Dress and Look Slender

by Jane Warren Wells

All rules may be individually varied and should be for distinctive effects, so to know the rule of color is to respect it and adeptly apply it to express yourself beautifully and harmoniously. Play with colors as you would with a fan. Remember that usually every woman can look better than she does. It is the age of good-looking women and the right shade or tone of color has a very great deal to do with the right emphasis of individual attractiveness.

Color has so much to do with the final appearance of any costume, that you must find your particular color pace. Remember that if you are stout you cannot stray from the less colorful byways to the brilliant main road trodden by your slim sisters. Never lose sight of the fact that true artistry may be expressed in the subtle shades to a much greater degree than by the use of brilliant colors. As civilization advances, it is gradually drawing away from pure color. You will find that practically all of the fabrics shown in the shops are variations of the foundation or primary colors. Why not carry this to its farthest point, emphasizing your appreciation of the subtlety of the “between” shades which can do so much toward making you look smart and slender?

In the selection of shades for becomingness, your size is the first consideration; your skin the second. Consider carefully both the color and the texture of your skin, and work to have the shades of your dresses enhance, harmonize, or subdue, according to the need or opportunity. The color of your hair and eyes comes third in color consideration, while your age comes fourth.

In making use of the table I have given you, locate your type in the first column. If you are a blonde read descriptions of all the blonde types and decide to which you belong. If you are a brunette, classify yourself under this heading. Do not feel hampered by the colors allowable for your particular type, because it very often happens that a variation of a shade you like will make it becoming to you even though it would be unsuited to another individual whose description would correspond with yours.

RULES TO REMEMBER

Large figures require subdued colors.

The dominant color in your costume must harmonize with the color and the texture of your skin.

A contrasting or emphasizing color may be used to enhance the coloring of your eyes and hair.

Because it is not entirely necessary or desirable to exclude the lighter, brighter shades from the wardrobe, a few of these have been listed in the accompanying table. As a general thing, you will look best in dark colors; but in the warm weather, and for home wear, light colors are permissible and suitable, too. If the type requires the use of such shades in the evening, gowns made from them may be worn becomingly, provided they are properly chosen as to material, design, and trimming.

With the advent of each season’s new colors, search carefully for your colors, the ones that you know are becoming, bearing in mind all the while that tones, hues, or tints (light colors) emphasize, and that shades (dark colors) alone subdue, and then remember that both fabric and design definitely affect the color; so decide on all three simultaneously and thereby be wholly safe.