Women, young, mature, or elderly, at home or in business, must always try to look their best. They must be so pleasingly and so correctly dressed as always to evidence good taste, for good taste, after all, is the only real authority in dress. Without it, dress loses all its power of charm or influence. Especially is this true for women in public life. The solo singer in the church, the leader of the club or mothers’ meeting, the social worker or politician, all must give evidence of good taste and be modestly and correctly attired if they are to gain favorable criticism. No woman who sings should ever allow it to be said of her, “I adored the song, but the singer’s hat annoyed me so that I could not listen.”
A woman’s clothes should be beautifully alluring and complimentary. This is woman’s heritage, and any woman who allows her lack of knowledge to make her unhappy or unpleasing to see has only herself to blame, for it doesn’t take money. It does take information, ingenuity, and a little energy. But oh, how worth while the result will be!
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR GOOD POINTS
Sometimes we women of over 36 bust become discouraged. There is really no reason for this because most of us have a great many good points that we simply do not use to the best of our advantage. We worry so unnecessarily about our bad points that we forget about the good ones, but there is much that we can do with little or no effort and the improvement in our appearance is its own reward. For instance, most big people have nice hair, and they should keep it. Any big woman who bobs her hair and leaves it that way hasn’t eyed herself sufficiently in her mirror. From her neck up she may look ten years younger, but from the neck down she probably looks ridiculous. For one of the chief rules for good looks is right balance, poise, and dignity. So why do anything to hinder these? You have one handicap—too many pounds. You must do everything you can, therefore, to retain every possible attraction, and your hair is one of them for it suggests womanliness.
We don’t want our friends to say that we have a great “mother lap” or a shoulder of Gibraltar to weep on, but we must set out to be substantial in thought, act, and deed to be attractive. A little slim girl can giggle and be silly if she wants to—she can even wear mussed up dresses—but a big girl must be modest, and always immaculate in every particular. And why not? It’s an effort, yes, to be always striving for perfection, but it can be made a real hobby. Study the attractive slender girl who looks well and dresses well. Adapt what you can of her attire. Oftentimes, you can learn more of the “trick” from the slim looking girl than from the stout.
As you go through fashion books, don’t discredit all the styles and say they are planned only for the slim. Study them carefully, find a collar from one and waist line from another, fabric suggestions from another. Dress to be fashionable, but learn to discriminate so that you can find the best for you in the new.
Sometimes I have thought what fun it would be if we big folks could dress up and reach a point of perfection—so much so that the artist would have to get a more flexible pencil to express the varying grace of line that would be manifest. And why not? Isn’t it our own fault if fashion forgets us? We deserve to be dowdy if we haven’t enough pride, ingenuity, and perseverance to conceal intelligently and comfortably a few extra pounds.
If you are tall and large but not fat, consider yourself a full well-proportioned figure and dress correctly but in plain good quality fabrics so that neither height nor width will be accentuated.
Don’t try to fool yourself by wearing clothes that are too small for you. It is said that fat men need the best tailors, and surely all large women should strive to have perfect fitting clothes.
When I was fourteen I wore on a special Sunday a long skirt and a bustle, thinking that it was better to look eighteen and “ladylike” than fourteen and overgrown. Don’t look overgrown in your clothes, but don’t ever make yourself any older than you are.