Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

Complexion Determines Dress Colors.

Sometimes a color used sparingly in a knot of ribbon, or glimpsed as a lining, is becoming, while the same color, used in quantity, or as a ground color of the costume, might prove inharmonious with the complexion.

It is well for every woman to choose a certain proved range of colors that she can bear, and to venture cautiously or seldom on new experiments. These colors will be found like a musical scale, to harmonize well in almost any combination. Thus beauty, convenience and economy are all consulted by loyalty to these proved shades.

Endless arrangements might be suggested on the economical side of the question. The light evening silk of the season before may be used for lining or form the long loose front of the tea-gown of the present. The rich draperies of last year’s carriage gown may fitly furnish forth the natty velvet vest and dainty bonnet to wear with this year’s street suit, and nothing be lost.

One more caution as to colors. The very delicate blonde who has reveled in palest, daintiest shades must beware of presuming too long on that evanescent bloom, lest she find herself basing the color of her dress on a flower that faded years ago. Or else, maybe, on one that has unfolded into a richer bloom, and by not adapting her color scale to the changes of time, she loses all the beauty of the present.

Another mistake women make is to forget that lovely childish curves of early youth change with the advancing years and the babyish style of dressing, so becoming then, may be worn too long. The rounded throat of the plump woman becomes muscular all too soon, and the delicate throat of the slender woman is too prone to lose its soft outlines.

The changes of color that occur almost always in cool, pale blondes are often but changes in beauty; still, these changes in complexion must be met with changes in dress.