LINES THAT SLENDERIZE AND LINES THAT DON’T
It is a popular theory among folks who would dress to look slender that stripes running up-and-down are the thing to wear, while stripes running across are to be avoided. This belief, like many another old-fashioned one, is only half true. For instance, it is true that if the up-and-down stripes in your material are very fine and unobtrusive they will have the effect of making you look taller and slimmer. This, however, is not at all true of broad stripes or of stripes in a definitely contrasting color—quite the contrary, in fact. Pronounced stripes merely call attention to themselves and do not create the illusion of slenderness which is desired.
But this is only one of many points to be taken into consideration when you plan a dress with stripes or with straight up-and-down lines of any kind. For instance, the illustrations on pages [18] and [19] show two up-and-down lines of exactly the same length. Take your ruler and measure them to convince yourself. Now note the effect on these lines of the shorter lines added to each end. The inverted arrows added to the line at the left make it appear shorter than it really is. The extended lines added to the one at the right make it appear longer than it really is. Now note the two costumes on these same pages in which these principles have been applied. In the one shown on the left the figure looks shorter and stouter than it really is, while in designing the dress on the right the correct use of the optical illusion has been observed and the result is a slender, graceful appearance. You can readily see from these pictures how a straight line effect can be either accentuated or shortened by the lines that run out from it.
There are many ways in which a stout woman who does not know this principle can easily ruin the effect of a costume. For instance, a woman who wears a perfectly straight up-and-down dress of quite correct lines may put a large mushroom shape hat on her head and perhaps a band of fur around the bottom of her skirt. This has precisely the same effect as the arrows which are turned the wrong way and therefore shorten and widen the straight line.
“I cannot understand why I look so short and dumpy,” she wails despairingly. “My dress is made on perfectly straight up-and-down lines and yet I look fatter than ever.” Of course she does, because instead of extending the straight up-and-down line by a small upturned hat of some sort and an unobtrusive skirt hem, she has broken the line at the top and bottom and thereby shortened and widened her appearance.
These two diamond-shaped figures are exactly the same size. The crosswise line makes one seem wider, the vertical line makes the other seem narrower.
Now note how these same principles used in the dresses above effect the apparent size and weight of those wearing them, making one seem much stouter than the other.