I found my clothes problem daily growing more serious. Several times I purchased a new dress and after one wearing I would discard it because I looked heavier and older than I wanted to look. The problem was becoming increasingly difficult because each time I stepped upon the scales, I would invariably see recorded two or three pounds more than last time. I am sure that many of you have meekly slipped off the scales, as I have, scarcely waiting long enough to see what weight was actually registered, praying meanwhile that no one saw where the arrow pointed. I simply could not believe the scales were right, because before each weighing I was certain within myself that I had climbed enough stairs, done without enough candy, and touched my hands to the floor often enough to be at least three pounds lighter.
About this time an inspiration came to me. I would “get even” with my slender friends. If I could not safely reduce, I would at least give the appearance of having reduced. If I could not actually take off thirty pounds, I would make myself look thirty pounds lighter in the eyes of others.
And, after all, is that not what we are most concerned about? Plumpness is more often a sign of good health than bad. We could be supremely happy with our extra weight if only we could look slender. I recalled the advice of my physician to “go home and enjoy my good health.”
So I started on my campaign to lose thirty pounds in appearance. I did it and so quickly that my friends were amazed at the sudden change. I was congratulated on my success in reducing. I was told I had never looked so well. Friends persistently asked me what method of reducing I had followed. In fact the success of my plans has been so remarkable that I do want every overweight woman to know about them. And so into this book I am putting the whole story.
WHEN FASHION DEMANDS SLENDERNESS AND YOUTHFULNESS
We are all slaves to fashion. For many, many years it was the fashion to be plump. Venus herself was not slender, but well rounded and full of figure. Our mothers wore bustles, and bust ruffles if they needed them, but as for us, well, it is the fashion to look slender, and since it is, we must strive to keep within the dictates of the mode.
My own work is fashion work. I meet hundreds of fashion folks. The slender silhouette has been promoted, applauded, appreciated for years, and as the days and months went by and the youthful outline grew more important, more prominent, I began to realize what a handicap the stout woman was under in trying to find attractive clothes. I felt like an Eskimo on a summer’s day on Fifth Avenue. To go into a smart shop to buy a new dress only to be looked over and directed to the matron’s department or that of the stylish stouts was too much for my pride. I wasn’t willing to put myself in the out-of-fashion class and appear heavy and elderly wearing fronts and vests that had written all over them, “built especially for a stout.”
Frequently fashion magazines show suggestions for “length lines”—but they seem to assume that all overweight women must look matronly. Two, in particular, that I remember showed the effect of incorrect crosswise lines and of correct lengthwise lines. I studied them carefully for information and decided that I would prefer to look round and thirty, than straight up and down and sixty. Every one of the models, though satisfactory in design, added 20 to 30 years to the apparent age of the wearer, doing nothing to overcome one of the most dangerous things with which the stout has to contend. For although no dignified woman wants to look like a sixteen-year-old overgrown Susie, still she does want to look young, modish, and correctly dressed, and no woman is rightly dressed who by her clothes adds even one year to her age.
However, I now know that it is possible for every woman, whether she is only slightly too plump in certain places, or decidedly overweight, to make herself look smart, slender, and many years younger by studying certain vital rules of dress and adhering to them in planning her wardrobe.