What Dress Makes of Us | Page 7

sketched in No.
31, the unattractive sharpness of the profile is modified, and the alert,
agreeable quality of the face, that was obscured by the shelf-like brim,
becomes apparent. The observer feels, if he does not voice it, that it is a
progressive spirit advancing forward instead of an ungainly head-piece
that looks like a curious trowel.
For the Woman with an Angular Face.
[Illustration: NOS. 32 AND 33]

The woman with the angular features presented in No. 32 should not
wear a sailor-hat or any hat with a perfectly straight rim.
The sailor-hat or any style bordering on it should be selected with
utmost discrimination. This mode is unbecoming to a woman more
than forty; or, to one who through grief or worry prematurely attains a
look of age, or to one whose features are irregular. The straight brim
across the face is very trying. It casts a shadow deepening the "old
marks" and instead of being a frame to set off, it seems to cut off, the
face at an inartistic angle.
The woman with angular features, as may be seen by No. 33, can wear
with impunity, and always should wear, a hat the brim of which is
waved, turned, twisted, or curved in graceful lines. The uneven brim of
her hat makes an effective complement to the angularity of her chin,
which is further softened by the feathery ruff that encircles her throat.
The curves of the ostrich plumes, and the studied carelessness of the
arrangement of her coiffure, subdue the angles of her face which are
brought out in unbecoming prominence by the sailor-hat.
Women Who should Not Wear Horns.
The velvet horns on either side of a hat, the steeple-like central
adornments that were once much in favor, and the Mercury wings that
ornament the coiffure for evening dress, produce some startling,
disagreeable, and amusing effects not altogether uninteresting to
consider.
Faces in which the eyes are set too near the forehead acquire a scared
look by being surmounted by a bonnet upon which the trimming
gravitates to a point in an arrangement not unsuggestive of a reversed
fan, horns, or a steeple.
The most unpleasing developments result from the wearing of the
horn-like trimmings either in velvet or jet. If the face above which they
flare has less of the spiritual than the coarse propensities in it, the
grotesque turns and twists in the head-gear emphasize the animality in
the lines characteristic of low-bred tendencies, and the whole

countenance is vulgarized. One face acquires the look of a fox, another
of a certain type of dog, and so on.
The most amusing exaggerations of distinctive facial lines are produced
by Mercury wings. The good-natured woman of the familiar type
depicted in No. 34 brings every bovine attribute of her placid
countenance into conspicuous relief by surmounting her face with the
wings of the fleet-footed god. The cow-like form and serenity of her
features are made laughably obvious.
[Illustration: NO. 34]
Short, delicately-faced women can adorn their coiffures with Mercury
wings with most charming results. Wings, or perpendicular bows, add
length to the lines of the short face, giving it a certain suggestion of
refinement and distinction that is wholly destroyed by the wearing of
any trimmings that show at the sides.
NO MATTER WHAT THE PREVAILING STYLE THESE RULES
MAY BE PRACTICALLY APPLIED.
CHAPTER III.
LINES THAT SHOULD BE RECOGNIZED AND CONSIDERED IN
MAKING COSTUMES.
Mme. La Mode, much misrepresented as are all who are embarrassed
with world-wide popularity always considers when designing fashions
that women vary in form, as in mood. She suits all needs, although this
fact has never been cast to her credit. With a beautiful sense of
adjustment--as obvious as that in Nature, that projects the huge
watermelon to ripen on a slender vine on the ground and swings a
greengage plum on the stout stem of a tree to mature in storm or
shine--Mme. La Mode, arbiter of styles, balances her fashions.
Never came the big hat without the small bonnet. Accompanying the
long cloak is the never-failing short cape. Side by side may be found
the long coat and the short, natty jacket. This equilibrium in wearing

apparel may be traced through all the vagaries of fashion.
Everybody's need has been considered, but everybody has not
considered her need.
The short, stout woman passes by the long coat better adapted to her
and seizes a short jacket--a homeopathic tendency of like suiting like,
sometimes efficacious in medicine, but fatal in style.
Style for Tall Slender Woman.
The very tall, slender woman frequently ignores a jaunty jacket and
takes a long coat like that shown in No. 36.
To even the sluggish fancy of an unimaginative observer she suggests a
champagne bottle, and to the ready wit she hints of no