never in his life slept under cover, his duty being to guard his
+flocks and herds by night as well as day, though he had amassed what was
+for his station in life, a great fortune. He had never been seen in
+anything but the national costume, the same as worn in his part of the
+world for several hundred years. And so we went to see him in his home.
+We were all expectation! You can imagine our disappointment, when, upon
+arrival, we found our host awaiting us, painfully attired in the
+ordinary dark cloth coat and trousers of the modern farmer the world
+over. He had donned the ugly things in our honour, taking an hour to
+make his toilet, as we were secretly informed by one of the household.
+We tell this to show how one must persevere in the pursuit of artistic
+data. This was the same occasion cited in _The Art of Interior
+Decoration,_ when the highly decorative peasant tableware was banished
+by the women in the house, to make room, again in our honour, for plain
+white ironstone china.
+
+The feeling for line accredited to the French woman is equally the
+birthright of the Magyar--woman and man. One sees it in the dash of the
+court beauty who can carry off a mass of jewels, barbaric in splendour,
+where the average European or American would feel a Christmas tree in
+the same. And no man in Europe wears his uniform as the Hungarian
+officer of hussars does; the astrachan-trimmed short coat, slung over
+one shoulder, cap trimmed with fur, on the side of his head, and
+skin-tight trousers inside of faultless, spurred boots reaching to the
+knees. One can go so far as to say there is something decorative in the
+very temperament of Hungarian women, a fiery abandon, which makes _line_
+in a subtle way quite apart from the line of costume. This quality is
+also possessed by the Spanish woman, and developed to a remarkable
+degree in the professional Spanish dancer. The Gipsy woman has it
+too,--she brought it with her from Asia, as the Magyar's forebears did.
+
+Speaking of the Magyar, nothing so perfectly expresses the national
+temperament as the czardas--that peasant dance which begins with calm,
+stately repression, and ends in a mad ecstasy of expression, the rapid
+crescendo, the whirl, ending when the man seizes his partner and flings
+her high in the air. Watch the flash of the eyes and see that this is
+genuine temperament, not acting, but something inherent in the blood.
+The crude colour of the national costume and the sharp contrast in the
+folk music are equally expressions of national character, the various
+art expressions of which open up countless enticing vistas.
+
+The contemplation of some of these vistas leads one to the conclusion
+that woman decorative is so, either as an artist (that is, in the
+mastery of the science of line and colour, more or less under the
+control of passing fashion), or in the abandonment to the impulse of an
+untutored, unconscious, child of nature. Both can be beautiful; the art
+which is so great as to conceal conscious effort by creating the
+illusion of spontaneity, and the natural unconscious grace of the human
+being in youth or in the primitive state.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+MODELS
+
+
+An historical interest attaches to fashions in women's costuming, which
+the practised eye is quick to distinguish, but not always that of the
+novice. Of course the most casual and indifferent of mortals recognises
+the fact when woman's hat follows the lines of the French officer's cap,
+or her coat reproduces the Cossack's, with even a feint at his cartridge
+belt; but such echoes of the war are too obvious to call for comment.
+
+
+    PLATE XXXII
+
+    Madame Geraldine Farrar as _Carmen_.
+
+    In each of the three presentations of Madame Farrar we have
+    given her in character, as suggestions for stage costumes or
+    costume balls. (By courtesy of _Vanity Fair_.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Vanity Fair_
+    _Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine_]
+
+
+It is one of the missions of art to make subtle the obvious, and a
+distinguished example of this, which will illustrate our theme,--history
+mirrored by dress,--was seen recently. One of the most famous among the
+great couturi�res of Paris, who has opened a New York branch within two
+years, having just arrived with her Spring and Summer models, was
+showing them to an appreciative woman, a patron of many years. It is not
+an exaggeration to say that in all that procession of costumes for cool
+days or hot, ball-room, salon, boudoir or lawn, not one was banal, not
+one false in line or its colour-scheme. Whether the style was Classic
+Greek, Medi�val or Empire (these prevail), one felt the result, first of
+an artist's instinct, then a deep knowledge of the pictorial records of
+periods in dress, and to crown all, that conviction of the real artist,
+which gives both courage and discretion in moulding textiles,--the
+output of modern genius, to the purest classic lines. For example, one
+reads in every current fashion sheet that beads are in vogue as
+garniture for dresses. So they are, but note how your French woman
+treats them. Whether they are of jet, steel, pearl or crystal, she
+presses them into service as so much _colour_, massing them so that one
+is conscious only of a shimmering, clinging, wrapped-toga effect, � la
+Grecque, beneath the skirt and bodice of which every line and curve of
+the woman's form is seen. Evidently some, at least, are to be gleaming
+Tanagras. Even a dark-blue serge, for the motor, shopping or train, had
+from hips to the bust parallel lines of very small tube-like jet beads,
+sewn so close together that the effect was that of a shirt of mail.
+
+The use of notes of vivid colour caught the eye. In one case, on a black
+satin afternoon gown, a tiny nosegay of forget-me-not blue, rose-pink
+and jessamine-white, was made to decorate the one large patch-pocket on
+the skirt and a lapel of the sleeveless satin coat. Again on a
+dinner-dress of black Chantilly lace, over white chiffon (Empire lines),
+a very small, deep pinkish-red rose had a white rose-bud bound close to
+it with a bit of blue ribbon. This was placed under the bertha of cobweb
+lace, and demurely in the middle of the short-waisted bodice. Again a
+robe d'interior of white satin charmeuse, had a sleeveless coat of blue,
+reaching to knees, and a dashing bias sash of pinkish-red, twice round
+the waist, with its long ends reaching to skirt hem and heavily
+weighted.
+
+Not at once, but only gradually, did it dawn upon us that most of the
+gowns bore, in some shade or form, the tricolour of France!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB
+
+
+Every now and then a sex war is predicted, and sometimes started,
+usually by woman, though some predicted that when the present European
+war is over and the men come home to their civilian tasks, now being
+carried on by women, man is going to take the initiative, in the sex
+conflict. We doubt it. Without deliberate design to prove this
+point,--that a complete collaboration of the sexes has always made the
+wheels of the universe revolve, many of the illustrations studied showed
+woman with man as decoration, in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and during later
+periods.
+
+The Legend of Life tells us that man can not live alone, hence woman;
+and the Pageant of Life shows that she has played opposite with
+consistency and success throughout the ages.
+
+The Sunday issue of the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_ for March 25,
+1917, has a headline, "Trousers vs. Skirts," and, continues Margaret
+Davies, the author of the article:
+
+  "This war will change all things for European women.
+  Military service, of a sort, has come for them in both
+  France and England, where they are replacing men employed in
+  clerical and other non-combatant departments, including
+  motor driving. The moment this was decided upon in England,
+  it was found that 30,000 men would be released for actual
+  fighting, with prospects of the release of more than 200,000
+  more. What the French demand will be is not known as I
+  write, but it will equal that of England.
+
+  "How will these women dress? Will they be given military
+  uniforms short of skirt or even skirtless? Of course they
+  won't; but the world on this side of the ocean would not
+  gasp should this be done. War industry already has worked a
+  revolution.
+
+  "Study the pictures which accompany this article. They are a
+  new kind of women's 'fashion pictures'; they are photographs
+  of women dressed as European circumstances now compel them
+  to dress. Note the trousers, like a Turkish woman's, of the
+  French girl munitions workers. Thousands of girls here in
+  France are working in such trousers. Note the smart liveries
+  of the girls who have taken the places of male carriage
+  starters, mechanics and elevator operators, at a great
+  London shop. They are very natty, aren't they? Almost like
+  costumes from a comic opera. Well, they are not operatic
+  costumes. They are every-day working liveries. Girls wear
+  them in the most mixed London crowds--wear them because the
+  man-shortage makes it necessary for these girls to do work
+  which skirts do not fit. All French trams and buses have
+  'conductresses.'
+
+  "The coming of women cabmen in London is inevitable--indeed,
+  it already has begun. In Paris they have been established
+  sparsely for some time and have done well, but they have not
+  been used on taxis, only on the horse cabs.
+
+  "I have spent most of my time in Paris for some months now,
+  and have ridden behind women drivers frequently. They drive
+  carefully and well and are much kinder to their horses than
+  the old, red-faced, brutal French coch�rs are. I like them.
+  They have a wonderful command of language, not always
+  entirely or even partially polite, but they are
+  accommodating and less greedy for tips than male drivers.
+
+  "At Selfridge's great store--the largest and most
+  progressive in London, operated on Chicago lines--skirtless
+  maidens are not rare enough to attract undue attention. The
+  first to be seen there, indeed, is not in the store at all,
+  but on the sidewalk, outside of it, engaged in the gentle
+  art of directing customers to and from their cars and cabs
+  and incidentally keeping the chauffeurs in order.
+
+  "An extremely pretty girl she is, too, with her frock-coat
+  coming to her knees, her top-boots coming to the coat, and
+  now and then, when the wind blows, a glimpse of loose
+  knickers. She tells me that she's never had a man stare at
+  her since she appeared in the new livery, although women
+  have been curious about it and even critical of it. Women
+  have done all the staring to which she has been subjected.
+
+  "Within the store, many girls engaged in various special
+  employments, are dressed conveniently for their work, in
+  perfectly frank trousers. Among these are the girls who
+  operate the elevators. There is no compromise about it.
+  These girls wear absolutely trousers every working hour of
+  every working day in a great public store, in a great
+  crowded city, rubbing elbows (even touching trousered knees,
+  inevitably) with hundreds of men daily.
+
+
+      PLATE XXXIII
+
+      Madame Geraldine Farrar. The value of line was admirably
+      illustrated in the opera "Madame Butterfly" as seen this
+      winter at the Metropolitan Opera House. Have you chanced to
+      ask yourself why the outline of the individual members of
+      the chorus was so lacking in charm, and Madame Farrar's so
+      delightful? The great point is that in putting on her
+      kimono, Madame Farrar kept in mind the characteristic
+      silhouette of the Japanese woman as shown in Japanese art;
+      then she made a picture of herself, and one in harmony with
+      her Japanese setting. Which brings us back to the keynote of
+      our book--_Woman as Decoration_--beautiful _Line_.
+
+      [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by
+      Thelma Cudlipp_
+      _Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly_]
+
+
+  "And they like it. They work better in the new uniforms than
+  they used to in skirts and are less weary at each day's end.
+  And nobody worries them at all. There has not been the
+  faintest suspicion of an insult or an advance from any one
+  of the thousands of men and boys of all classes whom they
+  have ridden with upon their 'lifts,' sometimes in dense
+  crowds, sometimes in an involuntary t�te-�-t�te.
+
+  "Other employments which girls follow and dress for
+  bifurcatedly in this great and progressive store are more
+  astonishing than the operation of elevators. A charming
+  young plumber had made no compromise whatever with
+  tradition. She was in overalls like boy plumbers wear,
+  except that her trousers were not tight, but they were well
+  fitted. A little cap of the same material as the suit,
+  completed her jaunty and attractive costume. And cap and
+  suit were professionally stained, too, with oil and things
+  like that, while her small hands showed the grime of an
+  honest day's competent, hard work.
+
+  "The coming summer will see an immense amount of England's
+  farming done by women and, I think, well done. Organisations
+  already are under way whereby women propose to help decrease
+  the food shortage by intelligent increase of the chicken and
+  egg supply, and this is being so well planned that
+  undoubtedly it will succeed. Eggs and chickens will be
+  cheap in England ere the summer ends.
+
+  "I have met three ex-stenographers who now are at hard work,
+  two of them in munition factories (making military engines
+  of death) and one of them on a farm. I asked them how they
+  liked the change.
+
+  "'I should hate to have to go back to work in the old long
+  skirts,' one replied. 'I should hate to go back to the old
+  days of relying upon some one else for everything that
+  really matters. But--well, I wish the war would end and I
+  hope the casualty lists of fine young men will not grow
+  longer, day by day, as Spring approaches, although everybody
+  says they will.'
+
+  "Mrs. John Bull takes girls in pantaloons quite calmly and
+  approvingly, now that she has learned that if there are
+  enough of them, dad and the boys will pay no more attention
+  to them in trousers than they would pay to them in skirts."
+
+We have preferred to quote the exact wording of the original article,
+for the reason that while the facts are familiar to most of us, the
+manner of putting them could not, to our mind, be more graphic. Some
+day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who
+again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such
+data will amuse.
+
+That the women of Finland make worthy members of their parliament does
+not prove anything outside of Finland. That the exigencies of the
+present hour in England have made women equal to every task of men so
+far entrusted to them, proves much for England. Women, like men, have
+untold, untried abilities within them, women and men alike are
+marvellous under fire--capable of development in every direction. What
+human nature has done it can do again, and infinitely more under the
+pressure of necessity which opens up brain cells, steels the heart,
+hardens the muscles, and like magic fire, licks up the dross of
+humanity, aimlessly floating on the surface of life, awaiting a leader
+to melt and mould it at Fate's will into clearly defined personalities,
+ready to serve. This point has been magnificently proved by the war now
+waging in Europe.
+
+Let us repeat; that from the beginning the story of woman's costuming
+proves her many-sidedness, the inexhaustible stock of her latent
+qualities which, like man's, await the call of the hour.
+
+
+
+
+IN CONCLUSION
+
+
+The foregoing chapters have aimed at showing the decorative value of
+woman's costume as seen in the art of Egypt, Greece, Gothic Europe,
+Europe of the Renaissance and during the seventeenth, eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries. To prove the point that woman is a telling note in
+the interior decoration of to-day, the vital spark in any setting, we
+have not dwelt upon the fashions so much as decorative line,
+colour-scheme and fitness for the occasion.
+
+It is costume associated with caste which interests us more than folk
+costume. We have shown that it is the modern insistence on efficiency
+that has led to appropriate dress for work and recreation, and that our
+idea of the chic and the beautiful in costume is based on
+_appropriateness_. Also we have shown that line in costumes is in part
+the result of one's "form"--the absolute control of the body, its
+"carriage," poise of the head, action of legs, arms, hands and feet, and
+that form means successful effort in any direction, because through it
+the mind may control the physical medium.
+
+It is the woman who knows what she should wear, what she can wear and
+how to wear it, who is most efficient in whatever she gives her mind to.
+She it is who will expend the least time, strength and money on her
+appearance, and be the first to report for duty in connection with the
+next obligation in the business of life.
+
+Therefore let us keep in mind a few rules for the perfect costuming of
+woman:
+
+  Appropriateness for each occasion so as to get efficiency,
+  or be as decorative as possible.
+
+  Outline.--Fashion in silhouette adapted to your own type.
+
+  Background.--Your setting.
+
+  Colour scheme.--Fashionable colours chosen and combined to
+  express your personality as well as to harmonise with the
+  tone of setting, or, if preferred, to be an agreeable
+  contrast to it.
+
+  Detail.--Trimming with _raison d'�tre_,--not meaningless
+  superfluities.
+
+It is, of course, understood that the attainment of _beauty_ in the
+costuming of woman is our aim when stating and applying the foregoing
+principles.
+
+The art of interior decoration and the art of costuming woman are
+occasionally centred in the same individual, but not often. Some of the
+most perfectly dressed women, models for their less gifted sisters, are
+not only ignorant as to the art of setting their stage, but oblivious of
+the fact that it may need setting.
+
+Remember, that while an inartistic room, confused as to line and
+colour-scheme can absolutely destroy the effect of a perfect gown, an
+inartistic, though costly gown can likewise be a blot on a perfect room.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Woman as Decoration, by Emily Burbank</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woman as Decoration, by Emily Burbank</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Woman as Decoration</p>
+<p>Author: Emily Burbank</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 23, 2006  [eBook #18901]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Cori Samuel,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/">http://www.pgdp.net/</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History,<br />
+    Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University<br />
+    (<a href="http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/">http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/</a>)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="10" style="background-color: #ccccff;">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History,
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. See
+      <a href="http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;idno=4221758">
+      http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;idno=4221758</a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi"></a>PLATE I</h4>
+
+<p> Madame Geraldine Farrar as Tha&iuml;s in the opera of that name.
+    It is a sketch made from life for this book. Observe the
+    gilded wig and richly embroidered gown. They are after
+    descriptions of a costume worn by the real Tha&iuml;s. It is a
+    Greek type of costume but not the familiar classic Greek of
+    sculptured story. Tha&iuml;s was a reigning beauty and acted in
+    the theatre of Alexandria in the early Christian era.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 266px;">
+<a href="images/frontispiece.jpg"><img src="images/frontispiece-tb.jpg" width="266" height="400" alt="An English Portrait" title="An English Portrait" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Sketched for &quot;Woman as Decoration&quot; by Thelma Cudlipp<br />Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Greek Costume as Tha&iuml;s</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1>WOMAN AS DECORATION</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>EMILY BURBANK</h2>
+
+<h4><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 84px;">
+<img src="images/printers-mark.jpg" width="84" height="80" alt="Printer&#39;s mark" title="Printer&#39;s mark" />
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<h5>NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1917</h5>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1917<br />
+By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.</span>
+<br /><br /><br /><br />
+DEDICATED<br />
+to<br />
+V. B. G.</h4>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Woman as Decoration</span> is intended as a sequel to <i>The Art of
+Interior Decoration</i> (Grace Wood and Emily Burbank).</p>
+
+<p>Having assisted in setting the stage for woman, the next logical step is
+the consideration of woman, herself, as an important factor in the
+decorative scheme of any setting,&mdash;the vital spark to animate all
+interior decoration, private or public. The book in hand is intended as
+a brief guide for the woman who would understand her own type,&mdash;make the
+most of it, and know how simple a matter it is to be decorative if she
+will but master the few rules underlying all successful dressing. As the
+costuming of woman is an art, the history of that art must be known&mdash;to
+a certain extent&mdash;by one who would be an intelligent student of our
+subject. With the assistance of thirty-three illustrations to throw
+light upon the text, we have tried to tell the beguiling story of
+decorative woman, as she appears in frescoes and bas reliefs of Ancient
+Egypt, on Greek vases, the Gothic woman in tapestry and stained glass,
+woman in painting, stucco and tapestry of the Renaissance, seventeenth,
+eighteenth and nineteenth century woman in portraits.</p>
+
+<p>Contemporary woman's costume is considered, not as fashion, but as
+decorative line and colour, a distinct contribution to the interior
+decoration of her own home or other setting. In this department, woman
+is given suggestions as to the costuming of herself, beautifully and
+appropriately, in the ball-room, at the opera, in her boudoir, sun-room
+or on her shaded porch; in her garden; when driving her own car; by the
+sea, or on the ice.</p>
+
+<p>Woman as Decoration has been planned, in part, also to fill a need very
+generally expressed for a handbook to serve as guide for beginners in
+getting up costumes for fancy-dress balls, amateur theatricals, or the
+professional stage.</p>
+
+<p>We have tried to shed light upon period costumes and point out ways of
+making any costume effective.</p>
+
+<p>Costume books abound, but so far as we know, this is the first attempt
+to confine the vast and perplexing subject within the dimensions of a
+small, accessible volume devoted to the principles underlying the
+planning of all costumes, regardless of period.</p>
+
+<p>The author does not advocate the preening of her feathers as woman's
+sole occupation, in any age, much less at this crisis in the making of
+world history; but she does lay great emphasis on the fact that a woman
+owes it to herself, her family and the public in general, to be as
+decorative in any setting, as her knowledge of the art of dressing
+admits. This knowledge implies an understanding of line, colour,
+fitness, background, and above all, one's own type. To know one's type,
+and to have some knowledge of the principles underlying all good
+dressing, is of serious economic value; it means a saving of time,
+vitality and money.</p>
+
+<p>The watchword of to-day is efficiency, and the keynote to modern
+costuming, appropriateness. And so the spirit of the time records itself
+in the interesting and charming subdivision of woman's attire.</p>
+
+<p>One may follow Woman Decorative in the Orient on vase, fan, screen and
+kakemono; as she struts in the stiff manner of Egyptian bas reliefs,
+across walls of ancient ruins, or sits in angular serenity, gazing into
+the future through the narrow slits of Egyptian eyes, oblivious of time;
+woman, beautiful in the European sense, and decorative to the
+superlative degree, on Greek vase and sculptured wall. Here in rhythmic
+curves, she dandles lovely Cupid on her toe; serves as vestal virgin at
+a woodland shrine; wears the bronze helmet of Minerva; makes laws, or as
+Penelope, the wife, wearily awaits her roving lord. She moves in august
+majesty, a sore-tried queen, and leaps in merry laughter as a care-free
+slave; pipes, sings and plies the distaff. Sauntering on, down through
+Gothic Europe, Tudor England, the adolescent Renaissance, Bourbon
+France, into the picturesque changes of the eighteenth century, we ask,
+can one possibly escape our theme&mdash;Woman as Decoration? No, for she is
+carved in wood and stone; as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven gleams in
+the jeweled windows of the church, looks down in placid serenity on
+lighted altar; is woven in tapestry, in fact dominates all art,
+painting, stucco or marble, throughout the ages.</p>
+
+<p>If one would know the story of Woman's evolution and retrogression&mdash;that
+rising and falling tide in civilisation&mdash;we commend a study of her as
+she is presented in Art. A knowledge of her costume frequently throws
+light upon her age; a thorough knowledge of her age will throw light
+upon her costume.</p>
+
+<p>A study of the essentials of any costume, of any period, trains the eye
+and mind to be expert in planning costumes for every-day use. One learns
+quickly to discriminate between details which are ornaments, because
+they have meaning, and those which are only illiterate superfluities;
+and one learns to master many other points.</p>
+
+<p>It is not within the province of this book to dwell at length upon
+national costume, but rather to follow costume as it developed with and
+reflected caste, after human society ceased to be all alike as to
+occupation, diversion and interest.</p>
+
+<p>In the world of caste, costume has gradually evolved until it aims
+through appropriateness, at assisting woman to fulfil her r&ocirc;le. With
+peasants who know only the traditional costume of their province, the
+task must often be done in spite of the costume, which is picturesque or
+grotesque, inconvenient, even impossible; but long may it linger to
+divert the eye! Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland,
+Scandinavia,&mdash;all have an endless variety of costumes, rich in souvenirs
+of folk history, rainbows of colour and bizarre in line, but it is
+costuming the woman of fashion which claims our attention.</p>
+
+<p>The succeeding chapters will treat of woman, the vital spark which gives
+meaning to any setting&mdash;indoors, out of doors, at the opera, in the
+ball-room, on the ice&mdash;where you will. Each chapter has to do with
+modern woman and the historical paragraphs are given primarily to shed
+light upon her costume.</p>
+
+<p>It is shown that woman's decorative appearance affects her psychology,
+and that woman's psychology affects her decorative appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Some chapters may, at first glance, seem irrelevant, but those who have
+seriously studied any art, and then undertaken to tell its story
+briefly in simple, direct language, with the hope of quickly putting
+audience or reader in touch with the vital links in the chain of
+evidence, will understand the author's claim that no detour which
+illustrates the subject can in justice be termed irrelevant. In the
+detours often lie invaluable data, for one with a mind for
+research&mdash;whether author or reader. This is especially true in
+connection with our present task, which involves unravelling some of the
+threads from the tangled skein of religion, dancing, music, sculpture
+and painting&mdash;that mass of bright and sombre colour, of gold and silver
+threads, strung with pearls and glittering gems strangely broken by
+age&mdash;which tells the epic-lyric tale of civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>While we state that it is not our aim to make a point of fashion as
+such, some of our illustrations show contemporary woman as she appears
+in our homes, on our streets, at the play, in her garden, etc. We have
+taken examples of women's costumes which are pre-eminently
+characteristic of the moment in which we write, and as we believe,
+illustrate those laws upon which we base our deductions concerning
+woman as decoration. These laws are: appropriateness of her costume to
+the occasion; consideration of the type of wearer; background against
+which costume is to be worn; and all decoration (which includes jewels),
+as detail with <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>. The body should be carried with form (in
+the sporting sense), to assist in giving line to the costume.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>chic</i> woman is the one who understands the art of elimination in
+costumes. Wear your costumes with conviction&mdash;by which we mean decide
+what picture you will make of yourself, make it and then enjoy it! It is
+only by letting your personality animate your costume that you make
+yourself superior to the lay figure or the sawdust doll.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="Table of Contents">
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td><td class="smcap">A Few Hints for the Novice who Would Plan Her Costumes</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Rules having economic value while aiming at
+decorativeness.&mdash;Lines and colouring emphasised
+or modified by costuming.&mdash;Temperaments affect
+carriage of the body.&mdash;Line of body affects
+costume.&mdash;Technique of controlling the physique.&mdash;The
+highly sensitised woman.&mdash;Costuming an
+art.&mdash;Studying types.&mdash;Starring one's own good
+points.&mdash;Beauty not so fleeting as is supposed
+if costume is adapted to its changing aspects.&mdash;Masters
+in art of costuming often discover and
+star previously unrecognised beauty.&mdash;Establishing
+the habit of those lines and colours in
+gowns, hats, gloves, parasols, sticks, fans and
+jewels which are your own.&mdash;The intelligent
+purchaser.&mdash;The best dressed women.&mdash;Value of
+understanding one's background.&mdash;Learning the
+art of understanding one's background.&mdash;Learning
+the art of costuming from masters of the
+art.&mdash;How to proceed with this study.&mdash;Successful
+costuming not dependent upon amount of
+money spent upon it.&mdash;An example</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td><td class="smcap">The Laws Underlying All Costuming of Woman</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Appropriateness keynote of costuming to-day.&mdash;Five
+salient points to be borne in mind when
+planning a costume.&mdash;Where English, French,
+and American women excel in art of costuming.&mdash;Feeling
+for line.&mdash;To make our points clear
+constant reference to the stage is necessary.&mdash;Bakst
+and Poiret.&mdash;Turning to the Orient for
+line and colour.&mdash;Keeping costume in same key
+as its settings.&mdash;How to know your period; its
+line, colours and characteristic details.&mdash;Studying
+costumes in Gothic illuminations</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td><td class="smcap">How to Dress Your Type</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc"><span class="smcap">A Few Points Applying to all Costumes.</span>&mdash;Background.&mdash;Line
+and colour of costumes to
+bring out the individuality of wearer.&mdash;The chic
+woman defined.&mdash;Intelligent expressing of self
+in <i>mise-en-sc&egrave;ne</i>.&mdash;Selecting one's colour scheme</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td><td class="smcap">The Psychology of Clothes</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Effect of clothes upon manners.&mdash;The natural
+instinct for costuming, &quot;clothes sense.&quot;&mdash;Costuming
+affecting psychology of wearer.&mdash;Clothes
+may liberate or shackle the spirit of women, be
+a tyrant or magician's wand.&mdash;Follow colour
+instinct in clothes as well as housefurnishings</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td><td class="smcap">Establish Habits of Carriage Which Create Good Line</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Woman's line result of habits of a mind controlled
+by observations, conventions, experiences
+and attitudes which make her personality.&mdash;Training
+lines of physique from childhood; an
+example.&mdash;A knowledge of how to dress appropriately
+leads to efficiency</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td><td class="smcap">Colour In Woman's Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Colour hall-mark of to-day.&mdash;Bakst, Rheinhardt
+and Granville Barker, teachers of the new
+colour vocabulary.&mdash;<span class="small">PORTABLE BACKGROUNDS</span></td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td><td class="smcap">Footwear</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Importance of carefully considering extremities.&mdash;What
+constitutes a costume.&mdash;Importance
+of learning how to buy, put on and wear each
+detail of costume if one would be a decorative picture.&mdash;Spats.&mdash;Stockings.&mdash;Slippers.&mdash;Buckles</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td><td class="smcap">Jewelry as Decoration</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Considered as colour and line not with regard
+to intrinsic worth.&mdash;To complete a costume or
+furnish keynote upon which to build a costume.&mdash;Distinguished
+jewels with historic associations
+worn artistically; examples.&mdash;Know what
+jewels are your affair as to colour, size, and
+shape.&mdash;To know what one can and cannot
+wear in all departments of costuming prepares
+one to grasp and make use of expert suggestions.
+How fashions come into being.&mdash;One of the rules
+as to how jewels should be worn.&mdash;Gems and
+paste</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman Decorative in Her Boudoir</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Neglig&eacute;e or tea-gown belongs to this intimate
+setting.&mdash;Fortuny the artist designer of tea-gowns.&mdash;Sibyl
+Sanderson.&mdash;The decorative value
+of a long string of beads.&mdash;Beauty which is the
+result of conscious effort.&mdash;<i>Bien soin&eacute;</i> a hall-mark
+of our period</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman Decorative in Her Sun-Room</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Since a winter sun-room is planned to give
+the illusion of summer, one's costuming for it
+should carry out the same idea.&mdash;The sun-room
+provides a means for using up last summer's
+costumes.&mdash;The hat, if worn, should suggest
+repose, not action.&mdash;The age and habits of those
+occupying a sun-room dictate the exact type
+of costume to be worn.&mdash;Colour scheme</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></td><td class="smcap">I. Woman Decorative in Her Garden</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">In the garden the costume should have a
+decorative outline but simple colour scheme
+which harmonises with background of flowers.&mdash;White,
+grey, or one note of colour preferable.&mdash;The
+flowers furnish variety and colour.&mdash;Lady
+de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) in her garden
+at Newmarket, England</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">&nbsp;</td><td class="smcap">II. Woman Decorative on the Lawn</td><td class="toc-right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">One may be a flower or a bunch of flowers
+for colour against the unbroken sweep of green
+underfoot and background of shrubs and trees.&mdash;Chic
+outline and interesting detail, as well as
+colour, of distinct value in a costume for lawn.&mdash;How
+to cultivate an unerring instinct for
+what is a successful costume for any given occasion</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">&nbsp;</td><td class="smcap">III. Woman Decorative on the Beach</td><td class="toc-right">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">If one would be a contribution to the picture,
+figure as white or vivid colour on beach,
+deck of steamer or yacht</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman As Decoration When Skating</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Line of the body all important.&mdash;The necessity
+of mastering <i>form</i> to gain efficiency in any
+line; examples.&mdash;The traditional skating costume
+has the lead</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman Decorative in Her Motor Car </td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">The colour of one's car inside and out important
+factor in effect produced by one's carefully
+chosen costume</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></td><td class="smcap">How To Go About Planning A Period Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Period.&mdash;Background.&mdash;Outline.&mdash;Materials.&mdash;Colour
+scheme.&mdash;Detail with meaning.&mdash;Authorities.&mdash;Consulting
+portraits by great masters.&mdash;Geraldine
+Farrar.&mdash;Distinguished collection of
+costume plates.&mdash;One result of planning period
+costumes is the opening up of vistas in history.&mdash;Every
+detail of a period costume has its fascinating
+story worth the knowing.&mdash;Brief historic
+outline to serve as key to the rich storehouse
+of important volumes on costumes and
+the distinguished textless books of costume
+plates.&mdash;Period of fashions in costumes developing
+without nationality.&mdash;Nationality declared
+in artistry of workmanship and the modification
+or exaggeration of an essential detail according
+to national or individual temperament.&mdash;Evolution
+of woman's costume.&mdash;Assyria.&mdash;Egypt.&mdash;Byzantium.&mdash;Greece.&mdash;Rome.&mdash;Gothic
+Europe.&mdash;Europe of the
+Renaissance,&mdash;seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
+century through Mid-Victorian period.&mdash;Cord tied about
+waist origin of costumes for women and men</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a><br /><br />&nbsp;</td><td class="smcap">The Story Of Period Costumes<br /><br />A R&eacute;sum&eacute;</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Woman as seen in Egyptian sculpture-relief;
+on Greek vase; in Gothic stained glass; carved
+stone; tapestry; stucco; and painting of the
+Renaissance; eighteenth and nineteenth century
+portraits.&mdash;Art throughout the ages reflects
+woman in every r&ocirc;le; as companion, ruler,
+slave, saint, plaything, teacher, and voluntary
+worker.&mdash;Evolution of outline of woman's costume,
+including change in neck; shoulder;
+evolution of sleeve; girdle; hair; head-dress;
+waist line; petticoat.&mdash;Gradual disappearance
+of long, flowing lines characteristic of Greek
+and Gothic periods.&mdash;Demoralisation of Nature's
+shoulder and hip-line culminates in the Velasquez
+edition of Spanish fashion and the Marie
+Antoinette extravaganzas</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI</a></td><td class="smcap">Development Of Gothic Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Gothic outline first seen as early as fourth
+century.&mdash;Costume of Roman-Christian women.&mdash;Ninth
+century.&mdash;The Gothic cape of twelfth,
+thirteenth and fourteenth centuries made
+familiar on the Virgin and saints in sacred
+art.&mdash;The tunic.&mdash;Restraint in line, colour, and
+detail gradually disappear with increased circulation
+of wealth until in fifteenth century we
+see humanity over-weighted with rich brocades,
+laces, massive jewels, etc.<br /><br />
+<span class="smcap">The Virgin in Art</span><br /><br />
+Late Middle Ages.&mdash;Sovereignty of the Virgin
+as explained in &quot;The Cathedrals of Mont St.
+Michel and Chartres,&quot; by Henry Adams.&mdash;Woman
+as the Virgin dominates art of twelfth,
+thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.&mdash;The girdle.&mdash;The
+round neck.&mdash;The necklace, etc.</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII</a><br /><br />&nbsp;</td><td class="smcap">The Renaissance<br /><br />Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Pointed and other head-dresses with floating
+veils.&mdash;Neck low off shoulders.&mdash;Skirts part as
+waist-line over petticoat.&mdash;Wealth of Roman
+Empire through new trade channels had led to
+importation of richly coloured Oriental stuffs.&mdash;Same
+wealth led to establishing looms in
+Europe.&mdash;Clothes of man like his over-ornate
+furniture show debauched and vulgar taste.&mdash;The
+good Gothic lines live on in costumes of
+nuns and priests.&mdash;The Davanzati Palace collection,
+Florence, Italy.&mdash;Long pointed shoes
+of the Middle Ages give way to broad square
+ones.&mdash;Gorgeous materials.&mdash;Hats.&mdash;Hair.&mdash;Sleeves.&mdash;Skirts.&mdash;Crinolines.&mdash;Coats.&mdash;Overskirts
+draped to develop into panniers of Marie
+Antoinette's time.&mdash;Directoire reaction to simple
+lines and materials</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a></td><td class="smcap">Eighteenth Century</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Political upheavals.&mdash;Scientific discoveries.&mdash;Mechanical
+inventions.&mdash;Chemical achievements.&mdash;Chintz
+or stamped linens of Jouy near Versailles.&mdash;Painted
+wall-papers after the Chinese.&mdash;Simplicity
+in costuming of woman and man</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman In The Victorian Period</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">First seventy years of nineteenth century.&mdash;"Historic
+Dress in America" by Elizabeth McClellan.&mdash;Hoops,
+wigs, absurdly furbished head-dresses,
+paper-soled shoes, bonnets enormous,
+laces of cobweb, shawls from India, rouge and
+hair-grease, patches and powder, laced waists,
+and &quot;vapours.&quot;&mdash;Man still decorative</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX</a></td><td class="smcap">Sex In Costuming </td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">&quot;European dress.&quot;&mdash;Progenitor of costume
+worn by modern men.&mdash;The time when no distinction
+was made between materials used for
+man and woman.&mdash;Velvets, silks, satins, laces,
+elaborate cuffs and collars, embroidery, jewels
+and plumes as much his as hers</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI</a></td><td class="smcap">Line And Colour Of Costumes In Hungary</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">In a sense colour a sign of virility.&mdash;Examples.&mdash;Studying
+line and colour in Magyar
+Land.&mdash;In Krakau, Poland,&mdash;A highly decorative
+Polish peasant and her setting</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII</a></td><td class="smcap">Studying Line and Colour in Russia</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Kiev our headquarters.&mdash;Slav temperament
+an integral part of Russian nature expressed
+in costuming as well as folk songs and dances
+of the people.&mdash;Russian woman of the fashionable
+world.&mdash;The Russian pilgrims as we saw
+them tramping over the frozen roads to the
+shrines of Kiev, the Holy City and ancient
+capital of Russia at the close of the Lenten
+season.&mdash;Their costumes and their psychology</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII</a></td><td class="smcap">Mark Twain's Love of Colour in all Costuming</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Wrapped in a crimson silk dressing-gown
+on a balcony of his Italian villa in Connecticut,
+Mark Twain dilated on the value of brilliant
+colour in man's costuming.&mdash;His creative,
+picturing-making mind in action.&mdash;Other themes
+followed</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV</a></td><td class="smcap">The Artist And His Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">A God-given sense of the beautiful.&mdash;The
+artist nature has always assumed poetic license
+in the matter of dress.&mdash;Many so-called affectations
+have <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>.&mdash;Responding to texture,
+colour and line as some do to music and
+scenery.&mdash;How Japanese actors train themselves
+to act women's parts by wearing woman's
+costumes off the stage.&mdash;This cultivates the required
+<i>feeling</i> for the costumes.&mdash;The woman
+devotee to sports when costumed.&mdash;Richard
+Wagner's responsiveness to colour and texture.&mdash;Clyde
+Fitch's sensitiveness to the same.&mdash;The
+wearing of jewels by men.&mdash;King Edward
+VII.&mdash;A remarkable topaz worn by a Spaniard.&mdash;Its
+undoing as a decorative object through
+its resetting</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV</a></td><td class="smcap">Idiosyncrasies in Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Fashions in dress all powerful because they
+seize upon the public mind.&mdash;They become the
+symbol of manners and affect human psychology.&mdash;Affectations
+of the youth of Athens.&mdash;Les
+Merveilleux, Les Encroyables, the Illuminati.&mdash;Schiller
+during the Storm and Stress
+Period.&mdash;Venetian belles of the sixteenth century.&mdash;The
+<i>Cavalier Servente</i> of the seventeenth
+century.&mdash;Mme. R&eacute;camier scandalised London
+in eighteenth century by appearing costumed
+&agrave; la Greque.&mdash;Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore
+belle, followed suit in Philadelphia.&mdash;Hour-glass
+waist-line and attendant &quot;vapours&quot;
+were thought to be in the r&ocirc;le of a high-born
+Victorian miss.&mdash;Appropriateness the contribution
+of our day to the story of woman's costuming</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI</a></td><td class="smcap">Nationality In Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">When seen with perspective the costumes of
+various periods appear as distinct types though
+to the man or woman of any particular period
+the variations of the type are bewildering and
+misleading.&mdash;Having followed the evolution of
+the costume of woman of fashion which comes
+under the general head of European dress, before
+closing we turn to quite another field, that
+of national costumes.&mdash;Progress levels national
+differences, therefore the student must make the
+most of opportunities to observe.&mdash;Experiences
+in Hungary</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII</a></td><td class="smcap">Models</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">Historical interest attaches to fashions in
+woman's costuming.&mdash;One of the missions of
+art is to make subtle the obvious.&mdash;Examples as
+seen in 1917</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII</a></td><td class="smcap">Woman Costumed for Her War Job</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">The Pageant of Life shows that woman has
+played opposite man with consistency and success
+throughout the ages.&mdash;Apropos of this, we
+quote from Philadelphia <i>Public Ledger</i>, for
+March 25, 1917, an impression of a woman of
+to-day costumed appropriately to get efficiency
+in her war work</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">&nbsp;</td><td class="smcap">In Conclusion</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_324">324</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="toc">A brief review of the chief points to be kept
+in mind by those interested in the costuming
+of woman so that she figures as a decorative
+contribution to any setting</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<table summary="List of Illustrations" class="loi">
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">I</td><td><span class="smcap">Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Greek Costume as Tha&iuml;s</span><br />
+Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp</td><td class="toc-right">(<i><a href="#Page_vi">Frontispiece</a></i>)</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">II</td><td class="smcap">Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_7">9</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">III</td><td class="smcap">Woman in Greek Art</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_17">19</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">IV</td><td class="smcap">Woman on Greek Vase</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_27">29</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">V</td><td><span class="smcap">Woman in Gothic Art</span><br />
+Portrait Showing Pointed Head-dress</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_37">39</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">VI</td><td><span class="smcap">Woman in Art of the Renaissance</span><br />
+Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: The Virgin</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_47">49</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">VII</td><td><span class="smcap">Woman in Art of the Renaissance</span><br />
+Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: Holy Women</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_57">59</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">VIII</td><td><span class="smcap">Tudor England</span><br />
+Portrait of Queen Elizabeth</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_67">69</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">IX</td><td class="smcap">Spain--Velasquez Portrait</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_77">79</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">X</td><td><span class="smcap">Eighteenth Century England</span><br />
+Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_87">89</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XI</td><td><span class="smcap">Bourbon France</span><br />
+Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Madame Vig�e Le Brun</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_97">99</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XII</td><td><span class="smcap">Costume of Empire Period</span><br />
+An English Portrait</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_107">109</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XIII</td><td><span class="smcap">Eighteenth Century Costume</span><br />
+Portrait by Gilbert Stuart</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_117">119</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XIV</td><td><span class="smcap">Victorian Period (About 1840)</span><br />
+Mme. Adeline Gen�e in Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_127">129</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XV</td><td><span class="smcap">Late Nineteenth Century (About 1890)</span>
+A Portrait by John S. Sargent</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_137">139</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XVI</td><td><span class="smcap">A Modern Portrait</span><br />
+By John W. Alexander</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_147">149</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XVII</td><td><span class="smcap">A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig</span><br />
+By I. Zuloaga</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_157">159</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XVIII</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_167">169</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XIX</td><td><span class="smcap">Mrs. Cond� Nast in Street Dress</span><br />
+Photograph by Baron de Meyer</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_177">179</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XX</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Cond� Nast in Evening Dress</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_187">189</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXI</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Cond� Nast in Garden Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_197">199</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXII</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Cond� Nast in Fortuny Tea Gown</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_207">209</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXIII</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_217">219</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXIV</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Winter</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_227">229</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXV</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Summer</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_237">239</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXVI</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed � La Guerre for a Walk</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_247">249</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXVII</td><td class="smcap">Mrs. Vernon Castle--A Fantasy</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_257">259</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXVIII</td><td><span class="smcap">Modern Skating Costume--1917</span><br />
+Winner of Amateur Championship of Fancy Skating</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_267">269</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXIX A</td><td><span class="smcap">Modern Silhouette--1917</span><br />
+Tailor-Made. Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_277">279</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXX</td><td><span class="smcap">Tapp�'s Creations</span><br />
+Sketched for <i>Woman as Decoration</i> by Thelma Cudlipp</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_287">289</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXXI</td><td class="smcap">Miss Elsie De Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_297">299</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXXII</td><td><span class="smcap">Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmen</span><br />
+From Photograph by Courtesy of <i>Vanity Fair</i></td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_307">309</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="toc-right">XXXIII</td><td><span class="smcap">Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly</span><br />
+Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp</td><td class="toc-right"><a href="#Page_317">319</a></td></tr>
+
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The Communion of men upon earth abhors identity more than
+    nature does a vacuum. Nothing so shocks and repels the
+    living soul as a row of exactly similar things, whether it
+    consists of modern houses or of modern people, and nothing
+    so delights and edifies as distinction.&quot;</p>
+    <p class="smcap">Coventry Patmore.<br />&nbsp;</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Whatever piece of dress conceals a woman's figure, is
+    bound, in justice, to do so in a picturesque way.&quot;</p>
+   <p><i>From an Early Victorian Fashion Paper.</i><br />&nbsp;</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;When was that 'simple time of our fathers' when people were
+    too sensible to care for fashions? It certainly was before
+    the Pharaohs, and perhaps before the Glacial Epoch.&quot;</p>
+    <p><span class="smcap">W. G. Sumner</span>, in <i>Folkways</i>.</p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" /><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>A FEW HINTS FOR THE NOVICE WHO WOULD PLAN HER COSTUMES</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HERE</b></span>
+are a few rules with regard to the costuming of woman which if
+understood put one a long way on the road toward that desirable
+goal&mdash;decorativeness, and have economic value as well. They are simple
+rules deduced by those who have made a study of woman's lines and
+colouring, and how to emphasise or modify them by dress.</p>
+
+<p>Temperaments are seriously considered by experts in this art, for the
+carriage of a woman and her manner of wearing her clothes depends in
+part upon her temperament. Some women instinctively <i>feel</i> line and are
+graceful in con<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>sequence, as we have said, but where one is not born
+with this instinct, it is possible to become so thoroughly schooled in
+the technique of controlling the physique&mdash;poise of the body, carriage
+of the head, movement of the limbs, use of feet and hands, that a sense
+of line is acquired. Study portraits by great masters, the movements of
+those on the stage, the carriage and positions natural to graceful
+women. A graceful woman is invariably a woman highly sensitised, but
+remember that &quot;alive to the finger tips&quot;&mdash;or toe tips, may be true of
+the woman with few gestures, a quiet voice and measured words, as well
+as the intensely active type.</p>
+
+<p>The highly sensitised woman is the one who will wear her clothes with
+individuality, whether she be rounded or slender. To dress well is an
+art, and requires concentration as any other art does. You know the old
+story of the boy, who when asked why his necktie was always more neatly
+tied than those of his companions, answered: &quot;I put my whole mind on
+it.&quot; There you have it! The woman who puts her whole mind on the
+costuming of herself is naturally going to look better than the woman
+who does <a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>not, and having carefully studied her type, she will know her
+strong points and her weak ones, and by accentuating the former, draw
+attention from the latter. There is a great difference, however, between
+concentrating on dress until an effect is achieved, and then turning the
+mind to other subjects, and that tiresome dawdling, indefinite,
+fruitless way, to arrive at no convictions. This variety of woman never
+gets dress off her chest.</p>
+
+<p>The catechism of good dressing might be given in some such form as this:
+Are you fat? If so, never try to look thin by compressing your figure or
+confining your clothes in such a way as to clearly outline the figure.
+Take a chance from your size. Aim at long lines, and what dressmakers
+call an &quot;easy fit,&quot; and the use of solid colours. Stripes, checks,
+plaids, spots and figures of any kind draw attention to dimensions; a
+very fat woman looks larger if her surface is marked off into many
+spaces. Likewise a very thin woman looks thinner if her body on the
+imagination of the public <i>subtracting</i> is marked off into spaces
+absurdly few in number. A beautifully proportioned and rounded <a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>figure
+is the one to indulge in striped, checked, spotted or flowered materials
+or any parti-coloured costumes.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>Never try to make a thin woman look anything but thin. Often by
+accentuating her thinness, a woman can make an effect as <i>type</i>, which
+gives her distinction. If she were foolish enough to try to look fatter,
+her lines would be lost without attaining the contour of the rounded
+type. There are of course fashions in types; pale ash blonds, red-haired
+types (auburn or golden red with shell pink complexions), dark haired
+types with pale white skin, etc., and fashions in figures are as many
+and as fleeting.</p>
+
+<p>Artists are sometimes responsible for these vogues. One hears of the
+Rubens type, or the Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hauptner, Burne-Jones, Greuse,
+Henner, Zuloaga, and others. The artist selects the type and paints it,
+the attention of the public is attracted to it and thereafter singles it
+out. We may prefer soft, round blonds with dimpled smiles, but that does
+not mean that such indisputable loveliness can challenge the
+attrac<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>tions of a slender serpentine tragedy-queen, if the latter has
+established the vogue of her type through the medium of the stage or
+painter's brush.</p>
+
+<p>A woman well known in the world of fashion both sides of the Atlantic,
+slender and very tall, has at times deliberately increased that height
+with a small high-crowned hat, surmounted by a still higher feather. She
+attained distinction without becoming a caricature, by reason of her
+obvious breeding and reserve. Here is an important point. A woman of
+quiet and what we call conservative type, can afford to wear conspicuous
+clothes if she wishes, whereas a conspicuous type <i>must</i> be reserved in
+her dress. By following this rule the overblown rose often makes herself
+beautiful. Study all types of woman. Beauty is a wonderful and precious
+thing, and not so fleeting either as one is told. The point is, to take
+note, not of beauty's departure, but its gradually changing aspect, and
+adapt costume, line and colour, to the demands of each year's
+alterations in the individual. Make the most of grey hair; as you lose
+your colour, soften your tones.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>Always star your points. If you happen to have an unusual amount of
+hair, make it count, even though the fashion be to wear but little. We
+recall the beautiful and unique Madame X. of Paris, blessed by the gods
+with hair like bronze, heavy, long, silken and straight. She wore it
+wrapped about her head and finally coiled into a French twist on the
+top, the effect closely resembling an old Roman helmet. This was design,
+not chance, and her well-modeled features were the sort to stand the
+severe coiffure, Madame's husband, always at her side that season on
+Lake Lucerne, was curator of the Louvre. We often wondered whether the
+idea was his or hers. She invariably wore white, not a note of colour,
+save her hair; even her well-bred fox terrier was snowy white.</p>
+
+<p>Worth has given distinction to more than one woman by recognising her
+possibilities, if kept to white, black, greys and mauves. A beautiful
+Englishwoman dressed by this establishment, always a marked figure at
+whatever embassy her husband happens to be posted, has never been seen
+wearing anything in the evening but black, or white, with very simple
+lines, cut low and having a narrow train.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE II<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a></h4>
+
+<p><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>Woman in ancient Egyptian sculpture-relief about 1000
+    <span class="small">B.C.</span></p>
+
+<p>    We have here a husband and wife. (Metropolitan Museum.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 305px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p009.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p009-tb.jpg" width="305" height="400" alt="Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief" title="Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i><br /><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>
+<i>Woman in Ancient Egyptian<br />
+Sculpture-Relief</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>It may take courage on the part of dressmaker, as well as the woman in
+question, but granted you have a distinct style of your own, and
+understand it, it is the part of wisdom to establish the habit of those
+lines and colours which are yours, and then to avoid experiments with
+<i>outr&eacute;</i> lines and shades. They are almost sure to prove failures. Taking
+on a colour and its variants is an economic, as well as an artistic
+measure. Some women have so systematised their costuming in order to be
+decorative, at the least possible expenditure of vitality and time
+(these are the women who dress to live, not live to dress), that they
+know at a glance, if dress materials, hats, gloves, jewels, colour of
+stones and style of setting, are for them. It is really a joy to shop
+with this kind of woman. She has definitely fixed in her mind the
+colours and lines of her rooms, all her habitual settings, and the
+clothes and accessories best <i>for her</i>. And with the eye of an artist,
+she passes swiftly by the most alluring bargains, calculated to
+undermine firm resolution. In fact one should not <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>say that this woman
+shops; she buys. What is more, she never wastes money, though she may
+spend it lavishly.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the best dressed women (by which we always mean women dressed
+fittingly for the occasion, and with reference to their own particular
+types) are those with decidedly limited incomes.</p>
+
+<p>There are women who suggest chiffon and others brocade; women who call
+for satin, and others for silk; women for sheer muslins, and others for
+heavy linen weaves; women for straight brims, and others for those that
+droop; women for leghorns, and those they do not suit; women for white
+furs, and others for tawny shades. A woman with red in her hair is the
+one to wear red fox.</p>
+
+<p>If you cannot see for yourself what line and colour do to you, surely
+you have some friend who can tell you. In any case, there is always the
+possibility of paying an expert for advice. Allow yourself to be guided
+in the reaching of some decision about yourself and your limitations, as
+well as possibilities. You will by this means increase your
+decorativeness, and what is <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>of more serious importance, your economic
+value.</p>
+
+<p>A marked example of woman decorative was seen on the recent occasion
+when Miss Isadora Duncan danced at the Metropolitan Opera House, for the
+benefit of French artists and their families, victims of the present
+war. Miss Duncan was herself so marvelous that afternoon, as she poured
+her art, aglow and vibrant with genius, into the mould of one classic
+pose after another, that most of her audience had little interest in any
+other personality, or effect. Some of us, however, when scanning the
+house between the acts, had our attention caught and held by a
+charmingly decorative woman occupying one of the boxes, a quaint outline
+in silver-grey taffeta, exactly matching the shade of the woman's hair,
+which was cut in Florentine fashion forming an aureole about her small
+head,&mdash;a becoming frame for her fine, highly sensitive face. The deep
+red curtains and upholstery in the box threw her into relief, a lovely
+miniature, as seen from a distance. There were no doubt other charming
+costumes in the boxes and stalls that afternoon, but none so successful
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>in registering a distinct decorative effect. The one we refer to was
+suitable, becoming, individual, and reflected personality in a way to
+indicate an extraordinary sensitiveness to values, that subtle instinct
+which makes the artist.</p>
+
+<p>With very young women it is easy to be decorative under most conditions.
+Almost all of them are decorative, as seen in our present fashions, but
+to produce an effect in an opera box is to understand the <i>carrying
+power</i> of colour and line. The woman in the opera box has the same
+problem to solve as the woman on the stage: her costume must be
+effective at a distance. Such a costume may be white, black and any
+colour; gold, silver, steel or jet; lace, chiffon&mdash;what you
+will&mdash;provided the fact be kept in mind that your outline be striking
+and the colour an agreeable contrast against the lining of the box.
+Here, outline is of chief importance, the silhouette must be definite;
+hair, ornaments, fan, cut of gown, calculated to register against the
+background. In the stalls, colour and outline of any single costume
+become a part of the mass of colour and black and white of the audience.
+It is difficult to be a decorative factor under these <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>conditions, yet
+we can all recall women of every age, who so costume themselves as to
+make an artistic, memorable impression, not only when entering opera,
+theatre or concert hall, but when seated. These are the women who
+understand the value of elimination, restraint, colour harmony and that
+chic which results in part from faultless grooming. To-day it is not
+enough to possess hair which curls ideally: it must, willy nilly, curl
+conventionally!</p>
+
+<p>If it is necessary, prudent or wise that your purchases for each season
+include not more than six new gowns, take the advice of an actress of
+international reputation, who is famous for her good dressing in private
+life, and make a point of adding one new gown to each of the six
+departments of your wardrobe. Then have the cleverness to appear in
+these costumes whenever on view, making what you have fill in between
+times.</p>
+
+<p>To be clear, we would say, try always to begin a season with one
+distinguished evening gown, one smart tailor suit, one charming house
+gown, one tea gown, one neglig&eacute;e and one sport suit. If you are needing
+many dancing frocks, which <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>have hard wear, get a simple, becoming
+model, which your little dressmaker, seamstress or maid can copy in
+inexpensive but becoming colours. You can do this in Summer and Winter
+alike, and with dancing frocks, tea gowns, neglig&eacute;es and even sport
+suits. That is, if you have smart, up-to-date models to copy.</p>
+
+<p>One woman we know bought the finest quality jersey cloth by the yard,
+and had a little dressmaker copy exactly a very expensive skirt and
+sweater. It seems incredible, but she saved on a ready made suit exactly
+like it forty dollars, and on one made to measure by an exclusive house,
+one hundred dollars! Remember, however, that there was an artist back of
+it all and someone had to pay for that perfect model, to start with. In
+the case we cite, the woman had herself bought the original sport suit
+from an importer who is always in advance with Paris models.</p>
+
+<p>If you cannot buy the designs and workmanship of artists, take advantage
+of all opportunities to see them; hats and gowns shown at openings, or
+when your richer friends are ordering. In this way you will get ideas to
+make use of and you will avoid looking home-made, than which, no more
+damning phrase can be applied to any costume. As a matter of fact it
+implies a hat or gown lacking an artist's touch and describes many a one
+turned out by long-established and largely patronised firms.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE III<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>A Greek vase. Dionysiac scenes about 460 <span class="small">B.C.</span>
+    Interesting costumes. (Metropolitan Museum.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p019.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p019-tb.jpg" width="358" height="400" alt="Woman on Greek Vase" title="Woman on Greek Vase" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i>
+<i>Woman on Greek Vase</i></span>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>The only satisfactory copy of a Fortuny tea gown we have ever seen
+accomplished away from the supervision of Fortuny himself, was the
+exquisite hand-work of a young American woman who lives in New York, and
+makes her own gowns and hats, because her interest and talent happen to
+be in that direction. She told a group of friends the other day, to whom
+she was showing a dainty chiffon gown, posed on a form, that to her, the
+planning and making of a lovely costume had the same thrilling
+excitement that the painting of a picture had for the artist in the
+field of paint and canvas. This same young woman has worked constantly
+since the European war began, both in London and New York, on the
+shapeless surgical shirts used by the wounded soldiers. In this, does
+she outrank her less accomplished sisters? Yes, for the technique she
+has achieved by making her own <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>costumes makes her swift and economical,
+both in the cutting of her material and in the actual sewing and she is
+invaluable as a buyer of materials.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" /><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HAT</b></span>
+every costume is either right or wrong is not a matter of general
+knowledge. &quot;It will do,&quot; or &quot;It is near enough&quot; are verdicts responsible
+for beauty hidden and interest destroyed. Who has not witnessed the mad
+mental confusion of women and men put to it to decide upon costumes for
+some fancy-dress ball, and the appalling ignorance displayed when, at
+the costumer's, they vaguely grope among battered-looking garments,
+accepting those proffered, not really knowing how the costume they ask
+for should look?</p>
+
+<p>Absurd mistakes in period costumes are to be taken more or less
+seriously according to temperament. But where is the fair woman who will
+say that a failure to emerge from a dressmaker's hands in a successful
+costume is not a <a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>tragedy? Yet we know that the average woman, more
+often than not, stands stupefied before the infinite variety of
+materials and colours of our twentieth century, and unless guided by an
+expert, rarely presents the figure, <i>chez-elle</i>, or when on view in
+public places, which she would or could, if in possession of the few
+rules underlying all successful dressing, whatever the century or
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>Six salient points are to be borne in mind when planning a costume,
+whether for a fancy-dress ball or to be worn as one goes about one's
+daily life:</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>First, appropriateness to occasion, station and age;</p>
+
+<p>Second, character of background you are to appear against (your
+setting);</p>
+
+<p>Third, what outline you wish to present to observers (the period of
+costume);</p>
+
+<p>Fourth, what materials of those in use during period selected you will
+choose;</p>
+
+<p>Fifth, what colours of those characteristic of period you will use;</p>
+
+<p>Sixth, the distinction between those details <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>which are obvious
+contributions to the costume, and those which are superfluous, because
+meaningless or line-destroying.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>Let us remind our reader that the woman who dresses in perfect taste
+often spends far less money than she who has contracted the habit of
+indefiniteness as to what she wants, what she should want, and how to
+wear what she gets.</p>
+
+<p>Where one woman has used her mind and learned beyond all wavering what
+she can and what she cannot wear, thousands fill the streets by day and
+places of amusement by night, who blithely carry upon their persons
+costumes which hide their good points and accentuate their bad ones.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>rara avis</i> among women is she who always presents a fashionable
+outline, but so subtly adapted to her own type that the impression made
+is one of distinct individuality.</p>
+
+<p>One knows very well how little the average costume counts in a theatre,
+opera house or ball-room. It is a question of background again. Also you
+will observe that the costume which counts most individually, is the one
+in a key <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>higher or lower than the average, as with a voice in a crowded
+room.</p>
+
+<p>The chief contribution of our day to the art of making woman decorative
+is the quality of appropriateness. I refer of course to the woman who
+lives her life in the meshes of civilisation. We have defined the smart
+woman as she who wears the costume best suited to each occasion when
+that occasion presents itself. Accepting this definition, we must all
+agree that beyond question the smartest women, as a nation, are English
+women, who are so fundamentally convinced as to the invincible law of
+appropriateness that from the cradle to the grave, with them evening
+means an evening gown; country clothes are suited to country uses and a
+tea-gown is not a bedroom neglig&eacute;e. Not even in Rome can they be
+prevailed upon &quot;to do as the Romans do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of this we recall an experience in Scotland. A house party had
+gathered for the shooting,&mdash;English men and women. Among the guests were
+two Americans; done to a turn by Redfern. It really turned out to be a
+tragedy, as they saw it, for though their cloth skirts were short, they
+were silk-lined; outing shirts were of cr&ecirc;pe&mdash;not flannel; tan boots,
+but thinly soled; hats most chic, but the sort that drooped in a mist.
+Well, those two American girls had to choose between long days alone,
+while the rest tramped the moors, or to being togged out in borrowed
+tweeds, flannel shirts and thick-soled boots.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE IV<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a></h4>
+
+<p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>Greek Kylix. Signed by Hieron, about 400 <span class="small">B.C.</span>
+    Athenian. The woman wears one of the gowns Fortuny (Paris)
+    has reproduced as a modern tea gown. It is in two pieces.
+    The characteristic short tunic reaches just below waist line
+    in front and hangs in long, fine pleats (sometimes cascaded
+    folds) under the arms, the ends of which reach below knees.
+    The material is not cut to form sleeves; instead two oblong
+    pieces of material are held together by small fastenings at
+    short intervals, showing upper arm through intervening
+    spaces. The result in appearance is similar to a kimono
+    sleeve. (Metropolitan Museum.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 329px;">
+<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>
+<a href="images/illus_p029.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p029-tb.jpg" width="329" height="400" alt="Woman in Greek Art about 400  B.C." title="Woman in Greek Art about 400  B.C." /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i> <i>Woman in Greek
+    Art about 400 B.C.</i></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>That was some years back. We are a match for England to-day, in the
+open, but have a long way to go before we wear with equal conviction,
+and therefore easy grace, tea-gown and evening dress. Both <i>how</i> and
+<i>when</i> still annoy us as a nation. On the street we are supreme when
+<i>tailleur</i>. In carriage attire the French woman is supreme, by reason of
+that innate Latin coquetry which makes her <i>feel</i> line and its
+significance. The ideal pose for any hat is a French secret.</p>
+
+<p>The average woman is partially aware that if she would be a decorative
+being, she must grasp conclusively two points: first, the limitations of
+her natural outline; secondly, a knowledge of how nearly she can
+approach the outline demanded by fashion without appearing a
+cari<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>cature, which is another way of saying that each woman should learn
+to recognise her own type. The discussion of silhouette has become a
+popular theme. In fact it would be difficult to find a maker of women's
+costumes so remote and unread as not to have seized and imbedded deep in
+her vocabulary that mystic word.</p>
+
+<p>To make our points clear, constant reference to the stage is necessary;
+for from stage effects we are one and all free to enjoy and learn.
+Nowhere else can the woman see so clearly presented the value of having
+what she wears harmonise with the room she wears it in, and the occasion
+for which it is worn.</p>
+
+<p>Not all plays depicting contemporary life are plays of social life,
+staged and costumed in a chic manner. What is taught by the modern
+stage, as shown by Bakst, Reinhardt, Barker, Urban, Jones, the
+Portmanteau Theatre and Washington Square Players, is <i>values</i>, as the
+artist uses the term&mdash;not fashions; the relative importance of
+background, outline, colour, texture of material and how to produce
+harmonious effects by the judicious combination of furnishings and
+costumes.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>To-day, when we want to say that a costume or the interior decoration of
+a house is the last word in modern line and colour, we are apt to call
+it &agrave; la Bakst, meaning of course Leon Bakst, whose American &quot;poster&quot; was
+the Russian Ballet. If you have not done so already, buy or borrow the
+wonderful Bakst book, showing reproductions in their colours of his
+extraordinary drawings, the originals of which are owned by private
+individuals or museums, in Paris, Petrograd, London, and New York. They
+are <i>outr&eacute;</i> to a degree, yet each one suggests the whole or parts of
+costumes for modern woman&mdash;adorable lines, unbelievable combinations of
+colour! No wonder Poiret, the Paris dressmaker, seized upon Bakst as
+designer (or was it Bakst who seized upon Poiret?).</p>
+
+<p>Bakst got his inspiration in the Orient. As a bit of proof, for your own
+satisfaction, there is a book entitled <i>Six Monuments of Chinese
+Sculpture</i>, by Edward Chauvannes, published in 1914, by G. Van Oest &amp;
+Cie., of Brussels and Paris. The author, with a highly commendable
+desire to perpetuate for students a record of the most ancient
+speciments of Chinese sculp<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>ture, brought to Paris and sold there, from
+time to time, to art-collectors, from all over the world; selected six
+fine speciments as theme of text and for illustrations.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_219">Plate 23</a> in this collection shows a woman whose costume in <i>outline</i>
+might have been taken from Bakst or even Vogue. But put it the other way
+round: the Vogue artist to-day&mdash;we use the word as a generic term&mdash;finds
+inspiration through museums and such works as the above. This is
+particularly true as our little handbook goes into print, for the reason
+that the great war between the Central Powers and the Entente has to a
+certain extent checked the invention and material output of Europe, and
+driven designers of and dealers in costumes for women, to China and
+Japan.</p>
+
+<p>Our great-great-grandmothers here in America wore Paris fashions shown
+on the imported fashion dolls and made up in brocades from China, by the
+Colonial mantua makers. So we are but repeating history.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, war, which means horror, ugliness, loss of ideals and illusions,
+holds most of the world in its grasp, and we find creative
+artists&mdash;apostles<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a> of the Beautiful, seeking the Orient because it is
+remote from the great world struggle. We hear that Edmund Dulac (who has
+shown in a superlative manner, woman decorative, when illustrating the
+<i>Arabian Nights</i> and other well-known books), is planning a flight to
+the Orient. He says that he longs to bury himself far from carnage, in
+the hope of wooing back his muse.</p>
+
+<p>If this subject of background, line and colour, in relation to costuming
+of woman, interests you, there are many ways of getting valuable points.
+One of them, as we have said, is to walk through galleries looking at
+pictures only as decorations; that is, colour and line against the
+painter's background.</p>
+
+<p>Fashions change, in dress, arrangement of hair, jewels, etc., but this
+does not affect values. It is <i>la ligne</i>, the grand gesture, or line
+fraught with meaning and balance and harmony of colour.</p>
+
+<p>The reader knows the colour scheme of her own rooms and the character of
+gowns she is planning, and for suggestions as to interesting colour
+against colour, she can have no higher <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>authority than the experience of
+recognised painters. Some develop rapidly in this study of values.</p>
+
+<p>If your rooms are so-called period rooms, you need not of necessity
+dress in period costumes, but what is extremely important, if you would
+not spoil your period room, nor fail to be a decorative contribution
+when in it, is that you make a point of having the colour and texture of
+your house gowns in the same key as the hangings and upholstery of your
+room. White is safe in any room, black is at times too strong. It
+depends in part upon the size of your room. If it is small and in soft
+tones, delicate harmonising shades will not obtrude themselves as black
+can and so reduce the effect of space. This is the case not only with
+black, but with emerald green, decided shades of red, royal blue, and
+purple or deep yellows. If artistic creations, these colours are all
+decorative in a room done in light tones, provided the room is large.</p>
+
+<p>A Louis XVI salon is far more beautiful if the costumes are kept in
+Louis XVI colouring and all details, such as lace, jewelry, fans, etc.,
+kept strictly within the picture; fine in design, delicate in colouring,
+workmanship and quality of material. Beyond these points one may follow
+the outline demanded by the fashion of the moment, if desired. But
+remember that a beautiful, interesting room, furnished with works of
+art, demands a beautiful, interesting costume, if the woman in question
+would sustain the impression made by her rooms, to the arranging of
+which she has given thought, time and vitality, to say nothing of
+financial outlay; she must take her own decorative appearance seriously.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE V<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>Example of the pointed head-dress, carefully concealed hair
+    (in certain countries at certain periods of history, a sign
+    of modesty), round necklace and very long close sleeves
+    characteristic of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.</p>
+<p>    Observe angle at which head-dress is worn.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p039.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p039-tb.jpg" width="306" height="400" alt="Portrait showing pointed head-dress" title="Portrait showing pointed head-dress" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i><br /><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>
+<i>Woman in Gothic Art<br />
+Portrait showing pointed head-dress</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>The writer has passed wonderful hours examining rare illuminated
+manuscripts of the Middle Ages (twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries), missals, &quot;Hours&quot; of the Virgin, and Breviaries,
+for the sole purpose of studying woman's costumes,&mdash;their colour, line
+and details, as depicted by the old artists. Gothic costumes in Gothic
+interiors, and Early Renaissance costumes in Renaissance interiors.</p>
+
+<p>The art of moderns in various media, has taken from these creations of
+medi&aelig;val genius, more than is generally realized. We were look<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>ing at a
+rare illuminated Gothic manuscript recently, from which William Morris
+drew inspirations and ideas for the books he made. It is a monumental
+achievement of the twelfth century, a mass book, written and illuminated
+in Flanders; at one time in the possession of a Cistercian monastery,
+but now one of the treasures in the noted private collection made by the
+late J. Pierpont Morgan. The pages are of vellum and the illuminations
+show the figures of saints in jewel-like colours on backgrounds of pure
+gold leaf. The binding of this book,&mdash;sides of wood, held together by
+heavy white vellum, hand-tooled with clasps of thin silver, is the work
+of Morris himself and very characteristic of his manner. He patterned
+his hand-made books after these great models, just as he worked years to
+duplicate some wonderful old piece of furniture, realising so well the
+magic which lies in consecrated labour, that labour which takes no
+account of time, nor pay, but is led on by the vision of perfection
+possessing the artist's soul.</p>
+
+<p>We know women who have copied the line, colour and material of costumes
+depicted in<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a> Gothic illuminations that they might be in harmony with
+their own Gothic rooms. One woman familiar with this art, has planned a
+frankly modern room, covering her walls with gold Japanese fibre,
+gilding her woodwork and doors, using the brilliant blues, purples and
+greens of the old illuminations in her hangings, upholstery and
+cushions, and as a striking contribution to the decorative scheme,
+costumes herself in white, some soft, clinging material such as cr&ecirc;pe de
+chine, liberty satin or chiffon velvet, which take the medi&aelig;val lines,
+in long folds. She wears a silver girdle formed of the hand-made clasps
+of old religious books, and her rings, neck chains and earrings are all
+of hand-wrought silver, with precious stones cut in the ancient way and
+irregularly set. This woman got her idea of the effectiveness of white
+against gold from an ancient missal in a famous private collection,
+which shows the saints all clad in marvellous white against gold leaf.</p>
+
+<p>Whistler's house at 2 Cheyne Road, London, had a room the dado and doors
+of which were done in gold, on which he and two of his pupils <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>painted
+the scattered petals of white and pink chrysanthemums. Possibly a
+Persian or Japanese effect, as Whistler leaned that way, but one sees
+the same idea in an illumination of the early sixteenth century; &quot;Hours&quot;
+of the Virgin and Breviary, made for Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of John
+II. The decorations here are in the style of the Renaissance, not
+Gothic, and some think Memling had a hand in the work. The borders of
+the illumination, characteristic of the Bruges School, are gold leaf on
+which is painted, in the most realistic way, an immense variety of
+single flowers, small roses, pansies, violets, daisies, etc., and among
+them butterflies and insects. This border surrounds the pictures which
+illustrate the text. Always the marvellous colour, the astounding skill
+in laying it on to the vellum pages, an unforgettable lesson in the
+possibility of colour applied effectively to costumes, when background
+is kept in mind. This Breviary was bound in green velvet and clasped
+with hand-wrought silver, for Cardinal Rodrigue de Castro (1520-1600) of
+Spain. It is now in the private collection of Mr. Morgan. The cover
+alone gives one <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>great emotion, genuine ancient velvet of the sixteenth
+century, to imitate which taxes the ingenuity of the most skilful of
+modern manufacturers.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" /><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE</h3>
+
+<h4><i>A Few Points Applying to All Costumes</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-n.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="N" /><b>EEDLESS</b></span>
+to say, when considering woman's costumes, for ordinary use, in
+their relation to background, unless some chameleon-like material be
+invented to take on the colour of <i>any</i> background, one must be content
+with the consideration of one's own rooms, porches, garden, opera-box or
+automobile, etc. For a gown to be worn when away from home, when
+lunching, at receptions or dinners, the first consideration must be
+<i>becomingness</i>,&mdash;a careful selection of line and colour that bring out
+the individuality of the wearer. When away from one's own setting,
+personality is one of the chief assets of every woman. Remember,
+individuality is nature's gift to each human being. Some are more
+markedly different than others, but we have all seen a so-called
+colourless woman transformed into surprising loveliness when dressed by
+an artist's instinct. A delicate type of blond, with fair hair, quiet
+eyes and faint shell-pink complexion, can be snuffed out by too strong
+colours. Remember that your ethereal blond is invariably at her best in
+white, black (never white and black in combination unless black with
+soft white collars and frills) and delicate pastel shades.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE VI<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>Fifteenth-century costume. &quot;Virgin and Child&quot; in painted
+    terra-cotta.</p>
+
+<p>    It is by Andrea Verrocchio, and now in Metropolitan Museum.
+    We have here an illustration of the costume, so often shown
+    on the person of the Virgin in the art of the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 302px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p049.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p049-tb.jpg" width="302" height="400" alt="Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: The Virgin" title="Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: The Virgin" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>
+<i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i> <i>Woman in Art of
+    the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: The
+    Virgin</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>The richly-toned brunette comes into her own in reds, yellows and
+low-tones of strong blue.</p>
+
+<p>Colourless jewels should adorn your perfect blond, colourful gems your
+glowing brunette.</p>
+
+<p>What of those betwixt and between? In such cases let complexion and
+colour of eyes act as guide in the choice of colours.</p>
+
+<p>One is familiar with various trite rules such as match the eyes, carry
+out the general scheme of your colouring, by which is meant, if you are
+a yellow blond, go in for yellows, if your hair is ash-brown, your eyes
+but a shade deeper, and your skin inclined to be <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>lifeless in tone, wear
+beaver browns and content yourself with making a record in <i>harmony</i>,
+with no contrasting note.</p>
+
+<p>Just here let us say that the woman in question must at the very outset
+decide whether she would look pretty or chic, sacrificing the one for
+the other, or if she insists upon both, carefully arrange a compromise.
+As for example, combine a semi-picture hat with a semi-tailored dress.</p>
+
+<p>The strictly chic woman of our day goes in for appropriateness; the
+lines of the latest fashion, but adapted to bring out her own best
+points, while concealing her bad ones, and an insistance upon a colour
+and a shade of colour, sufficiently definite to impress the beholder at
+a glance. This type of woman as a rule keeps to a few colours, possibly
+one or two and their varieties, and prefers gowns of one material rather
+than combinations of materials. Though she possess both style and
+beauty, she elects to emphasise style.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of the other woman, who would star her face at the expense
+of her <i>tout ensemble</i>, colour is her first consideration,
+mul<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>tiplication of detail and intelligent expressing of herself in her
+<i>mise-en-sc&egrave;ne</i>. <i>Seduisant</i>, instead of <i>chic</i> is the word for this
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>Your black-haired woman with white skin and dark, brilliant eyes, is the
+one who can best wear emerald green and other strong colours. The now
+fashionable mustard, sage green, and bright magentas are also the
+<i>affaire</i> of this woman with clear skin, brilliant colour and sparkling
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>These same colours, if subdued, are lovely on the middle-aged woman with
+black hair, quiet eyes and pale complexion, but if her hair is grey or
+white, mustard and sage green are not for her, and the magenta must be
+the deep purplish sort, which combines with her violets and mauves, or
+delicate pinks and faded blues. She will be at her best in shades of
+grey which tone with her hair.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" /><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-h.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="H" /><b>AS</b></span>
+the reader ever observed the effect of clothes upon manners? It is
+amazing, and only proves how pathetically childlike human nature is.</p>
+
+<p>Put any woman into a Marie Antoinette costume and see how, during an
+evening she will gradually take on the mannerisms of that time. This
+very point was brought up recently in conversation with an artist, who
+in referring to one of the most successful costume balls ever given in
+New York&mdash;the crinoline ball at the old Astor House&mdash;spoke of how our
+unromantic Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks, ruffled shirts
+and knickerbockers, and as the evening advanced, were quite themselves
+in the minuette and polka, bowing low in solemn rigidity, leading their
+lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist, and swinging
+her beruffled, crinolined form in quite the 1860 manner.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>Some women, even girls of tender years, have a natural instinct for
+costuming themselves, so that they contribute in a decorative way to any
+setting which chance makes theirs. Watch children &quot;dressing up&quot; and see
+how among a large number, perhaps not more than one of them will have
+this gift for effects. It will be she who knows at a glance which of the
+available odds and ends she wants for herself, and with a sure, swift
+hand will wrap a bright shawl about her, tie a flaming bit of silk about
+her dark head, and with an assumed manner, born of her garb, cast a
+magic spell over the small band which she leads on, to that which,
+without her intense conviction and their susceptibility to her mental
+attitude toward the masquerade, could never be done.</p>
+
+<p>This illustrates the point we would make as to the effect of clothes
+upon psychology. The actor's costume affects the real actor's psychology
+as much or more than it does that of his audience. He <i>is</i> the man he
+has made himself appear. The writer had the experience of seeing a
+well-known opera singer, when a victim to a bad case of the grippe,
+leave her hotel voiceless, <a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>facing a matinee of <i>Juliet</i>. Arrived in her
+dressing-room at the opera, she proceeded to change into the costume for
+the first act. Under the spell of her r&ocirc;le, that prima donna seemed
+literally to shed her malady with her ordinary garments, and to take on
+health and vitality with her <i>Juliet</i> robes. Even in the Waltz song her
+voice did not betray her, and apparently no critic detected that she was
+indisposed.</p>
+
+<p>In speaking of periods in furniture, we said that their story was one of
+waves of types which repeated themselves, reflecting the ages in which
+they prevailed. With clothes we find it is the same thing: the scarlet,
+and silver and gold of the early Jacobeans, is followed by the drabs and
+greys of the Commonwealth; the marvellous colour of the Church, where
+Beauty was enthroned, was stamped out by the iron will of Cromwell who,
+in setting up his standard of revolt, wrapped soul and body of the new
+Faith in penal shades.</p>
+
+<p>New England was conceived in this spirit and as mind had affected the
+colour of the Puritans' clothes, so in turn the drab clothes, prescribed
+by their new creed, helped to remove colour from the New England mind
+and nature.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE VII<a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>Fifteenth-century costumes on the Holy Women at the Tomb of
+    our Lord.</p>
+
+<p>    The sculpture relief is enamelled terra-cotta in white,
+    blue, green, yellow and manganese colours. It bears the date
+    1487.</p>
+
+<p>    Note character of head-dresses, arrangement of hair, capes
+    and gowns which are Early Renaissance. (Metropolitan
+    Museum.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p059.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p059-tb.jpg" width="400" height="250" alt="Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: Holy Women" title="Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: Holy Women" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i><br /><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>
+<i>Woman in Art of the Renaissance<br />
+    Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta: Holy Women</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>But observe how, as prosperity follows privation, the mind expands,
+reaching out for what the changed psychology demands. It is the old
+story of Rome grown rich and gay in mood and dress. There were of
+course, villains in Puritan drab and Grecian white, but the child in
+every man takes symbol for fact. So it is that to-day, some shudder with
+the belief that Beauty, re-enthroned in all her gorgeous modern hues,
+means near disaster. The progressives claim that into the world has come
+a new hope; that beneath our lovely clothes of rainbow tints, and within
+our homes where Beauty surely reigns, a new psychology is born to
+radiate colour from within.</p>
+
+<p>Our advice to the woman not born with clothes sense, is: employ experts
+until you acquire a mental picture of your possibilities and
+limitations, or buy as you can afford to, good French models, under
+expert supervision. You may never turn out to be an artist in the
+treatment of your appearance, instinctively knowing how a prevailing
+fashion in line and colour may be <a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>adapted to you, but you can be taught
+what your own type is, what your strong points are, your weak ones, and
+how, while accentuating the former, you may obliterate the latter.</p>
+
+<p>There are two types of women familiar to all of us: the one gains in
+vital charm and abandon of spirit from the consciousness that she is
+faultlessly gowned; the other succumbs to self-consciousness and is
+pitifully unable to extricate her mood from her material trappings.</p>
+
+<p>For the darling of the gods who walks through life on clouds, head up
+and spirit-free, who knows she is perfectly turned out and lets it go at
+that, we have only grateful applause. She it is who carries every
+occasion she graces&mdash;indoors, out-of-doors, at home, abroad. May her
+kind be multiplied!</p>
+
+<p>But to the other type, she who droops under her silks and gold tissue,
+whose pearls are chains indeed, we would throw out a lifeline. Submerged
+by clothes, the more she struggles to rise above them the more her
+spirit flags. The case is this: the woman's <i>mind</i> is wrong; her clothes
+are right&mdash;lovely as ever seen; her jewels gems; her house and car and
+dog the best. It is her <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a><i>mind</i> that is wrong; it is turned <i>in</i>,
+instead of <i>out</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now this intense and soul-, as well as line-destroying
+self-consciousness, may be prenatal, and it may result from the Puritan
+attitude toward beauty; that old New England point of view that the
+beautiful and the vicious are akin. Every young child needs to have
+cultivated a certain degree of self-reliance. To know that one's
+appearance is pleasing, to put it mildly, is of inestimable value when
+it comes to meeting the world. Every child, if normal, has its good
+points&mdash;hair, eyes, teeth, complexion or figure; and we all know that
+many a stage beauty has been built up on even two of these attributes.
+Star your good points, clothes will help you. Be a winner in your own
+setting, but avoid the fatal error of damning your clothes by the spirit
+within you.</p>
+
+<p>The writer has in mind a woman of distinguished appearance, beauty,
+great wealth, few cares, wonderful clothes and jewels, palatial homes;
+and yet an envious unrest poisons her soul. She would look differently,
+be different and has not the wisdom to shake off her fetters. <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>Her
+perfect dressing helps this woman; you would not be conscious of her
+otherwise, but with her natural equipment, granted that she concentrated
+upon flashing her spirit instead of her wealth, she would be a leader in
+a fine sense. The Beauty Doctor can do much, but show us one who can put
+a gleam in the eye, tighten the grasp, teach one that ineffable grace
+which enables woman, young or old, to wear her clothes as if an integral
+part of herself. This quality belongs to the woman who knows, though she
+may not have thought it out, that clothes can make one a success, but
+not a success in the enduring sense. Dress is a tyrant if you take it as
+your god, but on the other hand dress becomes a magician's wand when
+dominated by a clever brain. Gown yourself as beautifully as you can
+afford, but with judgment. What we do, and how we do it, is often
+seriously and strangely affected by what we have on. The writer has in
+mind a literary woman who says she can never talk business except in a
+linen collar! Mark Twain, in his last days, insisted that he wrote more
+easily in his night-shirt. Richard Wagner deliberately put on certain
+rich materials in col<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>ours and hung his room with them when composing
+the music of The Ring. Chopin says in a letter to a friend: &quot;After
+working at the piano all day, I find that nothing rests me so much as to
+get into the evening dress which I wear on formal occasions.&quot; In
+monarchies based on militarism, royal princes, as soon as they can walk,
+are put into military uniforms. It cultivates in them the desired
+military spirit. We all associate certain duties with certain costumes,
+and the extraordinary response to colour is familiar to all. We talk
+about feeling colour and say that we can or cannot live in green, blue,
+violet or red. It is well to follow this colour instinct in clothes as
+well as in furnishing. You will find you are at your best in the colours
+and lines most sympathetic to you.</p>
+
+<p>We know a woman who is an unusual beauty and has distinction, in fact is
+noted for her chic when in white, black or the combination. She once
+ventured a cerise hat and instantly dropped to the ranks of the
+commonplace. Fine eyes, hair, skin, teeth, colour and carriage were
+still hers, but her effectiveness was lessened as that of a pearl might
+be if set in a coral circle.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" /><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-w.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="W" /><b>OMAN'S</b></span>
+line is the result of her costume, in part only. Far more is
+woman's costume affected by her line. By this we mean the line she
+habitually falls into, the pose of torso, the line of her legs in
+action, and when seated, her arms and hands in repose and gesture, the
+poise of her head. It is woman's line resulting from her habit of mind
+and the control which her mind has over her body, a thing quite apart
+from the way God made her, and the expression her body would have had if
+left to itself, ungoverned by a mind stocked with observations,
+conventions, experience and attitudes. We call this the physical
+expression of <i>woman's personality</i>; this personality moulds her bodily
+lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes
+she wears; determines also whether she be a decorative object which says
+something in line and colour, or an undecorative object which says
+nothing.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE VIII<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>Queen Elizabeth in the absurdly elaborate costume of the
+    late Renaissance. Then crinoline, gaudy materials, and
+    ornamentations without meaning reached their high-water mark
+    in the costuming of women.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 328px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p069.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p069-tb.jpg" width="328" height="400" alt="Portrait of Queen Elizabeth" title="Portrait of Queen Elizabeth" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a><i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i> <i>Tudor England
+    Portrait of Queen Elizabeth</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>Woman to be decorative, should train the carriage of her body from
+childhood, by wearing appropriate clothing for various daily r&ocirc;les.
+There is more in this than at first appears. The criticism by foreigners
+that Americans, both men and women, never appear really at home in
+evening clothes, that they look as if they felt <i>dressed</i>, is true of
+the average man and woman of our country and results from the lax
+standards of a new and composite social structure. America as a whole,
+lacks traditions and still embodies the pioneer spirit, equally
+characteristic of Australia and other offshoots from the old world.</p>
+
+<p>The little American girl who is brought up from babyhood to change for
+the evening, even though she have a nursery tea, and be allowed only a
+brief good-night visit to the grown-ups, is still the exception rather
+than the rule. A wee English maiden we know, created a good deal of
+amused comment because, on several occasions, when passing rainy
+afternoons indoors, with some affluent little New York friends, whose
+luxurious nurseries and marvellous me<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>chanical toys were a delight,
+always insisted upon returning home,&mdash;a block distant,&mdash;to change into
+white before partaking of milk toast and jam, at the nursery table, the
+American children keeping on their pink and blue linens of the
+afternoon. The fact of white or pink is unimportant, but our point is
+made when we have said that the mother of the American children
+constantly remarked on the unconscious grace of the English tot, whether
+in her white muslin and pink ribbons, her riding clothes, or
+accordion-plaited dancing frock. The English woman-child was acquiring
+decorative lines by wearing the correct costume for each occasion, as
+naturally as a bird wears its feathers. This is one way of obviating
+self-consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>The Eton boy masters his stick and topper in the same way, when young,
+and so more easily passes through the formless stage conspicuous in the
+American youth.</p>
+
+<p>Call it technique, or call it efficiency, the object of our modern life
+is to excel, to be the best of our kind, and appropriate dress is a
+means to that end, for it helps to liberate the spirit. We <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>of to-day
+make no claim to consistency or logic. Some of us wear too high heels,
+even with strictly tailored suits, which demand in the name of
+consistency a sensible shoe. Also our sensible skirt may be far too
+narrow for comfort. But on the whole, women have made great strides in
+the matter of costuming with a view to appropriateness and efficiency.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" /><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-c.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="C" /><b>OLOUR</b></span>
+is the hall-mark of our day, and woman decoratively costumed, and
+as decorator, will be largely responsible for recording this age as one
+of distinct importance&mdash;a transition period in decoration.</p>
+
+<p>Colour is the most marked expression of the spirit of the times; colour
+in woman's clothes; colour in house furnishing; colour on the stage and
+in its setting; colour in prose and verse.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of colour in verse, Rudyard Kipling says (we quote from an
+editorial in the Philadelphia <i>Public Ledger</i>, Jan. 7, 1917):</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Several songs written by Tommy and the Poilu at the front, celebrate
+the glories of camp life in such vivid colors they could not be
+reproduced in cold, black, leaden type.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is no mere chance, this use of vivid colour. Man's psychology to-day
+craves it. A revolution is on. Did not the strong red, green, and blue
+<a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>of Napoleon's time follow the delicate sky-blues, rose and
+sunset-yellows of the Louis?</p>
+
+<p>Colour pulses on every side, strong, clean, clear rainbow colour, as if
+our magicians of brush and dye-pot held a prism to the sun-beam; violet,
+orange and green, magentas and strong blue against backgrounds of black
+and cold grey.</p>
+
+<p>We had come to think of colour as vice and had grown so conservative in
+its use, that it had all but disappeared from our persons, our homes,
+our gardens, our music and our literature. More than this, from our
+point of view! The reaction was bound to come by reason of eternal
+precedent.</p>
+
+<p>Half-tones, antique effects, and general monotony,&mdash;the material
+expression of complacent minds, has been cast aside, and the blas&eacute; man
+of ten years ago is as keen as any child with his first linen picture
+book,&mdash;and for the same reason.</p>
+
+<p>Colour, as we see it to-day, came out of the East via Persia. Bakst in
+Russia translated it into terms of art, and made the Ballet Russe an
+amazing, enthralling vision! Then Poiret, wizard among French
+couturi&egrave;res, assisted by Bakst, adapted this Oriental colour and line to
+<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>woman's uses in private life. This supplemented the good work of <i>le
+Gazette du Bon Ton</i> of Paris, that effete fashion sheet, devoted to the
+decoration of woman, whose staff included many of the most gifted French
+artists, masters of brush and pen. Always irregular, no issue of the
+<i>Bon Ton</i> has appeared of late. It is held up by the war. The men who
+made it so fascinating a guide to woman &quot;who would be decorative,&quot; are
+at the front, painting scenery for the battlefield&mdash;literally that:
+making mock trees and rocks, grass and hedges and earth, to mislead the
+fire of the enemy, and doubtless the kindred Munich art has been
+diverted into similar channels.</p>
+
+<p>This Oriental colour has made its way across Europe like some gorgeous
+bird of the tropics, and since the war has checked the output of
+Europe's factories, another channel has supplied the same wonderful
+colours in silks and gauze. They come to us by way of the Pacific, from
+China and from Japan. There is no escaping the colour spell. Writers
+from the front tell us that it is as if the gods made sport with fate's
+anvil, for even the blackened dome of the war zone is lurid by night,
+with sparks of purple, red, green, yellow and blue; the flare of the
+world-destroying projectiles.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE IX<a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>A Velasquez portrait of the Renaissance, when the human
+    form counted only as a rack on which was heaped crinoline
+    and stiff brocades and chains and gems and wigs and every
+    manner of elaborate adornment, making mountains of poor
+    tottering human forms, all but lost beneath.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 339px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p079.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p079-tb.jpg" width="339" height="400" alt="Spain-Velasquez Portrait" title="Spain-Velasquez Portrait" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Vienna Hofmuseum</i><br /><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>
+    <i>Spain-Velasquez Portrait</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>The present costuming of woman, when she treats herself as decoration,
+owes much to the prophets of the &quot;new&quot; theatre and their colour scale.
+These men have demonstrated, in an unforgettable manner, the value of
+colour; the dependence of every decorative object upon background; shown
+how fraught with meaning can be an uncompromising outline, and the
+suggestiveness of really significant detail.</p>
+
+<p>Bakst, Rheinhardt and Granville Barker have taught us the new colour
+vocabulary. Gordon Craig was perhaps the first to show us the stage made
+suggestive by insisting on the importance of clever lighting to produce
+atmosphere and elimination of unessential objects, the argument of his
+school being that the too detailed reproducing of Nature (on the stage)
+acts as a check to the imagination, whereas by the judicious selection
+of harmonics, the imagination is stimulated to its utmost creative
+capacity. One detects this creed to-day in certain styles of home
+<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>decoration (woman's background), as well as in woman's costumes.</p>
+
+
+<p><i>Portable Backgrounds</i></p>
+
+<p>The staging of a recent play showed more plainly than any words, the
+importance of background. In one of the scenes, beautiful, artistic
+gowns in delicate shades were set off by a room with wonderful green
+walls and woodwork (mignonette). Now, so long as the characters moved
+about the room, they were thrown into relief most charmingly, but the
+moment the women seated themselves on a very light coloured and
+characterless chintz sofa, they lost their decorative value. It was
+lacking in harmony and contrast. The two black sofa cushions intended
+possibly to serve as background, being small, instantly disappeared
+behind the seated women.</p>
+
+<p>A sofa of contrasting colour, or black, would have looked better in the
+room, and served as immediate background for gowns. It might have been
+covered in dark chintz, a silk damask in one or several tones, or a
+solid colour, since the gowns were of delicate indefinite shades.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>One of the sofas did have a dark Chinese coat thrown over the back, with
+the intent, no doubt, of serving as effective background, but the point
+seemed to escape the daintily gowned young woman who poured tea, for she
+failed to take advantage of it, occupying the opposite end of the sofa.
+A modern addition to a woman's toilet is a large square of chiffon,
+edged with narrow metal or crystal fringe, or a gold or silver flexible
+cord. This scarf is always in beguiling contrast to the costume, and
+when not being worn, is thrown over the chair or end of sofa against
+which our lady reclines. To a certain degree, this portable background
+makes a woman decorative when the wrong colour on a chair might convert
+her lovely gown into an eyesore.</p>
+
+<p>One woman we know, who has an Empire room, admires the lines of her sofa
+as furniture, but feels it ineffective unless one reclines &aacute; la Mme.
+R&eacute;camier. To obviate this difficulty, she has had made a square (one and
+a half yards), of lovely soft mauve silk damask, lined with satin
+charmeuse of the same shade, and weighted by long, heavy tassels, at the
+corners; this she throws over the Empire roll and a part of the <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>seat,
+which are done in antique green velvet. Now the woman seated for
+conversation with arm and elbow resting on the head, looks at ease,&mdash;a
+part of the composition. The square of soft, lined silk serves at other
+times as a couvrepied.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" /><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>FOOTWEAR</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-f.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="F" /><b>OOTWEAR</b></span>
+points the costume; every child should be taught this.</p>
+
+<p>Give most careful attention to your extremities,&mdash;shoes, gloves and
+hats. The genius of fashion's greatest artist counts for naught if his
+costume may not include hat, gloves, shoes, and we would add, umbrella,
+parasol, stick, fan, jewels; in fact every detail.</p>
+
+<p>If you have the good sense to go to one who deservedly ranks as an
+authority on line and colour in woman's costume, have also the wisdom to
+get from this man or woman not merely your raiment; go farther, and
+grasp as far as you are able the principles underlying his or her
+creations. Common sense tells one that there must be principles which
+underlie the planning of every hat and gown,&mdash;serious reasons why
+certain lines, colours and details are employed.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>Principles have evolved and clarified themselves in the long journey
+which textiles, colours and lines have made, travelling down through the
+ages. A great cathedral, a beautiful house, a perfect piece of
+furniture, a portrait by a master, sculpture which is an object of art,
+a costume proclaimed as a success; all are the results of knowing and
+following laws. The clever woman of slender means may rival her friends
+with munition incomes, if only she will go to an expert with open mind,
+and through the thoughtful purchase of a completed costume,&mdash;hat, gown
+and all accessories,&mdash;learn an artist-modiste's point of view. Then, and
+we would put it in italics; <i>take seriously, with conviction, all his or
+her instructions as to the way to wear your clothes</i>. Anyone can <i>buy</i>
+costumes, many can, perhaps own far more than you, but it is quite
+possible that no one can more surely be a picture&mdash;a delightfully
+decorative object on every occasion, than you, who knows instinctively
+(or has been taught), beyond all shadow of doubt, how to put on and then
+how to sit or walk in, your one tailored suit, your one tea gown, your
+one sport suit or ball gown.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE X<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>An ideal example of the typical costume of fashionable
+    England in the eighteenth century, when picturesqueness, not
+    appropriateness, was the demand of the times.</p>
+
+<p>    This picture is known as <span class="smcap">The Morning Promenade: Squire
+    Hallet with His Lady</span>. Painted by Thomas Gainsborough
+    and now in the private collection of Lord Rothschild,
+    London.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 210px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p089.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p089-tb.jpg" width="210" height="400" alt="Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough" title="Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Courtesy of Braun &amp; Co., New York, London &amp; Paris</i><br /><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>
+<i>Eighteenth Century England<br />
+Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>If you want to wear light spats, stop and think whether your heavy
+ankles will not look more trim in boots with light, glove-fitting tops
+and black vamps.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen women with such slender ankles and shapely insteps, that
+white slippers or low shoes might be worn with black or coloured
+stockings. But it is playing safe to have your stockings match your
+slippers or shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Buckles and bows on slippers and pumps can destroy the line of a shoe
+and hence a foot, or continue and accentuate line. There are fashions in
+buckles and bows, but unless you bend the fashion until it allows
+nature's work to appear at its best, it will destroy artistic intention.</p>
+
+<p>Some people buy footwear as they buy fruit; they like what they see, so
+they get it! You know so many women, young and old, who do this, that
+our advice is, try to recall those who do not. Yes, now you see what we
+aim at; the women you have in mind always continue the line of their
+gowns with their feet. You can see with your mind's eye how the slender
+black satin slippers, one of which always protrudes from the black
+evening gown, carry to its elo<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>quent finish the line from her head
+through torso, hip to knee, and knee down through instep to toe,&mdash;a line
+so frequently obstructed by senseless trimmings, lineless hats, and
+footwear wrong in colour and line.</p>
+
+<p>If your gown is white and your object to create line, can you see how
+you defeat your purpose by wearing anything but white slippers or shoes?</p>
+
+<p>At a recent dinner one of the young women who had sufficient good taste
+to wear an exquisite gown of silk and silver gauze, showing a pale
+magenta ground with silver roses, continued the colour scheme of her
+designer with silver slippers, tapering as Cinderella's, but spoiled the
+picture she might have made by breaking her line and enlarging her
+ankles and instep with magenta stockings. This could have been avoided
+by the use of silver stockings or magenta slippers with magenta
+stockings.</p>
+
+<p>When brocades, in several colours, are chosen for slippers, keep in mind
+that the ground of the silk must absolutely match your costume. It is
+not enough that in the figure of brocade is the colour of the dress.
+Because so distorting <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>to line, figured silks and coloured brocades for
+footwear are seldom a wise choice.</p>
+
+<p>To those who cannot own a match in slippers for each gown, we would
+suggest that the number of colours used in gowns be but few, getting the
+desired variety by varying shades of a colour, and then using slippers a
+trifle higher in shade than the general colour selected.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" /><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>JEWELRY AS DECORATION</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+use of jewelry as colour and line has really nothing to do with its
+intrinsic worth. Just as when furnishing a house, one selects pictures
+for certain rooms with regard to their decorative quality alone, their
+colour with relation to the colour scheme of the room (The Art of
+Interior Decoration), so jewels should be selected either to complete
+costumes, or to give the keynote upon which a costume is built. A woman
+whose artist-dressmaker turns out for her a marvellous green gown, would
+far better carry out the colour scheme with some semi-precious stones
+than insist upon wearing her priceless rubies.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, granted one owns rubies and they are becoming, then
+plan a gown entirely with reference to them, noting not merely the shade
+of their colour, but the character of their setting, should it be
+distinctive.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>One of the most picturesque public events in Vienna each year, is a
+bazaar held for the benefit of a charity under court patronage. To draw
+the crowds and induce them to give up their money, it has always been
+the custom to advertise widely that the ladies of the Austro-Hungarian
+court would conduct the sale of articles at the various booths and that
+the said noble ladies would wear their family jewels. Also, that there
+be no danger of confusing the various celebrities, the names of those
+selling at each booth would be posted in plain lettering over it.
+Programmes are sold, which also inform patrons as to the name and
+station of each lovely vendor of flowers and sweets. It is an
+extraordinary occasion, and well worth witnessing once. The jewels worn
+are as amazing and fascinating as is Hungarian music. There is a
+barbaric sumptuousness about them, an elemental quality conveyed by the
+Oriental combining of stones, which to the western European and
+American, seem incongruous. Enormous pearls, regular and irregular, are
+set together in company with huge sapphires, emeralds, rubies and
+diamonds, cut in the antique way. Looking <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>about, one feels in an
+Arabian Nights' dream. On the particular occasion to which we refer, the
+most beautiful woman present was the Princess Metternich, and in her
+jewels decorative as any woman ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>The women of the Austrian court, especially the Hungarian women, are
+notably beautiful and fascinating as well. It is the Magyar &eacute;lan, that
+abandon which prompts a woman to toss her jewelled bangle to a Gypsy
+leader of the orchestra, when his violin moans and flashes out a
+czardas.</p>
+
+<p>But the rule remains the same whether your jewels are inherited and rich
+in souvenirs of European courts, or the last work of Cartier. They must
+be a harmonious part of a carefully designed costume, or used with
+discretion against a background of costumes planned with reference to
+making them count as the sole decoration.</p>
+
+<p>We recall a Spanish beauty, representative of several noble strains, who
+was an artist in the combining of her gems as to their class and colour.
+Hers was that rare gift,&mdash;infallible good taste, which led her to
+contribute an individual quality to her temporary possessions. She
+counted in Madrid, not only as a beautiful and brilliant woman, but as a
+decorative contribution to any room she entered. It was not uncommon to
+meet her at dinner, wearing some very chic blue gown, often of velvet,
+the sole decoration of which would be her sapphires, stones rare in
+themselves, famous for their colour, their matching, the manner in which
+they were cut, and their setting,&mdash;the unique hand-work of some
+goldsmith of genius. It is impossible to forget her distinguished
+appearance as she entered the room in a princess gown, made to show the
+outline of her faultless figure, and cut very low. Against the
+background of her white neck and the simple lines of her blue gown, the
+sapphires became decoration with artistic restraint, though they gleamed
+from a coronet in her soft, black hair, encircled her neck many times
+and fell below her waist line, clasped her arms and were suspended from
+her ears in long, graceful pendants. They adorned her fingers and they
+composed a girdle of indescribable beauty.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XI<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a><span class="smcap">Marie Antoinette in a Portrait by Madame Vig&eacute;e le
+    Brun</span>, one of the greatest portrait painters of the
+    eighteenth century. Here we see the lovely queen of Louis
+    XVI in the type of costume she made her own which is still
+    referred to as the Marie Antoinette style.</p>
+
+<p> This portrait is in the Mus&eacute;e National, Versailles.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 308px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p099.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p099-tb.jpg" width="308" height="400" alt="Bourbon France Marie Antoinette Portrait by Madame Vigee Le Brun" title="Bourbon France Marie Antoinette Portrait by Madame Vigee Le Brun" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a><i>Courtesy of Braun &amp; Co., New York, London &amp;
+    Paris<br />Bourbon France Marie Antoinette Portrait by Madame
+    Vig&eacute;e Le Brun</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>Later, the same night, one would meet this <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>woman at a ball, and
+discover that she had made a complete change of costume and was as
+elegant as before, but now all in red, a gown of deep red velvet or some
+wonderful soft satin, unadorned save by her rubies, as numerous and as
+unique as her sapphires had been.</p>
+
+<p>There were other women in Madrid wearing wonderful jewels, one of them
+when going to court functions always had a carriage follow hers, in
+which were detectives. How strange this seems to Americans! But this
+particular woman in no way illustrated the point we would make, for she
+had lost control of her own lines, had no knowledge of line and colour
+in costume, and when wearing her jewels, looked very much like the show
+case of a jeweller's shop.</p>
+
+<p>Jewelry must be worn to make lines, continue or terminate lines,
+accentuate a good physical point, or hide a bad one. Remember that a
+jewel like any other <i>object d'art</i>, is an ornament, and unless it is
+ornamental, and an added attraction to the wearer, it is valueless in a
+decorative way. For this reason it is well to discover, by
+experimenting, what jewelry is your affair, what kind of rings for
+example, are best suited <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>to your kind of hands. It may be that small
+rings of delicate workmanship, set with colourless gems, will suit your
+hands; while your friend will look better in the larger, heavier sort,
+set with stones of deeper tones.</p>
+
+<p>This finding out what one can and cannot wear, from shoe leather to a
+feather in the hat (and the inventory includes even width of hem on a
+linen handkerchief), is by no means a frivolous, fruitless waste of
+time; it is a wise preparedness, which in the end saves time, vitality
+and money. And if it does not make one independent of expert advice (and
+why should one expect to be that, since technique in any art should
+improve with practice?) it certainly prepares one to grasp and make use
+of, expert suggestions.</p>
+
+<p>We have often been told, and by those whose business it is to know such
+things, that the models created by great Paris dressmakers are not
+always flashes of genius which come in the night, nor the wilful
+perversion of an existing fashion, to force the world of women into
+discarding, and buying everything new. It may look suspiciously like it
+when we see a mere swing of <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>the pendulum carrying the straight sheath
+out to the ten-yard limit of crinoline skirts.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, decorative woman rules the fashions, and if
+decorative woman makes up her mind to retain a line or a limit, she does
+it. The open secret is that every great Paris house has its chic
+clientele, which in returning from the Riviera&mdash;Europe's Peacock
+Alley&mdash;is full of knowledge as to how the last fashions (line and
+colour), succeeded in scoring in the r&ocirc;le designated. Those points found
+to be desirable, becoming, beautiful, comfortable, appropriate,
+<i>s&eacute;duisant</i>&mdash;what you will&mdash;are taken as the foundation of the next
+wardrobe order, and with this inside information from women who <i>know</i>
+(know the subtle distinction between daring lines and colours, which are
+<i>good form</i>, and those which are not), the men or women who give their
+lives to creating costumes proceed to build. These are the fashions for
+the exclusive few this year, for the whole world the next year.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, to reduce one of the rules as to how jewels should be
+worn to its simplest form, never use imitation pearl trimming if you are
+<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>wearing a necklace and other ornaments of real pearls. The pearl
+trimming may be very charming in itself, but it lessens the distinction
+of your real pearls.</p>
+
+<p>In the same way rhinestones may be decidedly decorative, but only a
+woman with an artist's instinct can use her diamonds at the same time.
+It can be done, by keeping the rhinestones off the bodice. An artist can
+conceive and work out a perfect adjustment of what in the mind and hand
+of the inexperienced is not to be attempted. Your French dressmaker
+combines real and imitation laces in a fascinating manner. That same
+artist's instinct could trim a gown with emerald pastes and hang real
+gems of the same in the ears, using brooch and chain, but you would find
+the green glass garniture swept from the proximity of the gems and used
+in some telling manner to score as <i>trimming</i>,&mdash;not to compete as
+jewels. We have seen the skirt of French gowns of black tulle or net,
+caught up with great rhinestone swans, and at the same time a diamond
+chain and diamond earrings worn. Nothing could have been more chic.</p>
+
+<p>We recall another case of the discreet com<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>bining of gems and paste. It
+was at the Spring races, Longchamps, Paris. The decorative woman we have
+never forgotten, had marvellous gold-red hair, wore a costume of golden
+brown chiffon, a close toque (to show her hair) of brown; long topaz
+drops hung from her ears, set in hand-wrought Etruscan gold, and her
+shell lorgnettes hung from a topaz chain. Now note that on her toque and
+her girdle were buckles made of topaz glass, obviously not real topaz
+and because made to look like milliner's garniture and not jeweler's
+work, they had great style and were as beautiful of their kind as the
+real stones.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XII<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>The portrait of an Englishwoman painted during the
+    Napoleonic period.</p>
+
+<p>    She wears the typical Empire gown, cloak, and bonnet.</p>
+
+<p>    The original of this portrait is the same referred to
+    elsewhere as having moistened her muslin gowns to make them
+    cling to her, in Grecian folds.</p>
+
+<p>    Among her admiring friends was Lord Byron.</p>
+
+<p>    A descendant who allows the use of the charming portrait,
+    explains that the fair lady insisted upon being painted in
+    her bonnet because her curling locks were short&mdash;a result of
+    typhoid fever.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 282px;">
+<a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>
+<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>
+<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>
+<a href="images/illus_p109.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p109-tb.jpg" width="282" height="400" alt="An English Portrait" title="An English Portrait" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><i>Costume of Empire Period<br />
+An English Portrait</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-b.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="B" /><b>Y</b></span>
+the way, do you know that boudoir originally meant pouting room, a
+place where the ceremonious grande dame of the Louis might relax and
+express a ruffled mood, if she would? Which only serves to prove that
+even the definition of words alter with fashion, for we imagine that our
+supinely relaxed modern beauty, of the country club type, has on the
+whole more self-control than she of the boudoir age.</p>
+
+<p>Since a boudoir is of all rooms the most personal, we take it for
+granted that its decoration is eloquent with the individuality and taste
+of its owner. Walls, floors, woodwork, upholstery, hangings, cushions
+and <i>objects d'art</i> furnish the colour for my lady's background, and
+will naturally be a scheme calculated to set off her own particular
+type. Here we find woman easily made decorative in neglig&eacute;e or tea gown,
+<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>and it makes no difference whether fashion is for voluminous, flowing
+robes, ruffled and covered with ribbons and lace, or the other extreme,
+those creations of Fortuny, which cling to the form in long crinkled
+lines and shimmer like the skin of a snake. The Fortuny in question, son
+of the great Spanish painter, devotes his time to the designing of the
+most artistic and unique tea gowns offered to modern woman. We first saw
+his work in 1910 at his Paris atelier. His gowns, then popular with
+French women, were made in Venice, where M. Fortuny was at that time
+employing some five hundred women to carry out his ideas as to the
+dyeing of thin silks, the making and colouring of beads used as
+garniture, and the stenciling of designs in gold, silver or colour. The
+lines are Grecian and a woman in her Fortuny tea gown suggests a Tanagra
+figure, whether she goes in for the finely pleated sort, kept tightly
+twisted and coiled when not in use, to preserve the distinguishing fine
+pleats, or one with smooth surface and stenciled designs. These Fortuny
+tea gowns slip over the head with no opening but the neck, with its silk
+shirring cord by means of <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>which it can be made high or low, at will;
+they come in black, gold and the tones of old Venetian dyes. One could
+use a dozen of them and be a picture each time, in any setting, though
+for the epicure they are at their best when chosen with relation to a
+special background. The black Fortunys are extraordinarily chic and look
+well when worn with long Oriental earrings and neck chains of links or
+beads, which reach&mdash;at least one strand of them&mdash;half-way to the knees.</p>
+
+<p>The distinction which this long line of a chain or string of pearls
+gives to the figure of any woman is a point to dwell upon. Real pearls
+are desirable, even if one must begin with a short necklace; but where
+it can be afforded, woman cannot be urged too strongly to wear a string
+extending as near to and as much below the waist-line as possible. A
+long string of pearls gives great elegance, whether wearer is standing
+or seated. You can use your short string of pearls, too, but whatever
+your figure is, if you are not a young girl it will be improved by the
+long line, and if you would be decorative above everything, we insist
+that a long chain or string of less intrinsic value is preferable to one
+of <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>meaningless length and priceless worth. Very young girls look best
+in short necklaces; women whose throats are getting lined should take to
+jeweled dog-collars, in addition to their strings of pearls or diamond
+chains. The woman with firm throat and perfect neck was made for pearls.
+For those less blessed there are lovely things too, jewels to match
+their eyes, or to tone in with skin or hair; settings to carry out the
+line of profile, rings to illuminate the swift gesture or nestle into
+the soft, white, dimpled hand of inertia. Every type has its charm and
+followers, but we still say, avoid emphasising your lack of certain
+points by wearing unsuitable costumes and accessories, and by so doing
+lose the chance of being decorative.</p>
+
+<p>Sibyl Sanderson, the American prima donna, whose career was in Paris,
+was the most irresistibly lovely vision ever seen in a tea gown. She was
+past-mistress at the art of making herself decorative, and the writer
+recalls her as she last saw her in a Doucet model of chiffon, one layer
+over another of flesh, palest pink and pinkish mauve that melted into
+the creamy tones of her perfect neck and arms.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>Sibyl Sanderson was lovely as nature turned her out, but Paris taught
+her the value of that other beauty, the beauty which comes of art and
+attained like all art, only through conscious effort. An artistic
+appearance once meant letting nature have its way. It has come to mean,
+nature directed and controlled by Art, and while we do not resort to the
+artificiality (in this moment) of hoops, crinoline, pyramids of false
+hair, monstrous head-dresses, laced waists, low neck and short sleeves
+for all hours and all seasons, paper-soled shoes in snow-drifts, etc.,
+we do insist that woman be <i>bien soin&eacute;</i>&mdash;hair, complexion, hands, feet,
+figure, perfection <i>par tout</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Woman's costumes, her jewels and all accessories complete her decorative
+effect, but even in the age of powder and patches, hair oil and wigs, no
+more time nor greater care was given to her grooming, and what we say
+applies to the average woman of affairs and not merely to the parasite
+type.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" /><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER SUN-ROOM</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-a.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="A" /><b> SUN-ROOOM</b></span>
+as the name implies, is a room planned to admit as much sun
+as is possible. An easy way to get the greatest amount of light and sun
+is to enclose a steam heated porch with glass which may be removed at
+will. Sometimes part of a conservatory is turned into a sun-room,
+awnings, rugs, chairs, tables, couches, making it a fascinating lounge
+or breakfast room, useful, too, at the tea hour. Often when building a
+house a room on the sunny side is given one, two, or three glass sides.
+To trick the senses, ferns and flowering plants, birds and fountains are
+used as decorations, suggesting out-of-doors.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XIII<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>Portrait by Gilbert Stuart of Do&ntilde;a Matilda, Stoughton de
+    Jaudenes. (Metropolitan Museum.)</p>
+
+<p>    We use this portrait to illustrate the period when woman's
+    line was obliterated by the excessive decoration of her
+    costume.</p>
+
+<p>    The interest attached to this charming example of her time
+    lies in colour and detail. It is as if the bewitching Do&ntilde;a
+    Matilda were holding up her clothes with her person. Her
+    outline is that of a ruffled canary. How difficult for her
+    to forget her material trappings, when they are so many, and
+    yet she looks light of heart.</p>
+
+<p>    For sharp contrast we suggest that our reader turn at once
+    to the portrait by Sargent (<a href="#Page_138">Plate XV</a>) which is distinguished
+    for its clean-cut outline and also the distinction arrived
+    at through elimination of detail in the way of trimming. The
+    costume hangs on the woman, suspended by jewelled chains
+    from her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>    The Sargent has the simplicity of the Classic Greek; the
+    Gilbert Stuart portrait, the amusing fascination of Marie
+    Antoinette detail.</p>
+
+<p>    The gown is white satin, with small gold flowers scattered
+    over its surface. The head-dress surmounting the powdered
+    hair is of white satin with seed-pearl ornaments.</p>
+
+<p>    The background is a dead-rose velvet curtain, draped to show
+    blue sky, veiled by clouds. The same dead-rose on table and
+    chair covering. The book on table has a softly toned calf
+    cover. Gilbert Stuart was fond of working in this particular
+    colour note.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 260px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p119.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p119-tb.jpg" width="260" height="400" alt="Eighteenth Century Costume Portrait by Gilbert Stewart" title="Eighteenth Century Costume Portrait by Gilbert Stewart" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>
+<i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i><br />
+<i>Eighteenth Century Costume Portrait by Gilbert Stewart</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>The woman who would add to the charm of her sun-room in Winter by
+keeping up the illusion of Summer, will wear Summer clothes when in it,
+that is, the same gowns, hats and footwear which she would select for a
+warm climate. To be exquisite, if you are young or youngish, well and
+active, you would naturally appear in the sun-room after eleven, in some
+sheer material of a delicate tint, made walking length, with any
+graceful Summer hat which is becoming, and either harmonises with colour
+of gown or is an agreeable contrast to it. By graceful hat we mean a hat
+suggesting repose, not the close, tailored hat of action. One woman we
+know always uses her last Summer's muslins and wash silks, shoes,
+slippers and hats in her sun-room during the Winter. In her wardrobe
+there are invariably a lot of sheer muslins, voiles and wash silks in
+white, mauve, greys, pinks, or delicate stripes, the outline following
+the fashion, voluminous, straight or clinging, the bodice tight with
+trimmings inset or full, beruffled, or kerchiefed. Her hats are always
+entirely black or entirely white, in type the variety we know as
+<i>picturesque</i>, made very light in weight and with no thought of
+withstanding the elements. The woman who knows how, can get the effect
+of a picture hat with very little outlay of money. It is a matter of
+line when on the head, that look of lightness and general airiness which
+<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>gives one the feeling that the wearer has just blown in from the lawn!
+The artist's hand can place a few simple loops of ribbon on a hat, and
+have success, while a stupid arrangement of costly feathers or flowers
+may result in failure. The effect of movement got by certain line
+manipulation, suggesting arrested motion, is of inestimable value,
+especially when your hat is one with any considerable width of brim. The
+hat with movement is like a free-hand sketch, a hat without movement
+like a decalcomania.</p>
+
+<p>If the owner of the sun-room is resting or invalided then away with
+out-of-door costume. For her a tea-gown and satin slippers are in order,
+as they would be under similar conditions on her furnished porch.</p>
+
+<p>If the mistress of the sun-room is young and athletic, one who never
+goes in for frou-frous, but wears linen skirts and blouses when pouring
+tea for her friends, let her be true to her type in the sun-room, but
+always emphasising immaculate daintiness, rather than the
+ready-for-sport note. A sheer blouse and French heels on white pumps
+will transpose the plain linen skirt into the key of picturesque
+relaxation, the hall-mark <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>of sun-rooms. More than any other room in the
+house, the sun-room is for drifting. One cannot imagine writing a cheque
+there, or going over one's monthly accounts.</p>
+
+<p>We assume that the colour scheme in the sun-room was dictated by the
+owner and is therefore sympathetic to her. If this be true, we can go
+farther and assume that the delicate tones of her porch gowns and tea
+gowns will harmonise. If her sun-room is done in yellows and orange and
+greens, nothing will look better than cream-white as a costume. If the
+walls, woodwork and furniture have been kept very light in tone, relying
+on the rugs and cushions and dark foliage of plants to give character,
+then a costume of sheer material in any one of the decided colours in
+the chintz cushions, will be a welcome contribution to the decoration of
+the sun-room. Additional effect can be given a costume by the clever
+choice of colour and line in a work-bag.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" /><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>I. WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER GARDEN</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-i.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="W" /><b>N</b></span>
+your garden, if you would count as decoration, keep to white or one
+colour; the flowers furnish a variegated background against which your
+costume of colour, grey or white stands out. The great point is that
+your outline be one with pictorial value, from the artist's point of
+view. If merely strolling through your garden to admire it, keeping to
+the well-made paths, a fragile gown of sheer material and dainty shoes,
+with perishable hat or fragile sunshade, is in order. But if yours is
+the task to gather flowers, then wear stout linen or pretty, bright
+ginghams, good to the eye and easily laundered, while resisting the
+briars and branches.</p>
+
+<p>Smocks, those loose over-all garments of soft-toned linens, reaching
+from neck half-way to the knees and unbelted, are ideal for garden work,
+and to the young and slender, add a dis<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>tinct charm, for one catches the
+movement of the lithe form beneath.</p>
+
+<p>You can be decorative in your garden in a large enveloping apron of
+gingham, if you are wise in choosing a colour which becomes you. One
+lover of flowers, who has an instinct for fitness and colour, may be
+seen on a Summer morning, trimming her porch-boxes in snowy
+white,&mdash;shoes and all,&mdash;over which she wears a big, encircling apron,
+extending from neck to skirt hem; deep pockets cross the entire front,
+convenient for clippers, scissors and twine. This apron is low-necked
+with shoulder straps and no sleeves. The woman in question is tall and
+fair, and on her soft curling hair she wears sun hats of peanut straw,
+the edges sewn over and over with wool to match her gingham apron, which
+is a solid pink, pale green or lavender.</p>
+
+<p>Dark women look uncommonly well in khaki colour, and so do some blonds.
+Here is a shade decorative against vegetation and serviceable above all.</p>
+
+<p>Garden costumes for actual work vary according to individual taste and
+the amount and character of the gardening indulged in.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>Lady de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) owns one of the most charming gardens in
+England, though not as famous as some. It is attached to Regal Lodge,
+her place at Newmarket. The Blue Walk is something to remember, with its
+walls of blue lavender flanking the blue paving stones, between the
+cracks of which lovely bluebells and larkspur spring up in irrelevant,
+poetic license.</p>
+
+<p>Lady de Bathe digs and climbs and clips and gathers, therefore she wears
+easily laundered garments; a white linen or cotton skirt and blouse, a
+Chinese coat to the knees, of pink cotton cr&ecirc;pe and an Isle-of-Jersey
+sun-bonnet, a poke with curtain, to protect the neck and strings to tie
+it on. So while she claims never to have consciously considered being a
+decorative note in her own garden, her trained instinct for costuming
+herself appropriately and becomingly brings about the desirable
+decorative effect.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XIV<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>Madame Adeline Gen&eacute;e, the greatest living exponent of the
+    art of toe dancing. She wears an early Victorian costume
+    (1840) made for a ballet she danced in London several
+    seasons ago. The writer did not see the costume and
+    neglected, until too late, to ask Madame Gen&eacute;e for a
+    description of its colouring, but judging by what we know of
+    1840 colours and textures as described by Miss McClellan
+    (<i>Historic Dress in America</i>) and other historians of the
+    period as well as from portraits, we feel safe in stating
+    that it may well have been a bonnet of pink uncut velvet,
+    trimmed with silk fringe and a band of braided velvet of the
+    same colour; or perhaps a white shirred satin; or
+    dove-coloured satin with pale pink and green figured ribbon.
+    For the dress, it may have been of dove-grey satin, or pink
+    flowered silk with a black taffeta cape and one of black
+    lace to change off with.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p129.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p129-tb.jpg" width="338" height="400" alt="Mme. Adeline Genee in Costume" title="Mme. Adeline Genee in Costume" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>
+<i>Victorian Period about 1840<br />
+Mme. Adeline Gen&eacute;e in Costume</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<h4><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>
+<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>
+II. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE LAWN</h4>
+
+<p>When on your lawn with the unbroken sweep of green under foot and the
+background of shrubs and trees, be a flower or a bunch of flowers in the
+colour of your costume. White,&mdash;hat, shoes and all, cannot be excelled,
+but colour has charm of another sort, and turning the pages of memory,
+one realises that not a shade or artistic combination but has scored, if
+the outline is chic. Since both outline and colour scheme vary with
+fashion we use the word chic or smart to imply that quality in a costume
+which is the result of restraint in the handling of line, colour and all
+details, whatever the period.</p>
+
+<p>A chic outline is very telling on the lawn; gown or hat must be
+appropriate to the occasion, becoming to the wearer, its lines following
+the fashion, yet adapted to type, and the colour, one sympathetic to the
+wearer. The trimming must accentuate the distinctive type of the gown or
+hat instead of blotting out the lines by an overabundance of garniture.
+The trimming must follow the constructive lines of gown, or have
+meaning. A buckle must buckle something, buttons must be used where
+there is at least some semblance of an opening. Let us repeat: To be
+chic, the trimming of a hat or gown must have a <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>. When in
+doubt <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>omit trimming. As in interior decoration, too much detail often
+defeats the original idea of a costume. An observing woman knows that
+few of her kind understand the value of restraint. When turned out by an
+artist, most women recognise when they look their best, but how to
+achieve it alone, is beyond them. This sort of knowledge comes from
+carefully and constantly comparing the gown which is a success with
+those which are failures.</p>
+
+<p>Elimination characterises the smart costume or hat, and the smart
+designer is he or she who can make one flower, one feather, one bow of
+ribbon, band of fur, bit of real lace or hand embroidery, say a distinct
+something.</p>
+
+<p>It is the decorative value gained by the judicious placing of one object
+so that line and colour count to the full. As we have said in <i>Interior
+Decoration</i>, one pink rose in a slender Venetian glass vase against a
+green silk curtain may have far more decorative value than dozens of
+costly roses used without knowledge of line and background. So it is
+with ornaments on wearing apparel.</p>
+
+
+<h4><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH</h4>
+
+<p>With a background of grey sand, steel-blue water and more or less blue
+sky, woman is given a tempting opportunity to figure as colour when by
+the sea. That it is gay colour or white which makes decorative effects
+on the beach, even the least knowing realise. <i>Plein air</i> artists have
+stamped on our mental visions impressions of smart society disporting
+itself on the sands of Dieppe, Trouville, Brighton, and where not.
+Whatever the period, hence outline, white and the gay colours impress
+one. Most conspicuous is white on woman (and man); then each colour in
+the rainbow with its half-tones, figures as sweaters, veils, hats and
+parasols; the striped marquise and gay wares of the venders of nosegays,
+balloons and lollypops. The artist picks out the telling notes when
+painting, learn from him and figure as one of these.</p>
+
+<p>On the beach avoid being a dull note; dead greys and browns have no
+charm there.</p>
+
+<p>What is true of costuming for the beach applies equally to costumes to
+be worn on the deck of a steamer or yacht.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" /><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN AS DECORATION WHEN SKATING</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>O</b></span>
+be decorative when skating, two things are necessary: first, know how
+to skate; then see to it that you are costumed with reference to
+appropriateness, becomingness and the outline demanded by the fashion of
+the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The woman who excels in the technique of her art does not always excel
+in dressing her r&ocirc;le. It is therefore with great enthusiasm that we
+record Miss Theresa Weld of Boston, holder of Woman's Figure Skating
+Championship, as the most chicly costumed woman on the ice of the
+Hippodrome (New York) where amateurs contested for the cup offered by
+Mr. Charles B. Dillingham, on March 23, 1917, when Miss Weld again
+won,&mdash;this time over the men as well as the women.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Weld combined good work with perfect form, and her edges, fronts,
+ins, outs, threes, <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>double-threes, etc., etc., were a delight to the eye
+as she passed and repassed in her wine-coloured velvet, trimmed with
+mole-skin, a narrow band on the bottom of the full skirt (full to allow
+the required amount of leg action), deep cuffs, and a band of the same
+fur encircling the close velvet toque. This is reproduced as the ideal
+costume because, while absolutely up-to-date in line, material, colour
+and character of fur, it follows the traditional idea as to what is
+appropriate and beautiful for a skating costume, regardless of epoch. We
+have seen its ancestors in many parts of Europe, year after year. Some
+of us recall with keen pleasure, the wonderful skating in Vienna and
+Berlin on natural and artificial ice, invariably hung with flags and
+gaily lighted by night. We can see now, those German girls,&mdash;some of
+them trim and good to look at, in costumes of sapphire blue, deep red,
+or green velvet, fur trimmed,&mdash;gliding swiftly across the ice, to the
+irresistible swing of waltz music and accompanied by flashing uniforms.</p>
+
+<p>In the German-speaking countries everyone skates: the white-bearded
+grandfather and the third generation going hand in hand on Sunday
+<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>mornings to the nearest ice-pond. With them skating is a communal
+recreation, as beer garden concerts are. With us in America most sports
+are fashions, not traditions. The rage for skating during the past few
+seasons is the outcome of the exhibition skating done by professionals
+from Austria, Germany, Scandinavian countries and Canada, at the New
+York Hippodrome. Those who madly danced are now as madly skating. And
+out of town the young women delight the eye in bright wool sweaters,
+broad, long wool scarfs and bright wool caps, or small, close felt
+hats,&mdash;fascinating against the white background of ice and snow. The
+boots are high, reaching to top of calf, a popular model having a seam
+to the tip of the toe.</p>
+
+<p>No sport so perfectly throws into relief <i>command of the body</i> as does
+skating. Watch a group of competitors for honours at any gathering of
+amateur women skaters and note how few have command of themselves&mdash;know
+absolutely what they want to do, and then are able to do it. One skater,
+in the language of the ice, can do the actual work, but has no form. It
+may be she lacks temperament, has no abandon, no rhythm; is stiff, or,
+while full of life, has bad arms. It is as necessary that the fancy
+skater should learn the correct position of the arms as that the solo
+dancer should. Certain lines must be preserved, say, from fingers of
+right arm through to tip of left foot, or from tip of left hand through
+to tip of right foot.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XV<a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>A portrait by John S. Sargent. (Metropolitan Museum,
+    painted about 1890.)</p>
+
+<p>    We have here a distinguished example of the dignity and
+    beauty possible to a costume characteristic of the period
+    when extreme severity as to outline and elimination of
+    detail followed the elaboration of Victorian ruffles,
+    ribbons and lace over hoops and bustle; curled hair and the
+    obvious cameo brooch, massive bracelets and chains.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 287px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p139.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p139-tb.jpg" width="287" height="400" alt="A Portrait by John S. Sargent" title="A Portrait by John S. Sargent" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>
+<i>Metropolitan Museum of Art</i><br />
+<i>Late Nineteenth Century Costume about 1890<br />
+A Portrait by John S. Sargent</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>&quot;<a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>Form&quot; is the manipulation of the lines of the body to produce perfect
+balance, perfect freedom and, when required, perfect control in arrested
+motion. This is the mastery which produces in free skating that
+&quot;melting&quot; of one figure into another which so hypnotises the onlooker.
+It is because Miss Weld has mastered the above qualifications that she
+is amateur champion in fancy skating. She has mastered her medium; has
+control of every muscle in her body. In consequence she is decorative
+and delightful to watch.</p>
+
+<p>To be decorative when not on skates, whether walking, standing or
+sitting, a woman must have cultivated the same feeling for line, her
+form must be good. It is not enough to obey the A. B. C.'s of position;
+head up, shoulders back, chest out, stomach in. One must study the
+pos<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>sibilities of the body in acquiring and perfecting poses which have
+line, making pictures with one's self.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>Art of Interior Decoration</i> we insist that every room be a
+beautiful composition. What we would now impress upon the mind of the
+reader is that she is a part of the picture and must compose with her
+setting. To do this she should acquire the mastery of her body, and then
+train that body until it has acquired &quot;good habits&quot; in the assuming of
+line, whether in action or repose. This can be done to an astonishing
+degree, even if one lacks the instinct. To be born with a sense of line
+is a gift, and the development of this sense can give artistic delight
+to those who witness the results and thrill them quite as sculpture or
+music, or any other art does.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek idea of regarding the perfectly trained body as a beautiful
+temple is one to keep in mind, if woman would fulfil her obligation to
+be decorative.</p>
+
+<p>Form means efficiency, if properly understood and carried out according
+to the spirit, not the letter of the law. Form implies the human body
+<a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>under control, ready for immediate action. The man or woman with
+<i>form</i>, will be the first to fall into action when required, because, so
+to speak, no time is lost in collecting and aiming the body.</p>
+
+<p>One of the great points in the teaching of the late Theodore
+Leschetizky, the world's greatest master in the art of piano playing,
+was that the hand should immediately assume the correct position for the
+succeeding chord, the instant it was lifted from the
+keys;&mdash;preparedness!</p>
+
+<p>The crack regiments of Europe, noted for their form, have for years been
+the object of jests in those new worlds where brawn and muscle, with
+mental acumen, have converted primeval forests into congested commercial
+centers. But that form, so derided by the pioneer spirit, has proved its
+worth during the present European war. The United States and the Central
+Powers are now at war and military guards have been stationed at
+vulnerable points. Only to-day we saw one of Uncle Sam's soldiers, one
+of three, patrolling the front of a big armory,&mdash;standing in an
+absolutely relaxed position, his gun held loosely in his hand, and its
+bayonet <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>propped against the iron fence. One could not help thinking;
+<i>no</i> form, no preparedness, no efficiency. It goes without saying that
+prompt obedience cannot be looked for where there is lack of form, no
+matter how willing the spirit.</p>
+
+<p>The modern woman when on parole,&mdash;walking, dancing, driving, riding or
+engaged in any sport, to be efficient must have trained the body until
+it has form, and dress it appropriately, if she would be efficient as
+well as decorative in the modern sense of the term. No better
+illustration of our point can be found than in the popular sport cited
+at the beginning of this chapter.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" /><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-i.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="I" /><b>T</b></span>
+is not easy to be decorative in your automobile now that the
+manufacturers are going in for gay colour schemes both in upholstery and
+outside painting. A putty-coloured touring car lined with red leather is
+very stunning in itself, but the woman who would look well when sitting
+in it does not carelessly don any bright motor coat at hand. She knows
+very well that to show up to advantage against red, and be in harmony
+with the putty-colour paint, her tweed coat should blend with the car,
+also her furs. Black is smart with everything, but fancy how impossible
+mustard, cerise and some shades of green would look against that scarlet
+leather!</p>
+
+<p>An orange car with black top, mud-guards and upholstery calls for a
+costume of white, black, brown, tawny grey, or, if one would be a
+poster, royal blue.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>Some twenty-five years ago the writer watched the first automobile in
+her experience driven down the Champs Elys&eacute;es. It seemed an uncanny,
+horseless carriage, built to carry four people and making a good deal of
+fuss about it.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later, while lunching at the Caf&eacute; de Reservoir, Versailles,
+we were told that some men were starting back to Paris by automobile,
+and if we went to a window giving on to the court, we might see the
+astonishing vehicle make its start. It was as thrilling as the first
+near view of an a&euml;roplane, and all-excitement we watched the two
+Frenchmen getting ready for the drive. Their elaborate preparation to
+face the current of air to be encountered en route was not unlike the
+preparation to-day for flying. It was Spring&mdash;June, at that&mdash;but those
+Frenchmen wearing very English tweeds and smoking English pipes, each
+drew on extra cloth trousers and coats and over these a complete outfit
+of leather! We saw them get into the things in the public courtyard,
+arrange huge goggles, draw down cloth caps, and set out at a speed of
+about fifteen miles an hour!</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XVI<a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>A portrait of Mrs. Thomas Hastings of New York painted by
+    the late John W. Alexander.</p>
+
+<p>    We have chosen this&mdash;one of the most successful portraits by
+    one of America's leading portrait painters&mdash;as a striking
+    example of colour scheme and interesting line. Also we have
+    here a woman who carries herself with form. Mrs. Hastings is
+    an accomplished horsewoman. Her fine physique is poised so
+    as to give that individual movement which makes for type;
+    her colour&mdash;wonderful red hair and the complexion which goes
+    with it&mdash;are set off by a dull gold background; a gown in
+    another tone of gold, relieved by a note or two of turquoise
+    green; and the same green appearing as a shadow on the
+    Victory in the background.</p>
+
+<p>    We see the sitter, as she impressed an observer, transferred
+    to the canvas by the consummate skill of our deeply lamented
+    artist.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p149.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p149-tb.jpg" width="315" height="400" alt="A Modern Portrait By John W. Alexander" title="A Modern Portrait By John W. Alexander" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>
+<i>A Modern Portrait By John W. Alexander</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>The above seems incredible, now that we have passed through the various
+stages of motor car improvements and motor clothes creations. The rapid
+development of the automobile, with its windshields, limousine tops,
+shock absorbers, perfected engines and springs, has brought us to the
+point where no more preparation is needed for a thousand-mile run across
+country with an average speed of thirty miles an hour, than if we were
+boarding a train. One dresses for a motor as one would for driving in a
+carriage and those dun-colored, lineless monstrosities invented for
+motor use have vanished from view. More than this, woman to-day
+considers her decorative value against the electric blue velvet or
+lovely chintz lining of her limousine, exactly as she does when planning
+clothes for her salon. And why not? The manufacturers of cars are taking
+seriously their interior decoration as well as outside painting; and
+many women interior decorators specialise along this line and devote
+their time to inventing colour schemes calculated to reflect the
+personality of the owner of the car.</p>
+
+<p>Special orders have raised the standard of the entire industry, so that
+at the recent New <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>York automobile show, many effects in cars were
+offered to the public. Besides the putty-coloured roadster lined with
+scarlet, black lined with russet yellow, orange lined with black; there
+were limousines painted a delicate custard colour, with top and rim of
+wheels, chassis and lamps of the same Nattier Blue as the velvet lining,
+cushions and curtains. A beautiful and luxurious background and how easy
+to be decorative against it to one who knows how!</p>
+
+<p>Another popular colour scheme was a mauve body with top of canopy and
+rims of wheels white, the entire lining of mauve, like the body. Imagine
+your woman with a decorative instinct in this car. So obvious an
+opportunity would never escape her, and one can see the vision on a
+Summer day, as she appears in simple white, softest blue or pale pink,
+or better still, treating herself as a quaint nosegay of blush roses,
+for-get-me-nots, lilies and mignonette, with her chiffons and silks or
+sheerest of lawns.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how about me?&quot; one hears from the girl of the open car&mdash;a racer
+perhaps, which she drives herself. You are easiest of all, we assure
+you; to begin with, your car being a racer, is <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>painted and lined with
+durable dark colours&mdash;battleship grey, dust colour, or some shade which
+does not show dirt and wear. The consequence is, you will be decorative
+in any of the smart coats, close hats and scarfs in brilliant and lovely
+hues,&mdash;silk or wool.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" /><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-h.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="H" /><b>ERE</b></span>
+is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:</p>
+
+<p>We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of
+Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your
+attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent.
+Granted that you decide on a court costume, one of those made so
+familiar by the paintings of the great Velasquez, let your first step be
+to get a definite impression of the <i>outline</i> of such a costume. Go to
+art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for books on
+costumes, with plates.</p>
+
+<p>You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt
+periods, there are a variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope
+of the hip line and the outline of the skirt is the infallible hall-mark
+of each of these periods.</p>
+
+<p>Let it be remembered that the outline of a <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>woman includes hair, combs,
+head-dress, earrings, treatment of neck, shoulders, arms, bust and hips;
+line to the ankles and shoes; also fan, handkerchief or any other
+article, which if a silhouette were made, would appear. The next step is
+to ascertain what materials were available at the time your costume was
+worn and what in vogue. Were velvets, satins or silks worn, or all
+three? Were materials flowered, striped, or plain? If striped,
+horizontal or perpendicular? For these points turn again to your art
+gallery, costume plates, or the best of historical novels. If you are
+unable to resort to the sources suggested, two courses lie open to you.
+Put the matter into the hands of an expert; there are many to be
+approached through the columns of first-class periodicals or newspapers
+(we do not refer to the ordinary dealer in costumes or theatre
+accessories); or make the effort to consult some authority, in person or
+by letter: an actor, historian or librarian. It is amazing how near at
+hand help often is, if we only make our needs known. If the reader is
+young and busy, dancing and skating and sleeping, and complains, in her
+winsome way, that &quot;days are too short <a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>for such work,&quot; we would remind
+her that as already stated, to carefully study the details of any
+costume, of any period, means that the mind and the eye are being
+trained to discriminate between the essentials and non-essentials of
+woman's costume in every-day life. The same young beauty may be
+interested to know that at the beginning of Geraldine Farrar's career
+the writer, visiting with her, an exhibition of pictures in Munich, was
+amazed at the then, very young girl's familiarity with the manner of
+artists&mdash;ancient and modern,&mdash;and exclaimed &quot;I did not know you were so
+fond of pictures.&quot; &quot;It's not that,&quot; Farrar said, &quot;I get my costumes from
+them, and a great many of my poses.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XVII<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, patron of the arts,
+    exhibited in New York at Duveen Galleries during Winter of
+    1916-1917 with the Zuloaga pictures. The exhibition was
+    arranged by Mrs. Lydig.</p>
+
+<p>    This portrait has been chosen to illustrate two points: that
+    a distinguished decorative quality is dependent upon line
+    which has primarily to do with form of one's own physique
+    (and not alone the cut of the costume); and the great value
+    of knowing one's own type.</p>
+
+<p>    Mrs. Lydig has been transferred to the canvas by the clever
+    technique of one of the greatest modern painters, Ignacio
+    Zuloaga, an artistic descendant of Velasquez. The delightful
+    movement is that of the subject, in this case kept alive
+    through its subtle translation into terms of art.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 260px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p159.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p159-tb.jpg" width="260" height="400" alt="A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig." title="A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig." /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>
+<i>A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig. <br />
+By I. Zuloago</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>Outline and material being decided, give your attention to the character
+of the background against which you are to appear. If it is a ball-room,
+and the occasion a costume-ball, is it done in light or dark colours,
+and what is the prevailing tone? See to it that you settle on a colour
+which will be either a harmonious note or an agreeable, hence impressive
+contrast, against the prevailing background. If you are to wear the
+costume on a stage or as a living picture against a background arranged
+with special reference to you, and where you are the central figure, be
+more subtle and combine colours, if you will; go in for interesting
+detail, provided always that you make these details have meaning. For
+example, if it be trimming, pure and simple, be sure that it be applied
+as during your chosen period. Trimming can be used so as to increase
+effectiveness of a costume by accentuating its distinctive features, and
+it can be misused so as to pervert your period, whether that be the age
+of Cleopatra, or the Winter of 1917. Details, such as lace, jewels,
+head-dresses, fans, snuff-boxes, work baskets and flowers must be
+absolutely of the period, or not at all. A few details, even one
+stunning jewel, if correct, will be far more convincing than any number
+of makeshifts, no matter how attractive in themselves. Paintings, plates
+and history come to our rescue here. If you think it dry work, try it.
+The chances are all in favour of your emerging from your search
+spell-bound by the vistas opened up to you; the sudden meaning acquired
+by many inanimate things, and a new pleasure added to all observations.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>That Spanish comb of great-great-grandmother's is really a treasure now.
+The antique Spanish plaque you own, found to be Moorish lustre, and out
+of the attic it comes! A Spanish miracle cross proves the spiritual
+superstition of the race, so back to the junk-shop you go, hoping to
+acquire the one that was proffered.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Carmen should wear a long skirt when she dances, Spanish pictures
+show them; and so on.</p>
+
+<p>The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one
+in touch, not only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the
+customs of the times. Once steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and
+artists, how quick the connoisseur is to recognize Spanish influence on
+the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your expert in costumes of
+nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of dynasties
+and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has
+extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them,
+and when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of
+studying history.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one
+with inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data
+on periods in dress, as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of
+this there is verily no end.</p>
+
+<p>We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for
+one in pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.</p>
+
+<p>There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair
+is worn, from Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's
+sleeve, its ups and downs and ins and outs as shown in art; the
+separation of the waist from skirt, and ever changing line of both; the
+neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and how the necklace
+changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the Greeks
+into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance,
+the joyous optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so
+simple with all the material,&mdash;old and new, lying about one.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, that is the pitfall&mdash;the very abundance of those plates in wondrous
+books, old coloured <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>prints and portraits of the past. To some students
+this kaleidoscopic vision of period costumes never falls into definite
+lines and colour; or if the types are clear, what they come from or
+merge into remains obscure.</p>
+
+<p>For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of
+data a system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of
+the human body, a framework on which to build. If our historical outline
+be clear enough to impress the mental vision as indelibly as those
+primary maps of the earth did, then we feel persuaded, the textless
+books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve their end as
+never before. We humbly offer what we hope may prove a key to the rich
+storehouse.</p>
+
+<p>Simplicity, and pure line, were lost sight of when overabundance dulled
+the senses of the world. We could prove this, for art shows that the
+costuming of woman developed slowly, preserving, as did furniture, the
+same classic lines and general characteristics until the fifteenth
+century, the end of the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>With the opening up of trade channels and <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>the possibilities of easy and
+quick communication between countries we find, as we did in the case of
+furniture, periods of fashion developing without nationality. Nations
+declared themselves in the artistry of workmanship, as to-day, and in
+the modification and exaggeration of an essential detail, resulting from
+national or individual temperament.</p>
+
+<p>If you ask, &quot;Where do fashions come from,&mdash;why 'periods'?&quot; we would
+answer that in the last analysis one would probably find in the
+conception of every fashion some artist's brain. If the period is a good
+one, then it proves that fate allowed the artist to be true to his muse.
+If the fashion is a bad one the artist may have had to adapt his lines
+and colour or detail to hide a royal deformity, or to cater to the whim
+of some wilful beauty ignorant of our art, but rich and in the public
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>A fashion if started is a demon or a god let loose. As we have said,
+there is an interesting point to be observed in looking at woman as
+decoration; whether the medium be fresco, bas relief, sculpture, mosaic,
+stained glass or painting, the decorative line, shown in costumes,
+<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>presents the same recurrent types that we found when studying the
+history of furniture.</p>
+
+<p>For our present purposes it is expedient to confine ourselves to the
+observation of that expression of civilisation which had root, so far as
+we know, in Assyria and Egypt, and spread like a branching vine through
+Byzantium, Greece, Rome, Gothic Europe and Europe of the Renaissance, on
+through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, down to
+the present time.</p>
+
+<p>Costumes for woman and man are supposed to have had their origin in a
+cord tied about the waist, from which was suspended crude implements
+(used for the slaying of beasts for food, and in self-defence); trophies
+of war, such as teeth, scalps, etc. The trophies suspended, partly
+concealed the body and were for decoration, as was tattooing of the
+skin. Clothes were not the result of modesty; modesty followed the
+partial covering of the human body. Modesty, or shame, was the emotion
+which developed when man, accustomed to decoration&mdash;trophies or
+tattooing&mdash;was deprived of all or part of such covering. What parts of
+the body require concealment, is purely a matter of the customs
+prevailing with a race or tribe, at a certain time, and under certain
+conditions.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XVIII<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) who has been one of the
+    greatest beauties of modern times and a marked example of a
+    woman who has always understood her own type, to costume it.</p>
+
+<p>    She agrees that this photograph of her, in an evening wrap,
+    illustrates a point she has always laid emphasis on: that a
+    garment which has good lines&mdash;in which one is a
+    picture&mdash;continues wearable even when not the dernier cri of
+    fashion.</p>
+
+<p>    This wrap was worn by Mrs. Langtry about two years ago.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 279px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p169.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p169-tb.jpg" width="279" height="400" alt="Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap" title="Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>This is a theme, the detailed development of which lies outside the
+purpose of our book. It has delightful possibilities, however, if the
+plentiful data on the subject, given in scientific books, were to be
+condensed and simplified.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" /><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES</h3>
+
+<h4><i>A R&eacute;sum&eacute;</i></h4>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="big">&quot;<img src="images/illus-o.jpg" width="72" height="60" alt="&quot;O" /><b>UR</b></span>
+present modes of dress (aside from the variations
+    imposed by fashion) are the resultant of all the fashions of
+    the last 2000 years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>    <span class="smcap">W. G. Sumner</span> in <i>Folkways</i>.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>The earliest Egyptian frescoes, invaluable pre-historic data, show us
+woman as she was costumed, housed and occupied when the painting was
+done. On those age-old walls she appears as man's companion, his
+teacher, plaything, slave, and ruler;&mdash;in whatever r&ocirc;le the fates
+decreed. The same frescoed walls have pictured records of how Egypt
+tilled the soil, built houses, worked in metals, pottery and sculpture.
+Woman is seen beside her man, who slays the beasts, at times from boats
+propelled through <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>reeded jungles; and hers is always that rigid
+outline, those long, quiet eyes depicted in profile, with massive
+head-dress, and strange upstanding ornaments, abnormally curled wig, and
+close, straight garments to the feet (or none at all), heavy collar,
+wristbands and anklets of precious metals with gems inset, or chased in
+strange designs. About her, the calm mysterious poise and childlike
+acquiescence of those who know themselves to be the puppets of the gods.
+In this na&iuml;vet&eacute; lies one of the great charms of Egyptian art.</p>
+
+<p>As sculptured caryatide, we see woman of Egypt clad in transparent
+sheath-like skirt, nude above the waist, with the usual extinguishing
+head-dress and heavy collar, bracelets and anklets. We see her as woman,
+mute, law-abiding, supporting the edifice; woman with steady gaze and
+silent lips; one wonders what was in the mind of that lotus eater of the
+Nile who carved his dream in stone.</p>
+
+<p>Those would reproduce Egyptian colour schemes for costumes, house or
+stage settings, would do well to consult the book of Egyptian designs,
+brought out in 1878 by the Ecole des <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>Beaux Arts, Paris, and available
+in the large libraries.</p>
+
+<p>On the walls of the Necropolis of Memphis, Thi and his wife (Fifth
+Dynasty) appear in a delightful hunting scene. The man in the prow of
+his boat is about to spear an enormous beast, while his wife, seated in
+the bottom, wraps her arm about his leg!</p>
+
+<p>Among the earliest portraits of an Egyptian woman completely clothed, is
+that of Queen Taia, wife of Amenophis, Eighteenth Dynasty, who wears a
+striped gown with sleeves of the kimono type and a ribbon tied around
+her waist, the usual ornamental collar and bracelets of gold, and an
+elaborate head-dress with deep blue curtain, extending to the waist,
+behind.</p>
+
+<p>Full of illuminating suggestions is an example of Woman in Egyptian
+decoration, to be seen as a fresco in the Necropolis of Thebes. It shows
+the governess of a young prince (Eighteenth Dynasty) holding the child
+on her lap. The feet of the little prince rest on a stool, supported by
+nine crouching human beings&mdash;men; each has a collar about his neck, to
+which a leash <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>is attached, and all nine leashes are held in the hands
+of the child!</p>
+
+<p>The illustrations of the Egyptian funeral papyrus, The Book of the Dead,
+show woman in the r&ocirc;le of wife and companion. It is the story of a
+high-born Egyptian woman, Tutu, wife of Ani, Royal Scribe and Scribe of
+the Sacred Revenue of all the gods of Thebes. Tutu, the long-eyed
+Egyptian woman, young and straight, with raven hair and active form, a
+Kem&auml;it of Amon, which means she belonged to the religious chapter or
+congregation of the great god of Thebes. She was what might be described
+as lady-in-waiting or honorary priestess, to the god Amon. She, too,
+wears the typical Egyptian head-dress and straight, long white gown,
+hanging in close folds to her feet. One vignette shows Tutu with arm
+about her husband's leg. This seems to have been a na&iuml;ve Egyptian way of
+expressing that eternal womanliness, that tender care for those beloved,
+that quality inseparable from woman if worthy the name, and by reason of
+which with man, her mate, she has run the gamut of human experience,
+meeting the demands of her time. There <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>is no dodging the issue, woman's
+story recorded in art, shows that she has always responded to Fate's
+call; followed, led, ruled, been ruled, amused, instructed, sent her men
+into battle as Spartan mothers did to return with honour or on their
+shields, and when Fate so decreed, led them to battle, like Joan of Arc.</p>
+
+
+<h4>II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA</h4>
+
+<p>In Egypt and Assyria the lines of the torso were kept straight, with no
+contracting of body at waist line. Woman was clad in a straight
+sheet-like garment, extending from waist to feet with only metal
+ornaments above; necklace, bracelets and armlets; or a straight dress
+from neck to meet the heavy anklets. Sandals were worn on the feet. The
+head was encased in an abnormally curled wig, with pendent ringlets, and
+the whole clasped by a massive head-dress, following the contour of head
+and having as part of it, a curtain or veil, reaching down behind,
+across shoulders and approaching waist line. The Sphinx wears a
+characteristic Egyptian head-dress.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XIX<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast, artist and patron of the arts, noted for
+    her understanding of her own type and the successful
+    costuming of it.</p>
+
+<p>    Mrs. Nast was Miss Clarisse Coudert. Her French blood
+    accounts, in part, for her innate feeling for line and
+    colour. It is largely due to the keen interest and active
+    services of Mrs. Nast that <i>Vogue</i> and <i>Vanity Fair</i> have
+    become the popular mirrors and prophetic crystal balls of
+    fashion for the American woman.</p>
+
+<p>    Mrs. Nast is here shown in street costume. The photograph is
+    by Baron de Meyer, who has made a distinguished art of
+    photography.</p>
+
+<p>    We are here shown the value of a carefully considered
+    outline which is sharply registered on the background by
+    posing figure against the light, a method for suppressing
+    all details not effecting the outline.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 282px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p179.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p179-tb.jpg" width="282" height="400" alt="Mrs. Conde Nast in Street Dress" title="Mrs. Conde Nast in Street Dress" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>
+<i>Photograph by Baron de Meyer</i><br />
+<i>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in Street Dress</i></span>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<h4><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>
+<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>III. EGYPT, BYZANTIUM, GREECE AND ROME</h4>
+
+<p>During the periods antedating Christ, when the Roman empire was
+all-powerful, the women of Egypt, Byzantium, Greece and Rome, wore
+gilded wigs (see <a href="#Page_vi">Plate I</a>, Frontispiece), arranged in Psyche knots, and
+banded; sandals on their feet, and a one-piece garment, confined at the
+waist by a girdle, which fell in close folds to the feet, a style to
+develop later into the classic Greek.</p>
+
+<p>The Greek garment consisted of a great square of white linen, draped in
+the deft manner of the East, to adapt it to the human form, at once
+concealing and disclosing the body to a degree of perfection never since
+attained. There were undraped Greek garments left to hang in close,
+clinging folds, even in the classic period. It is this undraped and
+finely-pleated robe (see <a href="#Page_198">Plate XXI</a>) hanging close to the figure, and the
+two-piece garment (see <a href="#Page_29">Plate IV</a>) with its short tunic of the same
+material, extending just below the waist line in front, and drooping in
+a cascade of ripples at the sides, as low as the <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>knees, that Fortuny
+(Paris) has reproduced in his tea gowns.</p>
+
+<p>An Englishwoman told us recently that her great-great-grandmother used
+to describe how she and others of her time (Empire Period) wet their
+clothes to make them cling to their forms, &agrave; la Grecque!</p>
+
+<p>The classic Greek costume was often a sleeveless garment, falling in
+folds, and when confined at waist line with cord the upper part bloused
+over it; the material was draped so as to leave the arms free, the folds
+being held in place by ornamental clasps upon the shoulders. The fitting
+was practically unaided by cutting; squares or straight lengths of linen
+being adjusted to the human form by clever manipulation. The adjusting
+of these folds, as we have said, developed into an art.</p>
+
+<p>The use of large squares or shawls of brilliantly dyed linen, wool and
+later silk, is conspicuous in all the examples showing woman as
+decoration.</p>
+
+<p>The long Gothic cape succeeds it, that enveloping circular garment, with
+and without the hood, and clasped at the throat, in which the <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>Mother of
+God is invariably depicted. Her cape is the celestial royal blue.</p>
+
+<p>The stained silk gauzes, popular with Greek dancers, were made into
+garments following the same classic lines, and so were the gymnasium
+costumes of the young girls of Greece. Isadora Duncan reproduces the
+latter in many of her dances.</p>
+
+<p>In the chapter entitled &quot;The Story of Textiles&quot; in <i>The Art of Interior
+Decoration</i>, we have given a r&eacute;sum&eacute; of this branch of our subject.</p>
+
+<p>The type of costume worn by woman throughout the entire Roman Empire
+during its most glorious period, was classic Greek, not only in general
+outline, but in detail. Note that the collarless neck was cut round and
+a trifle low; the lines of gown were long and followed each other; the
+trimming followed the hem of neck and sleeves and skirt; the hair, while
+artificially curled and sometimes intertwined with pearls and other
+gems, after being gilded, was so arranged as to show the contour of the
+head, then gathered into a Psyche knot. Gold bands, plain or jewelled,
+clasped and held the hair in place.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>In the Gold Room of the Metropolitan Museum; in noted collections in
+Europe; in portraits and costume plates, one sees that the earrings worn
+at that period were great heavy discs, or half discs, of gold; large
+gold flowers, in the Etruscan style; large rings with groups of
+pendants,&mdash;usually three on each ring, and the drop earrings so much in
+vogue to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Necklaces were broad, like collars, round and made of hand-wrought links
+and beads, with pendants. These filled in the neck of the dress and were
+evidently regarded as a necessary part of the costume.</p>
+
+<p>The simple cord which confined the Greek woman's draperies at the waist,
+in Egypt and Byzantium, became a sash; a broad strip of material which
+was passed across the front of body at the waist, crossed behind and
+then brought tight over the hips to tie in front, low down, the ends
+hanging square to knees or below.</p>
+
+<p>In Egypt a shoulder cape, with kerchief effect in front, broadened
+behind to a square, and reached to the waist line.</p>
+
+<p>We would call attention to the fact that when the classic type of
+furniture and costume were <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>revived by Napoleon I and the Empress
+Josephine, it was the Egyptian version, as well as the Greek. One sees
+Egyptian and Etruscan styles in the straight, narrow garment of the
+First Empire reaching to ankles, with parallel rows of trimming at the
+bottom of skirt.</p>
+
+<p>The Empire style of parted hair, with cascade of curls each side,
+riotous curling locks outlining face, with one or two ringlets brought
+in front of ears, and the Psyche knot (which later in Victorian days
+lent itself to caricature, in a feather-duster effect at crown of head),
+were inspired by those curled and gilded creations such as Tha&iuml;s wore.</p>
+
+<p>Hats, as we use the term to-day, were worn by the ancients. Some will
+remember the Greek hat Sibyl Sanderson wore with her classic robes when
+she sang Massenet's &quot;Ph&eacute;dre,&quot; in Paris. It was Chinese in type. One sees
+this type of hat on Tanagra Statuettes in our museums.</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of hats, designers to-day are constantly resurrecting models
+found in museums, and some of us recognise the lines and details of
+ancient head-dresses in hats turned out by our most up-to-date
+milliners.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>Parasols and umbrellas were also used by Assyrians and Greeks. Sandals
+which only covered the soles of the feet were the usual footwear, but
+Greeks and Etruscans are shown in art as wearing also moccasin-like
+boots and shoes laced up the front.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the strapped slippers of the Empire were a version of classic
+sandals.</p>
+
+<p>As we have said, the Greek gown and toga are found wherever the Roman
+Empire reached. The women of what are now France and England clothed
+themselves at that time in the same manner as the cultured class of
+Rome. Naturally the Germanic branch which broke from the parent stem,
+and drifted northward to strike root in unbroken forests, bordering on
+untried seas, wore skins and crudely woven garments, few and strongly
+made, but often picturesque.</p>
+
+<p>Though but slightly reminiscent of the traditional costume, we know that
+the women of the third and fourth centuries wore a short, one-piece
+garment, with large earrings, heavy metal armlets above the elbow and at
+wrists. The chain about the waist, from which hung a knife, for
+protection and domestic purposes, is descendent from the savage's cord
+and ancestor to that lovely bauble, the chatelaine of later days, with
+its attached fan, snuff-box and jewelled watch.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XX<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in an evening gown. Here again is a costume
+    the beauty of which evades the dictum of fashion in the
+    narrow sense of the term.</p>
+
+<p>    This picture has the distinction of a well-posed and finely
+    executed old master and because possessing beauty of a
+    traditional sort will continue to give pleasure long after
+    the costume has perished.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 384px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p189.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p189-tb.jpg" width="384" height="400" alt="Mrs. Conde Nast in Evening Dress" title="Mrs. Conde Nast in Evening Dress" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in Evening Dress</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" /><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="T" /><b>O</b></span>
+the Romans, all who were not of Rome and her Empire, were
+foreigners,&mdash;outsiders, people with a strange viewpoint, so they were
+given a name to indicate this; they were called &quot;barbarians.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Conspicuous among those tribes of barbarians, moved by human lust for
+gain to descend upon the Roman Empire and eventually bring about its
+fall, was the tribe of Goths, and in the course of centuries &quot;Gothic&quot;
+has become a generic term, implying that which is not Roman. We speak of
+Gothic architecture, Gothic art, Gothic costumes, when we mean, strictly
+speaking, the characteristic architecture, art and costuming of the late
+Middle Ages (twelfth to fifteenth centuries).</p>
+
+<p>But we find the so-called Gothic outline in costume as early as the
+fourth century. Over the undraped, one-piece robe of classic type, a
+<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>second garment is now worn, cut with straight lines. It usually fastens
+behind, and the uncorseted figure is outlined. The neck is still
+collarless and cut round, the space filled in with a necklace. The
+sleeves of the tunic appear to be the logical evolution of the folds of
+the toga, which fall over the arms when bent. They cling to the outline
+of the shoulder, broadening at the hand into what is called &quot;angel&quot;
+sleeves; in art, the traditional angel wears them.</p>
+
+<p>Roman-Christian women wore their hair parted, no Psyche knot, and
+interesting, large earrings. The gowns were not draped, but were in one
+piece and with no fulness. A tunic, following lines of the form, reached
+below the knees and was <i>belted</i>. This garment was trimmed with bands
+from shoulders to hem of tunic and kept the same width throughout, if
+narrow; but if wide, the bands broadened to the hem. The neck continued
+to be cut round, and filled in with a necklace.</p>
+
+<p>The cape, fastening on shoulders or chest, remnant of the Greek toga,
+was worn, and veils of various materials were the usual head coverings.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>Between the fifth and tenth centuries there are examples of the
+overgarment or tunic having a broad stomacher of some contrasting
+material, held in place with a cord, which is tied behind, brought
+around to the front, knotted and allowed to hang to bottom of skirt.</p>
+
+<p>Byzantine art between 800 and 1000 A. D. still shows women wearing
+tunics, but hanging straight from neck to hem of skirt, fastened on
+shoulders and opened at sides to show gown beneath; close sleeves with
+trimming at the wrists, often large, roughly cut jewels forming a border
+on tunic, and the hair worn in long braids on each side of the face; the
+coil of hair, which was wrapped with pearls or other beads, was parted
+and used to frame the face.</p>
+
+<p>This fashion was carried to excess by the Franks. We see some of their
+women between 400 and 600 A. D. wearing these heavy, rope-like braids to
+the hem of the skirt in front.</p>
+
+<p>In the fourteenth century the Gothic costume was perhaps at its most
+beautiful stage. The long robe, the upper part following the lines of
+the figure, with long close sleeves half covering hands, or flowing
+sleeves, that touched <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>the floor. About the waist was worn a silk cord
+or jewelled girdle, finely wrought and swung low on hips; from the end
+of which was suspended the money bag, fan and keys.</p>
+
+<p>The girdle begins now to play an important part as decoration. This
+theme, the evolution of the girdle, may be indefinitely enlarged upon
+but we must not dwell upon it here.</p>
+
+<p>In some cases we see that the tunic opened in the front and that the
+large, square, shawl-like outer garment of Greece now became the long
+circular cape, clasped on the chest (one or two clasps), made so
+familiar by the art of the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Turn to the
+illuminated manuscripts of those periods, to paintings, on wood,
+frescoes, stained glass, stucco, carved wood, and stone, and you will
+find the Mother of God invariably costumed in the simple one-piece robe
+and circular clasped cape.</p>
+
+<p>In most of the sacred art of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth,
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Virgin and other saints are
+depicted in the current costume of woman. The Virgin was the most
+frequent subject of <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>artists in every medium, during the ages when the
+Church dominated the State in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The refurnishing of the Virgin's wardrobe has long been and still is, a
+pious task and one clamoured for by adherents to the churches in which
+the Virgin's image is displayed to worshippers. We regret to say, for
+&aelig;sthetic reasons, that there is no effort made on the part of modern
+devotees to perpetuate the beautiful medi&aelig;val type of costume.</p>
+
+<p>In some old paintings which come under the head of Folk Art, the Holy
+Family appears in national costume. The writer recalls a bit of
+eighteenth century painting, showing St. Anne holding the Virgin as
+child. St. Anne wears the bizarre f&ecirc;te attire of a Spanish peasant; a
+gigantic head-dress and veil, large earrings, wide stiff skirts, showing
+gay flowers on a background of gold. The skirt is rather short, to
+display wide trousers below it. Her sleeves have filmy frills of deep
+white lace executed with skill.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXI<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in a garden costume. She wears a sun-hat
+    and carries a flower-basket, which are decorative as well as
+    useful.</p>
+
+<p>    We have chosen this photograph as an example of a costume
+    made exquisitely artistic by being kept simple in line and
+    free from an excess of trimming.</p>
+
+<p>    This costume is so decorative that it gives distinction and
+    interest to the least pretentious of gardens.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 232px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p199.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p199-tb.jpg" width="232" height="400" alt="Mrs. Conde Nast in Garden Costume" title="Mrs. Conde Nast in Garden Costume" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in Garden Costume</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>To return to the girdle, as we have said, it slipped from its position
+at the waist line, where it confined the classic folds, and was allowed
+to hang loosely about the hips, clasped low in front. From this clasp a
+chain extended, to which were attached the housewife's keys or purse and
+the dame of fashion's fan. In fact one can tell, to a certain extent,
+the woman's class and period by carefully inspecting her chatelaine.</p>
+
+<p>The absence of waist line, and the long, straight effect produced in the
+body of gown by wearing the girdle swung about the hips, gives it the
+so-called Moyen Age silhouette, revived by the fashion of to-day.</p>
+
+<p>In the thirteenth century the round collarless neck, low enough to admit
+a necklace of links or beads, persists. A new note is the outer sleeve
+laced across an inner sleeve of white.</p>
+
+<p>Let us remember that the costume of the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries was distinguished by a quality of beautiful, sweeping line,
+massed colour, detail with <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>, which produced dignity with
+graceful movement, found nowhere to-day, unless it be on the Wagnerian
+stage or in the boudoir of a woman who still takes time, in our age of
+hurry, to wear her neglig&eacute;e beautifully.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>In the fourteenth century the round neck continued, but one sees low
+necks too, which left the shoulders exposed (our 1830 style).</p>
+
+<p>Another new note is the tunic grown into a garment reaching to the feet,
+a one-piece &quot;princess&quot; gown, with belt or girdle. Sometimes a Juliet cap
+was worn to merely cover the crown of head, with hair parted and
+flowing, while on matrons we see head coverings with sides turned up,
+like ecclesiastical caps, and floating veils falling to the waist.</p>
+
+<p>Notice that through all the periods that we have named, which means
+until the fourteenth century, the line of shoulder remains normal and
+beautiful, sloping and melting into folds of robe or line of sleeve. We
+see now for the first time an inclination to tamper with the shoulder
+line. An inoffensive scallop appears,&mdash;or some other decoration, as cap
+to sleeve. No harm done yet!</p>
+
+<p>The fifteenth century shows another style, a long sleeveless
+overgarment, reaching to the floor, fastened on shoulders and swinging
+loose, to show at sides the undergown. It suggests a priest's robe. Here
+we discover <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>one more of the Moyen Age styles revived to-day.</p>
+
+<p>The fourteenth century gowns, with necks cut out round, to admit a
+necklace with pendants, are still popular. The gowns are long on the
+ground, and the most beautiful of the characteristic head-dresses&mdash;the
+long, pointed one, with veil covering it, and floating down from point
+of cap to hem of flowing skirt behind, continues the movement of
+costume&mdash;the long lines which follow one another.</p>
+
+<p>When correctly posed, this pointed head-dress is a delight to the eye.
+We recently saw a photograph of some fair young women in this type of
+Medi&aelig;val or Gothic costume worn by them at a costume ball. Failing to
+realise that the <i>pose</i> of any head-dress (this means hats as well) is
+all-important, they had placed the quaint, long, pointed caps on the
+very tops of their heads, like fools' caps!</p>
+
+<p>The angle at which this head-dress is worn is half the battle.</p>
+
+<p>The importance of every woman's cultivating an eye for line cannot be
+overstated.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century we first see puffs at <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>the elbow, otherwise the
+outlines of gown are the same. The garment in one piece, the body of it
+outlining the form, its skirts sweeping the ground; a girdle about the
+hips, and long, close or flowing sleeves, wide at the hem.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the fourteenth century innovation of necks cut low and off the
+shoulders (berated by the Church), most necks in the fifteenth century
+are still cut round at the throat, and the necklace worn instead of
+collar. Some of the gowns cut low off the shoulders are filled in with a
+puffed tucker of muslin. The pointed cap with a floating veil is still
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Notice that the restraint in line, colour and detail, gradually
+disappears, with the abnormal circulation of wealth, in those
+departments of Church and State to which the current of material things
+was diverted. We now see humanity tricked out in rich attire and
+staggering to its doom through general debaucheries.</p>
+
+<p>Rich brocades, once from Damascus, are now made in Venice; and so are
+wonderful satins, velvets and silks, with jewels many and massive.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a broad jewelled band crossed the <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>breast from shoulder
+diagonally to under arm, at waist.</p>
+
+<p>The development of the petticoat begins now. At first we get only a
+glimpse of it, when our lady of the pointed cap lifts her long skirts,
+lined with another shade. It is of a rich contrasting colour and is
+gradually elaborated.</p>
+
+<p>The waist-line, when indicated, is high.</p>
+
+<p>A new note is the hair, with throat and neck completely concealed by a
+white veil, a style we associate with nuns and certain folk costumes. As
+fashion it had a passing vogue.</p>
+
+<p>Originally, the habit of covering woman's hair indicated modesty (an
+idea held among the Folk), and the gradual shrinking of the dimensions
+of her coif, records the progress of the peasant woman's emancipation,
+in certain countries. This is especially conspicuous in Brittany, as M.
+Anatol Le Braz, the eminent Breton scholar, remarked recently to the
+writer.</p>
+
+<p>Note the silk bag, quite modern, on the arm; also the jewelled line of
+chain hanging from girdle down the middle of front, to hem of
+skirt,&mdash;both for use and ornament.</p>
+
+<p>To us of a practical era, a mysterious charm <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>attaches to the
+long-pointed shoes worn at this period.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifteenth century, the marked division of costume into waist and
+skirt begins, the waist line more and more pinched in, the skirt more
+and more full, the sleeves and neck more elaborately trimmed, the
+head-dresses multiplied in size, elaborateness and variety. Textiles
+developed with wealth and ostentation.</p>
+
+<p>In the sixteenth century the neck was usually cut out and worn low on
+the shoulders, sometimes filled in, but we see also high necks; necks
+with small ruffs and necks with large ruffs; ruffs turned down, forming
+stiff linen-cape collars, trimmed with lace, close to the throat or
+flaring from neck to show the throat.</p>
+
+<p>The hair is parted and worn low in a snood, or by young women, flowing.
+The ears are covered with the hair.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXII<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast wearing one of the famous Fortuny tea
+    gowns.</p>
+
+<p>    This one has no tunic but is finely pleated, in the Fortuny
+    manner, and falls in long lines, closely following the
+    figure, to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>    Observe the decorative value of the long string of beads.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 363px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p209.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p209-tb.jpg" width="363" height="605" alt="Mrs. Conde Nast in a Fortuny Tea Gown" title="Mrs. Conde Nast in a Fortuny Tea Gown" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Cond&eacute; Nast in a Fortuny Tea Gown</i></span>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+<p><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a><i>The Virgin in Art</i></p>
+
+<p>When writing of the Gothic period in <i>The Art of Interior Decoration</i>,
+we have said &quot;&#8230; Gothic art proceeds from the Christian Church and
+stretches like a canopy over western Europe during the late Middle Ages.
+It was in the churches and monasteries that Christian Art, driven from
+pillar to post by wars, was obliged to take refuge, and there produced
+that marvellous development known as the Gothic style, of the Church,
+for the Church and by the Church, perfected in countless Gothic
+cathedrals, crystallised glorias, lifting their manifold spires to
+heaven; ethereal monuments of an intrepid Faith which gave material form
+to its adoration, its fasting and prayer, in an unrivalled art&#8230;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Crystallised glorias&quot; (hymns to the Virgin) is as concise a defining of
+the nature and spirit of this highest type of medi&aelig;val art&mdash;perfected in
+France&mdash;as we can find. Here we have deified woman inspiring an art
+miraculously decorative.</p>
+
+<p>Chartres Cathedral and Rheims (before the German invasion in 1914) with
+Mont Saint Michel, are distinguished examples.</p>
+
+<p>If the readers would put to the test our claim that woman as decoration
+is a beguiling theme worthy of days passed in the broad highways of
+<a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>art, and many an hour in cross-roads and unbeaten paths, we would
+recommend to them the fascinations of a marvellous story-teller, one
+who, knowing all there is to know of his subject, has had the genius to
+weave the innumerable and perplexing threads into a tapestry of words,
+where the main ideas take their places in the foreground, standing out
+clearly defined against the deftly woven, intelligible but unobtruding
+background. The author is Henry Adams, the book, <i>The Cathedrals of Mont
+St. Michel and Chartres</i>. He tells you in striking language, how woman
+was translated into pure decoration in the Middle Ages, woman as the
+Virgin Mother of God, the manifestation of Deity which took precedence
+over all others during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries;
+and if you will follow him to the Chartres Cathedral (particularly if
+you have been there already), and will stand facing the great East
+Window, where in stained glass of the ancient jewelled sort, woman, as
+Mother of God, is enthroned above all, he will tell you how, out of the
+chaos of warring religious orders, the priestly schools of Abelard, St.
+Francis of<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a> Assisi and others, there emerged the form of the Virgin.</p>
+
+<p>To woman, as mother of God and man, the instrument of reproduction, of
+tender care, of motherhood, the disputatious, groping mind of man agreed
+to bow, silenced and awed by the mystery of her calling.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the recent enrolling of womanhood in the stupendous business
+of the war now waging in Europe, and the demands upon her to help in
+arming her men or nursing back to life the shattered remains of fair
+youth, which so bravely went forth, the thought comes that woman will
+play a large part in the art to arise from the ashes of to-day. Woman as
+woman ready to supplement man, pouring into life's caldron the best of
+herself, unstinted, unmeasured; woman capable of serving beyond her
+strength, rising to her greatest height, bending, but not breaking to
+the end, if only assured she is <i>needed</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" /><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE RENAISSANCE</h3>
+
+<h4><i>Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries</i></h4>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+marked departure is necks cut square, if low, and elaborate jewelled
+chains draped from shoulders, outlining neck of gown and describing a
+festoon on front of waist, which is soon to become independent of skirt
+to develop on its own account.</p>
+
+<p>As in the fifteenth century, when necks were cut low off the shoulders,
+they were on occasions filled in with tuckers.</p>
+
+<p>The skirt now registers a new characteristic; it parts at the waist line
+over a petticoat, and the opening is decorated by the ornamental, heavy
+chain which hangs from girdle to hem of gown.</p>
+
+<p>One sees the hair still worn coiled low in the neck, concealing the ears
+and held in a snood or in Italy cut &quot;Florentine&quot; fashion with fringe on
+brow.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>Observe how the wealth of the Roman Empire, through its new trade
+channels opening up with the East (the result of the crusades) led to
+the importation of rich and many-coloured Oriental stuffs; the same
+wealth ultimately established looms in Italy for making silks and
+velvets, to decorate man and his home. There was no longer simplicity in
+line and colour scheme; gorgeous apparel fills the frames of the
+Renaissance and makes amusing reading for those who consult old
+documents. The clothes of man, like his over-ornate furniture, show a
+debauched and vulgar taste. Instead of the lines which follow one
+another, solid colours, and trimmings kept to hem of neck and sleeve and
+skirt, great designs, in satins and velvet brocades, distort the lines
+and proportions of man and woman.</p>
+
+<p>The good Gothic lines lived on in the costumes of priests and nuns.</p>
+
+<p>Jewelry ceased to be decoration with meaning; lace and fringe, tassels
+and embroidery, with colour combinations to rival the African parrots,
+disfigured man and woman alike.</p>
+
+<p>During November of 1916, New York was <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>so fortunate as to see, at the
+American Art Galleries, the great collection of late Gothic and early
+Renaissance furniture and other art treasures, brought together in the
+restored Davanzati Palace of Florence, Italy. The collection was sold at
+auction, and is now scattered. Of course those who saw it in its natural
+setting in Florence, were most fortunate of all. But with some knowledge
+and imagination, at the sight of those wonderful things,&mdash;hand-made all
+of them,&mdash;the most casual among those who crowded the galleries for
+days, must have gleaned a vivid impression of how woman of the Early
+Renaissance lived,&mdash;in her kitchen, dining-room, bedroom and
+reception-rooms. They displayed her cooking utensils, her chairs and
+tables, her silver, glass and earthenware, her bed, linen, satin damask,
+lace and drawn work; the cushions she rested against; portraits in their
+gorgeous Florentine frames, showing us how those early Italians dressed;
+the colored terra-cottas, unspeakably beautiful presentments of the
+Virgin and Child, moulded and painted by great artists under that same
+exaltation of Faith which brought into being the sister arts of the
+time, imbuing them with something truly divine. There is no disputing
+that quality which radiates from the face of both the Mother and the
+Child. One all but kneels before it. Their expression is not of this
+world.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXIII<a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>Mrs. Vernon Castle who set to-day's fashion in outline of
+    costume and short hair for the young woman of America. For
+    this reason and because Mrs. Castle has form to a
+    superlative degree (correct carriage of the body) and the
+    clothes sense (knowledge of what she can wear and how to
+    wear it) we have selected her to illustrate several types of
+    costumes, characteristic of 1916 and 1917.</p>
+
+<p>    Another reason for asking Mrs. Castle to illustrate our text
+    is, that what Mrs. Castle's professional dancing has done to
+    develop and perfect her natural instinct for line, the
+    normal exercise of going about one's tasks and diversions
+    can do for any young woman, provided she keep in mind
+    correct carriage of body when in action or repose. Here we
+    see Mrs. Castle in ball costume.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 291px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p219.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p219-tb.jpg" width="291" height="400" alt="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume" title="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>That is woman as the Mother of God in art Woman as the mother of man,
+who looked on these inspired works of art, lived for the most part in
+small houses built of wood with thatched roofs, unpaved streets, dirty
+interiors, which were cleaned but once a week&mdash;on Saturdays! The men of
+the aristocracy hunted and engaged in commerce, and the general rank and
+file gave themselves over to the gaining of money to increase their
+power. It sounds not unlike New York to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the cities grew large and rich. People changed from simple
+sober living to elaborate and less temperate ways, and the great
+families, with their proportionately increased wealth gained through
+trade, built beautiful palaces and built them well. The gorgeous
+colouring of the frescoed walls shows Byzantine influence. In <i>The Art
+of Interior Decoration</i> we have described at length the house furnishing
+<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>of that time. Against this background moved woman, man's mate; note her
+colour scheme and then her r&ocirc;le. (We quote from Jahn Rusconi in <i>Les
+Arts</i>, Paris, August, 1911.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donna Francesca dei Albizzi's cloak of black cloth ornamented on a
+yellow background with birds, parrots, butterflies, pink and red roses,
+and a few other red and green figures; dragons, letters and trees in
+yellow and black, and again other figures made of white cloth with red
+and black stripes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Extravagance ran high not only in dress, but in everything, laws were
+made to regulate the amount spent on all forms of entertainment, even on
+funerals, and the cook who was to prepare a wedding feast had to submit
+his menu for approval to the city authorities. More than this, only two
+hundred guests could be asked to a wedding, and the number of presents
+which the bride was allowed to receive was limited by law. But wealth
+and fashion ran away with laws; the same old story.</p>
+
+<p>As the tide of the Renaissance rose and swept over Europe (the awakening
+began in Italy), the woman of the gorgeous cloak and <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>her
+contemporaries, according to the vivid description of the last quoted
+author, were &quot;subject to their husbands' tyranny, not even knowing how
+to read in many cases, occupied with their household duties, in which
+they were assisted by rough and uncouth slaves, with no other mission in
+life than to give birth to a numerous posterity&#8230; This life ruined
+them, and their beauty quickly faded away; no wonder, then, that they
+summoned art to the aid of nature. The custom was so common and the art
+so perfect that even a painter like Taddeo Gaddi acknowledged that the
+Florentine women were the best painters in the world!&#8230; Considering the
+mental status of the women, it is easy to imagine to what excesses they
+were given in the matter of dress.&quot; The above assertions relate to the
+average woman, not the great exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage coffers of woman of the Renaissance in themselves give an
+idea of her luxurious tastes. They were about six feet long, three feet
+high, and two and a half feet deep. Some had domed covers opening on
+hinges&mdash;the whole was carved, gilded and <a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>painted, the background of
+reds and blues throwing the gold into relief. Scenes taken from
+mythology were done in what was known as &quot;pastille,&quot; composition work
+raised and painted on a gold background. On one fifteenth century
+marriage coffer, Bacchus and Ariadne were shown in their triumphal car
+drawn by winged griffins, a young Bacchante driving them on. Another
+coffer decorated in the same manner had as decoration &quot;The Rape of
+Proserpine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Women rocked their infants in sumptuous carved and emblazoned walnut
+cradles, and crimson satin damask covered their beds and cushions. This
+blaze of gold and silver, crimson and blue we find as the wake of
+Byzantine trade, via Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Florence on to
+France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Flanders and England. Carved wood,
+crimson, green and blue velvets, satin damask, tapestries, gold and
+silver fringe and lace. Against all this moved woman, costumed
+sumptuously.</p>
+
+<p>Gradually the line of woman's (and man's) neck is lost in a ruff, her
+sweeping locks, instead of parted on her brow, entwined with <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>pearls or
+other gems to frame her face and make long lines down the length of her
+robe, are huddled under grotesque head-dresses, monstrous creations,
+rising and spreading until they become caricatures, defying art.</p>
+
+<p>In some sixteenth century Italian portraits we see the ruff flaring from
+a neck cut out square and low in front, then rising behind to form a
+head covering.</p>
+
+<p>The last half of the sixteenth century is marked by gowns cut high in
+the neck with a close collar, and the appearance of a small ruff
+encircling the throat. This ruff almost at once increased to absurd
+dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>The tightly laced long-pointed bodice now appears, with and without
+padded hips. (The superlative degree of this type is to be seen in
+portraits by Velasquez (see <a href="#Page_79">Plate IX</a>).)</p>
+
+<p>Long pointed toes to the shoes give way to broad, square ones.</p>
+
+<p>Another sixteenth century departure is the absurdly small hat, placed as
+if by the wind, at a careless angle on the hair, which is curled and
+piled high.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>Also we see hats of normal size with many plumes, on both men and women.</p>
+
+<p>Notice the sleeves: some are still flowing, with tight undersleeves,
+others slashed to show full white sleeve beneath. But most important of
+all is that the general license, moral and artistic, lays its ruthless
+hand on woman's beautiful, sweeping shoulder line and distorts it. Anne
+of Cleves, or the progressive artist who painted her, shows in a
+portrait the Queen's flowing sleeves with medi&aelig;val lines, clasped by a
+broad band between elbow and shoulder, and then <i>pushed up</i> until the
+sleeve forms an ugly puff. A monstrous fashion, this, and one soon to
+appear in a thousand mad forms. Its first vicious departure is that
+small puffy, senselessly insinuated line between arm-hole and top of
+sleeve in garments for men as well as women.</p>
+
+<p>Skirts button from point of basque to feet just before we see them, in
+the seventeenth century, parting down the front and separating to show a
+petticoat. In Queen Elizabeth's time the acme of this style was reached
+by Spanish women as we see in Velasquez's portraits. Gradually the
+overskirt is looped back, (at first only a few inches), and tied with
+narrow ribbons.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXIV<a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>Mrs. Vernon Castle in Winter afternoon costume, one which
+    is so suited to her type and at the same time conservative
+    as to outline and detail, that it would have charm whether
+    in style or not.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 242px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p229.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p229-tb.jpg" width="242" height="400" alt="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Winter" title="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Winter" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>
+<i>Victor Georg&mdash;Chicago</i><br />
+<i>Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume&mdash;Winter</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>The second quarter of the seventeenth century shows the waist line drawn
+in and bodice with skirts a few inches in depth. These skirts are the
+hall-mark of a basque.</p>
+
+<p>Very short, full coats flaring from under arms now appear.</p>
+
+<p>After the skirt has been pushed back and held with ribbons, we find
+gradually all fulness of upper skirt pushed to hips to form paniers, and
+across the back to form a bustle effect, until we have the Marie
+Antoinette type, late eighteenth century. Far more graceful and
+<i>s&eacute;duisant</i> than the costume of Queen Elizabeth's time.</p>
+
+<p>The figures presented by Marie Antoinette and her court, powdered wigs
+and patches, paniers and enormous hats, surmounting the horsehair
+erections, heavy with powder and grease, lace, ribbon flowers and
+jewels, are quaint, delightful and diverting, but not to be compared
+with the Greek or medi&aelig;val lines in woman's costume.</p>
+
+<p>Extremely extended skirts gave way to an <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>interlude of full skirts, but
+flowing lines in the eighteenth century English portraits.</p>
+
+<p>The Directoire reaction towards simplicity was influenced by English
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Empire formality under classic influence came next. Then Victorian hoops
+which were succeeded by the Victorian bustles, pantalets, black velvet
+at throat and wrists, and lockets.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" /><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>EIGHTEENTH CENTURY</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+eighteenth century is unique by reason of scientific discoveries,
+mechanical inventions and chemical achievements, coupled with the
+gigantic political upheaval of the French Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>It is unique, distinguished and enormously fruitful. For example, the
+modern frenzy for chintz, which has made our homes burst into bloom in
+endless variety, had its origin in the eighteenth century looms at Jouy,
+near Versailles, under the direction of Oberkampf.</p>
+
+<p>Before 1760 silks and velvets decorated man and his home. Royal
+patronage co-operating with the influence of such great decorators as
+Percier and Fontaine gave the creating of beautiful stuffs to the silk
+factories of Lyons.</p>
+
+<p>Printed linens and painted wall papers appeared in France
+simultaneously, and for the same reason. The Revolution set mass-taste
+<a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>(which is often stronger than individual inclination), toward
+unostentatious, inexpensive materials for house furnishing and wearing
+apparel.</p>
+
+<p>The Revolution had driven out royalty and the high aristocracy who, with
+changed names lived in seclusion. Society, therefore, to meet the
+mass-desire, was driven to simple ways of living. Men gave up their
+silks and velvets and frills, lace and jewels for cloth, linen, and
+sombre neck-cloths. The women did the same; they wore muslin gowns and
+their own hair, and went to great length in the affectation of
+simplicity and patriotic fervour.</p>
+
+<p>We hear that, apropos of America having at this moment entered the great
+struggle with the Central Powers, simplicity is decreed as smart for the
+coming season, and that those who costume themselves extravagantly,
+furnish their homes ostentatiously or allow their tables to be lavish,
+will be frowned upon as bad form and unpatriotic.</p>
+
+<p>These reactions are inevitable, and come about with the regularity of
+<i>tides</i> in this world of perpetual repetition.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>The belles of the Directorate shook their heads and bobbed their pretty
+locks at the artificiality Marie Antoinette et cie had practised. I fear
+they called it sinful art to deftly place a patch upon the face, or make
+a head-dress in the image of a man-of-war.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. de Sta&euml;l's familiar head-dress, twisted and wrapped around her head
+&agrave; la Turque, is said to have had its origin in the improvisation of the
+court hairdresser. Desperately groping for another version of the
+top-heavy erection, to humour the lovely queen, he seized upon a piece
+of fine lace and muslin hanging on a chair at hand, and twisting it,
+wrapped the thing about the towering wig. As it happened, the chiffon
+was my lady's chemise!</p>
+
+<p>We begin the eighteenth century with a full petticoat, trimmed with rows
+of ruffles or bands; an overskirt looped back into paniers to form the
+bustle effect; the natural hair powdered; and head-dress of lace,
+standing out stiffly in front and drooping in a curtain behind.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the whim of Marie Antoinette decreed it so, that the
+enormous powdered wigs appeared.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>Viennese temperament alone accounts for the moods of this lovely tragic
+queen, who played at making butter, in a cap and apron, over simple
+muslin frocks, but outdid her artificial age in love of artifice (not
+Art) in dress.</p>
+
+<p>This gay and dainty puppet of relentless Fate propelled by varying moods
+must needs lose her lovely head at last, as symbol of her time.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXV<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a></h4>
+
+<p><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>Mrs. Vernon Castle in a summer afternoon costume
+    appropriate for city or country and so adapted to the
+    wearer's type that she is a picture, whether in action;
+    seated on her own porch; having tea at the country club; or
+    in the Winter sun-parlour.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 169px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p239.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p239-tb.jpg" width="169" height="400" alt="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Summer" title="Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Summer" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume&mdash;Summer</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" /><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+first seventy years of the nineteenth century seem to us of 1917
+absolutely incredible in regard to dress. How our
+great-great-grandmothers ever got about on foot, in a carriage or
+stage-coach, moved in a crowd or even sat in any measure of serenity at
+home, is a mystery to us of an age when comfort, convenience, fitness
+and chic have at last come to terms. For a vivid picture of how our
+American society looked between 1800 and 1870, read Miss Elizabeth
+McClellan's <i>Historic Dress in America</i>, published in 1910 by George W.
+Jacobs &amp; Co., of Philadelphia. The book is fascinating and it not only
+amuses and informs, but increases one's self-respect, if a woman, for
+<i>modern</i> woman dressed in accordance with her r&ocirc;le.</p>
+
+<p>We can see extravagant wives point out with glee to tyrant mates how, in
+the span of years <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>between 1800 and 1870 our maternal forebears made
+money fly, even in the Quaker City. Fancy paying in Philadelphia at that
+time, $1500 for a lace scarf, $400 for a shawl, $100 for the average
+gown of silk, and $50 for a French bonnet! Miss McClellan, quoting from
+<i>Mrs. Roger Pryor's Memoirs</i>, tells how she, Mrs. Pryor, as a young girl
+in Washington, was awakened at midnight by a note from the daughter of
+her French milliner to say that a box of bonnets had arrived from Paris.
+Mamma had not yet unpacked them and if she would come at once, she might
+have her pick of the treasures, and Mamma not know until too late to
+interfere. And this was only back in the 50's, we should say.</p>
+
+<p>Then think of the hoops, and wigs and absurdly furbished head-dresses;
+paper-soled shoes, some intended only to <i>sit</i> in; bonnets enormous;
+laces of cobweb; shawls from India by camel and sailing craft; rouge,
+too, and hair grease, patches and powder; laced waists and cramped feet;
+low necks and short sleeves for children in school-rooms.</p>
+
+<p>Man was then still decorative here and in <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>western Europe. To-day he is
+not decorative, unless in sports clothes or military uniform; woman's
+garments furnish all the colour. Whistler circumvented this fact when
+painting Theodore Duret (Metropolitan Museum) in sombre black
+broadcloth,&mdash;modern evening attire, by flinging over the arm of Duret,
+the delicate pink taffeta and chiffon cloak of a woman, and in M.
+Duret's hand he places a closed fan of pomegranate red.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" /><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>SEX IN COSTUMING</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-eq.jpg" width="71" height="60" alt="&quot;E" /><b>UROPEAN</b></span>
+dress&quot; is the term accepted to imply the costume of man and
+woman which is entirely cosmopolitan, decrying continuity of types (of
+costume) and thoroughly plastic in the hands of fashion.</p>
+
+<p>To-day, we say parrot-like, that certain materials, lines and colours
+are masculine or feminine. They are so merely by association. The modern
+costuming of man the world over, if he appear in European dress (we
+except court regalia), is confined to cloth, linen or cotton, in black,
+white and inconspicuous colours; a prescribed and simple type of
+neckwear, footwear, hat, stick, and hair cut.</p>
+
+<p>The progenitor of the garments of modern men was the
+Lutheran-Puritan-Revolutionary garb, the hall-mark of democracy.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that when silk was first introduced <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>into Europe, from the
+Orient, the Greeks and early Romans considered it too effeminate for
+man's use, but this had to do with the doctrine of austere denial for
+the good of the state. To wear the costume of indolence implied
+inactivity and induced it. As a matter of fact, some of the master
+spirits of Greece did wear silks.</p>
+
+<p>In Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Media, Persia and the Far East, men and women
+wore the same materials, as in China and Japan to-day. Egyptian men and
+their contemporaries throughout Byzantium, wore gowns, in outline
+identical with those of the women. Among the Turks, trousers were always
+considered as appropriate for women as for men, and both men and women
+wore over the trousers, a long garment not unlike those of the women in
+the Gothic period.</p>
+
+<p>Tha&iuml;s wore a gilded wig, but so did the men she knew, and they added
+gilded false beards.</p>
+
+<p>Assyrian kings wore earrings, bracelets and wonderful clasps with
+chains, by which the folds of their draped garment,&mdash;cut like the
+<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>woman's, might be caught up and held securely, leaving feet, arms and
+hands free for action.</p>
+
+<p>When the genius of the Byzantine, Greek and Venetian manufacturers of
+silks and velvets, rich in texture and ablaze with colour, were offered
+for sale to the Romans, whose passion for display had increased with
+their fortunes, and consequent lives of dissipation, we find there was
+no distinction made between the materials used by man and woman.</p>
+
+<p>It is no exaggeration to say that the Renaissance spells brocade. Great
+designs and small ones sprawled over the figures of man and woman alike.</p>
+
+<p>Lace was as much his as hers to use for wide, elaborate collars and
+cuffs. Embroidery belonged to both, and the men (like the women) of
+Germany, France, Italy and England wore many plumes on their big straw
+hats and metal helmets. The intercommunication between the Orient and
+all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere, and the abundance and
+variety of human trappings bewildered and vitiated taste.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXVI<a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>Mrs. Vernon Castle costumed &agrave; la guerre for a walk in the
+    country.</p>
+
+<p>    The cap is after one worn by her aviator husband.</p>
+
+<p>    This is one of the costumes&mdash;there are many&mdash;being worn by
+    women engaged in war work under the head of messengers,
+    chauffeurs, etc.</p>
+
+<p> The shoes are most decidedly not for service, but they will
+    be replaced when the time is at hand, for others of stout
+    leather with heavy soles and flat heels.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 271px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p249.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p249-tb.jpg" width="271" height="400" alt="Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed a la Guerre for a Walk" title="Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed a la Guerre for a Walk" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed &aacute; la Guerre for a Walk</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>Unfortunately the change in line of costume has not moved parallel to
+the line in furniture. The revival of classic interior decoration in
+Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England, etc., did not at once revive the
+classic lines in woman's clothes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" /><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>LINE AND COLOUR OF COSTUMES IN HUNGARY</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+idea that man decorative, by reason of colour or line in costume, is
+of necessity either masquerading or effeminate, proceeds chiefly from
+the conventional nineteenth and twentieth century point of view in
+America and western Europe. But even in those parts of the world we are
+accustomed to colour in the uniforms of army and navy, the crimson
+&quot;hood&quot; of the university doctor, and red sash of the French Legion of
+Honour. We accept colour as a dignified attribute of man's attire in the
+cases cited, and we do not forget that our early nineteenth century
+American masculine forebears wore bright blue or vivid green coats,
+silver and brass buttons and red or yellow waistcoats. The gentleman
+sportsman of the early nineteenth century hunted in bright blue tailed
+coats with brass buttons, scarlet waistcoat, tight breeches and top
+hat! <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>We refer to the same class of man who to-day wears rough, natural
+coloured tweeds, leather coat and close cap that his prey may not see
+him.</p>
+
+<p>In a sense, colour is a sign of virility when used by man. We have the
+North American Indian with his gay feathers, blankets and war paint, and
+the European peasant in his gala costume. In many cases colour is as
+much his as his woman's. Some years ago, when collecting data concerning
+national characteristics as expressed in the art of the Slavs, Magyars
+and Czechs, the writer studied these peoples in their native settings.
+We went first to Hungary and were disappointed to find Buda Pest far too
+cosmopolitan to be of value for the study of national costume, music or
+drama. The dominating and most artistic element in Hungary is the
+Magyar, and we were there to study him. But even the Gypsies who played
+the Magyar music in our hotel orchestra, wore the black evening dress of
+western Europe and patent leather shoes, and the music they played was
+from the most modern operettas. It was not until a world-famous
+Hungarian violinist <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>arrived to give concerts in Buda Pest that the
+national spirit of the Gypsies was stirred to play the Magyar airs in
+his honour. (Gypsies take on the spirit of any adopted land). We then
+realised what they could make of the Recockzy march and other folk
+music.</p>
+
+<p>The experience of that evening spurred us to penetrate into southern
+Hungary, the heart of Magyar land, armed with letters of introduction,
+from one of the ministers of education, to mayors of the peasant
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to get on without an interpreter, as usually even the
+mayors knew only the Magyar language&mdash;not a word of German. That was the
+perfect region for getting at Magyar character expressed in the colour
+and line of costume, manner of living, point of view, folk song and
+dance. It is all still vividly clear to our mind's eye. We saw the first
+Magyar costumes in a village not far from Buda Pest. To make the few
+miles quickly, we had taken an electric trolley, vastly superior to
+anything in New York at the time of which we speak; and were let off in
+the centre of a group of small, low thatched cottages, white-washed,
+<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>and having a broad band of one, two or three colours, extending from
+the ground to about three feet above it, and completely encircling the
+house. The favourite combination seemed to be blue and red, in parallel
+stripes. Near one of these houses we saw a very old woman with a long
+lashed whip in her hand, guarding two or three dark, curly, long-legged
+Hungarian pigs. She wore high boots, many short skirts, a shawl and a
+head-kerchief. Presently two other figures caught our eye: a man in a
+long cape to the tops of his boots, made of sheepskin, the wool inside,
+the outside decorated with bright-coloured wools, outlining crude
+designs. The black fur collar was the skin of a small black lamb, legs
+and tail showing, as when stripped off the little animal. The man wore a
+cone-shaped hat of black lamb and his hair reached to his shoulders. He
+smoked a very long-stemmed pipe with a china bowl, as he strolled along.
+Behind him a woman walked, bowed by the weight of an immense sack. She
+wore boots to the knees, many full short skirts, and a yellow and red
+silk head-kerchief. By her head-covering we <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>knew her to be a married
+woman. They were a farmer and his wife! Among the Magyars the man is
+very decidedly the peacock; the woman is the pack-horse. On market days
+he lounges in the sunshine, wrapped in his long sheepskin cape, and
+smokes, while she plies the trade. In the farmers' homes of southern
+Hungary where we passed some time, we, as Americans, sat at table with
+the men of the house, while wife and daughter served. There was one
+large dish of food in the centre, into which every one dipped! The women
+of the peasant class never sit at table with their men; they serve them
+and eat afterwards, and they always address them in the second person
+as, &quot;Will your graciousness have a cup of coffee?&quot; Also they always walk
+behind the men. At country dances we have seen young girls in bright,
+very full skirts, with many ribbons braided into the hair, cluster shyly
+at a short distance from the dancing platform in the fair grounds,
+waiting to be beckoned or whistled to by one of the sturdy youths with
+skin-tight trousers, tucked into high boots, who by right of might, has
+stationed himself on the platform. When they have danced, generally a
+czardas, the girl goes back to the group of women, leaving the man on
+the platform in command of the situation! Yet already in 1897 women were
+being admitted to the University of Buda Pest. There in Hungary one
+could see woman run the whole gamut of her development, from man's slave
+to man's equal.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXVII<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>Mrs. Vernon Castle in one of her dancing costumes.</p>
+
+<p>    She was snapped by the camera as she sprang into a pose of
+    mere joyous abandon at the conclusion of a long series of
+    more or less exacting poses.</p>
+
+<p>    Mrs. Castle assures us that to repeat the effect produced
+    here, in which camera, lucky chance and favourable wind
+    combined, would be well-nigh impossible.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 359px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p259.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p259-tb.jpg" width="359" height="400" alt="A Fantasy" title="A Fantasy" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>
+<i>Mrs. Vernon Castle<br />
+A Fantasy</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>We found the national colour scheme to have the same violent contrasts
+which characterise the folk music and the folk poetry of the Magyars.</p>
+
+<p>Primitive man has no use for half-tones. It was the same with the
+Russian peasants and with the Poles. Our first morning in Krakau a great
+clattering of wheels and horses' hoofs on the cobbled court of our
+hotel, accompanied by the cracking of a whip and voices, drew us to our
+window. At first we thought a strolling circus had arrived, but no, that
+man with the red crown to his black fur cap, a peacock's feather
+fastened to it by a fantastic brooch, was just an ordinary farmer in
+Sunday garb. In the neighbourhood of Krakau the young men wear frock
+coats of white cloth, <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>over bright red, short tight coats, and their
+light-coloured skin-tight trousers, worn inside knee boots, are
+embroidered in black down the fronts.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon we were the guests of a Polish painter, who had married a
+pretty peasant, his model. He was a gentleman by birth and breeding, had
+studied art in Paris and spoke French, German and English. His wife, a
+child of the soil, knew only the dialect of her own province, but with
+the sensitive response of a Pole, eagerly waited to have translated to
+her what the Americans were saying of life among women in their country.
+She served us with tea and liquor, the red heels of her high boots
+clicking on the wooden floor as she moved about. As colour and as line,
+of a kind, that young Polish woman was a feast to the eye; full scarlet
+skirt, standing out over many petticoats and reaching only to the tops
+of her knee boots, full white bodice, a sleeveless jacket to the waist
+line, made of brightly coloured cretonne, outlined with coloured beads;
+a bright yellow head-kerchief bound her soft brown hair; her eyes were
+brown, and her skin like <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>a yellow peach. On her neck hung strings of
+coral and amber beads. There was indeed a decorative woman! As for her
+background, it was simple enough to throw into relief the brilliant
+vision that she was. Not, however, a scheme of interior decoration to
+copy! The walls were whitewashed; a large stove of masonry was built
+into one corner, and four beds and a cradle stood on the other side of
+the room, over which hung in a row five virgins, the central one being
+the Black Virgin beloved by the Poles. The legend is that the original
+was painted during the life of the Virgin, on a panel of dark wood.
+Here, too, was the marriage chest, decorated with a crude design in
+bright colours. The children, three or four of them, ran about in the
+national costume, miniatures of their mother, but barefoot.</p>
+
+<p>It was the same in Hungary, when we were taken by the mayor of a Magyar
+town to visit the characteristic farmhouse of a highly prosperous
+farmer, said to be worth two hundred thousand dollars. The table was
+laid in the end of a room having four beds in it. On inquiring later, we
+were told that they were <a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>not ordinarily used by the family, but were
+heaped with the reserve bedding. In other words, they were recognised by
+the natives as indicating a degree of affluence, and were a bit of
+ostentation, not the overcrowding of necessity.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" /><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>STUDYING LINE AND COLOUR IN RUSSIA</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-f.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="F" /><b>ROM</b></span>
+Hungary we continued our quest of line and colour of folk costume
+into Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Strangely enough, Russia throws off the imperial yoke of autocracy,
+declaring for democratic principles, at the very moment we undertake to
+put into words the vivid picturesqueness resulting largely from the
+causes of this astounding revolution. Have you been in Russia? Have you
+seen with your own eyes any phase of the violent contrasts which at last
+have caused the worm to turn? Our object being to study national
+characteristics as expressed in folk costume, folk song, folk dance,
+traditional customs and f&ecirc;tes, we consulted students of these subjects,
+whom we chanced to meet in London, Paris, Vienna and Buda Pest, with the
+result that we turned our faces toward southern or &quot;Little&quot; Russia, as
+the part least affected by cosmopolitan influences.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>Kiev was our headquarters, and it is well to say at once that we found
+what we sought,&mdash;ample opportunity to observe the genuine Russian, the
+sturdy, dogged, plodding son of toil, who, more than any other European
+peasant seems a part of the soil, which in sullen persistency he tills.
+We knew already the Russians of Petrograd and Moscow; one meets them in
+Paris, London, Vienna, at German and Austrian Cures and on the Riviera.
+They are everywhere and always distinctive by reason of their Slav
+temperament; a magnetic race quality which is Asiatic in its essence. We
+recognise it, we are stirred by it, we are drawn to it in their
+literature, their music, their painting and in the Russian people
+themselves. The quality is an integral part of Russian nature; polishing
+merely increases its attraction as with a gem. One instance of this is
+the folk melody as treated by Tschaikowsky compared with its simple form
+as sung or danced by the peasant.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXVIII<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>A skating costume worn by Miss Weld of Boston, holder of
+    the Woman's Figure Skating Championship.</p>
+
+<p>    This photograph was taken in New York on March 23, 1917,
+    when amateurs contested for the cup and Miss Weld won&mdash;this
+    time over the men.</p>
+
+<p>    The costume of wine-coloured velvet trimmed with mole-skin,
+    a small close toque to match, was one of the most
+    appropriate and attractive models of 1916-1917.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 346px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p269.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p269-tb.jpg" width="346" height="400" alt="Modern Skating Costume 1917 Winner of Amateur Championship of Fancy Skating" title="Modern Skating Costume 1917 Winner of Amateur Championship of Fancy Skating" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>
+<i>Courtesy of New York Herald</i>
+<i>Modern Skating Costume 1917 Winner of Amateur
+Championship of Fancy Skating</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>Some of the Russian women of the fashionable world are very decorative.
+Our first impression of this type was in Paris, at the Russian Church on
+Christmas (or was it some other holy day?) when to the amazement of the
+uninitiated the Russian women of the aristocracy appeared at the morning
+service hatless and in full evening dress, wearing jewels as if for a
+function at some secular court. Their masculine escorts appeared in full
+regalia, the light of the altar candles adding mystery to the glitter of
+gold lace and jewels. Those occasions are picturesque in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>The congregation stands, as in the Jewish synagogues, and those of
+highest rank are nearest the altar, invariably ablaze with gold, silver
+and precious stones, while on occasions the priest wears cloth of gold.</p>
+
+<p>In Paris this background and the whole scene was accepted as a part of
+the pageant of that city, but in Kiev it was different. There we got the
+other side of the picture; the man and the woman who are really Russia,
+the element that finds an outlet in the folk music, for its age-old
+rebellious submission. One hears the soul of the Russian pulsating in
+the continued reiteration of the same theme; it is like the endless
+treadmill of a life without <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>vistas. We were looking at the Russia of
+Maxim Gorky, the Russia that made Tolstoy a reformer; that has now
+forced its Czar to abdicate.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Kiev just before the Easter of the Greek Church, the season
+when the pilgrims, often as many as fifty thousand of them, tramp over
+the frozen roads from all parts of the empire to expiate their sins,
+kneeling at the shrine of one of their mummied, sainted bishops.</p>
+
+<p>The men and women alike, clad in grimy sheepskin coats, moved like
+cattle in straggling droves, over the roads which lead to Kiev. From a
+distance one cannot tell man from woman, but as they come closer, one
+sees that the woman has a bright kerchief tied round her head, and red
+or blue peasant embroidery dribbles below her sheepskin coat. She is as
+stocky as a Shetland pony and her face is weather-beaten, with high
+cheekbones and brown eyes. The man wears a black astrachan conical cap
+and his hair is long and bushy, from rubbing bear grease into it. He
+walks with a crooked staff, biblical in style, <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>and carries his worldly
+goods in a small bundle flung over his shoulder. The woman carries her
+own small burden. As they shuffle past, a stench arises from the human
+herd. It comes from the sheepskin, which is worked in, slept in, and,
+what is more, often inherited from a parent who had also worn it as his
+winter hide. Added to the smell of the sheepskin is that of an unwashed
+human, and the reek of stale food, for the poorest of the Russian
+peasants have no chimneys to their houses. They cannot afford to let the
+costly heat escape.</p>
+
+<p>Kiev, the holy city and capital of Ancient Russia, climbs from its
+ancestral beginnings, on the banks of the River Dneiper, up the steep
+sides and over the summit of a commanding hilltop, crowned by an immense
+gold cross, illumined with electricity by night, to flash its message of
+hope to foot-sore pilgrims. The driver of our drosky drove us over the
+rough cobbles so rapidly, despite the hill, that we were almost
+overturned. It is the manner of Russian drosky drivers. The cathedral,
+our goal, was snowy-white, with frescoes on the outer walls,
+onion-shaped domes of bronze <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>turned green; or gold, or blue with stars
+of gold.</p>
+
+<p>We entered and found the body of the church well filled by peasants,
+women and men in sheepskin. One poor doe-eyed creature crouched to press
+his forehead twenty times at least on the stone floor of the church.
+Eagerly, like a flock of sheep, they all pushed forward to where a
+richly-robed priest held a cross of gold for each to kiss, taking their
+proffered kopeks.</p>
+
+<p>The setting sun streamed through the ancient stained glass, dyeing their
+dirty sheepskin crimson, and purple, and green, until they looked like
+illuminations in old missals. To the eye and the mind of western Europe
+it was all incomprehensible. Yet those were the people of Russia who are
+to-day her mass of armed defenders; the element that has been counted on
+from the first by Russia and her allies stood penniless before an altar
+laid over with gold and silver and precious stones. Just before we got
+to Kiev, one of those men in sheepskins with uncut hair and dogged
+expression, who had a sense of values <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>in human existence, broke into
+the church and stole jeweled chalices from the altar. They were traced
+to a pawnshop in a distant city and brought back. It was a common thing
+to see men halt in the street and stand uncovered, while a pitiful
+funeral cortege passed. A wooly, half-starved, often lame horse, was
+harnessed with rope to a simple four-wheeled farm wagon, a long-haired
+peasant at his head, women and children holding to the sides of the cart
+as they stumbled along in grief, and inside a rough wooden coffin
+covered with a black pall, on which was sewn the Greek cross, in white.
+Heartless, hopeless, weary and underfed, those peasants were taking
+their dead to be blessed for a price, by the priest in cloth of gold,
+without whose blessing there could be no burial.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" /><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MARK TWAIN'S LOVE OF COLOUR IN ALL COSTUMING</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+public thinks of Mark Twain as being the apostle of <i>white</i> during
+the last years of his life, but those who knew him well recall his
+delightfully original way of expressing an intense love for <i>bright
+colours</i>. This brings to mind a week-end at Mark Twain's beautiful
+Italian villa in Reading, Connecticut, when, one night during dinner, he
+held forth on the compelling fascination of colours and the American
+Indian's superior judgment in wearing them. After a lengthy
+elaboration&mdash;not to say exaggeration&mdash;of his theme, he ended by
+declaring in uncompromising terms, that colour, and plenty of it,
+crimson and yellow and blue, wrapped around man, as well as woman, was
+an obligation shirked by humanity. It was all put as only Mark Twain
+could have put it, with that serious vein showing through broad humour.
+This quality combined with an unmatched originality, made every moment
+passed in his company a memory to treasure. It was not alone his theme,
+but how he dealt with it, that fascinated one.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXIX<a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>One of the 1917 silhouettes.</p>
+
+<p>    Naturally, since woman to-day dresses for her
+    occupation&mdash;work or play&mdash;the characteristic silhouettes are
+    many.</p>
+
+<p>    This one is reproduced to illustrate our point that outline
+    can be affected by the smallest detail.</p>
+
+<p>    The sketch is by Elisabeth Searcy.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 167px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p279.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p279-tb.jpg" width="167" height="400" alt="A Modern Silhouette--1917 Tailor-made" title="A Modern Silhouette--1917 Tailor-made" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>
+<i>Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy</i>
+<i>A Modern Silhouette&mdash;1917 Tailor-made</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>Mark Twain was elemental and at the same time a great artist,&mdash;the
+embodiment of extreme contradictions, and his flair for gay colour was
+one proof of his elemental strain. We laughed that night as he made word
+pictures of how men and women should dress. Next morning, toward noon,
+on looking out of a window, we saw standing in the middle of the
+driveway a figure wrapped in crimson silk, his white hair flying in the
+wind, while smoke from a pipe encircled his head. Yes, it was Mark
+Twain, who in the midst of his writing, had been suddenly struck with
+the thought that the road needed mending, and had gone out to have
+another look at it! It was a blustering day in Spring, and cold, so one
+of the household was sent to persuade him to come in. We can see him
+now, returning reluctantly, wind-blown and vehement, gesticulating, and
+stopping every few steps to express his opinion of the men who had made
+<a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>that road! The flaming red silk robe he wore was one his daughter had
+brought him from Liberty's, in London, and he adored it. Still wrapped
+in it, and seemingly unconscious of his unusual appearance, he joined us
+on the balcony, to resume a conversation of the night before.</p>
+
+<p>The red-robed figure seated itself in a wicker chair and berated the
+idea that mortal man ever <i>could</i> be generous,&mdash;act without selfish
+motives. With the greatest reverence in his tone, sitting there in his
+whimsical costume of bright red silk, at high noon,&mdash;an immaculate
+French butler waiting at the door to announce lunch, Mark Twain
+concluded an analysis of modern religion with &quot;&mdash;why the God <i>I</i> believe
+in is too busy spinning spheres to have time to listen to human
+prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>How often his words have been in our mind since war has shaken our
+planet.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" /><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ARTIST AND HIS COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-t.jpg" width="60" height="61" alt="T" /><b>HE</b></span>
+world has the habit of deriding that which it does not understand.
+It is the most primitive way of bolstering one's limitations. How often
+the woman or man with a God-given sense of the beautiful, the fitting,
+harmony between costume and setting, is described as poseur or poseuse
+by those who lack the same instinct. In a sense, of course, everything
+man does, beyond obeying the rudimentary instincts of the savage, is an
+affectation, and it is not possible to claim that even our contemporary
+costuming of man or woman always has <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We accept as the natural, unaffected raiment for woman and man that
+which custom has taught us to recognise as appropriate, with or without
+reason for being. For example, the tall, shiny, inflexible silk hat of
+man, and the tortuous high French heels of woman are in themselves
+neither beautiful, fitting, nor made <a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>to meet the special demands of any
+setting or circumstance. Both hat and heels are fashions, unbeautiful
+and uncomfortable, but to the eye of man to-day serve as insignia of
+formal dress, decreed by society.</p>
+
+<p>The artist nature has always assumed poetic license in the matter of
+dress, and as a rule defied custom, to follow an inborn feeling for
+beauty. That much-maligned short velvet coat and soft loose tie of the
+painter or writer, happen to have a most decided <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>; they
+represent comfort, convenience, and in the case of the velvet coat,
+satisfy a sensitiveness to texture, incomprehensible to other natures.
+As for the long hair of some artists, it can be a pose, but it has in
+many cases been absorption in work, or poverty&mdash;the actual lack of money
+for the conventional haircut. In cities we consider long hair on a man
+as effeminate, an indication of physical weakness, but the Russian
+peasant, most sturdy of individuals, wears his hair long, and so do many
+others among extremely primitive masculine types, who live their lives
+beyond the reach of Fashion and barbers.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>The short hair of the sincere woman artist is to save time at the
+toilette.</p>
+
+<p>There is always a limited number of men and women who, in ordinary acts
+of life, respond to texture, colour or line, as others do to music or
+scenery, and to be at their best in life, must dress their parts as they
+feel them. Japanese actors who play the parts of women, dress like women
+off the stage, and live the lives of women as nearly as possible, in
+order to acquire the feeling for women's garments; they train their
+bodies to the proper feminine carriage, counting upon this to perfect
+their interpretations.</p>
+
+<p>The woman who rides, hunts, shoots, fishes, sails her own boat, paddles,
+golfs and plays tennis, is very apt to look more at home in habit,
+tweeds and flannels, than she does in strictly feminine attire; the
+muscles she has acquired in legs and arms, from violent exercise, give
+an actual, not an assumed, stride and a swing to the upper body. In
+sports clothes, or severely tailored costume, this woman is at her best.
+Most trying for her will be demi-toilette (house gowns). She is
+beautiful at <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>night because a certain balance, dignity and grace are
+lent her by the d&eacute;colletage and train of a dinner or ball gown. English
+women who are devotees of sport, demonstrate the above fact over and
+over again.</p>
+
+<p>While on the subject of responsiveness to texture and colour we would
+remind the reader that Richard Wagner hung the room in which he worked
+at his operas with bright silks, for the art stimulus he got from
+colour, and it is a well-known fact that he derived great pleasure from
+wearing dressing gowns and other garments made from rich materials.</p>
+
+<p>Clyde Fitch, our American playwright, when in his home, often wore
+velvet or brocaded silks. They were more sympathetic to his artist
+nature, more in accord with his fondness for wearing jewelled studs,
+buttons, scarf-pins. In his town and country houses the main scheme,
+leading features and every smallest detail were the result of Clyde
+Fitch's personal taste and effort, and he, more than most men and women,
+appreciated what a blot an inartistic human being can be on a room which
+of itself is a work of art.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXX<a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>Souvenirs of an artist designer's unique establishment, in
+    spirit and accomplishment <i>vrai Parisienne</i>. Notice the long
+    cape in the style of 1825.</p>
+
+<p>    Tapp&eacute; himself will tell you that all periods have had their
+    beautiful lines and colours; their interesting details; that
+    to find beauty one must first have the feeling for it; that
+    if one is not born with this subtle instinct, there are
+    manifold opportunities for cultivating it.</p>
+
+<p>    His claim is the same as that made in our <i>Art of Interior
+    Decoration</i>; the connoisseur is one who has passed through
+    the schooling to be acquired only by contact with
+    masterpieces,&mdash;those treasures sifted by time and preserved
+    for our education, in great art collections.</p>
+
+<p>    Tapp&eacute; emphasises the necessity of knowing the background for
+    a costume before planning it; the value of line in the
+    physique beneath the materials; the interest to be woven
+    into a woman's costume when her type is recognised, and the
+    modern insistence on appropriateness&mdash;that is, the simple
+    gown and close hat for the car, vivid colours for field
+    sports or beach; a large fan for the woman who is mistress
+    of sweeping lines, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>    Tapp&eacute; is absolutely French in his insistence upon the
+    possible eloquence of line; a single flower well poised and
+    the chic which is dependent upon <i>how a hat or gown is put
+    on</i>. We have heard him say: &quot;No, I will not claim the hat in
+    that photograph, though I made it, because it is <i>mal
+    pos&eacute;</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 170px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p289.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p289-tb.jpg" width="170" height="400" alt="Tappe&#39;s Creations" title="Tappe&#39;s Creations" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>
+<i>Sketched for &quot;Woman as Decoration&quot; by Thelma Cudlipp</i><br />
+<i>Tapp&eacute;&#39;s Creations</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>In England, and far more so in America, men are put down as effeminate
+who wear jewelry to any marked extent. But no less a person than King
+Edward VII always wore a chain bangle on his arm, and one might cite
+countless men of the Continent as thoroughly masculine&mdash;Spaniards in
+particular&mdash;who wear as many jewelled rings as women. Apropos of this, a
+famous topaz, worn as a ring for years by a distinguished Spaniard was
+recently inherited by a relation in America&mdash;a woman. The stone was of
+such importance as a gem, that a record was kept of its passing from
+France into America. As a man's ring it was impressive and the setting
+such as to do it honour, but being a man's ring, it was too heavy for a
+woman's use. A pendant was made of the stone and a setting given it
+which turned out to be too trifling in character. The consequence was,
+the stone lost in value as a Rubens' canvas would, if placed in an art
+nouveau frame.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it is a precious stone, a valued painting or a woman's
+costume&mdash;the effect produced depends upon the character of its setting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" /><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>IDIOSYNCRASIES IN COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-f.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="F" /><b>ASHIONS</b></span>
+in dress as in manners, religion, art, literature and drama,
+are all powerful because they seize upon the public mind.</p>
+
+<p>The Chelsea group of revolutionary artists in New York doubtless
+see,&mdash;perhaps but dimly, the same star that led Goethe and Schiller on,
+in the storm and stress period of their time. We smile now as we recall
+how Schiller stood on the street corners of Leipzig, wearing a
+dressing-gown by day to defy custom; but the youth of Athens did the
+same in the last days of Greece. In fact then the darlings of the gilded
+world struck attitudes of abandon in order to look like the Spartans.
+They refused to cut their hair and they would not wash their hands, and
+even boasted of their ragged clothes after fist fights in the streets.
+Yes, the gentlemen did this.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was a cult that wore furs
+in Summer and thin clothes in Winter, to prove that love made them
+strong enough to resist the elements! You will recall the Euphuists of
+England, the Precieuses of France and the Illuminati of the eighteenth
+century, as well as Les Merveilleux and Les Encroyables. The rich during
+the Renaissance were great and wise collectors but some followed the
+fashion for collecting manuscripts even when unable to read them. It is
+interesting to find that in the fourth and fifth centuries it was
+fashionable to be literary. Those with means for existence without
+labour, wrote for their own edification, copying the style of the
+ancient poets and philosophers.</p>
+
+<p>As early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Venetian women were
+shown the Paris fashions each Ascension Day on life-size dolls,
+displayed by an enterprising importer.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that fashions come and go, not only in dress, but how one
+should sit, stand, and walk; how use the hands and feet and eyes. To
+squint was once deemed a modest act. Women of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries <a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>stood with their abdomens out, and so did some in
+1916! There are also fashions in singing and speaking.</p>
+
+<p>The poses in portraits express much. Compare the exactly prim Copley
+miss, with a recent portrait by Cecilia Beaux of a young girl seated,
+with dainty satin-covered feet outstretched to full extent of the limbs,
+in casual impertinence,&mdash;our age!</p>
+
+<p>To return to the sixteenth century, it is worthy of note that some
+Venetian belles wore patines&mdash;that is, shoes with blocks of wood,
+sometimes two feet high, fastened to the soles. They could not move
+without a maid each side! As it was an age when elemental passions were
+&quot;good form,&quot; jealous husbands are blamed for these!</p>
+
+<p>In the seventeenth century the idle dancing youth of to-day had his
+prototype in the Cavalier Servente, who hovered at his lady's side,
+affecting extravagant and effeminate manners.</p>
+
+<p>The corrupt morals of the sixteenth century followed in the wake of
+social intercourse by travel, literature, art and styles for costumes.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. R&eacute;camier, the exquisite embodiment <a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>of the Directoire style as
+depicted by David in his famous portrait of her, scandalised London by
+appearing in public, clad in transparent Greek draperies and scarfs.
+Later Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore belle, quite upset Philadelphia
+by repeating Mme. R&eacute;camier's experiment in that city of brotherly love!
+We are also told on good authority that one could have held Madame's
+wedding gown in the palm of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>Victorian hoops for public conveyances, paper-soled slippers in
+snow-drifts, wigs immense and heavy with powder, hair-oil and furbelows,
+hour-glass waist lines producing the &quot;vapours&quot; fortunately are no more.</p>
+
+<p>Taken by and large, we of the year 1917 seem to have reached the point
+where woman's psychology demands of dress fitness for each occasion,
+that she may give herself to her task without a material handicap. May
+the good work in this direction continue, as the panorama of costumes
+for women moves on down the ages that are to come.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI" /><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+
+<h3>NATIONALITY IN COSTUME</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-w.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="W" /><b>HEN</b></span>
+seen in perspective, the costumes of various periods, as well as
+the architecture, interior decoration and furnishings of the homes of
+men appear as distinct types, though to the man or woman of any
+particular period the variations of the type are bewildering and
+misleading. It is the same in physical types; when visiting for the
+first time a foreign land one is immediately struck by a national cast
+of feature, English, French, American, Russian, etc. But if we remain in
+the country for any length of time, the differences between individuals
+impress us and we lose track of those features and characteristics the
+nation possesses in common. To-day, if asked what outline, materials and
+colour schemes characterise our fashions, some would say that almost
+anything in the way of line, materials and colour were worn. There is,
+however, always an epoch type, and while more than ever before the law
+of <i>appropriateness</i> has dictated a certain silhouette for each
+occasion,&mdash;each occupation,&mdash;when recorded in costume books of the
+future we will be recognised as a distinct phase; as distinct as the
+Gothic, Elizabethan, Empire or Victorian period.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXXI<a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>Costume of a Red Cross Nurse, worn while working in a
+    French war hospital, by Miss Elsie de Wolfe, of New York. An
+    example of woman costumed so as to be most efficient for the
+    work in hand.</p>
+
+<p>    Miss de Wolfe's name has become synonymous with interior
+    decoration, throughout the length and breadth of our land,
+    but she established a reputation as one of the best-dressed
+    women in America, long before she left the stage to
+    professionally decorate homes. She has done an immeasurable
+    amount toward moulding the good taste of America in several
+    fields. At present her energies are in part devoted to
+    disseminating information concerning a cure for burns, one
+    of the many discoveries resulting from the exigencies of the
+    present devastating war.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p299.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p299-tb.jpg" width="338" height="400" alt="Miss Elsie de Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse" title="Miss Elsie de Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>
+<i>Miss Elsie de Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>As we have said, in studying the history of woman decorative, one finds
+two widely separated aspects of the subject, which must be considered in
+turn. There is the classifying of woman's apparel which comes under the
+head of European dress, woman's costume affected by cosmopolitan
+influences; costumes worn by that part of humanity which is in close
+intercommunication and reflecting the ebb and flow of
+currents&mdash;political, geographical and artistic. Then we have quite
+another field for study, that of national costumes, by which we mean
+costumes peculiar to some one nation and worn by its men and women
+century after century.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting as well as depressing for the student of national
+characteristics to see the picturesque distinguishing lines and colours
+<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>gradually disappear as railroads, steamboats and electric trolleys
+penetrate remote districts. With any influx of curious strangers there
+comes in time, often all too quickly, a regrettable self-consciousness,
+which is followed at first by an awkward imitation of the cosmopolitan
+garb.</p>
+
+<p>We recall our experience in Hungary. Having been advised to visit the
+peasant villages and farms lying out on the p&uuml;stas (plains of southern
+Hungary) if we would see the veritable national costumes, we set out
+hopefully with letters of introduction from a minister of education in
+Buda Pest, directed to mayors of Magyar villages. One of these planned a
+visit to a local celebrity, a Magyar farmer, very old, very prosperous,
+rich in herds of horses, sheep and magnificent Hungarian oxen, large,
+white and with almost straight, spreading horns, like the oxen of the
+ancient Greeks. There we met a man of the old school, nearly eighty, who
+had never in his life slept under cover, his duty being to guard his
+flocks and herds by night as well as day, though he had amassed what was
+for his station in life, a <a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>great fortune. He had never been seen in
+anything but the national costume, the same as worn in his part of the
+world for several hundred years. And so we went to see him in his home.
+We were all expectation! You can imagine our disappointment, when, upon
+arrival, we found our host awaiting us, painfully attired in the
+ordinary dark cloth coat and trousers of the modern farmer the world
+over. He had donned the ugly things in our honour, taking an hour to
+make his toilet, as we were secretly informed by one of the household.
+We tell this to show how one must persevere in the pursuit of artistic
+data. This was the same occasion cited in <i>The Art of Interior
+Decoration,</i> when the highly decorative peasant tableware was banished
+by the women in the house, to make room, again in our honour, for plain
+white ironstone china.</p>
+
+<p>The feeling for line accredited to the French woman is equally the
+birthright of the Magyar&mdash;woman and man. One sees it in the dash of the
+court beauty who can carry off a mass of jewels, barbaric in splendour,
+where the average European or American would feel a Christmas <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>tree in
+the same. And no man in Europe wears his uniform as the Hungarian
+officer of hussars does; the astrachan-trimmed short coat, slung over
+one shoulder, cap trimmed with fur, on the side of his head, and
+skin-tight trousers inside of faultless, spurred boots reaching to the
+knees. One can go so far as to say there is something decorative in the
+very temperament of Hungarian women, a fiery abandon, which makes <i>line</i>
+in a subtle way quite apart from the line of costume. This quality is
+also possessed by the Spanish woman, and developed to a remarkable
+degree in the professional Spanish dancer. The Gipsy woman has it
+too,&mdash;she brought it with her from Asia, as the Magyar's forebears did.</p>
+
+<p>Speaking of the Magyar, nothing so perfectly expresses the national
+temperament as the czardas&mdash;that peasant dance which begins with calm,
+stately repression, and ends in a mad ecstasy of expression, the rapid
+crescendo, the whirl, ending when the man seizes his partner and flings
+her high in the air. Watch the flash of the eyes and see that this is
+genuine temperament, not acting, but something <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>inherent in the blood.
+The crude colour of the national costume and the sharp contrast in the
+folk music are equally expressions of national character, the various
+art expressions of which open up countless enticing vistas.</p>
+
+<p>The contemplation of some of these vistas leads one to the conclusion
+that woman decorative is so, either as an artist (that is, in the
+mastery of the science of line and colour, more or less under the
+control of passing fashion), or in the abandonment to the impulse of an
+untutored, unconscious, child of nature. Both can be beautiful; the art
+which is so great as to conceal conscious effort by creating the
+illusion of spontaneity, and the natural unconscious grace of the human
+being in youth or in the primitive state.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII" /><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+
+<h3>MODELS</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-a.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="A" /><b>N</b></span>
+historical interest attaches to fashions in women's costuming, which
+the practised eye is quick to distinguish, but not always that of the
+novice. Of course the most casual and indifferent of mortals recognises
+the fact when woman's hat follows the lines of the French officer's cap,
+or her coat reproduces the Cossack's, with even a feint at his cartridge
+belt; but such echoes of the war are too obvious to call for comment.</p>
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXXII<a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a></h4>
+
+<p>    <a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>Madame Geraldine Farrar as <i>Carmen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>    In each of the three presentations of Madame Farrar we have
+    given her in character, as suggestions for stage costumes or
+    costume balls. (By courtesy of <i>Vanity Fair</i>.)</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p309.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p309-tb.jpg" width="400" height="369" alt="Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine" title="Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a>
+<i>Courtesy of Vanity Fair</i><br />
+<i>Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine</i></span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>It is one of the missions of art to make subtle the obvious, and a
+distinguished example of this, which will illustrate our theme,&mdash;history
+mirrored by dress,&mdash;was seen recently. One of the most famous among the
+great couturi&egrave;res of Paris, who has opened a New York branch within two
+years, having just arrived with her Spring and Summer models, was
+showing them to an appreciative woman, a patron of many years. It is not
+an exaggeration to say that in all that procession of costumes for cool
+days or hot, ball-room, salon, boudoir or lawn, not one was banal, not
+one false in line or its colour-scheme. Whether the style was Classic
+Greek, Medi&aelig;val or Empire (these prevail), one felt the result, first of
+an artist's instinct, then a deep knowledge of the pictorial records of
+periods in dress, and to crown all, that conviction of the real artist,
+which gives both courage and discretion in moulding textiles,&mdash;the
+output of modern genius, to the purest classic lines. For example, one
+reads in every current fashion sheet that beads are in vogue as
+garniture for dresses. So they are, but note how your French woman
+treats them. Whether they are of jet, steel, pearl or crystal, she
+presses them into service as so much <i>colour</i>, massing them so that one
+is conscious only of a shimmering, clinging, wrapped-toga effect, &agrave; la
+Grecque, beneath the skirt and bodice of which every line and curve of
+the woman's form is seen. Evidently some, at least, are to be gleaming
+Tanagras. Even a dark-blue serge, for the motor, shopping or train, had
+<a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>from hips to the bust parallel lines of very small tube-like jet beads,
+sewn so close together that the effect was that of a shirt of mail.</p>
+
+<p>The use of notes of vivid colour caught the eye. In one case, on a black
+satin afternoon gown, a tiny nosegay of forget-me-not blue, rose-pink
+and jessamine-white, was made to decorate the one large patch-pocket on
+the skirt and a lapel of the sleeveless satin coat. Again on a
+dinner-dress of black Chantilly lace, over white chiffon (Empire lines),
+a very small, deep pinkish-red rose had a white rose-bud bound close to
+it with a bit of blue ribbon. This was placed under the bertha of cobweb
+lace, and demurely in the middle of the short-waisted bodice. Again a
+robe d'interior of white satin charmeuse, had a sleeveless coat of blue,
+reaching to knees, and a dashing bias sash of pinkish-red, twice round
+the waist, with its long ends reaching to skirt hem and heavily
+weighted.</p>
+
+<p>Not at once, but only gradually, did it dawn upon us that most of the
+gowns bore, in some shade or form, the tricolour of France!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII" /><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB</h3>
+
+<p><span class="big"><img  src="images/illus-e.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="E" /><b>VERY</b></span>
+now and then a sex war is predicted, and sometimes started,
+usually by woman, though some predicted that when the present European
+war is over and the men come home to their civilian tasks, now being
+carried on by women, man is going to take the initiative, in the sex
+conflict. We doubt it. Without deliberate design to prove this
+point,&mdash;that a complete collaboration of the sexes has always made the
+wheels of the universe revolve, many of the illustrations studied showed
+woman with man as decoration, in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and during later
+periods.</p>
+
+<p>The Legend of Life tells us that man can not live alone, hence woman;
+and the Pageant of Life shows that she has played opposite with
+consistency and success throughout the ages.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday issue of the Philadelphia <i>Public <a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a>Ledger</i> for March 25,
+1917, has a headline, &quot;Trousers vs. Skirts,&quot; and, continues Margaret
+Davies, the author of the article:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;This war will change all things for European women.
+    Military service, of a sort, has come for them in both
+    France and England, where they are replacing men employed in
+    clerical and other non-combatant departments, including
+    motor driving. The moment this was decided upon in England,
+    it was found that 30,000 men would be released for actual
+    fighting, with prospects of the release of more than 200,000
+    more. What the French demand will be is not known as I
+    write, but it will equal that of England.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;How will these women dress? Will they be given military
+    uniforms short of skirt or even skirtless? Of course they
+    won't; but the world on this side of the ocean would not
+    gasp should this be done. War industry already has worked a
+    revolution.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;Study the pictures which accompany this article. They are a
+    new kind of women's 'fashion pictures'; they are photographs
+    of women dressed as European circumstances now compel them
+    to dress. Note the trousers, like a Turkish woman's, of the
+    French girl muni<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>tions workers. Thousands of girls here in
+    France are working in such trousers. Note the smart liveries
+    of the girls who have taken the places of male carriage
+    starters, mechanics and elevator operators, at a great
+    London shop. They are very natty, aren't they? Almost like
+    costumes from a comic opera. Well, they are not operatic
+    costumes. They are every-day working liveries. Girls wear
+    them in the most mixed London crowds&mdash;wear them because the
+    man-shortage makes it necessary for these girls to do work
+    which skirts do not fit. All French trams and buses have
+    'conductresses.'</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;The coming of women cabmen in London is inevitable&mdash;indeed,
+    it already has begun. In Paris they have been established
+    sparsely for some time and have done well, but they have not
+    been used on taxis, only on the horse cabs.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;I have spent most of my time in Paris for some months now,
+    and have ridden behind women drivers frequently. They drive
+    carefully and well and are much kinder to their horses than
+    the old, red-faced, brutal French coch&eacute;rs are. I like them.
+    They have a wonderful command of language, not always
+    entirely or even partially polite, but they are
+    accommodating and less greedy for tips than male drivers.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;At Selfridge's great store&mdash;the largest and <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a>most
+    progressive in London, operated on Chicago lines&mdash;skirtless
+    maidens are not rare enough to attract undue attention. The
+    first to be seen there, indeed, is not in the store at all,
+    but on the sidewalk, outside of it, engaged in the gentle
+    art of directing customers to and from their cars and cabs
+    and incidentally keeping the chauffeurs in order.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;An extremely pretty girl she is, too, with her frock-coat
+    coming to her knees, her top-boots coming to the coat, and
+    now and then, when the wind blows, a glimpse of loose
+    knickers. She tells me that she's never had a man stare at
+    her since she appeared in the new livery, although women
+    have been curious about it and even critical of it. Women
+    have done all the staring to which she has been subjected.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;Within the store, many girls engaged in various special
+    employments, are dressed conveniently for their work, in
+    perfectly frank trousers. Among these are the girls who
+    operate the elevators. There is no compromise about it.
+    These girls wear absolutely trousers every working hour of
+    every working day in a great public store, in a great
+    crowded city, rubbing elbows (even touching trousered knees,
+    inevitably) with hundreds of men daily.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="block-illo"><h4>PLATE XXXIII<a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a></h4>
+
+<p> <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a>Madame Geraldine Farrar. The value of line was admirably
+    illustrated in the opera &quot;Madame Butterfly&quot; as seen this
+    winter at the Metropolitan Opera House. Have you chanced to
+    ask yourself why the outline of the individual members of
+    the chorus was so lacking in charm, and Madame Farrar's so
+    delightful? The great point is that in putting on her
+    kimono, Madame Farrar kept in mind the characteristic
+    silhouette of the Japanese woman as shown in Japanese art;
+    then she made a picture of herself, and one in harmony with
+    her Japanese setting. Which brings us back to the keynote of
+    our book&mdash;<i>Woman as Decoration</i>&mdash;beautiful <i>Line</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 306px;">
+<a href="images/illus_p319.jpg"><img src="images/illus_p319-tb.jpg" width="306" height="400" alt="Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly" title="Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly" /></a>
+<span class="caption"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>
+<i>Sketched for &quot;Woman as Decoration&quot; by Thelma Cudlipp</i><br />
+<i>Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly</i>
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;And they like it. They work better in the new uniforms than<a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>
+    they used to in skirts and are less weary at each day's end.
+    And nobody worries them at all. There has not been the
+    faintest suspicion of an insult or an advance from any one
+    of the thousands of men and boys of all classes whom they
+    have ridden with upon their 'lifts,' sometimes in dense
+    crowds, sometimes in an involuntary t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;Other employments which girls follow and dress for
+    bifurcatedly in this great and progressive store are more
+    astonishing than the operation of elevators. A charming
+    young plumber had made no compromise whatever with
+    tradition. She was in overalls like boy plumbers wear,
+    except that her trousers were not tight, but they were well
+    fitted. A little cap of the same material as the suit,
+    completed her jaunty and attractive costume. And cap and
+    suit were professionally stained, too, with oil and things
+    like that, while her small hands showed the grime of an
+    honest day's competent, hard work.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;The coming summer will see an immense amount of England's
+    farming done by women and, I think, well done. Organisations
+    already are under way whereby women propose to help decrease
+    the food shortage by intelligent increase of the chicken and
+    egg supply, and this is being so well planned that
+    undoubtedly it <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>will succeed. Eggs and chickens will be
+    cheap in England ere the summer ends.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;I have met three ex-stenographers who now are at hard work,
+    two of them in munition factories (making military engines
+    of death) and one of them on a farm. I asked them how they
+    liked the change.</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;'I should hate to have to go back to work in the old long
+    skirts,' one replied. 'I should hate to go back to the old
+    days of relying upon some one else for everything that
+    really matters. But&mdash;well, I wish the war would end and I
+    hope the casualty lists of fine young men will not grow
+    longer, day by day, as Spring approaches, although everybody
+    says they will.'</p>
+
+<p>    &quot;Mrs. John Bull takes girls in pantaloons quite calmly and
+    approvingly, now that she has learned that if there are
+    enough of them, dad and the boys will pay no more attention
+    to them in trousers than they would pay to them in skirts.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>We have preferred to quote the exact wording of the original article,
+for the reason that while the facts are familiar to most of us, the
+manner of putting them could not, to our mind, be more graphic. Some
+day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who
+<a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a>again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such
+data will amuse.</p>
+
+<p>That the women of Finland make worthy members of their parliament does
+not prove anything outside of Finland. That the exigencies of the
+present hour in England have made women equal to every task of men so
+far entrusted to them, proves much for England. Women, like men, have
+untold, untried abilities within them, women and men alike are
+marvellous under fire&mdash;capable of development in every direction. What
+human nature has done it can do again, and infinitely more under the
+pressure of necessity which opens up brain cells, steels the heart,
+hardens the muscles, and like magic fire, licks up the dross of
+humanity, aimlessly floating on the surface of life, awaiting a leader
+to melt and mould it at Fate's will into clearly defined personalities,
+ready to serve. This point has been magnificently proved by the war now
+waging in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Let us repeat; that from the beginning the story of woman's costuming
+proves her many-sidedness, the inexhaustible stock of her latent
+qualities which, like man's, await the call of the hour.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>IN CONCLUSION</h2>
+
+
+<p>The foregoing chapters have aimed at showing the decorative value of
+woman's costume as seen in the art of Egypt, Greece, Gothic Europe,
+Europe of the Renaissance and during the seventeenth, eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries. To prove the point that woman is a telling note in
+the interior decoration of to-day, the vital spark in any setting, we
+have not dwelt upon the fashions so much as decorative line,
+colour-scheme and fitness for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>It is costume associated with caste which interests us more than folk
+costume. We have shown that it is the modern insistence on efficiency
+that has led to appropriate dress for work and recreation, and that our
+idea of the chic and the beautiful in costume is based on
+<i>appropriateness</i>. Also we have shown that line in costumes is in part
+the result of <a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a>one's &quot;form&quot;&mdash;the absolute control of the body, its
+&quot;carriage,&quot; poise of the head, action of legs, arms, hands and feet, and
+that form means successful effort in any direction, because through it
+the mind may control the physical medium.</p>
+
+<p>It is the woman who knows what she should wear, what she can wear and
+how to wear it, who is most efficient in whatever she gives her mind to.
+She it is who will expend the least time, strength and money on her
+appearance, and be the first to report for duty in connection with the
+next obligation in the business of life.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore let us keep in mind a few rules for the perfect costuming of
+woman:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Appropriateness for each occasion so as to get efficiency,
+    or be as decorative as possible.</p>
+
+<p>    Outline.&mdash;Fashion in silhouette adapted to your own type.</p>
+
+<p>    Background.&mdash;Your setting.</p>
+
+<p>    Colour scheme.&mdash;Fashionable colours chosen and combined to
+    express your personality as well as to harmonise with the
+    tone of setting, or, if preferred, to be an agreeable
+    contrast to it.</p>
+
+<p>    Detail.&mdash;Trimming with <i>raison d'&ecirc;tre</i>,&mdash;not meaningless
+    superfluities.</p></div>
+
+<p><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326"></a>It is, of course, understood that the attainment of <i>beauty</i> in the
+costuming of woman is our aim when stating and applying the foregoing
+principles.</p>
+
+<p>The art of interior decoration and the art of costuming woman are
+occasionally centred in the same individual, but not often. Some of the
+most perfectly dressed women, models for their less gifted sisters, are
+not only ignorant as to the art of setting their stage, but oblivious of
+the fact that it may need setting.</p>
+
+<p>Remember, that while an inartistic room, confused as to line and
+colour-scheme can absolutely destroy the effect of a perfect gown, an
+inartistic, though costly gown can likewise be a blot on a perfect room.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woman as Decoration, by Emily Burbank
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Woman as Decoration
+
+
+Author: Emily Burbank
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2006  [eBook #18901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Audrey Longhurst, Cori Samuel, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from
+page images generously made available by Home Economics Archive: Research,
+Tradition and History, Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University
+(http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 18901-h.htm or 18901-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/0/18901/18901-h/18901-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/9/0/18901/18901-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History,
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. See
+      http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=hearth;idno=4221758
+
+
+
+
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION
+
+by
+
+EMILY BURBANK
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1917
+Copyright, 1917
+By Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc.
+
+
+
+
+            DEDICATED
+               TO
+            V. B. G.
+
+
+
+
+    PLATE I
+
+    Madame Geraldine Farrar as Thais in the opera of that name.
+    It is a sketch made from life for this book. Observe the
+    gilded wig and richly embroidered gown. They are after
+    descriptions of a costume worn by the real Thais. It is a
+    Greek type of costume but not the familiar classic Greek of
+    sculptured story. Thais was a reigning beauty and acted in
+    the theatre of Alexandria in the early Christian era.
+
+    [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by Thelma Cudlipp
+    Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Greek Costume as Thais_]
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION is intended as a sequel to _The Art of
+Interior Decoration_ (Grace Wood and Emily Burbank).
+
+Having assisted in setting the stage for woman, the next logical step is
+the consideration of woman, herself, as an important factor in the
+decorative scheme of any setting,--the vital spark to animate all
+interior decoration, private or public. The book in hand is intended as
+a brief guide for the woman who would understand her own type,--make the
+most of it, and know how simple a matter it is to be decorative if she
+will but master the few rules underlying all successful dressing. As the
+costuming of woman is an art, the history of that art must be known--to
+a certain extent--by one who would be an intelligent student of our
+subject. With the assistance of thirty-three illustrations to throw
+light upon the text, we have tried to tell the beguiling story of
+decorative woman, as she appears in frescoes and bas reliefs of Ancient
+Egypt, on Greek vases, the Gothic woman in tapestry and stained glass,
+woman in painting, stucco and tapestry of the Renaissance, seventeenth,
+eighteenth and nineteenth century woman in portraits.
+
+Contemporary woman's costume is considered, not as fashion, but as
+decorative line and colour, a distinct contribution to the interior
+decoration of her own home or other setting. In this department, woman
+is given suggestions as to the costuming of herself, beautifully and
+appropriately, in the ball-room, at the opera, in her boudoir, sun-room
+or on her shaded porch; in her garden; when driving her own car; by the
+sea, or on the ice.
+
+Woman as Decoration has been planned, in part, also to fill a need very
+generally expressed for a handbook to serve as guide for beginners in
+getting up costumes for fancy-dress balls, amateur theatricals, or the
+professional stage.
+
+We have tried to shed light upon period costumes and point out ways of
+making any costume effective.
+
+Costume books abound, but so far as we know, this is the first attempt
+to confine the vast and perplexing subject within the dimensions of a
+small, accessible volume devoted to the principles underlying the
+planning of all costumes, regardless of period.
+
+The author does not advocate the preening of her feathers as woman's
+sole occupation, in any age, much less at this crisis in the making of
+world history; but she does lay great emphasis on the fact that a woman
+owes it to herself, her family and the public in general, to be as
+decorative in any setting, as her knowledge of the art of dressing
+admits. This knowledge implies an understanding of line, colour,
+fitness, background, and above all, one's own type. To know one's type,
+and to have some knowledge of the principles underlying all good
+dressing, is of serious economic value; it means a saving of time,
+vitality and money.
+
+The watchword of to-day is efficiency, and the keynote to modern
+costuming, appropriateness. And so the spirit of the time records itself
+in the interesting and charming subdivision of woman's attire.
+
+One may follow Woman Decorative in the Orient on vase, fan, screen and
+kakemono; as she struts in the stiff manner of Egyptian bas reliefs,
+across walls of ancient ruins, or sits in angular serenity, gazing into
+the future through the narrow slits of Egyptian eyes, oblivious of time;
+woman, beautiful in the European sense, and decorative to the
+superlative degree, on Greek vase and sculptured wall. Here in rhythmic
+curves, she dandles lovely Cupid on her toe; serves as vestal virgin at
+a woodland shrine; wears the bronze helmet of Minerva; makes laws, or as
+Penelope, the wife, wearily awaits her roving lord. She moves in august
+majesty, a sore-tried queen, and leaps in merry laughter as a care-free
+slave; pipes, sings and plies the distaff. Sauntering on, down through
+Gothic Europe, Tudor England, the adolescent Renaissance, Bourbon
+France, into the picturesque changes of the eighteenth century, we ask,
+can one possibly escape our theme--Woman as Decoration? No, for she is
+carved in wood and stone; as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven gleams in
+the jeweled windows of the church, looks down in placid serenity on
+lighted altar; is woven in tapestry, in fact dominates all art,
+painting, stucco or marble, throughout the ages.
+
+If one would know the story of Woman's evolution and retrogression--that
+rising and falling tide in civilisation--we commend a study of her as
+she is presented in Art. A knowledge of her costume frequently throws
+light upon her age; a thorough knowledge of her age will throw light
+upon her costume.
+
+A study of the essentials of any costume, of any period, trains the eye
+and mind to be expert in planning costumes for every-day use. One learns
+quickly to discriminate between details which are ornaments, because
+they have meaning, and those which are only illiterate superfluities;
+and one learns to master many other points.
+
+It is not within the province of this book to dwell at length upon
+national costume, but rather to follow costume as it developed with and
+reflected caste, after human society ceased to be all alike as to
+occupation, diversion and interest.
+
+In the world of caste, costume has gradually evolved until it aims
+through appropriateness, at assisting woman to fulfil her role. With
+peasants who know only the traditional costume of their province, the
+task must often be done in spite of the costume, which is picturesque or
+grotesque, inconvenient, even impossible; but long may it linger to
+divert the eye! Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland,
+Scandinavia,--all have an endless variety of costumes, rich in souvenirs
+of folk history, rainbows of colour and bizarre in line, but it is
+costuming the woman of fashion which claims our attention.
+
+The succeeding chapters will treat of woman, the vital spark which gives
+meaning to any setting--indoors, out of doors, at the opera, in the
+ball-room, on the ice--where you will. Each chapter has to do with
+modern woman and the historical paragraphs are given primarily to shed
+light upon her costume.
+
+It is shown that woman's decorative appearance affects her psychology,
+and that woman's psychology affects her decorative appearance.
+
+Some chapters may, at first glance, seem irrelevant, but those who have
+seriously studied any art, and then undertaken to tell its story
+briefly in simple, direct language, with the hope of quickly putting
+audience or reader in touch with the vital links in the chain of
+evidence, will understand the author's claim that no detour which
+illustrates the subject can in justice be termed irrelevant. In the
+detours often lie invaluable data, for one with a mind for
+research--whether author or reader. This is especially true in
+connection with our present task, which involves unravelling some of the
+threads from the tangled skein of religion, dancing, music, sculpture
+and painting--that mass of bright and sombre colour, of gold and silver
+threads, strung with pearls and glittering gems strangely broken by
+age--which tells the epic-lyric tale of civilisation.
+
+While we state that it is not our aim to make a point of fashion as
+such, some of our illustrations show contemporary woman as she appears
+in our homes, on our streets, at the play, in her garden, etc. We have
+taken examples of women's costumes which are pre-eminently
+characteristic of the moment in which we write, and as we believe,
+illustrate those laws upon which we base our deductions concerning
+woman as decoration. These laws are: appropriateness of her costume to
+the occasion; consideration of the type of wearer; background against
+which costume is to be worn; and all decoration (which includes jewels),
+as detail with _raison d'etre_. The body should be carried with form (in
+the sporting sense), to assist in giving line to the costume.
+
+The _chic_ woman is the one who understands the art of elimination in
+costumes. Wear your costumes with conviction--by which we mean decide
+what picture you will make of yourself, make it and then enjoy it! It is
+only by letting your personality animate your costume that you make
+yourself superior to the lay figure or the sawdust doll.
+
+
+
+
+  CONTENTS
+
+  CHAPTER                                                          PAGE
+
+  FOREWORD                                                           xi
+
+  I A FEW HINTS FOR THE NOVICE WHO WOULD PLAN HER COSTUMES            1
+
+  Rules having economic value while aiming at
+  decorativeness.--Lines and colouring emphasised
+  or modified by costuming.--Temperaments affect
+  carriage of the body.--Line of body affects
+  costume.--Technique of controlling the physique.--The
+  highly sensitised woman.--Costuming an
+  art.--Studying types.--Starring one's own good
+  points.--Beauty not so fleeting as is supposed
+  if costume is adapted to its changing aspects.--Masters
+  in art of costuming often discover and
+  star previously unrecognised beauty.--Establishing
+  the habit of those lines and colours in
+  gowns, hats, gloves, parasols, sticks, fans and
+  jewels which are your own.--The intelligent
+  purchaser.--The best dressed women.--Value of
+  understanding one's background.--Learning the
+  art of understanding one's background.--Learning
+  the art of costuming from masters of the
+  art.--How to proceed with this study.--Successful
+  costuming not dependent upon amount of
+  money spent upon it.--An example
+
+
+  II THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN                      23
+
+  Appropriateness keynote of costuming to-day.--Five
+  salient points to be borne in mind when
+  planning a costume.--Where English, French,
+  and American women excel in art of costuming.--Feeling
+  for line.--To make our points clear
+  constant reference to the stage is necessary.--Bakst
+  and Poiret.--Turning to the Orient for
+  line and colour.--Keeping costume in same key
+  as its settings.--How to know your period; its
+  line, colours and characteristic details.--Studying
+  costumes in Gothic illuminations
+
+
+  III HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE                                         46
+
+  A FEW POINTS APPLYING TO ALL COSTUMES.--Background.--Line
+  and colour of costumes to
+  bring out the individuality of wearer.--The chic
+  woman defined.--Intelligent expressing of self
+  in _mise-en-scene_.--Selecting one's colour scheme
+
+
+  IV THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES                                       54
+
+  Effect of clothes upon manners.--The natural
+  instinct for costuming, "clothes sense."--Costuming
+  affecting psychology of wearer.--Clothes
+  may liberate or shackle the spirit of women, be
+  a tyrant or magician's wand.--Follow colour
+  instinct in clothes as well as housefurnishings
+
+
+  V ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE              66
+
+  Woman's line result of habits of a mind controlled
+  by observations, conventions, experiences
+  and attitudes which make her personality.--Training
+  lines of physique from childhood; an
+  example.--A knowledge of how to dress appropriately
+  leads to efficiency
+
+
+  VI COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME                                       74
+
+  Colour hall-mark of to-day.--Bakst, Rheinhardt
+  and Granville Barker, teachers of the new
+  colour vocabulary.--PORTABLE BACKGROUNDS
+
+
+  VII FOOTWEAR                                                       85
+
+  Importance of carefully considering extremities.--What
+  constitutes a costume.--Importance
+  of learning how to buy, put on and wear each
+  detail of costume if one would be a decorative
+  picture.--Spats.--Stockings.--Slippers.--Buckles
+
+
+  VIII JEWELRY AS DECORATION                                         94
+
+  Considered as colour and line not with regard
+  to intrinsic worth.--To complete a costume or
+  furnish keynote upon which to build a costume.--Distinguished
+  jewels with historic associations
+  worn artistically; examples.--Know what
+  jewels are your affair as to colour, size, and
+  shape.--To know what one can and cannot
+  wear in all departments of costuming prepares
+  one to grasp and make use of expert suggestions.
+  How fashions come into being.--One of the rules
+  as to how jewels should be worn.--Gems and
+  paste
+
+
+  IX WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR                                111
+
+  Negligee or tea-gown belongs to this intimate
+  setting.--Fortuny the artist designer of tea-gowns.--Sibyl
+  Sanderson.--The decorative value
+  of a long string of beads.--Beauty which is the
+  result of conscious effort.--_Bien soine_ a hall-mark
+  of our period
+
+
+  X WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER SUN-ROOM                                116
+
+  Since a winter sun-room is planned to give
+  the illusion of summer, one's costuming for it
+  should carry out the same idea.--The sun-room
+  provides a means for using up last summer's
+  costumes.--The hat, if worn, should suggest
+  repose, not action.--The age and habits of those
+  occupying a sun-room dictate the exact type
+  of costume to be worn.--Colour scheme
+
+
+  XI  I. WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER GARDEN                             124
+
+  In the garden the costume should have a
+  decorative outline but simple colour scheme
+  which harmonises with background of flowers.--White,
+  grey, or one note of colour preferable.--The
+  flowers furnish variety and colour.--Lady
+  de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) in her garden
+  at Newmarket, England
+
+      II. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE LAWN
+
+  One may be a flower or a bunch of flowers
+  for colour against the unbroken sweep of green
+  underfoot and background of shrubs and trees.--Chic
+  outline and interesting detail, as well as
+  colour, of distinct value in a costume for lawn.--How
+  to cultivate an unerring instinct for
+  what is a successful costume for any given occasion
+
+      III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH
+
+  If one would be a contribution to the picture,
+  figure as white or vivid colour on beach,
+  deck of steamer or yacht
+
+
+  XII WOMAN AS DECORATION WHEN SKATING                              134
+
+  Line of the body all important.--The necessity
+  of mastering _form_ to gain efficiency in any
+  line; examples.--The traditional skating costume
+  has the lead
+
+
+  XIII WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR                            145
+
+  The colour of one's car inside and out important
+  factor in effect produced by one's carefully
+  chosen costume
+
+
+  XIV HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME                     154
+
+  Period.--Background.--Outline.--Materials.--Colour
+  scheme.--Detail with meaning.--Authorities.--Consulting
+  portraits by great masters.--Geraldine
+  Farrar.--Distinguished collection of
+  costume plates.--One result of planning period
+  costumes is the opening up of vistas in history.--Every
+  detail of a period costume has its fascinating
+  story worth the knowing.--Brief historic
+  outline to serve as key to the rich storehouse
+  of important volumes on costumes and
+  the distinguished textless books of costume
+  plates.--Period of fashions in costumes developing
+  without nationality.--Nationality declared
+  in artistry of workmanship and the modification
+  or exaggeration of an essential detail according
+  to national or individual temperament.--Evolution
+  of woman's costume.--Assyria.--Egypt.--Byzantium.--
+  Greece.--Rome.--Gothic Europe.--Europe of the
+  Renaissance,--seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth
+  century through Mid-Victorian period.--Cord tied about
+  waist origin of costumes for women and men
+
+
+  XV THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES                                   172
+
+      A RESUME.
+
+  Woman as seen in Egyptian sculpture-relief;
+  on Greek vase; in Gothic stained glass; carved
+  stone; tapestry; stucco; and painting of the
+  Renaissance; eighteenth and nineteenth century
+  portraits.--Art throughout the ages reflects
+  woman in every role; as companion, ruler,
+  slave, saint, plaything, teacher, and voluntary
+  worker.--Evolution of outline of woman's costume,
+  including change in neck; shoulder;
+  evolution of sleeve; girdle; hair; head-dress;
+  waist line; petticoat.--Gradual disappearance
+  of long, flowing lines characteristic of Greek
+  and Gothic periods.--Demoralisation of Nature's
+  shoulder and hip-line culminates in the Velasquez
+  edition of Spanish fashion and the Marie
+  Antoinette extravaganzas
+
+
+  XVI DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME                                 192
+
+  Gothic outline first seen as early as fourth
+  century.--Costume of Roman-Christian women.--Ninth
+  century.--The Gothic cape of twelfth,
+  thirteenth and fourteenth centuries made
+  familiar on the Virgin and saints in sacred
+  art.--The tunic.--Restraint in line, colour, and
+  detail gradually disappear with increased circulation
+  of wealth until in fifteenth century we
+  see humanity over-weighted with rich brocades,
+  laces, massive jewels, etc.
+
+      THE VIRGIN IN ART
+
+  Late Middle Ages.--Sovereignty of the Virgin
+  as explained in "The Cathedrals of Mont St.
+  Michel and Chartres," by Henry Adams.--Woman
+  as the Virgin dominates art of twelfth,
+  thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries.--The girdle.--The
+  round neck.--The necklace, etc.
+
+
+  XVII THE RENAISSANCE                                              214
+
+      SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
+
+  Pointed and other head-dresses with floating
+  veils.--Neck low off shoulders.--Skirts part as
+  waist-line over petticoat.--Wealth of Roman
+  Empire through new trade channels had led to
+  importation of richly coloured Oriental stuffs.--Same
+  wealth led to establishing looms in
+  Europe.--Clothes of man like his over-ornate
+  furniture show debauched and vulgar taste.--The
+  good Gothic lines live on in costumes of
+  nuns and priests.--The Davanzati Palace collection,
+  Florence, Italy.--Long pointed shoes
+  of the Middle Ages give way to broad square
+  ones.--Gorgeous materials.--Hats.--Hair.--Sleeves.--
+  Skirts.--Crinolines.--Coats.--Overskirts
+  draped to develop into panniers of Marie
+  Antoinette's time.--Directoire reaction to simple
+  lines and materials
+
+
+  XVII EIGHTEENTH CENTURY                                           233
+
+  Political upheavals.--Scientific discoveries.--Mechanical
+  inventions.--Chemical achievements.--Chintz
+  or stamped linens of Jouy near Versailles.--Painted
+  wall-papers after the Chinese.--Simplicity
+  in costuming of woman and man
+
+
+  XIX WOMAN IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD                                 241
+
+  First seventy years of nineteenth century.--"Historic
+  Dress in America" by Elizabeth McClellan.--Hoops,
+  wigs, absurdly furbished head-dresses,
+  paper-soled shoes, bonnets enormous,
+  laces of cobweb, shawls from India, rouge and
+  hair-grease, patches and powder, laced waists,
+  and "vapours."--Man still decorative
+
+
+  XX SEX IN COSTUMING                                               244
+
+  "European dress."--Progenitor of costume
+  worn by modern men.--The time when no distinction
+  was made between materials used for
+  man and woman.--Velvets, silks, satins, laces,
+  elaborate cuffs and collars, embroidery, jewels
+  and plumes as much his as hers
+
+
+  XXI LINE AND COLOUR OF COSTUMES IN HUNGARY                        252
+
+  In a sense colour a sign of virility.--Examples.--Studying
+  line and colour in Magyar
+  Land.--In Krakau, Poland,--A highly decorative
+  Polish peasant and her setting
+
+
+  XXII STUDYING LINE AND COLOUR IN RUSSIA                           265
+
+  Kiev our headquarters.--Slav temperament
+  an integral part of Russian nature expressed
+  in costuming as well as folk songs and dances
+  of the people.--Russian woman of the fashionable
+  world.--The Russian pilgrims as we saw
+  them tramping over the frozen roads to the
+  shrines of Kiev, the Holy City and ancient
+  capital of Russia at the close of the Lenten
+  season.--Their costumes and their psychology
+
+
+  XXIII MARK TWAIN'S LOVE OF COLOUR IN ALL COSTUMING                276
+
+  Wrapped in a crimson silk dressing-gown
+  on a balcony of his Italian villa in Connecticut,
+  Mark Twain dilated on the value of brilliant
+  colour in man's costuming.--His creative,
+  picturing-making mind in action.--Other themes
+  followed
+
+
+  XXIV THE ARTIST AND HIS COSTUME                                   283
+
+  A God-given sense of the beautiful.--The
+  artist nature has always assumed poetic license
+  in the matter of dress.--Many so-called affectations
+  have _raison d'etre_.--Responding to texture,
+  colour and line as some do to music and
+  scenery.--How Japanese actors train themselves
+  to act women's parts by wearing woman's
+  costumes off the stage.--This cultivates the required
+  _feeling_ for the costumes.--The woman
+  devotee to sports when costumed.--Richard
+  Wagner's responsiveness to colour and texture.--Clyde
+  Fitch's sensitiveness to the same.--The
+  wearing of jewels by men.--King Edward
+  VII.--A remarkable topaz worn by a Spaniard.--Its
+  undoing as a decorative object through
+  its resetting
+
+
+  XXV IDIOSYNCRASIES IN COSTUME                                     292
+
+  Fashions in dress all powerful because they
+  seize upon the public mind.--They become the
+  symbol of manners and affect human psychology.--Affectations
+  of the youth of Athens.--Les
+  Merveilleux, Les Encroyables, the Illuminati.--Schiller
+  during the Storm and Stress
+  Period.--Venetian belles of the sixteenth century.--The
+  _Cavalier Servente_ of the seventeenth
+  century.--Mme. Recamier scandalised London
+  in eighteenth century by appearing costumed
+  a la Greque.--Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore
+  belle, followed suit in Philadelphia.--Hour-glass
+  waist-line and attendant "vapours"
+  were thought to be in the role of a high-born
+  Victorian miss.--Appropriateness the contribution
+  of our day to the story of woman's costuming
+
+
+  XXVI NATIONALITY IN COSTUME                                       296
+
+  When seen with perspective the costumes of
+  various periods appear as distinct types though
+  to the man or woman of any particular period
+  the variations of the type are bewildering and
+  misleading.--Having followed the evolution of
+  the costume of woman of fashion which comes
+  under the general head of European dress, before
+  closing we turn to quite another field, that
+  of national costumes.--Progress levels national
+  differences, therefore the student must make the
+  most of opportunities to observe.--Experiences
+  in Hungary
+
+
+  XXVII MODELS                                                      306
+
+  Historical interest attaches to fashions in
+  woman's costuming.--One of the missions of
+  art is to make subtle the obvious.--Examples as
+  seen in 1917
+
+
+  XXVIII WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB                             313
+
+  The Pageant of Life shows that woman has
+  played opposite man with consistency and success
+  throughout the ages.--Apropos of this, we
+  quote from Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, for
+  March 25, 1917, an impression of a woman of
+  to-day costumed appropriately to get efficiency
+  in her war work
+
+      IN CONCLUSION                                                 324
+
+  A brief review of the chief points to be kept
+  in mind by those interested in the costuming
+  of woman so that she figures as a decorative
+  contribution to any setting
+
+
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  I MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN GREEK COSTUME AS THAIS (_FRONTISPIECE_) vi
+      Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+  II WOMAN IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE-RELIEF                       9
+
+  III WOMAN IN GREEK ART                                             19
+
+  IV WOMAN ON GREEK VASE                                             29
+
+  V WOMAN IN GOTHIC ART                                              39
+      Portrait Showing Pointed Head-dress
+
+  VI WOMAN IN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE                                 49
+      Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: The Virgin
+
+  VII WOMAN IN ART OF THE RENAISSANCE                                59
+      Sculpture-relief in Terra-cotta: Holy Women
+
+  VIII TUDOR ENGLAND                                                 69
+      Portrait of Queen Elizabeth
+
+  IX SPAIN--VELASQUEZ PORTRAIT                                       79
+
+  X EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND                                       89
+      Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough
+
+  XI BOURBON FRANCE                                                  99
+      Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Madame Vigee Le Brun
+
+  XII COSTUME OF EMPIRE PERIOD                                      109
+      An English Portrait
+
+  XIII EIGHTEENTH CENTURY COSTUME                                   119
+      Portrait by Gilbert Stuart
+
+  XIV VICTORIAN PERIOD (ABOUT 1840)                                 129
+      Mme. Adeline Genee in Costume
+
+  XV LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY (ABOUT 1890)                           139
+      A Portrait by John S. Sargent
+
+  XVI A MODERN PORTRAIT                                             149
+      By John W. Alexander
+
+  XVII A PORTRAIT OF MRS. PHILIP M. LYDIG                           159
+      By I. Zuloaga
+
+  XVIII MRS. LANGTRY (LADY DE BATHE) IN EVENING WRAP                169
+
+  XIX MRS. CONDE NAST IN STREET DRESS                               179
+      Photograph by Baron de Meyer
+
+  XX MRS. CONDE NAST IN EVENING DRESS                               189
+
+  XXI MRS. CONDE NAST IN GARDEN COSTUME                             199
+
+  XXII MRS. CONDE NAST IN FORTUNY TEA GOWN                          209
+
+  XXIII MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN BALL COSTUME                          219
+
+  XXIV MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN AFTERNOON COSTUME--WINTER              229
+
+  XXV MRS. VERNON CASTLE IN AFTERNOON COSTUME--SUMMER               239
+
+  XXVI MRS. VERNON CASTLE COSTUMED A LA GUERRE FOR A WALK           249
+
+  XXVII MRS. VERNON CASTLE--A FANTASY                               259
+
+  XXVIII MODERN SKATING COSTUME--1917                               269
+      Winner of Amateur Championship of Fancy Skating
+
+  XXIX A MODERN SILHOUETTE--1917                                    279
+    TAILOR-MADE
+      Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy
+
+  XXX TAPPE'S CREATIONS                                             289
+      Sketched for _Woman as Decoration_ by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+  XXXI MISS ELSIE DE WOLFE IN COSTUME OF RED CROSS NURSE            299
+
+  XXXII MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN SPANISH COSTUME AS CARMEN          309
+      From Photograph by Courtesy of _Vanity Fair_
+
+  XXXIII MME. GERALDINE FARRAR IN JAPANESE COSTUME AS
+      MADAME BUTTERFLY                                              319
+      Sketched by Thelma Cudlipp
+
+
+    "The Communion of men upon earth abhors identity more than
+    nature does a vacuum. Nothing so shocks and repels the
+    living soul as a row of exactly similar things, whether it
+    consists of modern houses or of modern people, and nothing
+    so delights and edifies as distinction."
+
+      COVENTRY PATMORE.
+
+    "Whatever piece of dress conceals a woman's figure, is
+    bound, in justice, to do so in a picturesque way."
+
+      _From an Early Victorian Fashion Paper._
+
+    "When was that 'simple time of our fathers' when people were
+    too sensible to care for fashions? It certainly was before
+    the Pharaohs, and perhaps before the Glacial Epoch."
+
+      W. G. SUMNER, in _Folkways_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A FEW HINTS FOR THE NOVICE WHO WOULD PLAN HER COSTUMES
+
+
+There are a few rules with regard to the costuming of woman which if
+understood put one a long way on the road toward that desirable
+goal--decorativeness, and have economic value as well. They are simple
+rules deduced by those who have made a study of woman's lines and
+colouring, and how to emphasise or modify them by dress.
+
+Temperaments are seriously considered by experts in this art, for the
+carriage of a woman and her manner of wearing her clothes depends in
+part upon her temperament. Some women instinctively _feel_ line and are
+graceful in consequence, as we have said, but where one is not born
+with this instinct, it is possible to become so thoroughly schooled in
+the technique of controlling the physique--poise of the body, carriage
+of the head, movement of the limbs, use of feet and hands, that a sense
+of line is acquired. Study portraits by great masters, the movements of
+those on the stage, the carriage and positions natural to graceful
+women. A graceful woman is invariably a woman highly sensitised, but
+remember that "alive to the finger tips"--or toe tips, may be true of
+the woman with few gestures, a quiet voice and measured words, as well
+as the intensely active type.
+
+The highly sensitised woman is the one who will wear her clothes with
+individuality, whether she be rounded or slender. To dress well is an
+art, and requires concentration as any other art does. You know the old
+story of the boy, who when asked why his necktie was always more neatly
+tied than those of his companions, answered: "I put my whole mind on
+it." There you have it! The woman who puts her whole mind on the
+costuming of herself is naturally going to look better than the woman
+who does not, and having carefully studied her type, she will know her
+strong points and her weak ones, and by accentuating the former, draw
+attention from the latter. There is a great difference, however, between
+concentrating on dress until an effect is achieved, and then turning the
+mind to other subjects, and that tiresome dawdling, indefinite,
+fruitless way, to arrive at no convictions. This variety of woman never
+gets dress off her chest.
+
+The catechism of good dressing might be given in some such form as this:
+Are you fat? If so, never try to look thin by compressing your figure or
+confining your clothes in such a way as to clearly outline the figure.
+Take a chance from your size. Aim at long lines, and what dressmakers
+call an "easy fit," and the use of solid colours. Stripes, checks,
+plaids, spots and figures of any kind draw attention to dimensions; a
+very fat woman looks larger if her surface is marked off into many
+spaces. Likewise a very thin woman looks thinner if her body on the
+imagination of the public _subtracting_ is marked off into spaces
+absurdly few in number. A beautifully proportioned and rounded figure
+is the one to indulge in striped, checked, spotted or flowered materials
+or any parti-coloured costumes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Never try to make a thin woman look anything but thin. Often by
+accentuating her thinness, a woman can make an effect as _type_, which
+gives her distinction. If she were foolish enough to try to look fatter,
+her lines would be lost without attaining the contour of the rounded
+type. There are of course fashions in types; pale ash blonds, red-haired
+types (auburn or golden red with shell pink complexions), dark haired
+types with pale white skin, etc., and fashions in figures are as many
+and as fleeting.
+
+Artists are sometimes responsible for these vogues. One hears of the
+Rubens type, or the Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hauptner, Burne-Jones, Greuse,
+Henner, Zuloaga, and others. The artist selects the type and paints it,
+the attention of the public is attracted to it and thereafter singles it
+out. We may prefer soft, round blonds with dimpled smiles, but that does
+not mean that such indisputable loveliness can challenge the
+attractions of a slender serpentine tragedy-queen, if the latter has
+established the vogue of her type through the medium of the stage or
+painter's brush.
+
+A woman well known in the world of fashion both sides of the Atlantic,
+slender and very tall, has at times deliberately increased that height
+with a small high-crowned hat, surmounted by a still higher feather. She
+attained distinction without becoming a caricature, by reason of her
+obvious breeding and reserve. Here is an important point. A woman of
+quiet and what we call conservative type, can afford to wear conspicuous
+clothes if she wishes, whereas a conspicuous type _must_ be reserved in
+her dress. By following this rule the overblown rose often makes herself
+beautiful. Study all types of woman. Beauty is a wonderful and precious
+thing, and not so fleeting either as one is told. The point is, to take
+note, not of beauty's departure, but its gradually changing aspect, and
+adapt costume, line and colour, to the demands of each year's
+alterations in the individual. Make the most of grey hair; as you lose
+your colour, soften your tones.
+
+Always star your points. If you happen to have an unusual amount of
+hair, make it count, even though the fashion be to wear but little. We
+recall the beautiful and unique Madame X. of Paris, blessed by the gods
+with hair like bronze, heavy, long, silken and straight. She wore it
+wrapped about her head and finally coiled into a French twist on the
+top, the effect closely resembling an old Roman helmet. This was design,
+not chance, and her well-modeled features were the sort to stand the
+severe coiffure, Madame's husband, always at her side that season on
+Lake Lucerne, was curator of the Louvre. We often wondered whether the
+idea was his or hers. She invariably wore white, not a note of colour,
+save her hair; even her well-bred fox terrier was snowy white.
+
+Worth has given distinction to more than one woman by recognising her
+possibilities, if kept to white, black, greys and mauves. A beautiful
+Englishwoman dressed by this establishment, always a marked figure at
+whatever embassy her husband happens to be posted, has never been seen
+wearing anything in the evening but black, or white, with very simple
+lines, cut low and having a narrow train.
+
+
+    PLATE II
+
+    Woman in ancient Egyptian sculpture-relief about 1000
+    B.C.
+
+    We have here a husband and wife. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture-Relief_]
+
+
+It may take courage on the part of dressmaker, as well as the woman in
+question, but granted you have a distinct style of your own, and
+understand it, it is the part of wisdom to establish the habit of those
+lines and colours which are yours, and then to avoid experiments with
+_outre_ lines and shades. They are almost sure to prove failures. Taking
+on a colour and its variants is an economic, as well as an artistic
+measure. Some women have so systematised their costuming in order to be
+decorative, at the least possible expenditure of vitality and time
+(these are the women who dress to live, not live to dress), that they
+know at a glance, if dress materials, hats, gloves, jewels, colour of
+stones and style of setting, are for them. It is really a joy to shop
+with this kind of woman. She has definitely fixed in her mind the
+colours and lines of her rooms, all her habitual settings, and the
+clothes and accessories best _for her_. And with the eye of an artist,
+she passes swiftly by the most alluring bargains, calculated to
+undermine firm resolution. In fact one should not say that this woman
+shops; she buys. What is more, she never wastes money, though she may
+spend it lavishly.
+
+Some of the best dressed women (by which we always mean women dressed
+fittingly for the occasion, and with reference to their own particular
+types) are those with decidedly limited incomes.
+
+There are women who suggest chiffon and others brocade; women who call
+for satin, and others for silk; women for sheer muslins, and others for
+heavy linen weaves; women for straight brims, and others for those that
+droop; women for leghorns, and those they do not suit; women for white
+furs, and others for tawny shades. A woman with red in her hair is the
+one to wear red fox.
+
+If you cannot see for yourself what line and colour do to you, surely
+you have some friend who can tell you. In any case, there is always the
+possibility of paying an expert for advice. Allow yourself to be guided
+in the reaching of some decision about yourself and your limitations, as
+well as possibilities. You will by this means increase your
+decorativeness, and what is of more serious importance, your economic
+value.
+
+A marked example of woman decorative was seen on the recent occasion
+when Miss Isadora Duncan danced at the Metropolitan Opera House, for the
+benefit of French artists and their families, victims of the present
+war. Miss Duncan was herself so marvelous that afternoon, as she poured
+her art, aglow and vibrant with genius, into the mould of one classic
+pose after another, that most of her audience had little interest in any
+other personality, or effect. Some of us, however, when scanning the
+house between the acts, had our attention caught and held by a
+charmingly decorative woman occupying one of the boxes, a quaint outline
+in silver-grey taffeta, exactly matching the shade of the woman's hair,
+which was cut in Florentine fashion forming an aureole about her small
+head,--a becoming frame for her fine, highly sensitive face. The deep
+red curtains and upholstery in the box threw her into relief, a lovely
+miniature, as seen from a distance. There were no doubt other charming
+costumes in the boxes and stalls that afternoon, but none so successful
+in registering a distinct decorative effect. The one we refer to was
+suitable, becoming, individual, and reflected personality in a way to
+indicate an extraordinary sensitiveness to values, that subtle instinct
+which makes the artist.
+
+With very young women it is easy to be decorative under most conditions.
+Almost all of them are decorative, as seen in our present fashions, but
+to produce an effect in an opera box is to understand the _carrying
+power_ of colour and line. The woman in the opera box has the same
+problem to solve as the woman on the stage: her costume must be
+effective at a distance. Such a costume may be white, black and any
+colour; gold, silver, steel or jet; lace, chiffon--what you
+will--provided the fact be kept in mind that your outline be striking
+and the colour an agreeable contrast against the lining of the box.
+Here, outline is of chief importance, the silhouette must be definite;
+hair, ornaments, fan, cut of gown, calculated to register against the
+background. In the stalls, colour and outline of any single costume
+become a part of the mass of colour and black and white of the audience.
+It is difficult to be a decorative factor under these conditions, yet
+we can all recall women of every age, who so costume themselves as to
+make an artistic, memorable impression, not only when entering opera,
+theatre or concert hall, but when seated. These are the women who
+understand the value of elimination, restraint, colour harmony and that
+chic which results in part from faultless grooming. To-day it is not
+enough to possess hair which curls ideally: it must, willy nilly, curl
+conventionally!
+
+If it is necessary, prudent or wise that your purchases for each season
+include not more than six new gowns, take the advice of an actress of
+international reputation, who is famous for her good dressing in private
+life, and make a point of adding one new gown to each of the six
+departments of your wardrobe. Then have the cleverness to appear in
+these costumes whenever on view, making what you have fill in between
+times.
+
+To be clear, we would say, try always to begin a season with one
+distinguished evening gown, one smart tailor suit, one charming house
+gown, one tea gown, one negligee and one sport suit. If you are needing
+many dancing frocks, which have hard wear, get a simple, becoming
+model, which your little dressmaker, seamstress or maid can copy in
+inexpensive but becoming colours. You can do this in Summer and Winter
+alike, and with dancing frocks, tea gowns, negligees and even sport
+suits. That is, if you have smart, up-to-date models to copy.
+
+One woman we know bought the finest quality jersey cloth by the yard,
+and had a little dressmaker copy exactly a very expensive skirt and
+sweater. It seems incredible, but she saved on a ready made suit exactly
+like it forty dollars, and on one made to measure by an exclusive house,
+one hundred dollars! Remember, however, that there was an artist back of
+it all and someone had to pay for that perfect model, to start with. In
+the case we cite, the woman had herself bought the original sport suit
+from an importer who is always in advance with Paris models.
+
+If you cannot buy the designs and workmanship of artists, take advantage
+of all opportunities to see them; hats and gowns shown at openings, or
+when your richer friends are ordering. In this way you will get ideas to
+make use of and you will avoid looking home-made, than which, no more
+damning phrase can be applied to any costume. As a matter of fact it
+implies a hat or gown lacking an artist's touch and describes many a one
+turned out by long-established and largely patronised firms.
+
+
+    PLATE III
+
+    A Greek vase. Dionysiac scenes about 460 B.C.
+    Interesting costumes. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman on Greek Vase_]
+
+
+The only satisfactory copy of a Fortuny tea gown we have ever seen
+accomplished away from the supervision of Fortuny himself, was the
+exquisite hand-work of a young American woman who lives in New York, and
+makes her own gowns and hats, because her interest and talent happen to
+be in that direction. She told a group of friends the other day, to whom
+she was showing a dainty chiffon gown, posed on a form, that to her, the
+planning and making of a lovely costume had the same thrilling
+excitement that the painting of a picture had for the artist in the
+field of paint and canvas. This same young woman has worked constantly
+since the European war began, both in London and New York, on the
+shapeless surgical shirts used by the wounded soldiers. In this, does
+she outrank her less accomplished sisters? Yes, for the technique she
+has achieved by making her own costumes makes her swift and economical,
+both in the cutting of her material and in the actual sewing and she is
+invaluable as a buyer of materials.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN
+
+
+That every costume is either right or wrong is not a matter of general
+knowledge. "It will do," or "It is near enough" are verdicts responsible
+for beauty hidden and interest destroyed. Who has not witnessed the mad
+mental confusion of women and men put to it to decide upon costumes for
+some fancy-dress ball, and the appalling ignorance displayed when, at
+the costumer's, they vaguely grope among battered-looking garments,
+accepting those proffered, not really knowing how the costume they ask
+for should look?
+
+Absurd mistakes in period costumes are to be taken more or less
+seriously according to temperament. But where is the fair woman who will
+say that a failure to emerge from a dressmaker's hands in a successful
+costume is not a tragedy? Yet we know that the average woman, more
+often than not, stands stupefied before the infinite variety of
+materials and colours of our twentieth century, and unless guided by an
+expert, rarely presents the figure, _chez-elle_, or when on view in
+public places, which she would or could, if in possession of the few
+rules underlying all successful dressing, whatever the century or
+circumstances.
+
+Six salient points are to be borne in mind when planning a costume,
+whether for a fancy-dress ball or to be worn as one goes about one's
+daily life:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+First, appropriateness to occasion, station and age;
+
+Second, character of background you are to appear against (your
+setting);
+
+Third, what outline you wish to present to observers (the period of
+costume);
+
+Fourth, what materials of those in use during period selected you will
+choose;
+
+Fifth, what colours of those characteristic of period you will use;
+
+Sixth, the distinction between those details which are obvious
+contributions to the costume, and those which are superfluous, because
+meaningless or line-destroying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us remind our reader that the woman who dresses in perfect taste
+often spends far less money than she who has contracted the habit of
+indefiniteness as to what she wants, what she should want, and how to
+wear what she gets.
+
+Where one woman has used her mind and learned beyond all wavering what
+she can and what she cannot wear, thousands fill the streets by day and
+places of amusement by night, who blithely carry upon their persons
+costumes which hide their good points and accentuate their bad ones.
+
+The _rara avis_ among women is she who always presents a fashionable
+outline, but so subtly adapted to her own type that the impression made
+is one of distinct individuality.
+
+One knows very well how little the average costume counts in a theatre,
+opera house or ball-room. It is a question of background again. Also you
+will observe that the costume which counts most individually, is the one
+in a key higher or lower than the average, as with a voice in a crowded
+room.
+
+The chief contribution of our day to the art of making woman decorative
+is the quality of appropriateness. I refer of course to the woman who
+lives her life in the meshes of civilisation. We have defined the smart
+woman as she who wears the costume best suited to each occasion when
+that occasion presents itself. Accepting this definition, we must all
+agree that beyond question the smartest women, as a nation, are English
+women, who are so fundamentally convinced as to the invincible law of
+appropriateness that from the cradle to the grave, with them evening
+means an evening gown; country clothes are suited to country uses and a
+tea-gown is not a bedroom negligee. Not even in Rome can they be
+prevailed upon "to do as the Romans do."
+
+Apropos of this we recall an experience in Scotland. A house party had
+gathered for the shooting,--English men and women. Among the guests were
+two Americans; done to a turn by Redfern. It really turned out to be a
+tragedy, as they saw it, for though their cloth skirts were short, they
+were silk-lined; outing shirts were of crepe--not flannel; tan boots,
+but thinly soled; hats most chic, but the sort that drooped in a mist.
+Well, those two American girls had to choose between long days alone,
+while the rest tramped the moors, or to being togged out in borrowed
+tweeds, flannel shirts and thick-soled boots.
+
+
+    PLATE IV
+
+    Greek Kylix. Signed by Hieron, about 400 B.C. Athenian. The
+    woman wears one of the gowns Fortuny (Paris) has reproduced
+    as a modern tea gown. It is in two pieces. The characteristic
+    short tunic reaches just below waist line in front and hangs
+    in long, fine pleats (sometimes cascaded folds) under the
+    arms, the ends of which reach below knees. The material is
+    not cut to form sleeves; instead two oblong pieces of
+    material are held together by small fastenings at short
+    intervals, showing upper arm through intervening spaces. The
+    result in appearance is similar to a kimono sleeve.
+    (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Greek Art about 400 B.C._]
+
+
+That was some years back. We are a match for England to-day, in the
+open, but have a long way to go before we wear with equal conviction,
+and therefore easy grace, tea-gown and evening dress. Both _how_ and
+_when_ still annoy us as a nation. On the street we are supreme when
+_tailleur_. In carriage attire the French woman is supreme, by reason of
+that innate Latin coquetry which makes her _feel_ line and its
+significance. The ideal pose for any hat is a French secret.
+
+The average woman is partially aware that if she would be a decorative
+being, she must grasp conclusively two points: first, the limitations of
+her natural outline; secondly, a knowledge of how nearly she can
+approach the outline demanded by fashion without appearing a
+caricature, which is another way of saying that each woman should learn
+to recognise her own type. The discussion of silhouette has become a
+popular theme. In fact it would be difficult to find a maker of women's
+costumes so remote and unread as not to have seized and imbedded deep in
+her vocabulary that mystic word.
+
+To make our points clear, constant reference to the stage is necessary;
+for from stage effects we are one and all free to enjoy and learn.
+Nowhere else can the woman see so clearly presented the value of having
+what she wears harmonise with the room she wears it in, and the occasion
+for which it is worn.
+
+Not all plays depicting contemporary life are plays of social life,
+staged and costumed in a chic manner. What is taught by the modern
+stage, as shown by Bakst, Reinhardt, Barker, Urban, Jones, the
+Portmanteau Theatre and Washington Square Players, is _values_, as the
+artist uses the term--not fashions; the relative importance of
+background, outline, colour, texture of material and how to produce
+harmonious effects by the judicious combination of furnishings and
+costumes.
+
+To-day, when we want to say that a costume or the interior decoration of
+a house is the last word in modern line and colour, we are apt to call
+it a la Bakst, meaning of course Leon Bakst, whose American "poster" was
+the Russian Ballet. If you have not done so already, buy or borrow the
+wonderful Bakst book, showing reproductions in their colours of his
+extraordinary drawings, the originals of which are owned by private
+individuals or museums, in Paris, Petrograd, London, and New York. They
+are _outre_ to a degree, yet each one suggests the whole or parts of
+costumes for modern woman--adorable lines, unbelievable combinations of
+colour! No wonder Poiret, the Paris dressmaker, seized upon Bakst as
+designer (or was it Bakst who seized upon Poiret?).
+
+Bakst got his inspiration in the Orient. As a bit of proof, for your own
+satisfaction, there is a book entitled _Six Monuments of Chinese
+Sculpture_, by Edward Chauvannes, published in 1914, by G. Van Oest &
+Cie., of Brussels and Paris. The author, with a highly commendable
+desire to perpetuate for students a record of the most ancient
+speciments of Chinese sculpture, brought to Paris and sold there, from
+time to time, to art-collectors, from all over the world; selected six
+fine speciments as theme of text and for illustrations.
+
+Plate 23 in this collection shows a woman whose costume in _outline_
+might have been taken from Bakst or even Vogue. But put it the other way
+round: the Vogue artist to-day--we use the word as a generic term--finds
+inspiration through museums and such works as the above. This is
+particularly true as our little handbook goes into print, for the reason
+that the great war between the Central Powers and the Entente has to a
+certain extent checked the invention and material output of Europe, and
+driven designers of and dealers in costumes for women, to China and
+Japan.
+
+Our great-great-grandmothers here in America wore Paris fashions shown
+on the imported fashion dolls and made up in brocades from China, by the
+Colonial mantua makers. So we are but repeating history.
+
+To-day, war, which means horror, ugliness, loss of ideals and illusions,
+holds most of the world in its grasp, and we find creative
+artists--apostles of the Beautiful, seeking the Orient because it is
+remote from the great world struggle. We hear that Edmund Dulac (who has
+shown in a superlative manner, woman decorative, when illustrating the
+_Arabian Nights_ and other well-known books), is planning a flight to
+the Orient. He says that he longs to bury himself far from carnage, in
+the hope of wooing back his muse.
+
+If this subject of background, line and colour, in relation to costuming
+of woman, interests you, there are many ways of getting valuable points.
+One of them, as we have said, is to walk through galleries looking at
+pictures only as decorations; that is, colour and line against the
+painter's background.
+
+Fashions change, in dress, arrangement of hair, jewels, etc., but this
+does not affect values. It is _la ligne_, the grand gesture, or line
+fraught with meaning and balance and harmony of colour.
+
+The reader knows the colour scheme of her own rooms and the character of
+gowns she is planning, and for suggestions as to interesting colour
+against colour, she can have no higher authority than the experience of
+recognised painters. Some develop rapidly in this study of values.
+
+If your rooms are so-called period rooms, you need not of necessity
+dress in period costumes, but what is extremely important, if you would
+not spoil your period room, nor fail to be a decorative contribution
+when in it, is that you make a point of having the colour and texture of
+your house gowns in the same key as the hangings and upholstery of your
+room. White is safe in any room, black is at times too strong. It
+depends in part upon the size of your room. If it is small and in soft
+tones, delicate harmonising shades will not obtrude themselves as black
+can and so reduce the effect of space. This is the case not only with
+black, but with emerald green, decided shades of red, royal blue, and
+purple or deep yellows. If artistic creations, these colours are all
+decorative in a room done in light tones, provided the room is large.
+
+A Louis XVI salon is far more beautiful if the costumes are kept in
+Louis XVI colouring and all details, such as lace, jewelry, fans, etc.,
+kept strictly within the picture; fine in design, delicate in colouring,
+workmanship and quality of material. Beyond these points one may follow
+the outline demanded by the fashion of the moment, if desired. But
+remember that a beautiful, interesting room, furnished with works of
+art, demands a beautiful, interesting costume, if the woman in question
+would sustain the impression made by her rooms, to the arranging of
+which she has given thought, time and vitality, to say nothing of
+financial outlay; she must take her own decorative appearance seriously.
+
+
+    PLATE V
+
+    Example of the pointed head-dress, carefully concealed hair
+    (in certain countries at certain periods of history, a sign
+    of modesty), round necklace and very long close sleeves
+    characteristic of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
+
+    Observe angle at which head-dress is worn.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Gothic Art Portrait showing pointed head-dress_]
+
+
+The writer has passed wonderful hours examining rare illuminated
+manuscripts of the Middle Ages (twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and
+fifteenth centuries), missals, "Hours" of the Virgin, and Breviaries,
+for the sole purpose of studying woman's costumes,--their colour, line
+and details, as depicted by the old artists. Gothic costumes in Gothic
+interiors, and Early Renaissance costumes in Renaissance interiors.
+
+The art of moderns in various media, has taken from these creations of
+mediaeval genius, more than is generally realized. We were looking at a
+rare illuminated Gothic manuscript recently, from which William Morris
+drew inspirations and ideas for the books he made. It is a monumental
+achievement of the twelfth century, a mass book, written and illuminated
+in Flanders; at one time in the possession of a Cistercian monastery,
+but now one of the treasures in the noted private collection made by the
+late J. Pierpont Morgan. The pages are of vellum and the illuminations
+show the figures of saints in jewel-like colours on backgrounds of pure
+gold leaf. The binding of this book,--sides of wood, held together by
+heavy white vellum, hand-tooled with clasps of thin silver, is the work
+of Morris himself and very characteristic of his manner. He patterned
+his hand-made books after these great models, just as he worked years to
+duplicate some wonderful old piece of furniture, realising so well the
+magic which lies in consecrated labour, that labour which takes no
+account of time, nor pay, but is led on by the vision of perfection
+possessing the artist's soul.
+
+We know women who have copied the line, colour and material of costumes
+depicted in Gothic illuminations that they might be in harmony with
+their own Gothic rooms. One woman familiar with this art, has planned a
+frankly modern room, covering her walls with gold Japanese fibre,
+gilding her woodwork and doors, using the brilliant blues, purples and
+greens of the old illuminations in her hangings, upholstery and
+cushions, and as a striking contribution to the decorative scheme,
+costumes herself in white, some soft, clinging material such as crepe de
+chine, liberty satin or chiffon velvet, which take the mediaeval lines,
+in long folds. She wears a silver girdle formed of the hand-made clasps
+of old religious books, and her rings, neck chains and earrings are all
+of hand-wrought silver, with precious stones cut in the ancient way and
+irregularly set. This woman got her idea of the effectiveness of white
+against gold from an ancient missal in a famous private collection,
+which shows the saints all clad in marvellous white against gold leaf.
+
+Whistler's house at 2 Cheyne Road, London, had a room the dado and doors
+of which were done in gold, on which he and two of his pupils painted
+the scattered petals of white and pink chrysanthemums. Possibly a
+Persian or Japanese effect, as Whistler leaned that way, but one sees
+the same idea in an illumination of the early sixteenth century; "Hours"
+of the Virgin and Breviary, made for Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of John
+II. The decorations here are in the style of the Renaissance, not
+Gothic, and some think Memling had a hand in the work. The borders of
+the illumination, characteristic of the Bruges School, are gold leaf on
+which is painted, in the most realistic way, an immense variety of
+single flowers, small roses, pansies, violets, daisies, etc., and among
+them butterflies and insects. This border surrounds the pictures which
+illustrate the text. Always the marvellous colour, the astounding skill
+in laying it on to the vellum pages, an unforgettable lesson in the
+possibility of colour applied effectively to costumes, when background
+is kept in mind. This Breviary was bound in green velvet and clasped
+with hand-wrought silver, for Cardinal Rodrigue de Castro (1520-1600) of
+Spain. It is now in the private collection of Mr. Morgan. The cover
+alone gives one great emotion, genuine ancient velvet of the sixteenth
+century, to imitate which taxes the ingenuity of the most skilful of
+modern manufacturers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE
+
+_A Few Points Applying to All Costumes_
+
+
+Needless to say, when considering woman's costumes, for ordinary use, in
+their relation to background, unless some chameleon-like material be
+invented to take on the colour of _any_ background, one must be content
+with the consideration of one's own rooms, porches, garden, opera-box or
+automobile, etc. For a gown to be worn when away from home, when
+lunching, at receptions or dinners, the first consideration must be
+_becomingness_,--a careful selection of line and colour that bring out
+the individuality of the wearer. When away from one's own setting,
+personality is one of the chief assets of every woman. Remember,
+individuality is nature's gift to each human being. Some are more
+markedly different than others, but we have all seen a so-called
+colourless woman transformed into surprising loveliness when dressed by
+an artist's instinct. A delicate type of blond, with fair hair, quiet
+eyes and faint shell-pink complexion, can be snuffed out by too strong
+colours. Remember that your ethereal blond is invariably at her best in
+white, black (never white and black in combination unless black with
+soft white collars and frills) and delicate pastel shades.
+
+
+    PLATE VI
+
+    Fifteenth-century costume. "Virgin and Child" in painted
+    terra-cotta.
+
+    It is by Andrea Verrocchio, and now in Metropolitan Museum.
+    We have here an illustration of the costume, so often shown
+    on the person of the Virgin in the art of the Middle Ages.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta:
+    The Virgin_]
+
+
+The richly-toned brunette comes into her own in reds, yellows and
+low-tones of strong blue.
+
+Colourless jewels should adorn your perfect blond, colourful gems your
+glowing brunette.
+
+What of those betwixt and between? In such cases let complexion and
+colour of eyes act as guide in the choice of colours.
+
+One is familiar with various trite rules such as match the eyes, carry
+out the general scheme of your colouring, by which is meant, if you are
+a yellow blond, go in for yellows, if your hair is ash-brown, your eyes
+but a shade deeper, and your skin inclined to be lifeless in tone, wear
+beaver browns and content yourself with making a record in _harmony_,
+with no contrasting note.
+
+Just here let us say that the woman in question must at the very outset
+decide whether she would look pretty or chic, sacrificing the one for
+the other, or if she insists upon both, carefully arrange a compromise.
+As for example, combine a semi-picture hat with a semi-tailored dress.
+
+The strictly chic woman of our day goes in for appropriateness; the
+lines of the latest fashion, but adapted to bring out her own best
+points, while concealing her bad ones, and an insistance upon a colour
+and a shade of colour, sufficiently definite to impress the beholder at
+a glance. This type of woman as a rule keeps to a few colours, possibly
+one or two and their varieties, and prefers gowns of one material rather
+than combinations of materials. Though she possess both style and
+beauty, she elects to emphasise style.
+
+In the case of the other woman, who would star her face at the expense
+of her _tout ensemble_, colour is her first consideration,
+multiplication of detail and intelligent expressing of herself in her
+_mise-en-scene_. _Seduisant_, instead of _chic_ is the word for this
+woman.
+
+Your black-haired woman with white skin and dark, brilliant eyes, is the
+one who can best wear emerald green and other strong colours. The now
+fashionable mustard, sage green, and bright magentas are also the
+_affaire_ of this woman with clear skin, brilliant colour and sparkling
+eyes.
+
+These same colours, if subdued, are lovely on the middle-aged woman with
+black hair, quiet eyes and pale complexion, but if her hair is grey or
+white, mustard and sage green are not for her, and the magenta must be
+the deep purplish sort, which combines with her violets and mauves, or
+delicate pinks and faded blues. She will be at her best in shades of
+grey which tone with her hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES
+
+
+Has the reader ever observed the effect of clothes upon manners? It is
+amazing, and only proves how pathetically childlike human nature is.
+
+Put any woman into a Marie Antoinette costume and see how, during an
+evening she will gradually take on the mannerisms of that time. This
+very point was brought up recently in conversation with an artist, who
+in referring to one of the most successful costume balls ever given in
+New York--the crinoline ball at the old Astor House--spoke of how our
+unromantic Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks, ruffled shirts
+and knickerbockers, and as the evening advanced, were quite themselves
+in the minuette and polka, bowing low in solemn rigidity, leading their
+lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist, and swinging
+her beruffled, crinolined form in quite the 1860 manner.
+
+Some women, even girls of tender years, have a natural instinct for
+costuming themselves, so that they contribute in a decorative way to any
+setting which chance makes theirs. Watch children "dressing up" and see
+how among a large number, perhaps not more than one of them will have
+this gift for effects. It will be she who knows at a glance which of the
+available odds and ends she wants for herself, and with a sure, swift
+hand will wrap a bright shawl about her, tie a flaming bit of silk about
+her dark head, and with an assumed manner, born of her garb, cast a
+magic spell over the small band which she leads on, to that which,
+without her intense conviction and their susceptibility to her mental
+attitude toward the masquerade, could never be done.
+
+This illustrates the point we would make as to the effect of clothes
+upon psychology. The actor's costume affects the real actor's psychology
+as much or more than it does that of his audience. He _is_ the man he
+has made himself appear. The writer had the experience of seeing a
+well-known opera singer, when a victim to a bad case of the grippe,
+leave her hotel voiceless, facing a matinee of _Juliet_. Arrived in her
+dressing-room at the opera, she proceeded to change into the costume for
+the first act. Under the spell of her role, that prima donna seemed
+literally to shed her malady with her ordinary garments, and to take on
+health and vitality with her _Juliet_ robes. Even in the Waltz song her
+voice did not betray her, and apparently no critic detected that she was
+indisposed.
+
+In speaking of periods in furniture, we said that their story was one of
+waves of types which repeated themselves, reflecting the ages in which
+they prevailed. With clothes we find it is the same thing: the scarlet,
+and silver and gold of the early Jacobeans, is followed by the drabs and
+greys of the Commonwealth; the marvellous colour of the Church, where
+Beauty was enthroned, was stamped out by the iron will of Cromwell who,
+in setting up his standard of revolt, wrapped soul and body of the new
+Faith in penal shades.
+
+New England was conceived in this spirit and as mind had affected the
+colour of the Puritans' clothes, so in turn the drab clothes, prescribed
+by their new creed, helped to remove colour from the New England mind
+and nature.
+
+
+    PLATE VII
+
+    Fifteenth-century costumes on the Holy Women at the Tomb of
+    our Lord.
+
+    The sculpture relief is enamelled terra-cotta in white,
+    blue, green, yellow and manganese colours. It bears the date
+    1487.
+
+    Note character of head-dresses, arrangement of hair, capes
+    and gowns which are Early Renaissance. (Metropolitan
+    Museum.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Woman in Art of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-Cotta:
+    Holy Women_]
+
+
+But observe how, as prosperity follows privation, the mind expands,
+reaching out for what the changed psychology demands. It is the old
+story of Rome grown rich and gay in mood and dress. There were of
+course, villains in Puritan drab and Grecian white, but the child in
+every man takes symbol for fact. So it is that to-day, some shudder with
+the belief that Beauty, re-enthroned in all her gorgeous modern hues,
+means near disaster. The progressives claim that into the world has come
+a new hope; that beneath our lovely clothes of rainbow tints, and within
+our homes where Beauty surely reigns, a new psychology is born to
+radiate colour from within.
+
+Our advice to the woman not born with clothes sense, is: employ experts
+until you acquire a mental picture of your possibilities and
+limitations, or buy as you can afford to, good French models, under
+expert supervision. You may never turn out to be an artist in the
+treatment of your appearance, instinctively knowing how a prevailing
+fashion in line and colour may be adapted to you, but you can be taught
+what your own type is, what your strong points are, your weak ones, and
+how, while accentuating the former, you may obliterate the latter.
+
+There are two types of women familiar to all of us: the one gains in
+vital charm and abandon of spirit from the consciousness that she is
+faultlessly gowned; the other succumbs to self-consciousness and is
+pitifully unable to extricate her mood from her material trappings.
+
+For the darling of the gods who walks through life on clouds, head up
+and spirit-free, who knows she is perfectly turned out and lets it go at
+that, we have only grateful applause. She it is who carries every
+occasion she graces--indoors, out-of-doors, at home, abroad. May her
+kind be multiplied!
+
+But to the other type, she who droops under her silks and gold tissue,
+whose pearls are chains indeed, we would throw out a lifeline. Submerged
+by clothes, the more she struggles to rise above them the more her
+spirit flags. The case is this: the woman's _mind_ is wrong; her clothes
+are right--lovely as ever seen; her jewels gems; her house and car and
+dog the best. It is her _mind_ that is wrong; it is turned _in_,
+instead of _out_.
+
+Now this intense and soul-, as well as line-destroying
+self-consciousness, may be prenatal, and it may result from the Puritan
+attitude toward beauty; that old New England point of view that the
+beautiful and the vicious are akin. Every young child needs to have
+cultivated a certain degree of self-reliance. To know that one's
+appearance is pleasing, to put it mildly, is of inestimable value when
+it comes to meeting the world. Every child, if normal, has its good
+points--hair, eyes, teeth, complexion or figure; and we all know that
+many a stage beauty has been built up on even two of these attributes.
+Star your good points, clothes will help you. Be a winner in your own
+setting, but avoid the fatal error of damning your clothes by the spirit
+within you.
+
+The writer has in mind a woman of distinguished appearance, beauty,
+great wealth, few cares, wonderful clothes and jewels, palatial homes;
+and yet an envious unrest poisons her soul. She would look differently,
+be different and has not the wisdom to shake off her fetters. Her
+perfect dressing helps this woman; you would not be conscious of her
+otherwise, but with her natural equipment, granted that she concentrated
+upon flashing her spirit instead of her wealth, she would be a leader in
+a fine sense. The Beauty Doctor can do much, but show us one who can put
+a gleam in the eye, tighten the grasp, teach one that ineffable grace
+which enables woman, young or old, to wear her clothes as if an integral
+part of herself. This quality belongs to the woman who knows, though she
+may not have thought it out, that clothes can make one a success, but
+not a success in the enduring sense. Dress is a tyrant if you take it as
+your god, but on the other hand dress becomes a magician's wand when
+dominated by a clever brain. Gown yourself as beautifully as you can
+afford, but with judgment. What we do, and how we do it, is often
+seriously and strangely affected by what we have on. The writer has in
+mind a literary woman who says she can never talk business except in a
+linen collar! Mark Twain, in his last days, insisted that he wrote more
+easily in his night-shirt. Richard Wagner deliberately put on certain
+rich materials in colours and hung his room with them when composing
+the music of The Ring. Chopin says in a letter to a friend: "After
+working at the piano all day, I find that nothing rests me so much as to
+get into the evening dress which I wear on formal occasions." In
+monarchies based on militarism, royal princes, as soon as they can walk,
+are put into military uniforms. It cultivates in them the desired
+military spirit. We all associate certain duties with certain costumes,
+and the extraordinary response to colour is familiar to all. We talk
+about feeling colour and say that we can or cannot live in green, blue,
+violet or red. It is well to follow this colour instinct in clothes as
+well as in furnishing. You will find you are at your best in the colours
+and lines most sympathetic to you.
+
+We know a woman who is an unusual beauty and has distinction, in fact is
+noted for her chic when in white, black or the combination. She once
+ventured a cerise hat and instantly dropped to the ranks of the
+commonplace. Fine eyes, hair, skin, teeth, colour and carriage were
+still hers, but her effectiveness was lessened as that of a pearl might
+be if set in a coral circle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE
+
+
+Woman's line is the result of her costume, in part only. Far more is
+woman's costume affected by her line. By this we mean the line she
+habitually falls into, the pose of torso, the line of her legs in
+action, and when seated, her arms and hands in repose and gesture, the
+poise of her head. It is woman's line resulting from her habit of mind
+and the control which her mind has over her body, a thing quite apart
+from the way God made her, and the expression her body would have had if
+left to itself, ungoverned by a mind stocked with observations,
+conventions, experience and attitudes. We call this the physical
+expression of _woman's personality_; this personality moulds her bodily
+lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes
+she wears; determines also whether she be a decorative object which says
+something in line and colour, or an undecorative object which says
+nothing.
+
+
+    PLATE VIII
+
+    Queen Elizabeth in the absurdly elaborate costume of the
+    late Renaissance. Then crinoline, gaudy materials, and
+    ornamentations without meaning reached their high-water mark
+    in the costuming of women.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Tudor England Portrait of Queen Elizabeth_]
+
+
+Woman to be decorative, should train the carriage of her body from
+childhood, by wearing appropriate clothing for various daily roles.
+There is more in this than at first appears. The criticism by foreigners
+that Americans, both men and women, never appear really at home in
+evening clothes, that they look as if they felt _dressed_, is true of
+the average man and woman of our country and results from the lax
+standards of a new and composite social structure. America as a whole,
+lacks traditions and still embodies the pioneer spirit, equally
+characteristic of Australia and other offshoots from the old world.
+
+The little American girl who is brought up from babyhood to change for
+the evening, even though she have a nursery tea, and be allowed only a
+brief good-night visit to the grown-ups, is still the exception rather
+than the rule. A wee English maiden we know, created a good deal of
+amused comment because, on several occasions, when passing rainy
+afternoons indoors, with some affluent little New York friends, whose
+luxurious nurseries and marvellous mechanical toys were a delight,
+always insisted upon returning home,--a block distant,--to change into
+white before partaking of milk toast and jam, at the nursery table, the
+American children keeping on their pink and blue linens of the
+afternoon. The fact of white or pink is unimportant, but our point is
+made when we have said that the mother of the American children
+constantly remarked on the unconscious grace of the English tot, whether
+in her white muslin and pink ribbons, her riding clothes, or
+accordion-plaited dancing frock. The English woman-child was acquiring
+decorative lines by wearing the correct costume for each occasion, as
+naturally as a bird wears its feathers. This is one way of obviating
+self-consciousness.
+
+The Eton boy masters his stick and topper in the same way, when young,
+and so more easily passes through the formless stage conspicuous in the
+American youth.
+
+Call it technique, or call it efficiency, the object of our modern life
+is to excel, to be the best of our kind, and appropriate dress is a
+means to that end, for it helps to liberate the spirit. We of to-day
+make no claim to consistency or logic. Some of us wear too high heels,
+even with strictly tailored suits, which demand in the name of
+consistency a sensible shoe. Also our sensible skirt may be far too
+narrow for comfort. But on the whole, women have made great strides in
+the matter of costuming with a view to appropriateness and efficiency.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME
+
+
+Colour is the hall-mark of our day, and woman decoratively costumed, and
+as decorator, will be largely responsible for recording this age as one
+of distinct importance--a transition period in decoration.
+
+Colour is the most marked expression of the spirit of the times; colour
+in woman's clothes; colour in house furnishing; colour on the stage and
+in its setting; colour in prose and verse.
+
+Speaking of colour in verse, Rudyard Kipling says (we quote from an
+editorial in the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_, Jan. 7, 1917):
+
+"Several songs written by Tommy and the Poilu at the front, celebrate
+the glories of camp life in such vivid colors they could not be
+reproduced in cold, black, leaden type."
+
+It is no mere chance, this use of vivid colour. Man's psychology to-day
+craves it. A revolution is on. Did not the strong red, green, and blue
+of Napoleon's time follow the delicate sky-blues, rose and
+sunset-yellows of the Louis?
+
+Colour pulses on every side, strong, clean, clear rainbow colour, as if
+our magicians of brush and dye-pot held a prism to the sun-beam; violet,
+orange and green, magentas and strong blue against backgrounds of black
+and cold grey.
+
+We had come to think of colour as vice and had grown so conservative in
+its use, that it had all but disappeared from our persons, our homes,
+our gardens, our music and our literature. More than this, from our
+point of view! The reaction was bound to come by reason of eternal
+precedent.
+
+Half-tones, antique effects, and general monotony,--the material
+expression of complacent minds, has been cast aside, and the blase man
+of ten years ago is as keen as any child with his first linen picture
+book,--and for the same reason.
+
+Colour, as we see it to-day, came out of the East via Persia. Bakst in
+Russia translated it into terms of art, and made the Ballet Russe an
+amazing, enthralling vision! Then Poiret, wizard among French
+couturieres, assisted by Bakst, adapted this Oriental colour and line to
+woman's uses in private life. This supplemented the good work of _le
+Gazette du Bon Ton_ of Paris, that effete fashion sheet, devoted to the
+decoration of woman, whose staff included many of the most gifted French
+artists, masters of brush and pen. Always irregular, no issue of the
+_Bon Ton_ has appeared of late. It is held up by the war. The men who
+made it so fascinating a guide to woman "who would be decorative," are
+at the front, painting scenery for the battlefield--literally that:
+making mock trees and rocks, grass and hedges and earth, to mislead the
+fire of the enemy, and doubtless the kindred Munich art has been
+diverted into similar channels.
+
+This Oriental colour has made its way across Europe like some gorgeous
+bird of the tropics, and since the war has checked the output of
+Europe's factories, another channel has supplied the same wonderful
+colours in silks and gauze. They come to us by way of the Pacific, from
+China and from Japan. There is no escaping the colour spell. Writers
+from the front tell us that it is as if the gods made sport with fate's
+anvil, for even the blackened dome of the war zone is lurid by night,
+with sparks of purple, red, green, yellow and blue; the flare of the
+world-destroying projectiles.
+
+
+    PLATE IX
+
+    A Velasquez portrait of the Renaissance, when the human
+    form counted only as a rack on which was heaped crinoline
+    and stiff brocades and chains and gems and wigs and every
+    manner of elaborate adornment, making mountains of poor
+    tottering human forms, all but lost beneath.
+
+    [Illustration: _Vienna Hofmuseum_
+    _Spain-Velasquez Portrait_]
+
+
+The present costuming of woman, when she treats herself as decoration,
+owes much to the prophets of the "new" theatre and their colour scale.
+These men have demonstrated, in an unforgettable manner, the value of
+colour; the dependence of every decorative object upon background; shown
+how fraught with meaning can be an uncompromising outline, and the
+suggestiveness of really significant detail.
+
+Bakst, Rheinhardt and Granville Barker have taught us the new colour
+vocabulary. Gordon Craig was perhaps the first to show us the stage made
+suggestive by insisting on the importance of clever lighting to produce
+atmosphere and elimination of unessential objects, the argument of his
+school being that the too detailed reproducing of Nature (on the stage)
+acts as a check to the imagination, whereas by the judicious selection
+of harmonics, the imagination is stimulated to its utmost creative
+capacity. One detects this creed to-day in certain styles of home
+decoration (woman's background), as well as in woman's costumes.
+
+
+_Portable Backgrounds_
+
+The staging of a recent play showed more plainly than any words, the
+importance of background. In one of the scenes, beautiful, artistic
+gowns in delicate shades were set off by a room with wonderful green
+walls and woodwork (mignonette). Now, so long as the characters moved
+about the room, they were thrown into relief most charmingly, but the
+moment the women seated themselves on a very light coloured and
+characterless chintz sofa, they lost their decorative value. It was
+lacking in harmony and contrast. The two black sofa cushions intended
+possibly to serve as background, being small, instantly disappeared
+behind the seated women.
+
+A sofa of contrasting colour, or black, would have looked better in the
+room, and served as immediate background for gowns. It might have been
+covered in dark chintz, a silk damask in one or several tones, or a
+solid colour, since the gowns were of delicate indefinite shades.
+
+One of the sofas did have a dark Chinese coat thrown over the back, with
+the intent, no doubt, of serving as effective background, but the point
+seemed to escape the daintily gowned young woman who poured tea, for she
+failed to take advantage of it, occupying the opposite end of the sofa.
+A modern addition to a woman's toilet is a large square of chiffon,
+edged with narrow metal or crystal fringe, or a gold or silver flexible
+cord. This scarf is always in beguiling contrast to the costume, and
+when not being worn, is thrown over the chair or end of sofa against
+which our lady reclines. To a certain degree, this portable background
+makes a woman decorative when the wrong colour on a chair might convert
+her lovely gown into an eyesore.
+
+One woman we know, who has an Empire room, admires the lines of her sofa
+as furniture, but feels it ineffective unless one reclines a la Mme.
+Recamier. To obviate this difficulty, she has had made a square (one and
+a half yards), of lovely soft mauve silk damask, lined with satin
+charmeuse of the same shade, and weighted by long, heavy tassels, at the
+corners; this she throws over the Empire roll and a part of the seat,
+which are done in antique green velvet. Now the woman seated for
+conversation with arm and elbow resting on the head, looks at ease,--a
+part of the composition. The square of soft, lined silk serves at other
+times as a couvrepied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+FOOTWEAR
+
+
+Footwear points the costume; every child should be taught this.
+
+Give most careful attention to your extremities,--shoes, gloves and
+hats. The genius of fashion's greatest artist counts for naught if his
+costume may not include hat, gloves, shoes, and we would add, umbrella,
+parasol, stick, fan, jewels; in fact every detail.
+
+If you have the good sense to go to one who deservedly ranks as an
+authority on line and colour in woman's costume, have also the wisdom to
+get from this man or woman not merely your raiment; go farther, and
+grasp as far as you are able the principles underlying his or her
+creations. Common sense tells one that there must be principles which
+underlie the planning of every hat and gown,--serious reasons why
+certain lines, colours and details are employed.
+
+Principles have evolved and clarified themselves in the long journey
+which textiles, colours and lines have made, travelling down through the
+ages. A great cathedral, a beautiful house, a perfect piece of
+furniture, a portrait by a master, sculpture which is an object of art,
+a costume proclaimed as a success; all are the results of knowing and
+following laws. The clever woman of slender means may rival her friends
+with munition incomes, if only she will go to an expert with open mind,
+and through the thoughtful purchase of a completed costume,--hat, gown
+and all accessories,--learn an artist-modiste's point of view. Then, and
+we would put it in italics; _take seriously, with conviction, all his or
+her instructions as to the way to wear your clothes_. Anyone can _buy_
+costumes, many can, perhaps own far more than you, but it is quite
+possible that no one can more surely be a picture--a delightfully
+decorative object on every occasion, than you, who knows instinctively
+(or has been taught), beyond all shadow of doubt, how to put on and then
+how to sit or walk in, your one tailored suit, your one tea gown, your
+one sport suit or ball gown.
+
+
+    PLATE X
+
+    An ideal example of the typical costume of fashionable
+    England in the eighteenth century, when picturesqueness, not
+    appropriateness, was the demand of the times.
+
+    This picture is known as THE MORNING PROMENADE: SQUIRE
+    HALLET WITH HIS LADY. Painted by Thomas Gainsborough
+    and now in the private collection of Lord Rothschild,
+    London.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Braun & Co., New York, London & Paris_
+    _Eighteenth Century England Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough_]
+
+
+If you want to wear light spats, stop and think whether your heavy
+ankles will not look more trim in boots with light, glove-fitting tops
+and black vamps.
+
+We have seen women with such slender ankles and shapely insteps, that
+white slippers or low shoes might be worn with black or coloured
+stockings. But it is playing safe to have your stockings match your
+slippers or shoes.
+
+Buckles and bows on slippers and pumps can destroy the line of a shoe
+and hence a foot, or continue and accentuate line. There are fashions in
+buckles and bows, but unless you bend the fashion until it allows
+nature's work to appear at its best, it will destroy artistic intention.
+
+Some people buy footwear as they buy fruit; they like what they see, so
+they get it! You know so many women, young and old, who do this, that
+our advice is, try to recall those who do not. Yes, now you see what we
+aim at; the women you have in mind always continue the line of their
+gowns with their feet. You can see with your mind's eye how the slender
+black satin slippers, one of which always protrudes from the black
+evening gown, carry to its eloquent finish the line from her head
+through torso, hip to knee, and knee down through instep to toe,--a line
+so frequently obstructed by senseless trimmings, lineless hats, and
+footwear wrong in colour and line.
+
+If your gown is white and your object to create line, can you see how
+you defeat your purpose by wearing anything but white slippers or shoes?
+
+At a recent dinner one of the young women who had sufficient good taste
+to wear an exquisite gown of silk and silver gauze, showing a pale
+magenta ground with silver roses, continued the colour scheme of her
+designer with silver slippers, tapering as Cinderella's, but spoiled the
+picture she might have made by breaking her line and enlarging her
+ankles and instep with magenta stockings. This could have been avoided
+by the use of silver stockings or magenta slippers with magenta
+stockings.
+
+When brocades, in several colours, are chosen for slippers, keep in mind
+that the ground of the silk must absolutely match your costume. It is
+not enough that in the figure of brocade is the colour of the dress.
+Because so distorting to line, figured silks and coloured brocades for
+footwear are seldom a wise choice.
+
+To those who cannot own a match in slippers for each gown, we would
+suggest that the number of colours used in gowns be but few, getting the
+desired variety by varying shades of a colour, and then using slippers a
+trifle higher in shade than the general colour selected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JEWELRY AS DECORATION
+
+
+The use of jewelry as colour and line has really nothing to do with its
+intrinsic worth. Just as when furnishing a house, one selects pictures
+for certain rooms with regard to their decorative quality alone, their
+colour with relation to the colour scheme of the room (The Art of
+Interior Decoration), so jewels should be selected either to complete
+costumes, or to give the keynote upon which a costume is built. A woman
+whose artist-dressmaker turns out for her a marvellous green gown, would
+far better carry out the colour scheme with some semi-precious stones
+than insist upon wearing her priceless rubies.
+
+On the other hand, granted one owns rubies and they are becoming, then
+plan a gown entirely with reference to them, noting not merely the shade
+of their colour, but the character of their setting, should it be
+distinctive.
+
+One of the most picturesque public events in Vienna each year, is a
+bazaar held for the benefit of a charity under court patronage. To draw
+the crowds and induce them to give up their money, it has always been
+the custom to advertise widely that the ladies of the Austro-Hungarian
+court would conduct the sale of articles at the various booths and that
+the said noble ladies would wear their family jewels. Also, that there
+be no danger of confusing the various celebrities, the names of those
+selling at each booth would be posted in plain lettering over it.
+Programmes are sold, which also inform patrons as to the name and
+station of each lovely vendor of flowers and sweets. It is an
+extraordinary occasion, and well worth witnessing once. The jewels worn
+are as amazing and fascinating as is Hungarian music. There is a
+barbaric sumptuousness about them, an elemental quality conveyed by the
+Oriental combining of stones, which to the western European and
+American, seem incongruous. Enormous pearls, regular and irregular, are
+set together in company with huge sapphires, emeralds, rubies and
+diamonds, cut in the antique way. Looking about, one feels in an
+Arabian Nights' dream. On the particular occasion to which we refer, the
+most beautiful woman present was the Princess Metternich, and in her
+jewels decorative as any woman ever seen.
+
+The women of the Austrian court, especially the Hungarian women, are
+notably beautiful and fascinating as well. It is the Magyar elan, that
+abandon which prompts a woman to toss her jewelled bangle to a Gypsy
+leader of the orchestra, when his violin moans and flashes out a
+czardas.
+
+But the rule remains the same whether your jewels are inherited and rich
+in souvenirs of European courts, or the last work of Cartier. They must
+be a harmonious part of a carefully designed costume, or used with
+discretion against a background of costumes planned with reference to
+making them count as the sole decoration.
+
+We recall a Spanish beauty, representative of several noble strains, who
+was an artist in the combining of her gems as to their class and colour.
+Hers was that rare gift,--infallible good taste, which led her to
+contribute an individual quality to her temporary possessions. She
+counted in Madrid, not only as a beautiful and brilliant woman, but as a
+decorative contribution to any room she entered. It was not uncommon to
+meet her at dinner, wearing some very chic blue gown, often of velvet,
+the sole decoration of which would be her sapphires, stones rare in
+themselves, famous for their colour, their matching, the manner in which
+they were cut, and their setting,--the unique hand-work of some
+goldsmith of genius. It is impossible to forget her distinguished
+appearance as she entered the room in a princess gown, made to show the
+outline of her faultless figure, and cut very low. Against the
+background of her white neck and the simple lines of her blue gown, the
+sapphires became decoration with artistic restraint, though they gleamed
+from a coronet in her soft, black hair, encircled her neck many times
+and fell below her waist line, clasped her arms and were suspended from
+her ears in long, graceful pendants. They adorned her fingers and they
+composed a girdle of indescribable beauty.
+
+
+    PLATE XI
+
+    MARIE ANTOINETTE IN A PORTRAIT BY MADAME VIGEE LE
+    BRUN, one of the greatest portrait painters of the
+    eighteenth century. Here we see the lovely queen of Louis
+    XVI in the type of costume she made her own which is still
+    referred to as the Marie Antoinette style.
+
+    This portrait is in the Musee National, Versailles.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Braun & Co., New York, London & Paris_
+    _Bourbon France Marie Antoinette Portrait by Madame Vigee Le Brun_]
+
+
+Later, the same night, one would meet this woman at a ball, and
+discover that she had made a complete change of costume and was as
+elegant as before, but now all in red, a gown of deep red velvet or some
+wonderful soft satin, unadorned save by her rubies, as numerous and as
+unique as her sapphires had been.
+
+There were other women in Madrid wearing wonderful jewels, one of them
+when going to court functions always had a carriage follow hers, in
+which were detectives. How strange this seems to Americans! But this
+particular woman in no way illustrated the point we would make, for she
+had lost control of her own lines, had no knowledge of line and colour
+in costume, and when wearing her jewels, looked very much like the show
+case of a jeweller's shop.
+
+Jewelry must be worn to make lines, continue or terminate lines,
+accentuate a good physical point, or hide a bad one. Remember that a
+jewel like any other _object d'art_, is an ornament, and unless it is
+ornamental, and an added attraction to the wearer, it is valueless in a
+decorative way. For this reason it is well to discover, by
+experimenting, what jewelry is your affair, what kind of rings for
+example, are best suited to your kind of hands. It may be that small
+rings of delicate workmanship, set with colourless gems, will suit your
+hands; while your friend will look better in the larger, heavier sort,
+set with stones of deeper tones.
+
+This finding out what one can and cannot wear, from shoe leather to a
+feather in the hat (and the inventory includes even width of hem on a
+linen handkerchief), is by no means a frivolous, fruitless waste of
+time; it is a wise preparedness, which in the end saves time, vitality
+and money. And if it does not make one independent of expert advice (and
+why should one expect to be that, since technique in any art should
+improve with practice?) it certainly prepares one to grasp and make use
+of, expert suggestions.
+
+We have often been told, and by those whose business it is to know such
+things, that the models created by great Paris dressmakers are not
+always flashes of genius which come in the night, nor the wilful
+perversion of an existing fashion, to force the world of women into
+discarding, and buying everything new. It may look suspiciously like it
+when we see a mere swing of the pendulum carrying the straight sheath
+out to the ten-yard limit of crinoline skirts.
+
+As a matter of fact, decorative woman rules the fashions, and if
+decorative woman makes up her mind to retain a line or a limit, she does
+it. The open secret is that every great Paris house has its chic
+clientele, which in returning from the Riviera--Europe's Peacock
+Alley--is full of knowledge as to how the last fashions (line and
+colour), succeeded in scoring in the role designated. Those points found
+to be desirable, becoming, beautiful, comfortable, appropriate,
+_seduisant_--what you will--are taken as the foundation of the next
+wardrobe order, and with this inside information from women who _know_
+(know the subtle distinction between daring lines and colours, which are
+_good form_, and those which are not), the men or women who give their
+lives to creating costumes proceed to build. These are the fashions for
+the exclusive few this year, for the whole world the next year.
+
+In conclusion, to reduce one of the rules as to how jewels should be
+worn to its simplest form, never use imitation pearl trimming if you are
+wearing a necklace and other ornaments of real pearls. The pearl
+trimming may be very charming in itself, but it lessens the distinction
+of your real pearls.
+
+In the same way rhinestones may be decidedly decorative, but only a
+woman with an artist's instinct can use her diamonds at the same time.
+It can be done, by keeping the rhinestones off the bodice. An artist can
+conceive and work out a perfect adjustment of what in the mind and hand
+of the inexperienced is not to be attempted. Your French dressmaker
+combines real and imitation laces in a fascinating manner. That same
+artist's instinct could trim a gown with emerald pastes and hang real
+gems of the same in the ears, using brooch and chain, but you would find
+the green glass garniture swept from the proximity of the gems and used
+in some telling manner to score as _trimming_,--not to compete as
+jewels. We have seen the skirt of French gowns of black tulle or net,
+caught up with great rhinestone swans, and at the same time a diamond
+chain and diamond earrings worn. Nothing could have been more chic.
+
+We recall another case of the discreet combining of gems and paste. It
+was at the Spring races, Longchamps, Paris. The decorative woman we have
+never forgotten, had marvellous gold-red hair, wore a costume of golden
+brown chiffon, a close toque (to show her hair) of brown; long topaz
+drops hung from her ears, set in hand-wrought Etruscan gold, and her
+shell lorgnettes hung from a topaz chain. Now note that on her toque and
+her girdle were buckles made of topaz glass, obviously not real topaz
+and because made to look like milliner's garniture and not jeweler's
+work, they had great style and were as beautiful of their kind as the
+real stones.
+
+
+    PLATE XII
+
+    The portrait of an Englishwoman painted during the
+    Napoleonic period.
+
+    She wears the typical Empire gown, cloak, and bonnet.
+
+    The original of this portrait is the same referred to
+    elsewhere as having moistened her muslin gowns to make them
+    cling to her, in Grecian folds.
+
+    Among her admiring friends was Lord Byron.
+
+    A descendant who allows the use of the charming portrait,
+    explains that the fair lady insisted upon being painted in
+    her bonnet because her curling locks were short--a result of
+    typhoid fever.
+
+    [Illustration: _Costume of Empire Period
+    An English Portrait_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR
+
+
+By the way, do you know that boudoir originally meant pouting room, a
+place where the ceremonious grande dame of the Louis might relax and
+express a ruffled mood, if she would? Which only serves to prove that
+even the definition of words alter with fashion, for we imagine that our
+supinely relaxed modern beauty, of the country club type, has on the
+whole more self-control than she of the boudoir age.
+
+Since a boudoir is of all rooms the most personal, we take it for
+granted that its decoration is eloquent with the individuality and taste
+of its owner. Walls, floors, woodwork, upholstery, hangings, cushions
+and _objects d'art_ furnish the colour for my lady's background, and
+will naturally be a scheme calculated to set off her own particular
+type. Here we find woman easily made decorative in negligee or tea gown,
+and it makes no difference whether fashion is for voluminous, flowing
+robes, ruffled and covered with ribbons and lace, or the other extreme,
+those creations of Fortuny, which cling to the form in long crinkled
+lines and shimmer like the skin of a snake. The Fortuny in question, son
+of the great Spanish painter, devotes his time to the designing of the
+most artistic and unique tea gowns offered to modern woman. We first saw
+his work in 1910 at his Paris atelier. His gowns, then popular with
+French women, were made in Venice, where M. Fortuny was at that time
+employing some five hundred women to carry out his ideas as to the
+dyeing of thin silks, the making and colouring of beads used as
+garniture, and the stenciling of designs in gold, silver or colour. The
+lines are Grecian and a woman in her Fortuny tea gown suggests a Tanagra
+figure, whether she goes in for the finely pleated sort, kept tightly
+twisted and coiled when not in use, to preserve the distinguishing fine
+pleats, or one with smooth surface and stenciled designs. These Fortuny
+tea gowns slip over the head with no opening but the neck, with its silk
+shirring cord by means of which it can be made high or low, at will;
+they come in black, gold and the tones of old Venetian dyes. One could
+use a dozen of them and be a picture each time, in any setting, though
+for the epicure they are at their best when chosen with relation to a
+special background. The black Fortunys are extraordinarily chic and look
+well when worn with long Oriental earrings and neck chains of links or
+beads, which reach--at least one strand of them--half-way to the knees.
+
+The distinction which this long line of a chain or string of pearls
+gives to the figure of any woman is a point to dwell upon. Real pearls
+are desirable, even if one must begin with a short necklace; but where
+it can be afforded, woman cannot be urged too strongly to wear a string
+extending as near to and as much below the waist-line as possible. A
+long string of pearls gives great elegance, whether wearer is standing
+or seated. You can use your short string of pearls, too, but whatever
+your figure is, if you are not a young girl it will be improved by the
+long line, and if you would be decorative above everything, we insist
+that a long chain or string of less intrinsic value is preferable to one
+of meaningless length and priceless worth. Very young girls look best
+in short necklaces; women whose throats are getting lined should take to
+jeweled dog-collars, in addition to their strings of pearls or diamond
+chains. The woman with firm throat and perfect neck was made for pearls.
+For those less blessed there are lovely things too, jewels to match
+their eyes, or to tone in with skin or hair; settings to carry out the
+line of profile, rings to illuminate the swift gesture or nestle into
+the soft, white, dimpled hand of inertia. Every type has its charm and
+followers, but we still say, avoid emphasising your lack of certain
+points by wearing unsuitable costumes and accessories, and by so doing
+lose the chance of being decorative.
+
+Sibyl Sanderson, the American prima donna, whose career was in Paris,
+was the most irresistibly lovely vision ever seen in a tea gown. She was
+past-mistress at the art of making herself decorative, and the writer
+recalls her as she last saw her in a Doucet model of chiffon, one layer
+over another of flesh, palest pink and pinkish mauve that melted into
+the creamy tones of her perfect neck and arms.
+
+Sibyl Sanderson was lovely as nature turned her out, but Paris taught
+her the value of that other beauty, the beauty which comes of art and
+attained like all art, only through conscious effort. An artistic
+appearance once meant letting nature have its way. It has come to mean,
+nature directed and controlled by Art, and while we do not resort to the
+artificiality (in this moment) of hoops, crinoline, pyramids of false
+hair, monstrous head-dresses, laced waists, low neck and short sleeves
+for all hours and all seasons, paper-soled shoes in snow-drifts, etc.,
+we do insist that woman be _bien soine_--hair, complexion, hands, feet,
+figure, perfection _par tout_.
+
+Woman's costumes, her jewels and all accessories complete her decorative
+effect, but even in the age of powder and patches, hair oil and wigs, no
+more time nor greater care was given to her grooming, and what we say
+applies to the average woman of affairs and not merely to the parasite
+type.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER SUN-ROOM
+
+
+A sun-room as the name implies, is a room planned to admit as much sun
+as is possible. An easy way to get the greatest amount of light and sun
+is to enclose a steam heated porch with glass which may be removed at
+will. Sometimes part of a conservatory is turned into a sun-room,
+awnings, rugs, chairs, tables, couches, making it a fascinating lounge
+or breakfast room, useful, too, at the tea hour. Often when building a
+house a room on the sunny side is given one, two, or three glass sides.
+To trick the senses, ferns and flowering plants, birds and fountains are
+used as decorations, suggesting out-of-doors.
+
+
+    PLATE XIII
+
+    Portrait by Gilbert Stuart of Dona Matilda, Stoughton de
+    Jaudenes. (Metropolitan Museum.)
+
+    We use this portrait to illustrate the period when woman's
+    line was obliterated by the excessive decoration of her
+    costume.
+
+    The interest attached to this charming example of her time
+    lies in colour and detail. It is as if the bewitching Dona
+    Matilda were holding up her clothes with her person. Her
+    outline is that of a ruffled canary. How difficult for her
+    to forget her material trappings, when they are so many, and
+    yet she looks light of heart.
+
+    For sharp contrast we suggest that our reader turn at once
+    to the portrait by Sargent (Plate XV) which is distinguished
+    for its clean-cut outline and also the distinction arrived
+    at through elimination of detail in the way of trimming. The
+    costume hangs on the woman, suspended by jewelled chains
+    from her shoulders.
+
+    The Sargent has the simplicity of the Classic Greek; the
+    Gilbert Stuart portrait, the amusing fascination of Marie
+    Antoinette detail.
+
+    The gown is white satin, with small gold flowers scattered
+    over its surface. The head-dress surmounting the powdered
+    hair is of white satin with seed-pearl ornaments.
+
+    The background is a dead-rose velvet curtain, draped to show
+    blue sky, veiled by clouds. The same dead-rose on table and
+    chair covering. The book on table has a softly toned calf
+    cover. Gilbert Stuart was fond of working in this particular
+    colour note.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Eighteenth Century Costume Portrait by Gilbert Stewart_]
+
+
+The woman who would add to the charm of her sun-room in Winter by
+keeping up the illusion of Summer, will wear Summer clothes when in it,
+that is, the same gowns, hats and footwear which she would select for a
+warm climate. To be exquisite, if you are young or youngish, well and
+active, you would naturally appear in the sun-room after eleven, in some
+sheer material of a delicate tint, made walking length, with any
+graceful Summer hat which is becoming, and either harmonises with colour
+of gown or is an agreeable contrast to it. By graceful hat we mean a hat
+suggesting repose, not the close, tailored hat of action. One woman we
+know always uses her last Summer's muslins and wash silks, shoes,
+slippers and hats in her sun-room during the Winter. In her wardrobe
+there are invariably a lot of sheer muslins, voiles and wash silks in
+white, mauve, greys, pinks, or delicate stripes, the outline following
+the fashion, voluminous, straight or clinging, the bodice tight with
+trimmings inset or full, beruffled, or kerchiefed. Her hats are always
+entirely black or entirely white, in type the variety we know as
+_picturesque_, made very light in weight and with no thought of
+withstanding the elements. The woman who knows how, can get the effect
+of a picture hat with very little outlay of money. It is a matter of
+line when on the head, that look of lightness and general airiness which
+gives one the feeling that the wearer has just blown in from the lawn!
+The artist's hand can place a few simple loops of ribbon on a hat, and
+have success, while a stupid arrangement of costly feathers or flowers
+may result in failure. The effect of movement got by certain line
+manipulation, suggesting arrested motion, is of inestimable value,
+especially when your hat is one with any considerable width of brim. The
+hat with movement is like a free-hand sketch, a hat without movement
+like a decalcomania.
+
+If the owner of the sun-room is resting or invalided then away with
+out-of-door costume. For her a tea-gown and satin slippers are in order,
+as they would be under similar conditions on her furnished porch.
+
+If the mistress of the sun-room is young and athletic, one who never
+goes in for frou-frous, but wears linen skirts and blouses when pouring
+tea for her friends, let her be true to her type in the sun-room, but
+always emphasising immaculate daintiness, rather than the
+ready-for-sport note. A sheer blouse and French heels on white pumps
+will transpose the plain linen skirt into the key of picturesque
+relaxation, the hall-mark of sun-rooms. More than any other room in the
+house, the sun-room is for drifting. One cannot imagine writing a cheque
+there, or going over one's monthly accounts.
+
+We assume that the colour scheme in the sun-room was dictated by the
+owner and is therefore sympathetic to her. If this be true, we can go
+farther and assume that the delicate tones of her porch gowns and tea
+gowns will harmonise. If her sun-room is done in yellows and orange and
+greens, nothing will look better than cream-white as a costume. If the
+walls, woodwork and furniture have been kept very light in tone, relying
+on the rugs and cushions and dark foliage of plants to give character,
+then a costume of sheer material in any one of the decided colours in
+the chintz cushions, will be a welcome contribution to the decoration of
+the sun-room. Additional effect can be given a costume by the clever
+choice of colour and line in a work-bag.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+I. WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER GARDEN
+
+
+In your garden, if you would count as decoration, keep to white or one
+colour; the flowers furnish a variegated background against which your
+costume of colour, grey or white stands out. The great point is that
+your outline be one with pictorial value, from the artist's point of
+view. If merely strolling through your garden to admire it, keeping to
+the well-made paths, a fragile gown of sheer material and dainty shoes,
+with perishable hat or fragile sunshade, is in order. But if yours is
+the task to gather flowers, then wear stout linen or pretty, bright
+ginghams, good to the eye and easily laundered, while resisting the
+briars and branches.
+
+Smocks, those loose over-all garments of soft-toned linens, reaching
+from neck half-way to the knees and unbelted, are ideal for garden work,
+and to the young and slender, add a distinct charm, for one catches the
+movement of the lithe form beneath.
+
+You can be decorative in your garden in a large enveloping apron of
+gingham, if you are wise in choosing a colour which becomes you. One
+lover of flowers, who has an instinct for fitness and colour, may be
+seen on a Summer morning, trimming her porch-boxes in snowy
+white,--shoes and all,--over which she wears a big, encircling apron,
+extending from neck to skirt hem; deep pockets cross the entire front,
+convenient for clippers, scissors and twine. This apron is low-necked
+with shoulder straps and no sleeves. The woman in question is tall and
+fair, and on her soft curling hair she wears sun hats of peanut straw,
+the edges sewn over and over with wool to match her gingham apron, which
+is a solid pink, pale green or lavender.
+
+Dark women look uncommonly well in khaki colour, and so do some blonds.
+Here is a shade decorative against vegetation and serviceable above all.
+
+Garden costumes for actual work vary according to individual taste and
+the amount and character of the gardening indulged in.
+
+Lady de Bathe (Mrs. Langtry) owns one of the most charming gardens in
+England, though not as famous as some. It is attached to Regal Lodge,
+her place at Newmarket. The Blue Walk is something to remember, with its
+walls of blue lavender flanking the blue paving stones, between the
+cracks of which lovely bluebells and larkspur spring up in irrelevant,
+poetic license.
+
+Lady de Bathe digs and climbs and clips and gathers, therefore she wears
+easily laundered garments; a white linen or cotton skirt and blouse, a
+Chinese coat to the knees, of pink cotton crepe and an Isle-of-Jersey
+sun-bonnet, a poke with curtain, to protect the neck and strings to tie
+it on. So while she claims never to have consciously considered being a
+decorative note in her own garden, her trained instinct for costuming
+herself appropriately and becomingly brings about the desirable
+decorative effect.
+
+
+    PLATE XIV
+
+    Madame Adeline Genee, the greatest living exponent of the
+    art of toe dancing. She wears an early Victorian costume
+    (1840) made for a ballet she danced in London several
+    seasons ago. The writer did not see the costume and
+    neglected, until too late, to ask Madame Genee for a
+    description of its colouring, but judging by what we know of
+    1840 colours and textures as described by Miss McClellan
+    (_Historic Dress in America_) and other historians of the
+    period as well as from portraits, we feel safe in stating
+    that it may well have been a bonnet of pink uncut velvet,
+    trimmed with silk fringe and a band of braided velvet of the
+    same colour; or perhaps a white shirred satin; or
+    dove-coloured satin with pale pink and green figured ribbon.
+    For the dress, it may have been of dove-grey satin, or pink
+    flowered silk with a black taffeta cape and one of black
+    lace to change off with.
+
+    [Illustration: _Victorian Period about 1840_
+    _Mme. Adeline Genee in Costume_]
+
+
+II. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE LAWN
+
+When on your lawn with the unbroken sweep of green under foot and the
+background of shrubs and trees, be a flower or a bunch of flowers in the
+colour of your costume. White,--hat, shoes and all, cannot be excelled,
+but colour has charm of another sort, and turning the pages of memory,
+one realises that not a shade or artistic combination but has scored, if
+the outline is chic. Since both outline and colour scheme vary with
+fashion we use the word chic or smart to imply that quality in a costume
+which is the result of restraint in the handling of line, colour and all
+details, whatever the period.
+
+A chic outline is very telling on the lawn; gown or hat must be
+appropriate to the occasion, becoming to the wearer, its lines following
+the fashion, yet adapted to type, and the colour, one sympathetic to the
+wearer. The trimming must accentuate the distinctive type of the gown or
+hat instead of blotting out the lines by an overabundance of garniture.
+The trimming must follow the constructive lines of gown, or have
+meaning. A buckle must buckle something, buttons must be used where
+there is at least some semblance of an opening. Let us repeat: To be
+chic, the trimming of a hat or gown must have a _raison d'etre_. When in
+doubt omit trimming. As in interior decoration, too much detail often
+defeats the original idea of a costume. An observing woman knows that
+few of her kind understand the value of restraint. When turned out by an
+artist, most women recognise when they look their best, but how to
+achieve it alone, is beyond them. This sort of knowledge comes from
+carefully and constantly comparing the gown which is a success with
+those which are failures.
+
+Elimination characterises the smart costume or hat, and the smart
+designer is he or she who can make one flower, one feather, one bow of
+ribbon, band of fur, bit of real lace or hand embroidery, say a distinct
+something.
+
+It is the decorative value gained by the judicious placing of one object
+so that line and colour count to the full. As we have said in _Interior
+Decoration_, one pink rose in a slender Venetian glass vase against a
+green silk curtain may have far more decorative value than dozens of
+costly roses used without knowledge of line and background. So it is
+with ornaments on wearing apparel.
+
+
+III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH
+
+With a background of grey sand, steel-blue water and more or less blue
+sky, woman is given a tempting opportunity to figure as colour when by
+the sea. That it is gay colour or white which makes decorative effects
+on the beach, even the least knowing realise. _Plein air_ artists have
+stamped on our mental visions impressions of smart society disporting
+itself on the sands of Dieppe, Trouville, Brighton, and where not.
+Whatever the period, hence outline, white and the gay colours impress
+one. Most conspicuous is white on woman (and man); then each colour in
+the rainbow with its half-tones, figures as sweaters, veils, hats and
+parasols; the striped marquise and gay wares of the venders of nosegays,
+balloons and lollypops. The artist picks out the telling notes when
+painting, learn from him and figure as one of these.
+
+On the beach avoid being a dull note; dead greys and browns have no
+charm there.
+
+What is true of costuming for the beach applies equally to costumes to
+be worn on the deck of a steamer or yacht.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WOMAN AS DECORATION WHEN SKATING
+
+
+To be decorative when skating, two things are necessary: first, know how
+to skate; then see to it that you are costumed with reference to
+appropriateness, becomingness and the outline demanded by the fashion of
+the moment.
+
+The woman who excels in the technique of her art does not always excel
+in dressing her role. It is therefore with great enthusiasm that we
+record Miss Theresa Weld of Boston, holder of Woman's Figure Skating
+Championship, as the most chicly costumed woman on the ice of the
+Hippodrome (New York) where amateurs contested for the cup offered by
+Mr. Charles B. Dillingham, on March 23, 1917, when Miss Weld again
+won,--this time over the men as well as the women.
+
+Miss Weld combined good work with perfect form, and her edges, fronts,
+ins, outs, threes, double-threes, etc., etc., were a delight to the eye
+as she passed and repassed in her wine-coloured velvet, trimmed with
+mole-skin, a narrow band on the bottom of the full skirt (full to allow
+the required amount of leg action), deep cuffs, and a band of the same
+fur encircling the close velvet toque. This is reproduced as the ideal
+costume because, while absolutely up-to-date in line, material, colour
+and character of fur, it follows the traditional idea as to what is
+appropriate and beautiful for a skating costume, regardless of epoch. We
+have seen its ancestors in many parts of Europe, year after year. Some
+of us recall with keen pleasure, the wonderful skating in Vienna and
+Berlin on natural and artificial ice, invariably hung with flags and
+gaily lighted by night. We can see now, those German girls,--some of
+them trim and good to look at, in costumes of sapphire blue, deep red,
+or green velvet, fur trimmed,--gliding swiftly across the ice, to the
+irresistible swing of waltz music and accompanied by flashing uniforms.
+
+In the German-speaking countries everyone skates: the white-bearded
+grandfather and the third generation going hand in hand on Sunday
+mornings to the nearest ice-pond. With them skating is a communal
+recreation, as beer garden concerts are. With us in America most sports
+are fashions, not traditions. The rage for skating during the past few
+seasons is the outcome of the exhibition skating done by professionals
+from Austria, Germany, Scandinavian countries and Canada, at the New
+York Hippodrome. Those who madly danced are now as madly skating. And
+out of town the young women delight the eye in bright wool sweaters,
+broad, long wool scarfs and bright wool caps, or small, close felt
+hats,--fascinating against the white background of ice and snow. The
+boots are high, reaching to top of calf, a popular model having a seam
+to the tip of the toe.
+
+No sport so perfectly throws into relief _command of the body_ as does
+skating. Watch a group of competitors for honours at any gathering of
+amateur women skaters and note how few have command of themselves--know
+absolutely what they want to do, and then are able to do it. One skater,
+in the language of the ice, can do the actual work, but has no form. It
+may be she lacks temperament, has no abandon, no rhythm; is stiff, or,
+while full of life, has bad arms. It is as necessary that the fancy
+skater should learn the correct position of the arms as that the solo
+dancer should. Certain lines must be preserved, say, from fingers of
+right arm through to tip of left foot, or from tip of left hand through
+to tip of right foot.
+
+
+    PLATE XV
+
+    A portrait by John S. Sargent. (Metropolitan Museum,
+    painted about 1890.)
+
+    We have here a distinguished example of the dignity and
+    beauty possible to a costume characteristic of the period
+    when extreme severity as to outline and elimination of
+    detail followed the elaboration of Victorian ruffles,
+    ribbons and lace over hoops and bustle; curled hair and the
+    obvious cameo brooch, massive bracelets and chains.
+
+    [Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
+    _Late Nineteenth Century Costume about 1890
+    A Portrait by John S. Sargent_]
+
+
+"Form" is the manipulation of the lines of the body to produce perfect
+balance, perfect freedom and, when required, perfect control in arrested
+motion. This is the mastery which produces in free skating that
+"melting" of one figure into another which so hypnotises the onlooker.
+It is because Miss Weld has mastered the above qualifications that she
+is amateur champion in fancy skating. She has mastered her medium; has
+control of every muscle in her body. In consequence she is decorative
+and delightful to watch.
+
+To be decorative when not on skates, whether walking, standing or
+sitting, a woman must have cultivated the same feeling for line, her
+form must be good. It is not enough to obey the A. B. C.'s of position;
+head up, shoulders back, chest out, stomach in. One must study the
+possibilities of the body in acquiring and perfecting poses which have
+line, making pictures with one's self.
+
+In the _Art of Interior Decoration_ we insist that every room be a
+beautiful composition. What we would now impress upon the mind of the
+reader is that she is a part of the picture and must compose with her
+setting. To do this she should acquire the mastery of her body, and then
+train that body until it has acquired "good habits" in the assuming of
+line, whether in action or repose. This can be done to an astonishing
+degree, even if one lacks the instinct. To be born with a sense of line
+is a gift, and the development of this sense can give artistic delight
+to those who witness the results and thrill them quite as sculpture or
+music, or any other art does.
+
+The Greek idea of regarding the perfectly trained body as a beautiful
+temple is one to keep in mind, if woman would fulfil her obligation to
+be decorative.
+
+Form means efficiency, if properly understood and carried out according
+to the spirit, not the letter of the law. Form implies the human body
+under control, ready for immediate action. The man or woman with
+_form_, will be the first to fall into action when required, because, so
+to speak, no time is lost in collecting and aiming the body.
+
+One of the great points in the teaching of the late Theodore
+Leschetizky, the world's greatest master in the art of piano playing,
+was that the hand should immediately assume the correct position for
+the succeeding chord, the instant it was lifted from the
+keys;--preparedness!
+
+The crack regiments of Europe, noted for their form, have for years been
+the object of jests in those new worlds where brawn and muscle, with
+mental acumen, have converted primeval forests into congested commercial
+centers. But that form, so derided by the pioneer spirit, has proved its
+worth during the present European war. The United States and the Central
+Powers are now at war and military guards have been stationed at
+vulnerable points. Only to-day we saw one of Uncle Sam's soldiers, one
+of three, patrolling the front of a big armory,--standing in an
+absolutely relaxed position, his gun held loosely in his hand, and its
+bayonet propped against the iron fence. One could not help thinking;
+_no_ form, no preparedness, no efficiency. It goes without saying that
+prompt obedience cannot be looked for where there is lack of form, no
+matter how willing the spirit.
+
+The modern woman when on parole,--walking, dancing, driving, riding or
+engaged in any sport, to be efficient must have trained the body until
+it has form, and dress it appropriately, if she would be efficient as
+well as decorative in the modern sense of the term. No better
+illustration of our point can be found than in the popular sport cited
+at the beginning of this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER MOTOR CAR
+
+
+It is not easy to be decorative in your automobile now that the
+manufacturers are going in for gay colour schemes both in upholstery and
+outside painting. A putty-coloured touring car lined with red leather is
+very stunning in itself, but the woman who would look well when sitting
+in it does not carelessly don any bright motor coat at hand. She knows
+very well that to show up to advantage against red, and be in harmony
+with the putty-colour paint, her tweed coat should blend with the car,
+also her furs. Black is smart with everything, but fancy how impossible
+mustard, cerise and some shades of green would look against that scarlet
+leather!
+
+An orange car with black top, mud-guards and upholstery calls for a
+costume of white, black, brown, tawny grey, or, if one would be a
+poster, royal blue.
+
+Some twenty-five years ago the writer watched the first automobile in
+her experience driven down the Champs Elysees. It seemed an uncanny,
+horseless carriage, built to carry four people and making a good deal of
+fuss about it.
+
+A few days later, while lunching at the Cafe de Reservoir, Versailles,
+we were told that some men were starting back to Paris by automobile,
+and if we went to a window giving on to the court, we might see the
+astonishing vehicle make its start. It was as thrilling as the first
+near view of an aeroplane, and all-excitement we watched the two
+Frenchmen getting ready for the drive. Their elaborate preparation to
+face the current of air to be encountered en route was not unlike the
+preparation to-day for flying. It was Spring--June, at that--but those
+Frenchmen wearing very English tweeds and smoking English pipes, each
+drew on extra cloth trousers and coats and over these a complete outfit
+of leather! We saw them get into the things in the public courtyard,
+arrange huge goggles, draw down cloth caps, and set out at a speed of
+about fifteen miles an hour!
+
+
+    PLATE XVI
+
+    A portrait of Mrs. Thomas Hastings of New York painted by
+    the late John W. Alexander.
+
+    We have chosen this--one of the most successful portraits by
+    one of America's leading portrait painters--as a striking
+    example of colour scheme and interesting line. Also we have
+    here a woman who carries herself with form. Mrs. Hastings is
+    an accomplished horsewoman. Her fine physique is poised so
+    as to give that individual movement which makes for type;
+    her colour--wonderful red hair and the complexion which goes
+    with it--are set off by a dull gold background; a gown in
+    another tone of gold, relieved by a note or two of turquoise
+    green; and the same green appearing as a shadow on the
+    Victory in the background.
+
+    We see the sitter, as she impressed an observer, transferred
+    to the canvas by the consummate skill of our deeply lamented
+    artist.
+
+    [Illustration: _A Modern Portrait By John W. Alexander_]
+
+
+The above seems incredible, now that we have passed through the various
+stages of motor car improvements and motor clothes creations. The rapid
+development of the automobile, with its windshields, limousine tops,
+shock absorbers, perfected engines and springs, has brought us to the
+point where no more preparation is needed for a thousand-mile run across
+country with an average speed of thirty miles an hour, than if we were
+boarding a train. One dresses for a motor as one would for driving in a
+carriage and those dun-colored, lineless monstrosities invented for
+motor use have vanished from view. More than this, woman to-day
+considers her decorative value against the electric blue velvet or
+lovely chintz lining of her limousine, exactly as she does when planning
+clothes for her salon. And why not? The manufacturers of cars are taking
+seriously their interior decoration as well as outside painting; and
+many women interior decorators specialise along this line and devote
+their time to inventing colour schemes calculated to reflect the
+personality of the owner of the car.
+
+Special orders have raised the standard of the entire industry, so that
+at the recent New York automobile show, many effects in cars were
+offered to the public. Besides the putty-coloured roadster lined with
+scarlet, black lined with russet yellow, orange lined with black; there
+were limousines painted a delicate custard colour, with top and rim of
+wheels, chassis and lamps of the same Nattier Blue as the velvet lining,
+cushions and curtains. A beautiful and luxurious background and how easy
+to be decorative against it to one who knows how!
+
+Another popular colour scheme was a mauve body with top of canopy and
+rims of wheels white, the entire lining of mauve, like the body. Imagine
+your woman with a decorative instinct in this car. So obvious an
+opportunity would never escape her, and one can see the vision on a
+Summer day, as she appears in simple white, softest blue or pale pink,
+or better still, treating herself as a quaint nosegay of blush roses,
+for-get-me-nots, lilies and mignonette, with her chiffons and silks or
+sheerest of lawns.
+
+"But how about me?" one hears from the girl of the open car--a racer
+perhaps, which she drives herself. You are easiest of all, we assure
+you; to begin with, your car being a racer, is painted and lined with
+durable dark colours--battleship grey, dust colour, or some shade which
+does not show dirt and wear. The consequence is, you will be decorative
+in any of the smart coats, close hats and scarfs in brilliant and lovely
+hues,--silk or wool.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME
+
+
+Here is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:
+
+We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of
+Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your
+attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent.
+Granted that you decide on a court costume, one of those made so
+familiar by the paintings of the great Velasquez, let your first step be
+to get a definite impression of the _outline_ of such a costume. Go to
+art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for books on
+costumes, with plates.
+
+You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt
+periods, there are a variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope
+of the hip line and the outline of the skirt is the infallible hall-mark
+of each of these periods.
+
+Let it be remembered that the outline of a woman includes hair, combs,
+head-dress, earrings, treatment of neck, shoulders, arms, bust and hips;
+line to the ankles and shoes; also fan, handkerchief or any other
+article, which if a silhouette were made, would appear. The next step is
+to ascertain what materials were available at the time your costume was
+worn and what in vogue. Were velvets, satins or silks worn, or all
+three? Were materials flowered, striped, or plain? If striped,
+horizontal or perpendicular? For these points turn again to your art
+gallery, costume plates, or the best of historical novels. If you are
+unable to resort to the sources suggested, two courses lie open to you.
+Put the matter into the hands of an expert; there are many to be
+approached through the columns of first-class periodicals or newspapers
+(we do not refer to the ordinary dealer in costumes or theatre
+accessories); or make the effort to consult some authority, in person or
+by letter: an actor, historian or librarian. It is amazing how near at
+hand help often is, if we only make our needs known. If the reader is
+young and busy, dancing and skating and sleeping, and complains, in her
+winsome way, that "days are too short for such work," we would remind
+her that as already stated, to carefully study the details of any
+costume, of any period, means that the mind and the eye are being
+trained to discriminate between the essentials and non-essentials of
+woman's costume in every-day life. The same young beauty may be
+interested to know that at the beginning of Geraldine Farrar's career
+the writer, visiting with her, an exhibition of pictures in Munich, was
+amazed at the then, very young girl's familiarity with the manner of
+artists--ancient and modern,--and exclaimed "I did not know you were so
+fond of pictures." "It's not that," Farrar said, "I get my costumes from
+them, and a great many of my poses."
+
+
+    PLATE XVII
+
+    Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig, patron of the arts,
+    exhibited in New York at Duveen Galleries during Winter of
+    1916-1917 with the Zuloaga pictures. The exhibition was
+    arranged by Mrs. Lydig.
+
+    This portrait has been chosen to illustrate two points: that
+    a distinguished decorative quality is dependent upon line
+    which has primarily to do with form of one's own physique
+    (and not alone the cut of the costume); and the great value
+    of knowing one's own type.
+
+    Mrs. Lydig has been transferred to the canvas by the clever
+    technique of one of the greatest modern painters, Ignacio
+    Zuloaga, an artistic descendant of Velasquez. The delightful
+    movement is that of the subject, in this case kept alive
+    through its subtle translation into terms of art.
+
+    [Illustration: _A Portrait of Mrs. Philip M. Lydig.
+    By I. Zuloaga_]
+
+
+Outline and material being decided, give your attention to the character
+of the background against which you are to appear. If it is a ball-room,
+and the occasion a costume-ball, is it done in light or dark colours,
+and what is the prevailing tone? See to it that you settle on a colour
+which will be either a harmonious note or an agreeable, hence impressive
+contrast, against the prevailing background. If you are to wear the
+costume on a stage or as a living picture against a background arranged
+with special reference to you, and where you are the central figure, be
+more subtle and combine colours, if you will; go in for interesting
+detail, provided always that you make these details have meaning. For
+example, if it be trimming, pure and simple, be sure that it be applied
+as during your chosen period. Trimming can be used so as to increase
+effectiveness of a costume by accentuating its distinctive features, and
+it can be misused so as to pervert your period, whether that be the age
+of Cleopatra, or the Winter of 1917. Details, such as lace, jewels,
+head-dresses, fans, snuff-boxes, work baskets and flowers must be
+absolutely of the period, or not at all. A few details, even one
+stunning jewel, if correct, will be far more convincing than any number
+of makeshifts, no matter how attractive in themselves. Paintings, plates
+and history come to our rescue here. If you think it dry work, try it.
+The chances are all in favour of your emerging from your search
+spell-bound by the vistas opened up to you; the sudden meaning acquired
+by many inanimate things, and a new pleasure added to all observations.
+
+That Spanish comb of great-great-grandmother's is really a treasure now.
+The antique Spanish plaque you own, found to be Moorish lustre, and out
+of the attic it comes! A Spanish miracle cross proves the spiritual
+superstition of the race, so back to the junk-shop you go, hoping to
+acquire the one that was proffered.
+
+Yes, Carmen should wear a long skirt when she dances, Spanish pictures
+show them; and so on.
+
+The collecting of materials and all accessories to a costume, puts one
+in touch, not only with the dress, but the life of the period, and the
+customs of the times. Once steeped in the tradition of Spanish art and
+artists, how quick the connoisseur is to recognize Spanish influence on
+the art of Holland, France and England. Lead your expert in costumes of
+nations into talking of history and we promise you pictures of dynasties
+and lands that few historical writers can match. This man or woman has
+extracted from the things people wore the story of where they wore them,
+and when, and how; for the lover of colour we commend this method of
+studying history.
+
+If any one of our readers is casting about for a hobby and craves one
+with inexhaustible possibilities, we would advise: try collecting data
+on periods in dress, as shown in the art treasures of the world, for of
+this there is verily no end.
+
+We warn the novice in advance that each detail of woman's dress has for
+one in pursuit of such data the allure of the siren.
+
+There is the pictured story of head-dresses and hats, and how the hair
+is worn, from Cleopatra's time till ours; the evolution of a woman's
+sleeve, its ups and downs and ins and outs as shown in art; the
+separation of the waist from skirt, and ever changing line of both; the
+neck of woman's gown so variously cut and trimmed and how the necklace
+changed likewise to accord; the passing of the sandals of the Greeks
+into the poetic glove-fitting slippers of to-day.
+
+One sets out gaily to study costumes, full of the courage of ignorance,
+the joyous optimism of an enthusiast, because it is amusing and looks so
+simple with all the material,--old and new, lying about one.
+
+Ah, that is the pitfall--the very abundance of those plates in wondrous
+books, old coloured prints and portraits of the past. To some students
+this kaleidoscopic vision of period costumes never falls into definite
+lines and colour; or if the types are clear, what they come from or
+merge into remains obscure.
+
+For the eager beginner we have tried to evolve out of the whole mass of
+data a system of origin and development as definite as the anatomy of
+the human body, a framework on which to build. If our historical outline
+be clear enough to impress the mental vision as indelibly as those
+primary maps of the earth did, then we feel persuaded, the textless
+books of wonderful and beguiling costume plates will serve their end as
+never before. We humbly offer what we hope may prove a key to the rich
+storehouse.
+
+Simplicity, and pure line, were lost sight of when overabundance dulled
+the senses of the world. We could prove this, for art shows that the
+costuming of woman developed slowly, preserving, as did furniture, the
+same classic lines and general characteristics until the fifteenth
+century, the end of the Middle Ages.
+
+With the opening up of trade channels and the possibilities of easy and
+quick communication between countries we find, as we did in the case of
+furniture, periods of fashion developing without nationality. Nations
+declared themselves in the artistry of workmanship, as to-day, and in
+the modification and exaggeration of an essential detail, resulting from
+national or individual temperament.
+
+If you ask, "Where do fashions come from,--why 'periods'?" we would
+answer that in the last analysis one would probably find in the
+conception of every fashion some artist's brain. If the period is a good
+one, then it proves that fate allowed the artist to be true to his muse.
+If the fashion is a bad one the artist may have had to adapt his lines
+and colour or detail to hide a royal deformity, or to cater to the whim
+of some wilful beauty ignorant of our art, but rich and in the public
+eye.
+
+A fashion if started is a demon or a god let loose. As we have said,
+there is an interesting point to be observed in looking at woman as
+decoration; whether the medium be fresco, bas relief, sculpture, mosaic,
+stained glass or painting, the decorative line, shown in costumes,
+presents the same recurrent types that we found when studying the
+history of furniture.
+
+For our present purposes it is expedient to confine ourselves to the
+observation of that expression of civilisation which had root, so far as
+we know, in Assyria and Egypt, and spread like a branching vine through
+Byzantium, Greece, Rome, Gothic Europe and Europe of the Renaissance, on
+through the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, down to
+the present time.
+
+Costumes for woman and man are supposed to have had their origin in a
+cord tied about the waist, from which was suspended crude implements
+(used for the slaying of beasts for food, and in self-defence); trophies
+of war, such as teeth, scalps, etc. The trophies suspended, partly
+concealed the body and were for decoration, as was tattooing of the
+skin. Clothes were not the result of modesty; modesty followed the
+partial covering of the human body. Modesty, or shame, was the emotion
+which developed when man, accustomed to decoration--trophies or
+tattooing--was deprived of all or part of such covering. What parts of
+the body require concealment, is purely a matter of the customs
+prevailing with a race or tribe, at a certain time, and under certain
+conditions.
+
+This is a theme, the detailed development of which lies outside the
+purpose of our book. It has delightful possibilities, however, if the
+plentiful data on the subject, given in scientific books, were to be
+condensed and simplified.
+
+
+    PLATE XVIII
+
+    Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) who has been one of the
+    greatest beauties of modern times and a marked example of a
+    woman who has always understood her own type, to costume it.
+
+    She agrees that this photograph of her, in an evening wrap,
+    illustrates a point she has always laid emphasis on: that a
+    garment which has good lines--in which one is a
+    picture--continues wearable even when not the dernier cri of
+    fashion.
+
+    This wrap was worn by Mrs. Langtry about two years ago.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Langtry (Lady de Bathe) in Evening Wrap_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+I. THE STORY OF PERIOD COSTUMES
+
+_A Resume_
+
+    "Our present modes of dress (aside from the variations
+    imposed by fashion) are the resultant of all the fashions of
+    the last 2000 years."
+
+    W. G. SUMNER in _Folkways_.
+
+
+The earliest Egyptian frescoes, invaluable pre-historic data, show us
+woman as she was costumed, housed and occupied when the painting was
+done. On those age-old walls she appears as man's companion, his
+teacher, plaything, slave, and ruler;--in whatever role the fates
+decreed. The same frescoed walls have pictured records of how Egypt
+tilled the soil, built houses, worked in metals, pottery and sculpture.
+Woman is seen beside her man, who slays the beasts, at times from boats
+propelled through reeded jungles; and hers is always that rigid
+outline, those long, quiet eyes depicted in profile, with massive
+head-dress, and strange upstanding ornaments, abnormally curled wig, and
+close, straight garments to the feet (or none at all), heavy collar,
+wristbands and anklets of precious metals with gems inset, or chased in
+strange designs. About her, the calm mysterious poise and childlike
+acquiescence of those who know themselves to be the puppets of the gods.
+In this naivete lies one of the great charms of Egyptian art.
+
+As sculptured caryatide, we see woman of Egypt clad in transparent
+sheath-like skirt, nude above the waist, with the usual extinguishing
+head-dress and heavy collar, bracelets and anklets. We see her as woman,
+mute, law-abiding, supporting the edifice; woman with steady gaze and
+silent lips; one wonders what was in the mind of that lotus eater of the
+Nile who carved his dream in stone.
+
+Those would reproduce Egyptian colour schemes for costumes, house or
+stage settings, would do well to consult the book of Egyptian designs,
+brought out in 1878 by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and available
+in the large libraries.
+
+On the walls of the Necropolis of Memphis, Thi and his wife (Fifth
+Dynasty) appear in a delightful hunting scene. The man in the prow of
+his boat is about to spear an enormous beast, while his wife, seated in
+the bottom, wraps her arm about his leg!
+
+Among the earliest portraits of an Egyptian woman completely clothed, is
+that of Queen Taia, wife of Amenophis, Eighteenth Dynasty, who wears a
+striped gown with sleeves of the kimono type and a ribbon tied around
+her waist, the usual ornamental collar and bracelets of gold, and an
+elaborate head-dress with deep blue curtain, extending to the waist,
+behind.
+
+Full of illuminating suggestions is an example of Woman in Egyptian
+decoration, to be seen as a fresco in the Necropolis of Thebes. It shows
+the governess of a young prince (Eighteenth Dynasty) holding the child
+on her lap. The feet of the little prince rest on a stool, supported by
+nine crouching human beings--men; each has a collar about his neck, to
+which a leash is attached, and all nine leashes are held in the hands
+of the child!
+
+The illustrations of the Egyptian funeral papyrus, The Book of the Dead,
+show woman in the role of wife and companion. It is the story of a
+high-born Egyptian woman, Tutu, wife of Ani, Royal Scribe and Scribe of
+the Sacred Revenue of all the gods of Thebes. Tutu, the long-eyed
+Egyptian woman, young and straight, with raven hair and active form, a
+Kemaeit of Amon, which means she belonged to the religious chapter or
+congregation of the great god of Thebes. She was what might be described
+as lady-in-waiting or honorary priestess, to the god Amon. She, too,
+wears the typical Egyptian head-dress and straight, long white gown,
+hanging in close folds to her feet. One vignette shows Tutu with arm
+about her husband's leg. This seems to have been a naive Egyptian way of
+expressing that eternal womanliness, that tender care for those beloved,
+that quality inseparable from woman if worthy the name, and by reason of
+which with man, her mate, she has run the gamut of human experience,
+meeting the demands of her time. There is no dodging the issue, woman's
+story recorded in art, shows that she has always responded to Fate's
+call; followed, led, ruled, been ruled, amused, instructed, sent her men
+into battle as Spartan mothers did to return with honour or on their
+shields, and when Fate so decreed, led them to battle, like Joan of Arc.
+
+
+II. EGYPT AND ASSYRIA
+
+In Egypt and Assyria the lines of the torso were kept straight, with no
+contracting of body at waist line. Woman was clad in a straight
+sheet-like garment, extending from waist to feet with only metal
+ornaments above; necklace, bracelets and armlets; or a straight dress
+from neck to meet the heavy anklets. Sandals were worn on the feet. The
+head was encased in an abnormally curled wig, with pendent ringlets, and
+the whole clasped by a massive head-dress, following the contour of head
+and having as part of it, a curtain or veil, reaching down behind,
+across shoulders and approaching waist line. The Sphinx wears a
+characteristic Egyptian head-dress.
+
+
+    PLATE XIX
+
+    Mrs. Conde Nast, artist and patron of the arts, noted for
+    her understanding of her own type and the successful
+    costuming of it.
+
+    Mrs. Nast was Miss Clarisse Coudert. Her French blood
+    accounts, in part, for her innate feeling for line and
+    colour. It is largely due to the keen interest and active
+    services of Mrs. Nast that _Vogue_ and _Vanity Fair_ have
+    become the popular mirrors and prophetic crystal balls of
+    fashion for the American woman.
+
+    Mrs. Nast is here shown in street costume. The photograph is
+    by Baron de Meyer, who has made a distinguished art of
+    photography.
+
+    We are here shown the value of a carefully considered
+    outline which is sharply registered on the background by
+    posing figure against the light, a method for suppressing
+    all details not effecting the outline.
+
+    [Illustration: _Photograph by Baron de Meyer_
+    _Mrs. Conde Nast in Street Dress_]
+
+
+III. EGYPT, BYZANTIUM, GREECE AND ROME
+
+During the periods antedating Christ, when the Roman empire was
+all-powerful, the women of Egypt, Byzantium, Greece and Rome, wore
+gilded wigs (see Plate I, Frontispiece), arranged in Psyche knots, and
+banded; sandals on their feet, and a one-piece garment, confined at the
+waist by a girdle, which fell in close folds to the feet, a style to
+develop later into the classic Greek.
+
+The Greek garment consisted of a great square of white linen, draped in
+the deft manner of the East, to adapt it to the human form, at once
+concealing and disclosing the body to a degree of perfection never since
+attained. There were undraped Greek garments left to hang in close,
+clinging folds, even in the classic period. It is this undraped and
+finely-pleated robe (see Plate XXI) hanging close to the figure, and the
+two-piece garment (see Plate IV) with its short tunic of the same
+material, extending just below the waist line in front, and drooping in
+a cascade of ripples at the sides, as low as the knees, that Fortuny
+(Paris) has reproduced in his tea gowns.
+
+An Englishwoman told us recently that her great-great-grandmother used
+to describe how she and others of her time (Empire Period) wet their
+clothes to make them cling to their forms, a la Grecque!
+
+The classic Greek costume was often a sleeveless garment, falling in
+folds, and when confined at waist line with cord the upper part bloused
+over it; the material was draped so as to leave the arms free, the folds
+being held in place by ornamental clasps upon the shoulders. The fitting
+was practically unaided by cutting; squares or straight lengths of linen
+being adjusted to the human form by clever manipulation. The adjusting
+of these folds, as we have said, developed into an art.
+
+The use of large squares or shawls of brilliantly dyed linen, wool and
+later silk, is conspicuous in all the examples showing woman as
+decoration.
+
+The long Gothic cape succeeds it, that enveloping circular garment, with
+and without the hood, and clasped at the throat, in which the Mother of
+God is invariably depicted. Her cape is the celestial royal blue.
+
+The stained silk gauzes, popular with Greek dancers, were made into
+garments following the same classic lines, and so were the gymnasium
+costumes of the young girls of Greece. Isadora Duncan reproduces the
+latter in many of her dances.
+
+In the chapter entitled "The Story of Textiles" in _The Art of Interior
+Decoration_, we have given a resume of this branch of our subject.
+
+The type of costume worn by woman throughout the entire Roman Empire
+during its most glorious period, was classic Greek, not only in general
+outline, but in detail. Note that the collarless neck was cut round and
+a trifle low; the lines of gown were long and followed each other; the
+trimming followed the hem of neck and sleeves and skirt; the hair, while
+artificially curled and sometimes intertwined with pearls and other
+gems, after being gilded, was so arranged as to show the contour of the
+head, then gathered into a Psyche knot. Gold bands, plain or jewelled,
+clasped and held the hair in place.
+
+In the Gold Room of the Metropolitan Museum; in noted collections in
+Europe; in portraits and costume plates, one sees that the earrings worn
+at that period were great heavy discs, or half discs, of gold; large
+gold flowers, in the Etruscan style; large rings with groups of
+pendants,--usually three on each ring, and the drop earrings so much in
+vogue to-day.
+
+Necklaces were broad, like collars, round and made of hand-wrought links
+and beads, with pendants. These filled in the neck of the dress and were
+evidently regarded as a necessary part of the costume.
+
+The simple cord which confined the Greek woman's draperies at the waist,
+in Egypt and Byzantium, became a sash; a broad strip of material which
+was passed across the front of body at the waist, crossed behind and
+then brought tight over the hips to tie in front, low down, the ends
+hanging square to knees or below.
+
+In Egypt a shoulder cape, with kerchief effect in front, broadened
+behind to a square, and reached to the waist line.
+
+We would call attention to the fact that when the classic type of
+furniture and costume were revived by Napoleon I and the Empress
+Josephine, it was the Egyptian version, as well as the Greek. One sees
+Egyptian and Etruscan styles in the straight, narrow garment of the
+First Empire reaching to ankles, with parallel rows of trimming at the
+bottom of skirt.
+
+The Empire style of parted hair, with cascade of curls each side,
+riotous curling locks outlining face, with one or two ringlets brought
+in front of ears, and the Psyche knot (which later in Victorian days
+lent itself to caricature, in a feather-duster effect at crown of head),
+were inspired by those curled and gilded creations such as Thais wore.
+
+Hats, as we use the term to-day, were worn by the ancients. Some will
+remember the Greek hat Sibyl Sanderson wore with her classic robes when
+she sang Massenet's "Phedre," in Paris. It was Chinese in type. One sees
+this type of hat on Tanagra Statuettes in our museums.
+
+Apropos of hats, designers to-day are constantly resurrecting models
+found in museums, and some of us recognise the lines and details of
+ancient head-dresses in hats turned out by our most up-to-date
+milliners.
+
+Parasols and umbrellas were also used by Assyrians and Greeks. Sandals
+which only covered the soles of the feet were the usual footwear, but
+Greeks and Etruscans are shown in art as wearing also moccasin-like
+boots and shoes laced up the front.
+
+Of course, the strapped slippers of the Empire were a version of classic
+sandals.
+
+As we have said, the Greek gown and toga are found wherever the Roman
+Empire reached. The women of what are now France and England clothed
+themselves at that time in the same manner as the cultured class of
+Rome. Naturally the Germanic branch which broke from the parent stem,
+and drifted northward to strike root in unbroken forests, bordering on
+untried seas, wore skins and crudely woven garments, few and strongly
+made, but often picturesque.
+
+Though but slightly reminiscent of the traditional costume, we know that
+the women of the third and fourth centuries wore a short, one-piece
+garment, with large earrings, heavy metal armlets above the elbow and at
+wrists. The chain about the waist, from which hung a knife, for
+protection and domestic purposes, is descendent from the savage's cord
+and ancestor to that lovely bauble, the chatelaine of later days, with
+its attached fan, snuff-box and jewelled watch.
+
+
+    PLATE XX
+
+    Mrs. Conde Nast in an evening gown. Here again is a costume
+    the beauty of which evades the dictum of fashion in the
+    narrow sense of the term.
+
+    This picture has the distinction of a well-posed and finely
+    executed old master and because possessing beauty of a
+    traditional sort will continue to give pleasure long after
+    the costume has perished.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Conde Nast in Evening Dress_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DEVELOPMENT OF GOTHIC COSTUME
+
+
+To the Romans, all who were not of Rome and her Empire, were
+foreigners,--outsiders, people with a strange viewpoint, so they were
+given a name to indicate this; they were called "barbarians."
+
+Conspicuous among those tribes of barbarians, moved by human lust for
+gain to descend upon the Roman Empire and eventually bring about its
+fall, was the tribe of Goths, and in the course of centuries "Gothic"
+has become a generic term, implying that which is not Roman. We speak of
+Gothic architecture, Gothic art, Gothic costumes, when we mean, strictly
+speaking, the characteristic architecture, art and costuming of the late
+Middle Ages (twelfth to fifteenth centuries).
+
+But we find the so-called Gothic outline in costume as early as the
+fourth century. Over the undraped, one-piece robe of classic type, a
+second garment is now worn, cut with straight lines. It usually fastens
+behind, and the uncorseted figure is outlined. The neck is still
+collarless and cut round, the space filled in with a necklace. The
+sleeves of the tunic appear to be the logical evolution of the folds of
+the toga, which fall over the arms when bent. They cling to the outline
+of the shoulder, broadening at the hand into what is called "angel"
+sleeves; in art, the traditional angel wears them.
+
+Roman-Christian women wore their hair parted, no Psyche knot, and
+interesting, large earrings. The gowns were not draped, but were in one
+piece and with no fulness. A tunic, following lines of the form, reached
+below the knees and was _belted_. This garment was trimmed with bands
+from shoulders to hem of tunic and kept the same width throughout, if
+narrow; but if wide, the bands broadened to the hem. The neck continued
+to be cut round, and filled in with a necklace.
+
+The cape, fastening on shoulders or chest, remnant of the Greek toga,
+was worn, and veils of various materials were the usual head coverings.
+
+Between the fifth and tenth centuries there are examples of the
+overgarment or tunic having a broad stomacher of some contrasting
+material, held in place with a cord, which is tied behind, brought
+around to the front, knotted and allowed to hang to bottom of skirt.
+
+Byzantine art between 800 and 1000 A. D. still shows women wearing
+tunics, but hanging straight from neck to hem of skirt, fastened on
+shoulders and opened at sides to show gown beneath; close sleeves with
+trimming at the wrists, often large, roughly cut jewels forming a border
+on tunic, and the hair worn in long braids on each side of the face; the
+coil of hair, which was wrapped with pearls or other beads, was parted
+and used to frame the face.
+
+This fashion was carried to excess by the Franks. We see some of their
+women between 400 and 600 A. D. wearing these heavy, rope-like braids to
+the hem of the skirt in front.
+
+In the fourteenth century the Gothic costume was perhaps at its most
+beautiful stage. The long robe, the upper part following the lines of
+the figure, with long close sleeves half covering hands, or flowing
+sleeves, that touched the floor. About the waist was worn a silk cord
+or jewelled girdle, finely wrought and swung low on hips; from the end
+of which was suspended the money bag, fan and keys.
+
+The girdle begins now to play an important part as decoration. This
+theme, the evolution of the girdle, may be indefinitely enlarged upon
+but we must not dwell upon it here.
+
+In some cases we see that the tunic opened in the front and that the
+large, square, shawl-like outer garment of Greece now became the long
+circular cape, clasped on the chest (one or two clasps), made so
+familiar by the art of the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Turn to the
+illuminated manuscripts of those periods, to paintings, on wood,
+frescoes, stained glass, stucco, carved wood, and stone, and you will
+find the Mother of God invariably costumed in the simple one-piece robe
+and circular clasped cape.
+
+In most of the sacred art of the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth,
+fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Virgin and other saints are
+depicted in the current costume of woman. The Virgin was the most
+frequent subject of artists in every medium, during the ages when the
+Church dominated the State in Europe.
+
+The refurnishing of the Virgin's wardrobe has long been and still is, a
+pious task and one clamoured for by adherents to the churches in which
+the Virgin's image is displayed to worshippers. We regret to say, for
+aesthetic reasons, that there is no effort made on the part of modern
+devotees to perpetuate the beautiful mediaeval type of costume.
+
+In some old paintings which come under the head of Folk Art, the Holy
+Family appears in national costume. The writer recalls a bit of
+eighteenth century painting, showing St. Anne holding the Virgin as
+child. St. Anne wears the bizarre fete attire of a Spanish peasant; a
+gigantic head-dress and veil, large earrings, wide stiff skirts, showing
+gay flowers on a background of gold. The skirt is rather short, to
+display wide trousers below it. Her sleeves have filmy frills of deep
+white lace executed with skill.
+
+
+    PLATE XXI
+
+    Mrs. Conde Nast in a garden costume. She wears a sun-hat
+    and carries a flower-basket, which are decorative as well as
+    useful.
+
+    We have chosen this photograph as an example of a costume
+    made exquisitely artistic by being kept simple in line and
+    free from an excess of trimming.
+
+    This costume is so decorative that it gives distinction and
+    interest to the least pretentious of gardens.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Conde Nast in Garden Costume_]
+
+
+To return to the girdle, as we have said, it slipped from its position
+at the waist line, where it confined the classic folds, and was allowed
+to hang loosely about the hips, clasped low in front. From this clasp a
+chain extended, to which were attached the housewife's keys or purse and
+the dame of fashion's fan. In fact one can tell, to a certain extent,
+the woman's class and period by carefully inspecting her chatelaine.
+
+The absence of waist line, and the long, straight effect produced in the
+body of gown by wearing the girdle swung about the hips, gives it the
+so-called Moyen Age silhouette, revived by the fashion of to-day.
+
+In the thirteenth century the round collarless neck, low enough to admit
+a necklace of links or beads, persists. A new note is the outer sleeve
+laced across an inner sleeve of white.
+
+Let us remember that the costume of the thirteenth and fourteenth
+centuries was distinguished by a quality of beautiful, sweeping line,
+massed colour, detail with _raison d'etre_, which produced dignity with
+graceful movement, found nowhere to-day, unless it be on the Wagnerian
+stage or in the boudoir of a woman who still takes time, in our age of
+hurry, to wear her negligee beautifully.
+
+In the fourteenth century the round neck continued, but one sees low
+necks too, which left the shoulders exposed (our 1830 style).
+
+Another new note is the tunic grown into a garment reaching to the feet,
+a one-piece "princess" gown, with belt or girdle. Sometimes a Juliet cap
+was worn to merely cover the crown of head, with hair parted and
+flowing, while on matrons we see head coverings with sides turned up,
+like ecclesiastical caps, and floating veils falling to the waist.
+
+Notice that through all the periods that we have named, which means
+until the fourteenth century, the line of shoulder remains normal and
+beautiful, sloping and melting into folds of robe or line of sleeve. We
+see now for the first time an inclination to tamper with the shoulder
+line. An inoffensive scallop appears,--or some other decoration, as cap
+to sleeve. No harm done yet!
+
+The fifteenth century shows another style, a long sleeveless
+overgarment, reaching to the floor, fastened on shoulders and swinging
+loose, to show at sides the undergown. It suggests a priest's robe. Here
+we discover one more of the Moyen Age styles revived to-day.
+
+The fourteenth century gowns, with necks cut out round, to admit a
+necklace with pendants, are still popular. The gowns are long on the
+ground, and the most beautiful of the characteristic head-dresses--the
+long, pointed one, with veil covering it, and floating down from point
+of cap to hem of flowing skirt behind, continues the movement of
+costume--the long lines which follow one another.
+
+When correctly posed, this pointed head-dress is a delight to the eye.
+We recently saw a photograph of some fair young women in this type of
+Mediaeval or Gothic costume worn by them at a costume ball. Failing to
+realise that the _pose_ of any head-dress (this means hats as well) is
+all-important, they had placed the quaint, long, pointed caps on the
+very tops of their heads, like fools' caps!
+
+The angle at which this head-dress is worn is half the battle.
+
+The importance of every woman's cultivating an eye for line cannot be
+overstated.
+
+In the fifteenth century we first see puffs at the elbow, otherwise the
+outlines of gown are the same. The garment in one piece, the body of it
+outlining the form, its skirts sweeping the ground; a girdle about the
+hips, and long, close or flowing sleeves, wide at the hem.
+
+Despite the fourteenth century innovation of necks cut low and off the
+shoulders (berated by the Church), most necks in the fifteenth century
+are still cut round at the throat, and the necklace worn instead of
+collar. Some of the gowns cut low off the shoulders are filled in with a
+puffed tucker of muslin. The pointed cap with a floating veil is still
+seen.
+
+Notice that the restraint in line, colour and detail, gradually
+disappears, with the abnormal circulation of wealth, in those
+departments of Church and State to which the current of material things
+was diverted. We now see humanity tricked out in rich attire and
+staggering to its doom through general debaucheries.
+
+Rich brocades, once from Damascus, are now made in Venice; and so are
+wonderful satins, velvets and silks, with jewels many and massive.
+
+Sometimes a broad jewelled band crossed the breast from shoulder
+diagonally to under arm, at waist.
+
+The development of the petticoat begins now. At first we get only a
+glimpse of it, when our lady of the pointed cap lifts her long skirts,
+lined with another shade. It is of a rich contrasting colour and is
+gradually elaborated.
+
+The waist-line, when indicated, is high.
+
+A new note is the hair, with throat and neck completely concealed by a
+white veil, a style we associate with nuns and certain folk costumes. As
+fashion it had a passing vogue.
+
+Originally, the habit of covering woman's hair indicated modesty (an
+idea held among the Folk), and the gradual shrinking of the dimensions
+of her coif, records the progress of the peasant woman's emancipation,
+in certain countries. This is especially conspicuous in Brittany, as M.
+Anatol Le Braz, the eminent Breton scholar, remarked recently to the
+writer.
+
+Note the silk bag, quite modern, on the arm; also the jewelled line of
+chain hanging from girdle down the middle of front, to hem of
+skirt,--both for use and ornament.
+
+To us of a practical era, a mysterious charm attaches to the
+long-pointed shoes worn at this period.
+
+In the fifteenth century, the marked division of costume into waist and
+skirt begins, the waist line more and more pinched in, the skirt more
+and more full, the sleeves and neck more elaborately trimmed, the
+head-dresses multiplied in size, elaborateness and variety. Textiles
+developed with wealth and ostentation.
+
+In the sixteenth century the neck was usually cut out and worn low on
+the shoulders, sometimes filled in, but we see also high necks; necks
+with small ruffs and necks with large ruffs; ruffs turned down, forming
+stiff linen-cape collars, trimmed with lace, close to the throat or
+flaring from neck to show the throat.
+
+The hair is parted and worn low in a snood, or by young women, flowing.
+The ears are covered with the hair.
+
+
+    PLATE XXII
+
+    Mrs. Conde Nast wearing one of the famous Fortuny tea
+    gowns.
+
+    This one has no tunic but is finely pleated, in the Fortuny
+    manner, and falls in long lines, closely following the
+    figure, to the floor.
+
+    Observe the decorative value of the long string of beads.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Conde Nast in a Fortuny Tea Gown_]
+
+
+_The Virgin in Art_
+
+When writing of the Gothic period in _The Art of Interior Decoration_,
+we have said "... Gothic art proceeds from the Christian Church and
+stretches like a canopy over western Europe during the late Middle Ages.
+It was in the churches and monasteries that Christian Art, driven from
+pillar to post by wars, was obliged to take refuge, and there produced
+that marvellous development known as the Gothic style, of the Church,
+for the Church and by the Church, perfected in countless Gothic
+cathedrals, crystallised glorias, lifting their manifold spires to
+heaven; ethereal monuments of an intrepid Faith which gave material form
+to its adoration, its fasting and prayer, in an unrivalled art...."
+
+"Crystallised glorias" (hymns to the Virgin) is as concise a defining of
+the nature and spirit of this highest type of mediaeval art--perfected in
+France--as we can find. Here we have deified woman inspiring an art
+miraculously decorative.
+
+Chartres Cathedral and Rheims (before the German invasion in 1914) with
+Mont Saint Michel, are distinguished examples.
+
+If the readers would put to the test our claim that woman as decoration
+is a beguiling theme worthy of days passed in the broad highways of
+art, and many an hour in cross-roads and unbeaten paths, we would
+recommend to them the fascinations of a marvellous story-teller, one
+who, knowing all there is to know of his subject, has had the genius to
+weave the innumerable and perplexing threads into a tapestry of words,
+where the main ideas take their places in the foreground, standing out
+clearly defined against the deftly woven, intelligible but unobtruding
+background. The author is Henry Adams, the book, _The Cathedrals of Mont
+St. Michel and Chartres_. He tells you in striking language, how woman
+was translated into pure decoration in the Middle Ages, woman as the
+Virgin Mother of God, the manifestation of Deity which took precedence
+over all others during the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries;
+and if you will follow him to the Chartres Cathedral (particularly if
+you have been there already), and will stand facing the great East
+Window, where in stained glass of the ancient jewelled sort, woman, as
+Mother of God, is enthroned above all, he will tell you how, out of the
+chaos of warring religious orders, the priestly schools of Abelard, St.
+Francis of Assisi and others, there emerged the form of the Virgin.
+
+To woman, as mother of God and man, the instrument of reproduction, of
+tender care, of motherhood, the disputatious, groping mind of man agreed
+to bow, silenced and awed by the mystery of her calling.
+
+In view of the recent enrolling of womanhood in the stupendous business
+of the war now waging in Europe, and the demands upon her to help in
+arming her men or nursing back to life the shattered remains of fair
+youth, which so bravely went forth, the thought comes that woman will
+play a large part in the art to arise from the ashes of to-day. Woman as
+woman ready to supplement man, pouring into life's caldron the best of
+herself, unstinted, unmeasured; woman capable of serving beyond her
+strength, rising to her greatest height, bending, but not breaking to
+the end, if only assured she is _needed_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE RENAISSANCE
+
+_Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_
+
+
+The marked departure is necks cut square, if low, and elaborate jewelled
+chains draped from shoulders, outlining neck of gown and describing a
+festoon on front of waist, which is soon to become independent of skirt
+to develop on its own account.
+
+As in the fifteenth century, when necks were cut low off the shoulders,
+they were on occasions filled in with tuckers.
+
+The skirt now registers a new characteristic; it parts at the waist line
+over a petticoat, and the opening is decorated by the ornamental, heavy
+chain which hangs from girdle to hem of gown.
+
+One sees the hair still worn coiled low in the neck, concealing the ears
+and held in a snood or in Italy cut "Florentine" fashion with fringe on
+brow.
+
+Observe how the wealth of the Roman Empire, through its new trade
+channels opening up with the East (the result of the crusades) led to
+the importation of rich and many-coloured Oriental stuffs; the same
+wealth ultimately established looms in Italy for making silks and
+velvets, to decorate man and his home. There was no longer simplicity in
+line and colour scheme; gorgeous apparel fills the frames of the
+Renaissance and makes amusing reading for those who consult old
+documents. The clothes of man, like his over-ornate furniture, show a
+debauched and vulgar taste. Instead of the lines which follow one
+another, solid colours, and trimmings kept to hem of neck and sleeve and
+skirt, great designs, in satins and velvet brocades, distort the lines
+and proportions of man and woman.
+
+The good Gothic lines lived on in the costumes of priests and nuns.
+
+Jewelry ceased to be decoration with meaning; lace and fringe, tassels
+and embroidery, with colour combinations to rival the African parrots,
+disfigured man and woman alike.
+
+During November of 1916, New York was so fortunate as to see, at the
+American Art Galleries, the great collection of late Gothic and early
+Renaissance furniture and other art treasures, brought together in the
+restored Davanzati Palace of Florence, Italy. The collection was sold at
+auction, and is now scattered. Of course those who saw it in its natural
+setting in Florence, were most fortunate of all. But with some knowledge
+and imagination, at the sight of those wonderful things,--hand-made all
+of them,--the most casual among those who crowded the galleries for
+days, must have gleaned a vivid impression of how woman of the Early
+Renaissance lived,--in her kitchen, dining-room, bedroom and
+reception-rooms. They displayed her cooking utensils, her chairs and
+tables, her silver, glass and earthenware, her bed, linen, satin damask,
+lace and drawn work; the cushions she rested against; portraits in their
+gorgeous Florentine frames, showing us how those early Italians dressed;
+the colored terra-cottas, unspeakably beautiful presentments of the
+Virgin and Child, moulded and painted by great artists under that same
+exaltation of Faith which brought into being the sister arts of the
+time, imbuing them with something truly divine. There is no disputing
+that quality which radiates from the face of both the Mother and the
+Child. One all but kneels before it. Their expression is not of this
+world.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIII
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle who set to-day's fashion in outline of
+    costume and short hair for the young woman of America. For
+    this reason and because Mrs. Castle has form to a
+    superlative degree (correct carriage of the body) and the
+    clothes sense (knowledge of what she can wear and how to
+    wear it) we have selected her to illustrate several types of
+    costumes, characteristic of 1916 and 1917.
+
+    Another reason for asking Mrs. Castle to illustrate our text
+    is, that what Mrs. Castle's professional dancing has done to
+    develop and perfect her natural instinct for line, the
+    normal exercise of going about one's tasks and diversions
+    can do for any young woman, provided she keep in mind
+    correct carriage of body when in action or repose. Here we
+    see Mrs. Castle in ball costume.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Ball Costume_]
+
+
+That is woman as the Mother of God in art Woman as the mother of man,
+who looked on these inspired works of art, lived for the most part in
+small houses built of wood with thatched roofs, unpaved streets, dirty
+interiors, which were cleaned but once a week--on Saturdays! The men of
+the aristocracy hunted and engaged in commerce, and the general rank and
+file gave themselves over to the gaining of money to increase their
+power. It sounds not unlike New York to-day.
+
+Gradually the cities grew large and rich. People changed from simple
+sober living to elaborate and less temperate ways, and the great
+families, with their proportionately increased wealth gained through
+trade, built beautiful palaces and built them well. The gorgeous
+colouring of the frescoed walls shows Byzantine influence. In _The Art
+of Interior Decoration_ we have described at length the house furnishing
+of that time. Against this background moved woman, man's mate; note her
+colour scheme and then her role. (We quote from Jahn Rusconi in _Les
+Arts_, Paris, August, 1911.)
+
+"Donna Francesca dei Albizzi's cloak of black cloth ornamented on a
+yellow background with birds, parrots, butterflies, pink and red roses,
+and a few other red and green figures; dragons, letters and trees in
+yellow and black, and again other figures made of white cloth with red
+and black stripes."
+
+Extravagance ran high not only in dress, but in everything, laws were
+made to regulate the amount spent on all forms of entertainment, even on
+funerals, and the cook who was to prepare a wedding feast had to submit
+his menu for approval to the city authorities. More than this, only two
+hundred guests could be asked to a wedding, and the number of presents
+which the bride was allowed to receive was limited by law. But wealth
+and fashion ran away with laws; the same old story.
+
+As the tide of the Renaissance rose and swept over Europe (the awakening
+began in Italy), the woman of the gorgeous cloak and her
+contemporaries, according to the vivid description of the last quoted
+author, were "subject to their husbands' tyranny, not even knowing how
+to read in many cases, occupied with their household duties, in which
+they were assisted by rough and uncouth slaves, with no other mission in
+life than to give birth to a numerous posterity.... This life ruined
+them, and their beauty quickly faded away; no wonder, then, that they
+summoned art to the aid of nature. The custom was so common and the art
+so perfect that even a painter like Taddeo Gaddi acknowledged that the
+Florentine women were the best painters in the world!... Considering the
+mental status of the women, it is easy to imagine to what excesses they
+were given in the matter of dress." The above assertions relate to the
+average woman, not the great exceptions.
+
+The marriage coffers of woman of the Renaissance in themselves give an
+idea of her luxurious tastes. They were about six feet long, three feet
+high, and two and a half feet deep. Some had domed covers opening on
+hinges--the whole was carved, gilded and painted, the background of
+reds and blues throwing the gold into relief. Scenes taken from
+mythology were done in what was known as "pastille," composition work
+raised and painted on a gold background. On one fifteenth century
+marriage coffer, Bacchus and Ariadne were shown in their triumphal car
+drawn by winged griffins, a young Bacchante driving them on. Another
+coffer decorated in the same manner had as decoration "The Rape of
+Proserpine."
+
+Women rocked their infants in sumptuous carved and emblazoned walnut
+cradles, and crimson satin damask covered their beds and cushions. This
+blaze of gold and silver, crimson and blue we find as the wake of
+Byzantine trade, via Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Florence on to
+France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Flanders and England. Carved wood,
+crimson, green and blue velvets, satin damask, tapestries, gold and
+silver fringe and lace. Against all this moved woman, costumed
+sumptuously.
+
+Gradually the line of woman's (and man's) neck is lost in a ruff, her
+sweeping locks, instead of parted on her brow, entwined with pearls or
+other gems to frame her face and make long lines down the length of her
+robe, are huddled under grotesque head-dresses, monstrous creations,
+rising and spreading until they become caricatures, defying art.
+
+In some sixteenth century Italian portraits we see the ruff flaring from
+a neck cut out square and low in front, then rising behind to form a
+head covering.
+
+The last half of the sixteenth century is marked by gowns cut high in
+the neck with a close collar, and the appearance of a small ruff
+encircling the throat. This ruff almost at once increased to absurd
+dimensions.
+
+The tightly laced long-pointed bodice now appears, with and without
+padded hips. (The superlative degree of this type is to be seen in
+portraits by Velasquez (see Plate IX).)
+
+Long pointed toes to the shoes give way to broad, square ones.
+
+Another sixteenth century departure is the absurdly small hat, placed as
+if by the wind, at a careless angle on the hair, which is curled and
+piled high.
+
+Also we see hats of normal size with many plumes, on both men and women.
+
+Notice the sleeves: some are still flowing, with tight undersleeves,
+others slashed to show full white sleeve beneath. But most important of
+all is that the general license, moral and artistic, lays its ruthless
+hand on woman's beautiful, sweeping shoulder line and distorts it. Anne
+of Cleves, or the progressive artist who painted her, shows in a
+portrait the Queen's flowing sleeves with mediaeval lines, clasped by a
+broad band between elbow and shoulder, and then _pushed up_ until the
+sleeve forms an ugly puff. A monstrous fashion, this, and one soon to
+appear in a thousand mad forms. Its first vicious departure is that
+small puffy, senselessly insinuated line between arm-hole and top of
+sleeve in garments for men as well as women.
+
+Skirts button from point of basque to feet just before we see them, in
+the seventeenth century, parting down the front and separating to show a
+petticoat. In Queen Elizabeth's time the acme of this style was reached
+by Spanish women as we see in Velasquez's portraits. Gradually the
+overskirt is looped back, (at first only a few inches), and tied with
+narrow ribbons.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIV
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in Winter afternoon costume, one which
+    is so suited to her type and at the same time conservative
+    as to outline and detail, that it would have charm whether
+    in style or not.
+
+    [Illustration: _Victor Georg--Chicago_
+    _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon Costume--Winter_]
+
+
+The second quarter of the seventeenth century shows the waist line drawn
+in and bodice with skirts a few inches in depth. These skirts are the
+hall-mark of a basque.
+
+Very short, full coats flaring from under arms now appear.
+
+After the skirt has been pushed back and held with ribbons, we find
+gradually all fulness of upper skirt pushed to hips to form paniers, and
+across the back to form a bustle effect, until we have the Marie
+Antoinette type, late eighteenth century. Far more graceful and
+_seduisant_ than the costume of Queen Elizabeth's time.
+
+The figures presented by Marie Antoinette and her court, powdered wigs
+and patches, paniers and enormous hats, surmounting the horsehair
+erections, heavy with powder and grease, lace, ribbon flowers and
+jewels, are quaint, delightful and diverting, but not to be compared
+with the Greek or mediaeval lines in woman's costume.
+
+Extremely extended skirts gave way to an interlude of full skirts, but
+flowing lines in the eighteenth century English portraits.
+
+The Directoire reaction towards simplicity was influenced by English
+fashion.
+
+Empire formality under classic influence came next. Then Victorian hoops
+which were succeeded by the Victorian bustles, pantalets, black velvet
+at throat and wrists, and lockets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+The eighteenth century is unique by reason of scientific discoveries,
+mechanical inventions and chemical achievements, coupled with the
+gigantic political upheaval of the French Revolution.
+
+It is unique, distinguished and enormously fruitful. For example, the
+modern frenzy for chintz, which has made our homes burst into bloom in
+endless variety, had its origin in the eighteenth century looms at Jouy,
+near Versailles, under the direction of Oberkampf.
+
+Before 1760 silks and velvets decorated man and his home. Royal
+patronage co-operating with the influence of such great decorators as
+Percier and Fontaine gave the creating of beautiful stuffs to the silk
+factories of Lyons.
+
+Printed linens and painted wall papers appeared in France
+simultaneously, and for the same reason. The Revolution set mass-taste
+(which is often stronger than individual inclination), toward
+unostentatious, inexpensive materials for house furnishing and wearing
+apparel.
+
+The Revolution had driven out royalty and the high aristocracy who, with
+changed names lived in seclusion. Society, therefore, to meet the
+mass-desire, was driven to simple ways of living. Men gave up their
+silks and velvets and frills, lace and jewels for cloth, linen, and
+sombre neck-cloths. The women did the same; they wore muslin gowns and
+their own hair, and went to great length in the affectation of
+simplicity and patriotic fervour.
+
+We hear that, apropos of America having at this moment entered the great
+struggle with the Central Powers, simplicity is decreed as smart for the
+coming season, and that those who costume themselves extravagantly,
+furnish their homes ostentatiously or allow their tables to be lavish,
+will be frowned upon as bad form and unpatriotic.
+
+These reactions are inevitable, and come about with the regularity of
+_tides_ in this world of perpetual repetition.
+
+The belles of the Directorate shook their heads and bobbed their pretty
+locks at the artificiality Marie Antoinette et cie had practised. I fear
+they called it sinful art to deftly place a patch upon the face, or make
+a head-dress in the image of a man-of-war.
+
+Mme. de Stael's familiar head-dress, twisted and wrapped around her head
+a la Turque, is said to have had its origin in the improvisation of the
+court hairdresser. Desperately groping for another version of the
+top-heavy erection, to humour the lovely queen, he seized upon a piece
+of fine lace and muslin hanging on a chair at hand, and twisting it,
+wrapped the thing about the towering wig. As it happened, the chiffon
+was my lady's chemise!
+
+We begin the eighteenth century with a full petticoat, trimmed with rows
+of ruffles or bands; an overskirt looped back into paniers to form the
+bustle effect; the natural hair powdered; and head-dress of lace,
+standing out stiffly in front and drooping in a curtain behind.
+
+It was not until the whim of Marie Antoinette decreed it so, that the
+enormous powdered wigs appeared.
+
+Viennese temperament alone accounts for the moods of this lovely tragic
+queen, who played at making butter, in a cap and apron, over simple
+muslin frocks, but outdid her artificial age in love of artifice (not
+Art) in dress.
+
+This gay and dainty puppet of relentless Fate propelled by varying moods
+must needs lose her lovely head at last, as symbol of her time.
+
+
+    PLATE XXV
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in a summer afternoon costume
+    appropriate for city or country and so adapted to the
+    wearer's type that she is a picture, whether in action;
+    seated on her own porch; having tea at the country club; or
+    in the Winter sun-parlour.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle in Afternoon
+    Costume--Summer_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WOMAN IN THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
+
+
+The first seventy years of the nineteenth century seem to us
+of 1917 absolutely incredible in regard to dress. How our
+great-great-grandmothers ever got about on foot, in a carriage or
+stage-coach, moved in a crowd or even sat in any measure of serenity at
+home, is a mystery to us of an age when comfort, convenience, fitness
+and chic have at last come to terms. For a vivid picture of how our
+American society looked between 1800 and 1870, read Miss Elizabeth
+McClellan's _Historic Dress in America_, published in 1910 by George W.
+Jacobs & Co., of Philadelphia. The book is fascinating and it not only
+amuses and informs, but increases one's self-respect, if a woman, for
+_modern_ woman dressed in accordance with her role.
+
+We can see extravagant wives point out with glee to tyrant mates how, in
+the span of years between 1800 and 1870 our maternal forebears made
+money fly, even in the Quaker City. Fancy paying in Philadelphia at that
+time, $1500 for a lace scarf, $400 for a shawl, $100 for the average
+gown of silk, and $50 for a French bonnet! Miss McClellan, quoting from
+_Mrs. Roger Pryor's Memoirs_, tells how she, Mrs. Pryor, as a young girl
+in Washington, was awakened at midnight by a note from the daughter of
+her French milliner to say that a box of bonnets had arrived from Paris.
+Mamma had not yet unpacked them and if she would come at once, she might
+have her pick of the treasures, and Mamma not know until too late to
+interfere. And this was only back in the 50's, we should say.
+
+Then think of the hoops, and wigs and absurdly furbished head-dresses;
+paper-soled shoes, some intended only to _sit_ in; bonnets enormous;
+laces of cobweb; shawls from India by camel and sailing craft; rouge,
+too, and hair grease, patches and powder; laced waists and cramped feet;
+low necks and short sleeves for children in school-rooms.
+
+Man was then still decorative here and in western Europe. To-day he is
+not decorative, unless in sports clothes or military uniform; woman's
+garments furnish all the colour. Whistler circumvented this fact when
+painting Theodore Duret (Metropolitan Museum) in sombre black
+broadcloth,--modern evening attire, by flinging over the arm of Duret,
+the delicate pink taffeta and chiffon cloak of a woman, and in M.
+Duret's hand he places a closed fan of pomegranate red.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+SEX IN COSTUMING
+
+
+"European dress" is the term accepted to imply the costume of man and
+woman which is entirely cosmopolitan, decrying continuity of types (of
+costume) and thoroughly plastic in the hands of fashion.
+
+To-day, we say parrot-like, that certain materials, lines and colours
+are masculine or feminine. They are so merely by association. The modern
+costuming of man the world over, if he appear in European dress (we
+except court regalia), is confined to cloth, linen or cotton, in black,
+white and inconspicuous colours; a prescribed and simple type of
+neckwear, footwear, hat, stick, and hair cut.
+
+The progenitor of the garments of modern men was the
+Lutheran-Puritan-Revolutionary garb, the hall-mark of democracy.
+
+It is true that when silk was first introduced into Europe, from the
+Orient, the Greeks and early Romans considered it too effeminate for
+man's use, but this had to do with the doctrine of austere denial for
+the good of the state. To wear the costume of indolence implied
+inactivity and induced it. As a matter of fact, some of the master
+spirits of Greece did wear silks.
+
+In Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Media, Persia and the Far East, men and women
+wore the same materials, as in China and Japan to-day. Egyptian men and
+their contemporaries throughout Byzantium, wore gowns, in outline
+identical with those of the women. Among the Turks, trousers were always
+considered as appropriate for women as for men, and both men and women
+wore over the trousers, a long garment not unlike those of the women in
+the Gothic period.
+
+Thais wore a gilded wig, but so did the men she knew, and they added
+gilded false beards.
+
+Assyrian kings wore earrings, bracelets and wonderful clasps with
+chains, by which the folds of their draped garment,--cut like the
+woman's, might be caught up and held securely, leaving feet, arms and
+hands free for action.
+
+When the genius of the Byzantine, Greek and Venetian manufacturers of
+silks and velvets, rich in texture and ablaze with colour, were offered
+for sale to the Romans, whose passion for display had increased with
+their fortunes, and consequent lives of dissipation, we find there was
+no distinction made between the materials used by man and woman.
+
+It is no exaggeration to say that the Renaissance spells brocade. Great
+designs and small ones sprawled over the figures of man and woman alike.
+
+Lace was as much his as hers to use for wide, elaborate collars and
+cuffs. Embroidery belonged to both, and the men (like the women) of
+Germany, France, Italy and England wore many plumes on their big straw
+hats and metal helmets. The intercommunication between the Orient and
+all of the countries of the Western Hemisphere, and the abundance and
+variety of human trappings bewildered and vitiated taste.
+
+Unfortunately the change in line of costume has not moved parallel to
+the line in furniture. The revival of classic interior decoration in
+Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England, etc., did not at once revive the
+classic lines in woman's clothes.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVI
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle costumed a la guerre for a walk in the
+    country.
+
+    The cap is after one worn by her aviator husband.
+
+    This is one of the costumes--there are many--being worn by
+    women engaged in war work under the head of messengers,
+    chauffeurs, etc.
+
+    The shoes are most decidedly not for service, but they will
+    be replaced when the time is at hand, for others of stout
+    leather with heavy soles and flat heels.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle Costumed a la Guerre for
+    a Walk_]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+LINE AND COLOUR OF COSTUMES IN HUNGARY
+
+
+The idea that man decorative, by reason of colour or line in costume, is
+of necessity either masquerading or effeminate, proceeds chiefly from
+the conventional nineteenth and twentieth century point of view in
+America and western Europe. But even in those parts of the world we are
+accustomed to colour in the uniforms of army and navy, the crimson
+"hood" of the university doctor, and red sash of the French Legion of
+Honour. We accept colour as a dignified attribute of man's attire in the
+cases cited, and we do not forget that our early nineteenth century
+American masculine forebears wore bright blue or vivid green coats,
+silver and brass buttons and red or yellow waistcoats. The gentleman
+sportsman of the early nineteenth century hunted in bright blue tailed
+coats with brass buttons, scarlet waistcoat, tight breeches and top
+hat! We refer to the same class of man who to-day wears rough, natural
+coloured tweeds, leather coat and close cap that his prey may not see
+him.
+
+In a sense, colour is a sign of virility when used by man. We have the
+North American Indian with his gay feathers, blankets and war paint, and
+the European peasant in his gala costume. In many cases colour is as
+much his as his woman's. Some years ago, when collecting data concerning
+national characteristics as expressed in the art of the Slavs, Magyars
+and Czechs, the writer studied these peoples in their native settings.
+We went first to Hungary and were disappointed to find Buda Pest far too
+cosmopolitan to be of value for the study of national costume, music or
+drama. The dominating and most artistic element in Hungary is the
+Magyar, and we were there to study him. But even the Gypsies who played
+the Magyar music in our hotel orchestra, wore the black evening dress of
+western Europe and patent leather shoes, and the music they played was
+from the most modern operettas. It was not until a world-famous
+Hungarian violinist arrived to give concerts in Buda Pest that the
+national spirit of the Gypsies was stirred to play the Magyar airs in
+his honour. (Gypsies take on the spirit of any adopted land). We then
+realised what they could make of the Recockzy march and other folk
+music.
+
+The experience of that evening spurred us to penetrate into southern
+Hungary, the heart of Magyar land, armed with letters of introduction,
+from one of the ministers of education, to mayors of the peasant
+villages.
+
+It was impossible to get on without an interpreter, as usually even the
+mayors knew only the Magyar language--not a word of German. That was the
+perfect region for getting at Magyar character expressed in the colour
+and line of costume, manner of living, point of view, folk song and
+dance. It is all still vividly clear to our mind's eye. We saw the first
+Magyar costumes in a village not far from Buda Pest. To make the few
+miles quickly, we had taken an electric trolley, vastly superior to
+anything in New York at the time of which we speak; and were let off in
+the centre of a group of small, low thatched cottages, white-washed,
+and having a broad band of one, two or three colours, extending from
+the ground to about three feet above it, and completely encircling the
+house. The favourite combination seemed to be blue and red, in parallel
+stripes. Near one of these houses we saw a very old woman with a long
+lashed whip in her hand, guarding two or three dark, curly, long-legged
+Hungarian pigs. She wore high boots, many short skirts, a shawl and a
+head-kerchief. Presently two other figures caught our eye: a man in a
+long cape to the tops of his boots, made of sheepskin, the wool inside,
+the outside decorated with bright-coloured wools, outlining crude
+designs. The black fur collar was the skin of a small black lamb, legs
+and tail showing, as when stripped off the little animal. The man wore a
+cone-shaped hat of black lamb and his hair reached to his shoulders. He
+smoked a very long-stemmed pipe with a china bowl, as he strolled along.
+Behind him a woman walked, bowed by the weight of an immense sack. She
+wore boots to the knees, many full short skirts, and a yellow and red
+silk head-kerchief. By her head-covering we knew her to be a married
+woman. They were a farmer and his wife! Among the Magyars the man is
+very decidedly the peacock; the woman is the pack-horse. On market days
+he lounges in the sunshine, wrapped in his long sheepskin cape, and
+smokes, while she plies the trade. In the farmers' homes of southern
+Hungary where we passed some time, we, as Americans, sat at table with
+the men of the house, while wife and daughter served. There was one
+large dish of food in the centre, into which every one dipped! The women
+of the peasant class never sit at table with their men; they serve them
+and eat afterwards, and they always address them in the second person
+as, "Will your graciousness have a cup of coffee?" Also they always walk
+behind the men. At country dances we have seen young girls in bright,
+very full skirts, with many ribbons braided into the hair, cluster shyly
+at a short distance from the dancing platform in the fair grounds,
+waiting to be beckoned or whistled to by one of the sturdy youths with
+skin-tight trousers, tucked into high boots, who by right of might, has
+stationed himself on the platform. When they have danced, generally a
+czardas, the girl goes back to the group of women, leaving the man on
+the platform in command of the situation! Yet already in 1897 women were
+being admitted to the University of Buda Pest. There in Hungary one
+could see woman run the whole gamut of her development, from man's slave
+to man's equal.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVII
+
+    Mrs. Vernon Castle in one of her dancing costumes.
+
+    She was snapped by the camera as she sprang into a pose of
+    mere joyous abandon at the conclusion of a long series of
+    more or less exacting poses.
+
+    Mrs. Castle assures us that to repeat the effect produced
+    here, in which camera, lucky chance and favourable wind
+    combined, would be well-nigh impossible.
+
+    [Illustration: _Mrs. Vernon Castle_
+    _A Fantasy_]
+
+
+We found the national colour scheme to have the same violent contrasts
+which characterise the folk music and the folk poetry of the Magyars.
+
+Primitive man has no use for half-tones. It was the same with the
+Russian peasants and with the Poles. Our first morning in Krakau a great
+clattering of wheels and horses' hoofs on the cobbled court of our
+hotel, accompanied by the cracking of a whip and voices, drew us to our
+window. At first we thought a strolling circus had arrived, but no, that
+man with the red crown to his black fur cap, a peacock's feather
+fastened to it by a fantastic brooch, was just an ordinary farmer in
+Sunday garb. In the neighbourhood of Krakau the young men wear frock
+coats of white cloth, over bright red, short tight coats, and their
+light-coloured skin-tight trousers, worn inside knee boots, are
+embroidered in black down the fronts.
+
+One afternoon we were the guests of a Polish painter, who had married a
+pretty peasant, his model. He was a gentleman by birth and breeding, had
+studied art in Paris and spoke French, German and English. His wife, a
+child of the soil, knew only the dialect of her own province, but with
+the sensitive response of a Pole, eagerly waited to have translated to
+her what the Americans were saying of life among women in their country.
+She served us with tea and liquor, the red heels of her high boots
+clicking on the wooden floor as she moved about. As colour and as line,
+of a kind, that young Polish woman was a feast to the eye; full scarlet
+skirt, standing out over many petticoats and reaching only to the tops
+of her knee boots, full white bodice, a sleeveless jacket to the waist
+line, made of brightly coloured cretonne, outlined with coloured beads;
+a bright yellow head-kerchief bound her soft brown hair; her eyes were
+brown, and her skin like a yellow peach. On her neck hung strings of
+coral and amber beads. There was indeed a decorative woman! As for her
+background, it was simple enough to throw into relief the brilliant
+vision that she was. Not, however, a scheme of interior decoration to
+copy! The walls were whitewashed; a large stove of masonry was built
+into one corner, and four beds and a cradle stood on the other side of
+the room, over which hung in a row five virgins, the central one being
+the Black Virgin beloved by the Poles. The legend is that the original
+was painted during the life of the Virgin, on a panel of dark wood.
+Here, too, was the marriage chest, decorated with a crude design in
+bright colours. The children, three or four of them, ran about in the
+national costume, miniatures of their mother, but barefoot.
+
+It was the same in Hungary, when we were taken by the mayor of a Magyar
+town to visit the characteristic farmhouse of a highly prosperous
+farmer, said to be worth two hundred thousand dollars. The table was
+laid in the end of a room having four beds in it. On inquiring later, we
+were told that they were not ordinarily used by the family, but were
+heaped with the reserve bedding. In other words, they were recognised by
+the natives as indicating a degree of affluence, and were a bit of
+ostentation, not the overcrowding of necessity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+STUDYING LINE AND COLOUR IN RUSSIA
+
+
+From Hungary we continued our quest of line and colour of folk costume
+into Russia.
+
+Strangely enough, Russia throws off the imperial yoke of autocracy,
+declaring for democratic principles, at the very moment we undertake to
+put into words the vivid picturesqueness resulting largely from the
+causes of this astounding revolution. Have you been in Russia? Have you
+seen with your own eyes any phase of the violent contrasts which at last
+have caused the worm to turn? Our object being to study national
+characteristics as expressed in folk costume, folk song, folk dance,
+traditional customs and fetes, we consulted students of these subjects,
+whom we chanced to meet in London, Paris, Vienna and Buda Pest, with the
+result that we turned our faces toward southern or "Little" Russia, as
+the part least affected by cosmopolitan influences.
+
+Kiev was our headquarters, and it is well to say at once that we found
+what we sought,--ample opportunity to observe the genuine Russian, the
+sturdy, dogged, plodding son of toil, who, more than any other European
+peasant seems a part of the soil, which in sullen persistency he tills.
+We knew already the Russians of Petrograd and Moscow; one meets them in
+Paris, London, Vienna, at German and Austrian Cures and on the Riviera.
+They are everywhere and always distinctive by reason of their Slav
+temperament; a magnetic race quality which is Asiatic in its essence. We
+recognise it, we are stirred by it, we are drawn to it in their
+literature, their music, their painting and in the Russian people
+themselves. The quality is an integral part of Russian nature; polishing
+merely increases its attraction as with a gem. One instance of this is
+the folk melody as treated by Tschaikowsky compared with its simple form
+as sung or danced by the peasant.
+
+
+    PLATE XXVIII
+
+    A skating costume worn by Miss Weld of Boston, holder of
+    the Woman's Figure Skating Championship.
+
+    This photograph was taken in New York on March 23, 1917,
+    when amateurs contested for the cup and Miss Weld won--this
+    time over the men.
+
+    The costume of wine-coloured velvet trimmed with mole-skin,
+    a small close toque to match, was one of the most
+    appropriate and attractive models of 1916-1917.
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of New York Herald_
+    _Modern Skating Costume 1917 Winner of Amateur Championship
+    of Fancy Skating_]
+
+
+Some of the Russian women of the fashionable world are very decorative.
+Our first impression of this type was in Paris, at the Russian Church on
+Christmas (or was it some other holy day?) when to the amazement of the
+uninitiated the Russian women of the aristocracy appeared at the morning
+service hatless and in full evening dress, wearing jewels as if for a
+function at some secular court. Their masculine escorts appeared in full
+regalia, the light of the altar candles adding mystery to the glitter of
+gold lace and jewels. Those occasions are picturesque in the extreme.
+
+The congregation stands, as in the Jewish synagogues, and those of
+highest rank are nearest the altar, invariably ablaze with gold, silver
+and precious stones, while on occasions the priest wears cloth of gold.
+
+In Paris this background and the whole scene was accepted as a part of
+the pageant of that city, but in Kiev it was different. There we got the
+other side of the picture; the man and the woman who are really Russia,
+the element that finds an outlet in the folk music, for its age-old
+rebellious submission. One hears the soul of the Russian pulsating in
+the continued reiteration of the same theme; it is like the endless
+treadmill of a life without vistas. We were looking at the Russia of
+Maxim Gorky, the Russia that made Tolstoy a reformer; that has now
+forced its Czar to abdicate.
+
+We reached Kiev just before the Easter of the Greek Church, the season
+when the pilgrims, often as many as fifty thousand of them, tramp over
+the frozen roads from all parts of the empire to expiate their sins,
+kneeling at the shrine of one of their mummied, sainted bishops.
+
+The men and women alike, clad in grimy sheepskin coats, moved like
+cattle in straggling droves, over the roads which lead to Kiev. From a
+distance one cannot tell man from woman, but as they come closer, one
+sees that the woman has a bright kerchief tied round her head, and red
+or blue peasant embroidery dribbles below her sheepskin coat. She is as
+stocky as a Shetland pony and her face is weather-beaten, with high
+cheekbones and brown eyes. The man wears a black astrachan conical cap
+and his hair is long and bushy, from rubbing bear grease into it. He
+walks with a crooked staff, biblical in style, and carries his worldly
+goods in a small bundle flung over his shoulder. The woman carries her
+own small burden. As they shuffle past, a stench arises from the human
+herd. It comes from the sheepskin, which is worked in, slept in, and,
+what is more, often inherited from a parent who had also worn it as his
+winter hide. Added to the smell of the sheepskin is that of an unwashed
+human, and the reek of stale food, for the poorest of the Russian
+peasants have no chimneys to their houses. They cannot afford to let the
+costly heat escape.
+
+Kiev, the holy city and capital of Ancient Russia, climbs from its
+ancestral beginnings, on the banks of the River Dneiper, up the steep
+sides and over the summit of a commanding hilltop, crowned by an immense
+gold cross, illumined with electricity by night, to flash its message of
+hope to foot-sore pilgrims. The driver of our drosky drove us over the
+rough cobbles so rapidly, despite the hill, that we were almost
+overturned. It is the manner of Russian drosky drivers. The cathedral,
+our goal, was snowy-white, with frescoes on the outer walls,
+onion-shaped domes of bronze turned green; or gold, or blue with stars
+of gold.
+
+We entered and found the body of the church well filled by peasants,
+women and men in sheepskin. One poor doe-eyed creature crouched to press
+his forehead twenty times at least on the stone floor of the church.
+Eagerly, like a flock of sheep, they all pushed forward to where a
+richly-robed priest held a cross of gold for each to kiss, taking their
+proffered kopeks.
+
+The setting sun streamed through the ancient stained glass, dyeing their
+dirty sheepskin crimson, and purple, and green, until they looked like
+illuminations in old missals. To the eye and the mind of western Europe
+it was all incomprehensible. Yet those were the people of Russia who are
+to-day her mass of armed defenders; the element that has been counted on
+from the first by Russia and her allies stood penniless before an altar
+laid over with gold and silver and precious stones. Just before we got
+to Kiev, one of those men in sheepskins with uncut hair and dogged
+expression, who had a sense of values in human existence, broke into
+the church and stole jeweled chalices from the altar. They were traced
+to a pawnshop in a distant city and brought back. It was a common thing
+to see men halt in the street and stand uncovered, while a pitiful
+funeral cortege passed. A wooly, half-starved, often lame horse, was
+harnessed with rope to a simple four-wheeled farm wagon, a long-haired
+peasant at his head, women and children holding to the sides of the cart
+as they stumbled along in grief, and inside a rough wooden coffin
+covered with a black pall, on which was sewn the Greek cross, in white.
+Heartless, hopeless, weary and underfed, those peasants were taking
+their dead to be blessed for a price, by the priest in cloth of gold,
+without whose blessing there could be no burial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MARK TWAIN'S LOVE OF COLOUR IN ALL COSTUMING
+
+
+The public thinks of Mark Twain as being the apostle of _white_ during
+the last years of his life, but those who knew him well recall his
+delightfully original way of expressing an intense love for _bright
+colours_. This brings to mind a week-end at Mark Twain's beautiful
+Italian villa in Reading, Connecticut, when, one night during dinner, he
+held forth on the compelling fascination of colours and the American
+Indian's superior judgment in wearing them. After a lengthy
+elaboration--not to say exaggeration--of his theme, he ended by
+declaring in uncompromising terms, that colour, and plenty of it,
+crimson and yellow and blue, wrapped around man, as well as woman, was
+an obligation shirked by humanity. It was all put as only Mark Twain
+could have put it, with that serious vein showing through broad humour.
+This quality combined with an unmatched originality, made every moment
+passed in his company a memory to treasure. It was not alone his theme,
+but how he dealt with it, that fascinated one.
+
+
+    PLATE XXIX
+
+    One of the 1917 silhouettes.
+
+    Naturally, since woman to-day dresses for her
+    occupation--work or play--the characteristic silhouettes are
+    many.
+
+    This one is reproduced to illustrate our point that outline
+    can be affected by the smallest detail.
+
+    The sketch is by Elisabeth Searcy.
+
+    [Illustration: _Drawn from Life by Elisabeth Searcy_
+    _A Modern Silhouette--1917 Tailor-made_]
+
+
+Mark Twain was elemental and at the same time a great artist,--the
+embodiment of extreme contradictions, and his flair for gay colour was
+one proof of his elemental strain. We laughed that night as he made word
+pictures of how men and women should dress. Next morning, toward noon,
+on looking out of a window, we saw standing in the middle of the
+driveway a figure wrapped in crimson silk, his white hair flying in the
+wind, while smoke from a pipe encircled his head. Yes, it was Mark
+Twain, who in the midst of his writing, had been suddenly struck with
+the thought that the road needed mending, and had gone out to have
+another look at it! It was a blustering day in Spring, and cold, so one
+of the household was sent to persuade him to come in. We can see him
+now, returning reluctantly, wind-blown and vehement, gesticulating, and
+stopping every few steps to express his opinion of the men who had made
+that road! The flaming red silk robe he wore was one his daughter had
+brought him from Liberty's, in London, and he adored it. Still wrapped
+in it, and seemingly unconscious of his unusual appearance, he joined us
+on the balcony, to resume a conversation of the night before.
+
+The red-robed figure seated itself in a wicker chair and berated the
+idea that mortal man ever _could_ be generous,--act without selfish
+motives. With the greatest reverence in his tone, sitting there in his
+whimsical costume of bright red silk, at high noon,--an immaculate
+French butler waiting at the door to announce lunch, Mark Twain
+concluded an analysis of modern religion with "--why the God _I_ believe
+in is too busy spinning spheres to have time to listen to human
+prayers."
+
+How often his words have been in our mind since war has shaken our
+planet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE ARTIST AND HIS COSTUME
+
+
+The world has the habit of deriding that which it does not understand.
+It is the most primitive way of bolstering one's limitations. How often
+the woman or man with a God-given sense of the beautiful, the fitting,
+harmony between costume and setting, is described as poseur or poseuse
+by those who lack the same instinct. In a sense, of course, everything
+man does, beyond obeying the rudimentary instincts of the savage, is an
+affectation, and it is not possible to claim that even our contemporary
+costuming of man or woman always has _raison d'etre_.
+
+We accept as the natural, unaffected raiment for woman and man that
+which custom has taught us to recognise as appropriate, with or without
+reason for being. For example, the tall, shiny, inflexible silk hat of
+man, and the tortuous high French heels of woman are in themselves
+neither beautiful, fitting, nor made to meet the special demands of any
+setting or circumstance. Both hat and heels are fashions, unbeautiful
+and uncomfortable, but to the eye of man to-day serve as insignia of
+formal dress, decreed by society.
+
+The artist nature has always assumed poetic license in the matter of
+dress, and as a rule defied custom, to follow an inborn feeling for
+beauty. That much-maligned short velvet coat and soft loose tie of the
+painter or writer, happen to have a most decided _raison d'etre_; they
+represent comfort, convenience, and in the case of the velvet coat,
+satisfy a sensitiveness to texture, incomprehensible to other natures.
+As for the long hair of some artists, it can be a pose, but it has in
+many cases been absorption in work, or poverty--the actual lack of money
+for the conventional haircut. In cities we consider long hair on a man
+as effeminate, an indication of physical weakness, but the Russian
+peasant, most sturdy of individuals, wears his hair long, and so do many
+others among extremely primitive masculine types, who live their lives
+beyond the reach of Fashion and barbers.
+
+The short hair of the sincere woman artist is to save time at the
+toilette.
+
+There is always a limited number of men and women who, in ordinary acts
+of life, respond to texture, colour or line, as others do to music or
+scenery, and to be at their best in life, must dress their parts as they
+feel them. Japanese actors who play the parts of women, dress like women
+off the stage, and live the lives of women as nearly as possible, in
+order to acquire the feeling for women's garments; they train their
+bodies to the proper feminine carriage, counting upon this to perfect
+their interpretations.
+
+The woman who rides, hunts, shoots, fishes, sails her own boat, paddles,
+golfs and plays tennis, is very apt to look more at home in habit,
+tweeds and flannels, than she does in strictly feminine attire; the
+muscles she has acquired in legs and arms, from violent exercise, give
+an actual, not an assumed, stride and a swing to the upper body. In
+sports clothes, or severely tailored costume, this woman is at her best.
+Most trying for her will be demi-toilette (house gowns). She is
+beautiful at night because a certain balance, dignity and grace are
+lent her by the decolletage and train of a dinner or ball gown. English
+women who are devotees of sport, demonstrate the above fact over and
+over again.
+
+While on the subject of responsiveness to texture and colour we would
+remind the reader that Richard Wagner hung the room in which he worked
+at his operas with bright silks, for the art stimulus he got from
+colour, and it is a well-known fact that he derived great pleasure from
+wearing dressing gowns and other garments made from rich materials.
+
+Clyde Fitch, our American playwright, when in his home, often wore
+velvet or brocaded silks. They were more sympathetic to his artist
+nature, more in accord with his fondness for wearing jewelled studs,
+buttons, scarf-pins. In his town and country houses the main scheme,
+leading features and every smallest detail were the result of Clyde
+Fitch's personal taste and effort, and he, more than most men and women,
+appreciated what a blot an inartistic human being can be on a room which
+of itself is a work of art.
+
+
+    PLATE XXX
+
+    Souvenirs of an artist designer's unique establishment, in
+    spirit and accomplishment _vrai Parisienne_. Notice the long
+    cape in the style of 1825.
+
+    Tappe himself will tell you that all periods have had their
+    beautiful lines and colours; their interesting details; that
+    to find beauty one must first have the feeling for it; that
+    if one is not born with this subtle instinct, there are
+    manifold opportunities for cultivating it.
+
+    His claim is the same as that made in our _Art of Interior
+    Decoration_; the connoisseur is one who has passed through
+    the schooling to be acquired only by contact with
+    masterpieces,--those treasures sifted by time and preserved
+    for our education, in great art collections.
+
+    Tappe emphasises the necessity of knowing the background for
+    a costume before planning it; the value of line in the
+    physique beneath the materials; the interest to be woven
+    into a woman's costume when her type is recognised, and the
+    modern insistence on appropriateness--that is, the simple
+    gown and close hat for the car, vivid colours for field
+    sports or beach; a large fan for the woman who is mistress
+    of sweeping lines, etc., etc.
+
+    Tappe is absolutely French in his insistence upon the
+    possible eloquence of line; a single flower well poised and
+    the chic which is dependent upon _how a hat or gown is put
+    on_. We have heard him say: "No, I will not claim the hat in
+    that photograph, though I made it, because it is _mal
+    pose_."
+
+    [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by Thelma
+    Cudlipp_
+    _Tappe's Creations_]
+
+In England, and far more so in America, men are put down as effeminate
+who wear jewelry to any marked extent. But no less a person than King
+Edward VII always wore a chain bangle on his arm, and one might cite
+countless men of the Continent as thoroughly masculine--Spaniards in
+particular--who wear as many jewelled rings as women. Apropos of this, a
+famous topaz, worn as a ring for years by a distinguished Spaniard was
+recently inherited by a relation in America--a woman. The stone was of
+such importance as a gem, that a record was kept of its passing from
+France into America. As a man's ring it was impressive and the setting
+such as to do it honour, but being a man's ring, it was too heavy for a
+woman's use. A pendant was made of the stone and a setting given it
+which turned out to be too trifling in character. The consequence was,
+the stone lost in value as a Rubens' canvas would, if placed in an art
+nouveau frame.
+
+Whether it is a precious stone, a valued painting or a woman's
+costume--the effect produced depends upon the character of its setting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+IDIOSYNCRASIES IN COSTUME
+
+
+Fashions in dress as in manners, religion, art, literature and drama,
+are all powerful because they seize upon the public mind.
+
+The Chelsea group of revolutionary artists in New York doubtless
+see,--perhaps but dimly, the same star that led Goethe and Schiller on,
+in the storm and stress period of their time. We smile now as we recall
+how Schiller stood on the street corners of Leipzig, wearing a
+dressing-gown by day to defy custom; but the youth of Athens did the
+same in the last days of Greece. In fact then the darlings of the gilded
+world struck attitudes of abandon in order to look like the Spartans.
+They refused to cut their hair and they would not wash their hands, and
+even boasted of their ragged clothes after fist fights in the streets.
+Yes, the gentlemen did this.
+
+In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was a cult that wore furs
+in Summer and thin clothes in Winter, to prove that love made them
+strong enough to resist the elements! You will recall the Euphuists of
+England, the Precieuses of France and the Illuminati of the eighteenth
+century, as well as Les Merveilleux and Les Encroyables. The rich during
+the Renaissance were great and wise collectors but some followed the
+fashion for collecting manuscripts even when unable to read them. It is
+interesting to find that in the fourth and fifth centuries it was
+fashionable to be literary. Those with means for existence without
+labour, wrote for their own edification, copying the style of the
+ancient poets and philosophers.
+
+As early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Venetian women were
+shown the Paris fashions each Ascension Day on life-size dolls,
+displayed by an enterprising importer.
+
+It is true that fashions come and go, not only in dress, but how one
+should sit, stand, and walk; how use the hands and feet and eyes. To
+squint was once deemed a modest act. Women of the fifteenth and
+sixteenth centuries stood with their abdomens out, and so did some in
+1916! There are also fashions in singing and speaking.
+
+The poses in portraits express much. Compare the exactly prim Copley
+miss, with a recent portrait by Cecilia Beaux of a young girl seated,
+with dainty satin-covered feet outstretched to full extent of the limbs,
+in casual impertinence,--our age!
+
+To return to the sixteenth century, it is worthy of note that some
+Venetian belles wore patines--that is, shoes with blocks of wood,
+sometimes two feet high, fastened to the soles. They could not move
+without a maid each side! As it was an age when elemental passions were
+"good form," jealous husbands are blamed for these!
+
+In the seventeenth century the idle dancing youth of to-day had his
+prototype in the Cavalier Servente, who hovered at his lady's side,
+affecting extravagant and effeminate manners.
+
+The corrupt morals of the sixteenth century followed in the wake of
+social intercourse by travel, literature, art and styles for costumes.
+
+Mme. Recamier, the exquisite embodiment of the Directoire style as
+depicted by David in his famous portrait of her, scandalised London by
+appearing in public, clad in transparent Greek draperies and scarfs.
+Later Mme. Jerome Bonaparte, a Baltimore belle, quite upset Philadelphia
+by repeating Mme. Recamier's experiment in that city of brotherly love!
+We are also told on good authority that one could have held Madame's
+wedding gown in the palm of the hand.
+
+Victorian hoops for public conveyances, paper-soled slippers in
+snow-drifts, wigs immense and heavy with powder, hair-oil and furbelows,
+hour-glass waist lines producing the "vapours" fortunately are no more.
+
+Taken by and large, we of the year 1917 seem to have reached the point
+where woman's psychology demands of dress fitness for each occasion,
+that she may give herself to her task without a material handicap. May
+the good work in this direction continue, as the panorama of costumes
+for women moves on down the ages that are to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+NATIONALITY IN COSTUME
+
+
+When seen in perspective, the costumes of various periods, as well as
+the architecture, interior decoration and furnishings of the homes of
+men appear as distinct types, though to the man or woman of any
+particular period the variations of the type are bewildering and
+misleading. It is the same in physical types; when visiting for the
+first time a foreign land one is immediately struck by a national cast
+of feature, English, French, American, Russian, etc. But if we remain in
+the country for any length of time, the differences between individuals
+impress us and we lose track of those features and characteristics the
+nation possesses in common. To-day, if asked what outline, materials and
+colour schemes characterise our fashions, some would say that almost
+anything in the way of line, materials and colour were worn. There is,
+however, always an epoch type, and while more than ever before the law
+of _appropriateness_ has dictated a certain silhouette for each
+occasion,--each occupation,--when recorded in costume books of the
+future we will be recognised as a distinct phase; as distinct as the
+Gothic, Elizabethan, Empire or Victorian period.
+
+
+    PLATE XXXI
+
+    Costume of a Red Cross Nurse, worn while working in a
+    French war hospital, by Miss Elsie de Wolfe, of New York. An
+    example of woman costumed so as to be most efficient for the
+    work in hand.
+
+    Miss de Wolfe's name has become synonymous with interior
+    decoration, throughout the length and breadth of our land,
+    but she established a reputation as one of the best-dressed
+    women in America, long before she left the stage to
+    professionally decorate homes. She has done an immeasurable
+    amount toward moulding the good taste of America in several
+    fields. At present her energies are in part devoted to
+    disseminating information concerning a cure for burns, one
+    of the many discoveries resulting from the exigencies of the
+    present devastating war.
+
+    [Illustration: _Miss Elsie de Wolfe in Costume of Red Cross Nurse_]
+
+
+As we have said, in studying the history of woman decorative, one
+finds two widely separated aspects of the subject, which must be
+considered in turn. There is the classifying of woman's apparel
+which comes under the head of European dress, woman's costume affected
+by cosmopolitan influences; costumes worn by that part of humanity
+which is in close intercommunication and reflecting the ebb and flow of
+currents--political, geographical and artistic. Then we have quite
+another field for study, that of national costumes, by which we mean
+costumes peculiar to some one nation and worn by its men and women
+century after century.
+
+It is interesting as well as depressing for the student of national
+characteristics to see the picturesque distinguishing lines and colours
+gradually disappear as railroads, steamboats and electric trolleys
+penetrate remote districts. With any influx of curious strangers there
+comes in time, often all too quickly, a regrettable self-consciousness,
+which is followed at first by an awkward imitation of the cosmopolitan
+garb.
+
+We recall our experience in Hungary. Having been advised to visit the
+peasant villages and farms lying out on the puestas (plains of southern
+Hungary) if we would see the veritable national costumes, we set out
+hopefully with letters of introduction from a minister of education in
+Buda Pest, directed to mayors of Magyar villages. One of these planned a
+visit to a local celebrity, a Magyar farmer, very old, very prosperous,
+rich in herds of horses, sheep and magnificent Hungarian oxen, large,
+white and with almost straight, spreading horns, like the oxen of the
+ancient Greeks. There we met a man of the old school, nearly eighty, who
+had never in his life slept under cover, his duty being to guard his
+flocks and herds by night as well as day, though he had amassed what was
+for his station in life, a great fortune. He had never been seen in
+anything but the national costume, the same as worn in his part of the
+world for several hundred years. And so we went to see him in his home.
+We were all expectation! You can imagine our disappointment, when, upon
+arrival, we found our host awaiting us, painfully attired in the
+ordinary dark cloth coat and trousers of the modern farmer the world
+over. He had donned the ugly things in our honour, taking an hour to
+make his toilet, as we were secretly informed by one of the household.
+We tell this to show how one must persevere in the pursuit of artistic
+data. This was the same occasion cited in _The Art of Interior
+Decoration,_ when the highly decorative peasant tableware was banished
+by the women in the house, to make room, again in our honour, for plain
+white ironstone china.
+
+The feeling for line accredited to the French woman is equally the
+birthright of the Magyar--woman and man. One sees it in the dash of the
+court beauty who can carry off a mass of jewels, barbaric in splendour,
+where the average European or American would feel a Christmas tree in
+the same. And no man in Europe wears his uniform as the Hungarian
+officer of hussars does; the astrachan-trimmed short coat, slung over
+one shoulder, cap trimmed with fur, on the side of his head, and
+skin-tight trousers inside of faultless, spurred boots reaching to the
+knees. One can go so far as to say there is something decorative in the
+very temperament of Hungarian women, a fiery abandon, which makes _line_
+in a subtle way quite apart from the line of costume. This quality is
+also possessed by the Spanish woman, and developed to a remarkable
+degree in the professional Spanish dancer. The Gipsy woman has it
+too,--she brought it with her from Asia, as the Magyar's forebears did.
+
+Speaking of the Magyar, nothing so perfectly expresses the national
+temperament as the czardas--that peasant dance which begins with calm,
+stately repression, and ends in a mad ecstasy of expression, the rapid
+crescendo, the whirl, ending when the man seizes his partner and flings
+her high in the air. Watch the flash of the eyes and see that this is
+genuine temperament, not acting, but something inherent in the blood.
+The crude colour of the national costume and the sharp contrast in the
+folk music are equally expressions of national character, the various
+art expressions of which open up countless enticing vistas.
+
+The contemplation of some of these vistas leads one to the conclusion
+that woman decorative is so, either as an artist (that is, in the
+mastery of the science of line and colour, more or less under the
+control of passing fashion), or in the abandonment to the impulse of an
+untutored, unconscious, child of nature. Both can be beautiful; the art
+which is so great as to conceal conscious effort by creating the
+illusion of spontaneity, and the natural unconscious grace of the human
+being in youth or in the primitive state.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+MODELS
+
+
+An historical interest attaches to fashions in women's costuming, which
+the practised eye is quick to distinguish, but not always that of the
+novice. Of course the most casual and indifferent of mortals recognises
+the fact when woman's hat follows the lines of the French officer's cap,
+or her coat reproduces the Cossack's, with even a feint at his cartridge
+belt; but such echoes of the war are too obvious to call for comment.
+
+
+    PLATE XXXII
+
+    Madame Geraldine Farrar as _Carmen_.
+
+    In each of the three presentations of Madame Farrar we have
+    given her in character, as suggestions for stage costumes or
+    costume balls. (By courtesy of _Vanity Fair_.)
+
+    [Illustration: _Courtesy of Vanity Fair_
+    _Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Spanish Costume as Carmine_]
+
+
+It is one of the missions of art to make subtle the obvious, and a
+distinguished example of this, which will illustrate our theme,--history
+mirrored by dress,--was seen recently. One of the most famous among the
+great couturieres of Paris, who has opened a New York branch within two
+years, having just arrived with her Spring and Summer models, was
+showing them to an appreciative woman, a patron of many years. It is not
+an exaggeration to say that in all that procession of costumes for cool
+days or hot, ball-room, salon, boudoir or lawn, not one was banal, not
+one false in line or its colour-scheme. Whether the style was Classic
+Greek, Mediaeval or Empire (these prevail), one felt the result, first of
+an artist's instinct, then a deep knowledge of the pictorial records of
+periods in dress, and to crown all, that conviction of the real artist,
+which gives both courage and discretion in moulding textiles,--the
+output of modern genius, to the purest classic lines. For example, one
+reads in every current fashion sheet that beads are in vogue as
+garniture for dresses. So they are, but note how your French woman
+treats them. Whether they are of jet, steel, pearl or crystal, she
+presses them into service as so much _colour_, massing them so that one
+is conscious only of a shimmering, clinging, wrapped-toga effect, a la
+Grecque, beneath the skirt and bodice of which every line and curve of
+the woman's form is seen. Evidently some, at least, are to be gleaming
+Tanagras. Even a dark-blue serge, for the motor, shopping or train, had
+from hips to the bust parallel lines of very small tube-like jet beads,
+sewn so close together that the effect was that of a shirt of mail.
+
+The use of notes of vivid colour caught the eye. In one case, on a black
+satin afternoon gown, a tiny nosegay of forget-me-not blue, rose-pink
+and jessamine-white, was made to decorate the one large patch-pocket on
+the skirt and a lapel of the sleeveless satin coat. Again on a
+dinner-dress of black Chantilly lace, over white chiffon (Empire lines),
+a very small, deep pinkish-red rose had a white rose-bud bound close to
+it with a bit of blue ribbon. This was placed under the bertha of cobweb
+lace, and demurely in the middle of the short-waisted bodice. Again a
+robe d'interior of white satin charmeuse, had a sleeveless coat of blue,
+reaching to knees, and a dashing bias sash of pinkish-red, twice round
+the waist, with its long ends reaching to skirt hem and heavily
+weighted.
+
+Not at once, but only gradually, did it dawn upon us that most of the
+gowns bore, in some shade or form, the tricolour of France!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+WOMAN COSTUMED FOR HER WAR JOB
+
+
+Every now and then a sex war is predicted, and sometimes started,
+usually by woman, though some predicted that when the present European
+war is over and the men come home to their civilian tasks, now being
+carried on by women, man is going to take the initiative, in the sex
+conflict. We doubt it. Without deliberate design to prove this
+point,--that a complete collaboration of the sexes has always made the
+wheels of the universe revolve, many of the illustrations studied showed
+woman with man as decoration, in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and during later
+periods.
+
+The Legend of Life tells us that man can not live alone, hence woman;
+and the Pageant of Life shows that she has played opposite with
+consistency and success throughout the ages.
+
+The Sunday issue of the Philadelphia _Public Ledger_ for March 25,
+1917, has a headline, "Trousers vs. Skirts," and, continues Margaret
+Davies, the author of the article:
+
+  "This war will change all things for European women.
+  Military service, of a sort, has come for them in both
+  France and England, where they are replacing men employed in
+  clerical and other non-combatant departments, including
+  motor driving. The moment this was decided upon in England,
+  it was found that 30,000 men would be released for actual
+  fighting, with prospects of the release of more than 200,000
+  more. What the French demand will be is not known as I
+  write, but it will equal that of England.
+
+  "How will these women dress? Will they be given military
+  uniforms short of skirt or even skirtless? Of course they
+  won't; but the world on this side of the ocean would not
+  gasp should this be done. War industry already has worked a
+  revolution.
+
+  "Study the pictures which accompany this article. They are a
+  new kind of women's 'fashion pictures'; they are photographs
+  of women dressed as European circumstances now compel them
+  to dress. Note the trousers, like a Turkish woman's, of the
+  French girl munitions workers. Thousands of girls here in
+  France are working in such trousers. Note the smart liveries
+  of the girls who have taken the places of male carriage
+  starters, mechanics and elevator operators, at a great
+  London shop. They are very natty, aren't they? Almost like
+  costumes from a comic opera. Well, they are not operatic
+  costumes. They are every-day working liveries. Girls wear
+  them in the most mixed London crowds--wear them because the
+  man-shortage makes it necessary for these girls to do work
+  which skirts do not fit. All French trams and buses have
+  'conductresses.'
+
+  "The coming of women cabmen in London is inevitable--indeed,
+  it already has begun. In Paris they have been established
+  sparsely for some time and have done well, but they have not
+  been used on taxis, only on the horse cabs.
+
+  "I have spent most of my time in Paris for some months now,
+  and have ridden behind women drivers frequently. They drive
+  carefully and well and are much kinder to their horses than
+  the old, red-faced, brutal French cochers are. I like them.
+  They have a wonderful command of language, not always
+  entirely or even partially polite, but they are
+  accommodating and less greedy for tips than male drivers.
+
+  "At Selfridge's great store--the largest and most
+  progressive in London, operated on Chicago lines--skirtless
+  maidens are not rare enough to attract undue attention. The
+  first to be seen there, indeed, is not in the store at all,
+  but on the sidewalk, outside of it, engaged in the gentle
+  art of directing customers to and from their cars and cabs
+  and incidentally keeping the chauffeurs in order.
+
+  "An extremely pretty girl she is, too, with her frock-coat
+  coming to her knees, her top-boots coming to the coat, and
+  now and then, when the wind blows, a glimpse of loose
+  knickers. She tells me that she's never had a man stare at
+  her since she appeared in the new livery, although women
+  have been curious about it and even critical of it. Women
+  have done all the staring to which she has been subjected.
+
+  "Within the store, many girls engaged in various special
+  employments, are dressed conveniently for their work, in
+  perfectly frank trousers. Among these are the girls who
+  operate the elevators. There is no compromise about it.
+  These girls wear absolutely trousers every working hour of
+  every working day in a great public store, in a great
+  crowded city, rubbing elbows (even touching trousered knees,
+  inevitably) with hundreds of men daily.
+
+
+      PLATE XXXIII
+
+      Madame Geraldine Farrar. The value of line was admirably
+      illustrated in the opera "Madame Butterfly" as seen this
+      winter at the Metropolitan Opera House. Have you chanced to
+      ask yourself why the outline of the individual members of
+      the chorus was so lacking in charm, and Madame Farrar's so
+      delightful? The great point is that in putting on her
+      kimono, Madame Farrar kept in mind the characteristic
+      silhouette of the Japanese woman as shown in Japanese art;
+      then she made a picture of herself, and one in harmony with
+      her Japanese setting. Which brings us back to the keynote of
+      our book--_Woman as Decoration_--beautiful _Line_.
+
+      [Illustration: _Sketched for "Woman as Decoration" by
+      Thelma Cudlipp_
+      _Mme. Geraldine Farrar in Japanese Costume as Madame Butterfly_]
+
+
+  "And they like it. They work better in the new uniforms than
+  they used to in skirts and are less weary at each day's end.
+  And nobody worries them at all. There has not been the
+  faintest suspicion of an insult or an advance from any one
+  of the thousands of men and boys of all classes whom they
+  have ridden with upon their 'lifts,' sometimes in dense
+  crowds, sometimes in an involuntary tete-a-tete.
+
+  "Other employments which girls follow and dress for
+  bifurcatedly in this great and progressive store are more
+  astonishing than the operation of elevators. A charming
+  young plumber had made no compromise whatever with
+  tradition. She was in overalls like boy plumbers wear,
+  except that her trousers were not tight, but they were well
+  fitted. A little cap of the same material as the suit,
+  completed her jaunty and attractive costume. And cap and
+  suit were professionally stained, too, with oil and things
+  like that, while her small hands showed the grime of an
+  honest day's competent, hard work.
+
+  "The coming summer will see an immense amount of England's
+  farming done by women and, I think, well done. Organisations
+  already are under way whereby women propose to help decrease
+  the food shortage by intelligent increase of the chicken and
+  egg supply, and this is being so well planned that
+  undoubtedly it will succeed. Eggs and chickens will be
+  cheap in England ere the summer ends.
+
+  "I have met three ex-stenographers who now are at hard work,
+  two of them in munition factories (making military engines
+  of death) and one of them on a farm. I asked them how they
+  liked the change.
+
+  "'I should hate to have to go back to work in the old long
+  skirts,' one replied. 'I should hate to go back to the old
+  days of relying upon some one else for everything that
+  really matters. But--well, I wish the war would end and I
+  hope the casualty lists of fine young men will not grow
+  longer, day by day, as Spring approaches, although everybody
+  says they will.'
+
+  "Mrs. John Bull takes girls in pantaloons quite calmly and
+  approvingly, now that she has learned that if there are
+  enough of them, dad and the boys will pay no more attention
+  to them in trousers than they would pay to them in skirts."
+
+We have preferred to quote the exact wording of the original article,
+for the reason that while the facts are familiar to most of us, the
+manner of putting them could not, to our mind, be more graphic. Some
+day, when the Wateaus of the future are painting the court ladies who
+again dance pavanes in sunlit glades, wearing wigs and crinoline, such
+data will amuse.
+
+That the women of Finland make worthy members of their parliament does
+not prove anything outside of Finland. That the exigencies of the
+present hour in England have made women equal to every task of men so
+far entrusted to them, proves much for England. Women, like men, have
+untold, untried abilities within them, women and men alike are
+marvellous under fire--capable of development in every direction. What
+human nature has done it can do again, and infinitely more under the
+pressure of necessity which opens up brain cells, steels the heart,
+hardens the muscles, and like magic fire, licks up the dross of
+humanity, aimlessly floating on the surface of life, awaiting a leader
+to melt and mould it at Fate's will into clearly defined personalities,
+ready to serve. This point has been magnificently proved by the war now
+waging in Europe.
+
+Let us repeat; that from the beginning the story of woman's costuming
+proves her many-sidedness, the inexhaustible stock of her latent
+qualities which, like man's, await the call of the hour.
+
+
+
+
+IN CONCLUSION
+
+
+The foregoing chapters have aimed at showing the decorative value of
+woman's costume as seen in the art of Egypt, Greece, Gothic Europe,
+Europe of the Renaissance and during the seventeenth, eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries. To prove the point that woman is a telling note in
+the interior decoration of to-day, the vital spark in any setting, we
+have not dwelt upon the fashions so much as decorative line,
+colour-scheme and fitness for the occasion.
+
+It is costume associated with caste which interests us more than folk
+costume. We have shown that it is the modern insistence on efficiency
+that has led to appropriate dress for work and recreation, and that our
+idea of the chic and the beautiful in costume is based on
+_appropriateness_. Also we have shown that line in costumes is in part
+the result of one's "form"--the absolute control of the body, its
+"carriage," poise of the head, action of legs, arms, hands and feet, and
+that form means successful effort in any direction, because through it
+the mind may control the physical medium.
+
+It is the woman who knows what she should wear, what she can wear and
+how to wear it, who is most efficient in whatever she gives her mind to.
+She it is who will expend the least time, strength and money on her
+appearance, and be the first to report for duty in connection with the
+next obligation in the business of life.
+
+Therefore let us keep in mind a few rules for the perfect costuming of
+woman:
+
+  Appropriateness for each occasion so as to get efficiency,
+  or be as decorative as possible.
+
+  Outline.--Fashion in silhouette adapted to your own type.
+
+  Background.--Your setting.
+
+  Colour scheme.--Fashionable colours chosen and combined to
+  express your personality as well as to harmonise with the
+  tone of setting, or, if preferred, to be an agreeable
+  contrast to it.
+
+  Detail.--Trimming with _raison d'etre_,--not meaningless
+  superfluities.
+
+It is, of course, understood that the attainment of _beauty_ in the
+costuming of woman is our aim when stating and applying the foregoing
+principles.
+
+The art of interior decoration and the art of costuming woman are
+occasionally centred in the same individual, but not often. Some of the
+most perfectly dressed women, models for their less gifted sisters, are
+not only ignorant as to the art of setting their stage, but oblivious of
+the fact that it may need setting.
+
+Remember, that while an inartistic room, confused as to line and
+colour-scheme can absolutely destroy the effect of a perfect gown, an
+inartistic, though costly gown can likewise be a blot on a perfect room.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN AS DECORATION***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18901.txt or 18901.zip *******
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