Beauty and Clothes

CHAPTER VIII

BEAUTY AND CLOTHES

OUR ideal of beauty, of living, actual beauty, is
no longer the nude human figure of the
ancient Greeks. Our beauty and our beauties are
clothed, in deference both to climatic and moral
grounds. Clothes, therefore, are an element and
an important one, in the physical beauty of modern
womanhood.
Since beauty of costume and headgear, in respect
to color and design, with reference to the human
form has already been exhaustively treated in another
volume of this series (see my "Color Harmony and Design in Dress"),
this chapter will confine itself to certain important
details not therein contained.

THE CORSET

Good corseting means the right type and fit of
corset used on the body for which it is intended.
Corsets should follow, never constrain the natural
figure lines. Of course, if the average woman
could and did exercise her bust muscles properly,
the corset would be unnecessary. For no corset is,
after all, the ideal thing. Yet a corset which does
not in any degree compress or cramp natural movement,
freedom of motion, and breathing, does much to set off
the figure to advantage.


BEAUTY AND CLOTHES

Kinds of Corsets.—Comfort is the corset test. If
your corset is comfortable it is a good one. If it is
uncomfortable, it is not. And, speaking generally, the
low corset is the one to be preferred. It gives real support,
both up and back, where support is called for,
and thus tends to obviate many "female weaknesses."
As for the large-busted, high-breasted woman,
she should never use a corset. What she needs is
a brassiere, a brassiere which must be fitted to her
very carefully, which must be a perfect individual fit,
so that her special bust requirements will 'be served.
Nor does the woman who has a girlish, slender figure
need a regulation corset. For her, in most cases,
a rubber belt, hung low and only lightly boned,
will answer every purpose. In certain more
violent forms of exercise, too, such as basketball,
athletics, riding or rowing, the combination brassiere
and belt should take the place of the corset.
All that is wanted in these cases is a support which
will sustain without interfering. Never put on a
corset without readjusting the laces.

FOOTWEAR

Like the corset, the best shoe is the one built
along the natural line. Too large a shoe is as
dangerous as one that is too small. Aching feet
cause wrinkles, and thus directly affect feminine
charm, and aching feet are the result of improper shoes.
The toe of the foot is not pointed
normally, and the pointed toe is in reality less
beautiful than the natural toe line of the natural
foot. There may be occasions when you may wish
to appear (at a costume affair or fancy-dress ball)
in sandals. Then, if your feet have been cramped
and made misshapen by tight, narrow shoes, you
are lost indeed. But a well-formed foot in a sandal
is beautiful to look upon. The healthier the feet the
better they look.

COSTUME ACCESSORIES

Jewels, furs, glasses, are all details of costume,
broadly speaking, which should be studied in relation
to a woman's natural physical charms. Small
hands should not wear many rings. Short fingers
should not wear long rings lest their width be
emphasized. Long, narrow hands, however, are
able to wear rings of any type. No stout, short
women can wear bead necklaces without seeming
shorter and stouter. Sallow necks and fat ones
are rendered sallower or fatter in appearance when.
"pointed out" by a necklace of snowy-white pearls.
Use bracelets, by all means, if your arms are
beautiful, but if not, do not wear them. And as
to glasses: Narrow faces look best in rimless or
gold-rimmed glasses; broad faces best in glasses
with dark rims. If you have a thin face and light-
colored eyelashes or eyebrows, gold-rimmed glas-
ses with a horizontal bridge will make your face
look shorter and broader. Let your glasses match
your hair, dark rims for dark hair, and light rims
for fair hair. All these details are subject to the
same laws of the line for the figure which have
been explained in "Color Harmony and Design in
Dress."

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