Woman as Decoration | Page 7

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

outré 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