"White was made for brides," but that is no reason why we, all of us, cannot enjoy it in its cool daintiness, youthful simplicity. White may always be worn—by young and old, at party and dance, in morning and afternoon. It is, and always will be, the ideal color.
But Fashion, in a different mood, demands many hues both soft and brilliant. And here again, whether she dictates pale pink or vivid scarlet, one must be guided by one's own sense of taste and harmony.
The colors of the dress must blend with the natural colors if beauty is to be obtained. Remarkable effects, as startlingly beautiful as the somber afterglow of the setting sun, can be obtained by the correct use of color. It may be contrast or harmony—but there must be a perfect blend.
To illustrate for a few individual types: the sallow-complexioned brunette must never wear yellow, even though it is the favorite color of the season, for it brings out more clearly the yellow lurking in the sallowness of her cheeks. The person with "coal black" hair must avoid blues, light and dark; the colors that most become her are crimson, orange, dark red. Pink is the ideal color for the blond woman with warm coloring; black for the woman with fair skin. Pink and green are for youth; purple and black are for age. The other colors may be used according to the artistic sense of the wearer.
In selecting material for a gown, the fashionable modiste will first consider the eyes of the lady who is to wear it. Though few but the artist realize it, the eyes are the keynote of the entire costume. They determine whether the dress shall be frivolous or demure, gay or somber, vivid or soft. The color of the hair, also, is important in deciding the color of the gown itself. The soft colors—pink, green, violet, blue—are admirably adapted to blue eyes and light hair while the more brilliant colors are suitable for dark eyes and black hair.
So large a part does color play in the creating of fashions that one must give it correspondingly careful consideration in adapting it to one's complexion and hair. A wrong color has the alarming propensity of marring the beauty of the most charming gown—even as the use of the right color enhances the beauty of the most simple gown. With harmony, style and color the gown needs only the final touch of personality to make it perfect. And it is that of which we are now going to speak.
THE CHARM OF PERSONALITY
Dress is an index to character as surely as a table of contents is an index to what a book contains. We know by looking at an over-dressed young person, with a much-beruffled and ornamented frock, that she is vain. We know by glancing at a young man who wears an orange tie, checked hat, and twirls a bamboo cane, that he is inclined to be just the least bit gay. We know by the simple dignity of an elderly woman's dress that she is conservative and well-poised.
In the clothes we wear we reveal to the world the story of our ideals, our principles. If we are frivolous, our clothes show it. If we have a sense of the artistic, our clothes show it. If we are modest, bold, vain or proud the clothes we wear reveal it for all the world to see.
But "Dress changes the manners," Voltaire tells us. It is true; on the stage the "beggar" in his tattered clothes acts and speaks and looks the part of a beggar. At dress rehearsals he plays the part to perfection, but rehearsing in ordinary street clothes he is never quite satisfactory. Something seems to be missing; and that something is personality. The same is true of the rather studious young girl who is also shy and retiring. In her somber clothes, she is perfectly content in the gloomy solitude of her study; but dressed in a filmy little frock of lace and net, with her hair youthfully marcelled, with buckled slippers on her feet, she feels vaguely dissatisfied. She wants to skip and dance and laugh and sing; if she knew psychology and the personality in dress, she would be able to explain it to herself in this manner: clothes so affect the mental outlook, that the wearer unconsciously adopts the personality portrayed.