MAKING YOURSELF TALLER THAN YOU ARE
By the illustrations on pages [30] and [31] you may learn the value of emphasizing a long line by the trick of placing it between two longer lines rather than between two shorter ones. As in the previous examples, the middle line in each figure is identically the same length. The one at the left, however, appears much shorter than the one at the right, because of a suggestion contained in the parallel lines which surround it.
In the dresses illustrated here, this principle is strikingly applied. The short vertical bands of trimming in the figure at the left make the center band seem shorter than it really is, whereas, the long vertical bands in the figure at the right make the center band seem longer than it really is. Thus, by the application of this seemingly unimportant trifle, the woman at the right seems slenderer, taller, and smarter than the one at the left.