HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE

<< THE LAWS UNDERLYING ALL COSTUMING OF WOMAN

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES >>

of background, outline, colour, texture of material and how to produce harmonious

effects by the judicious combination of furnishings and costumes.

To-day, when we want to say that a costume or the interior decoration of a house is

the last word in modern line and colour, we are apt to call it à la Bakst, meaning of

course Leon Bakst, whose American "poster" was the Russian Ballet. If you have

not done so already, buy or borrow the wonderful Bakst book, showing

reproductions in their colours of his extraordinary drawings, the originals of which

are owned by private individuals or museums, in Paris, Petrograd, London, and

New York. They are outré to a degree, yet each one suggests the whole or parts of

costumes for modern woman--adorable lines, unbelievable combinations of

colour! No wonder Poiret, the Paris dressmaker, seized upon Bakst as designer (or

was it Bakst who seized upon Poiret?).

Bakst got his inspiration in the Orient. As a bit of proof, for your own satisfaction,

there is a book entitled Six Monuments of Chinese Sculpture, by Edward

Chauvannes, published in 1914, by G. Van Oest & Cie., of Brussels and Paris. The

author, with a highly commendable desire to perpetuate for students a record of the

most ancient speciments of Chinese sculpture, brought to Paris and sold there, from

time to time, to art-collectors, from all over the world; selected six fine speciments

as theme of text and for illustrations.

Plate 23 in this collection shows a woman whose costume in outline might have

been taken from Bakst or even Vogue. But put it the other way round: the Vogue

artist to-day--we use the word as a generic term--finds inspiration through

museums and such works as the above. This is particularly true as our little

handbook goes into print, for the reason that the great war between the Central

Powers and the Entente has to a certain extent checked the invention and material

output of Europe, and driven designers of and dealers in costumes for women, to

China and Japan.

Our great-great-grandmothers here in America wore Paris fashions shown on the

imported fashion dolls and made up in brocades from China, by the Colonial

mantua makers. So we are but repeating history.

To-day, war, which means horror, ugliness, loss of ideals and illusions, holds most

of the world in its grasp, and we find creative artists--apostles of the Beautiful,

seeking the Orient because it is remote from the great world struggle. We hear that

Edmund Dulac (who has shown in a superlative manner, woman decorative, when

illustrating the Arabian Nights and other well-known books), is planning a flight to

the Orient. He says that he longs to bury himself far from carnage, in the hope of

wooing back his muse.

If this subject of background, line and colour, in relation to costuming of woman,

interests you, there are many ways of getting valuable points. One of them, as we

have said, is to walk through galleries looking at pictures only as decorations; that

is, colour and line against the painter's background.

Fashions change, in dress, arrangement of hair, jewels, etc., but this does not affect

values. It is la ligne, the grand gesture, or line fraught with meaning and balance

and harmony of colour.

The reader knows the colour scheme of her own rooms and the character of gowns

she is planning, and for suggestions as to interesting colour against colour, she can

have no higher authority than the experience of recognised painters. Some develop

rapidly in this study of values.

If your rooms are so-called period rooms, you need not of necessity dress in period

costumes, but what is extremely important, if you would not spoil your period

room, nor fail to be a decorative contribution when in it, is that you make a point of

having the colour and texture of your house gowns in the same key as the hangings

and upholstery of your room. White is safe in any room, black is at times too

strong. It depends in part upon the size of your room. If it is small and in soft tones,

delicate harmonising shades will not obtrude themselves as black can and so reduce

the effect of space. This is the case not only with black, but with emerald green,

decided shades of red, royal blue, and purple or deep yellows. If artistic creations,

these colours are all decorative in a room done in light tones, provided the room is

large.

A Louis XVI salon is far more beautiful if the costumes are kept in Louis XVI

colouring and all details, such as lace, jewelry, fans, etc., kept strictly within the

picture; fine in design, delicate in colouring, workmanship and quality of material.

Beyond these points one may follow the outline demanded by the fashion of the

moment, if desired. But remember that a beautiful, interesting room, furnished with

works of art, demands a beautiful, interesting costume, if the woman in question

would sustain the impression made by her rooms, to the arranging of which she has

given thought, time and vitality, to say nothing of financial outlay; she must take

her own decorative appearance seriously.

PLATE V

Example of the pointed head-dress, carefully

concealed hair (in certain countries at certain

periods of history, a sign of modesty), round

necklace and very long close sleeves

characteristic of fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries.

Observe angle at which head-dress is worn.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman in Gothic Art

Portrait showing pointed head-dress

The writer has passed wonderful hours examining rare illuminated manuscripts of

the Middle Ages (twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries), missals,

"Hours" of the Virgin, and Breviaries, for the sole purpose of studying woman's

costumes,--their colour, line and details, as depicted by the old artists. Gothic

costumes in Gothic interiors, and Early Renaissance costumes in Renaissance

interiors.

The art of moderns in various media, has taken from these creations of mediæval

genius, more than is generally realized. We were looking at a rare illuminated

Gothic manuscript recently, from which William Morris drew inspirations and

ideas for the books he made. It is a monumental achievement of the twelfth century,

a mass book, written and illuminated in Flanders; at one time in the possession of a

Cistercian monastery, but now one of the treasures in the noted private collection

made by the late J. Pierpont Morgan. The pages are of vellum and the illuminations

show the figures of saints in jewel-like colours on backgrounds of pure gold leaf.

The binding of this book,--sides of wood, held together by heavy white vellum,

hand-tooled with clasps of thin silver, is the work of Morris himself and very

characteristic of his manner. He patterned his hand-made books after these great

models, just as he worked years to duplicate some wonderful old piece of furniture,

realising so well the magic which lies in consecrated labour, that labour which

takes no account of time, nor pay, but is led on by the vision of perfection

possessing the artist's soul.

We know women who have copied the line, colour and material of costumes

depicted in Gothic illuminations that they might be in harmony with their own

Gothic rooms. One woman familiar with this art, has planned a frankly modern

room, covering her walls with gold Japanese fibre, gilding her woodwork and

doors, using the brilliant blues, purples and greens of the old illuminations in her

hangings, upholstery and cushions, and as a striking contribution to the decorative

scheme, costumes herself in white, some soft, clinging material such as crêpe de

chine, liberty satin or chiffon velvet, which take the mediæval lines, in long folds.

She wears a silver girdle formed of the hand-made clasps of old religious books,

and her rings, neck chains and earrings are all of hand-wrought silver, with

precious stones cut in the ancient way and irregularly set. This woman got her idea

of the effectiveness of white against gold from an ancient missal in a famous

private collection, which shows the saints all clad in marvellous white against gold

leaf.

Whistler's house at 2 Cheyne Road, London, had a room the dado and doors of

which were done in gold, on which he and two of his pupils painted the scattered

petals of white and pink chrysanthemums. Possibly a Persian or Japanese effect, as

Whistler leaned that way, but one sees the same idea in an illumination of the early

sixteenth century; "Hours" of the Virgin and Breviary, made for Eleanor of

Portugal, Queen of John II. The decorations here are in the style of the

Renaissance, not Gothic, and some think Memling had a hand in the work. The

borders of the illumination, characteristic of the Bruges School, are gold leaf on

which is painted, in the most realistic way, an immense variety of single flowers,

small roses, pansies, violets, daisies, etc., and among them butterflies and insects.

This border surrounds the pictures which illustrate the text. Always the marvellous

colour, the astounding skill in laying it on to the vellum pages, an unforgettable

lesson in the possibility of colour applied effectively to costumes, when

background is kept in mind. This Breviary was bound in green velvet and clasped

with hand-wrought silver, for Cardinal Rodrigue de Castro (1520-1600) of Spain. It

is now in the private collection of Mr. Morgan. The cover alone gives one great

emotion, genuine ancient velvet of the sixteenth century, to imitate which taxes the

ingenuity of the most skilful of modern manufacturers.

CHAPTER III

HOW TO DRESS YOUR TYPE

A Few Points Applying to All Costumes

EEDLESS to say, when considering woman's costumes, for ordinary

use, in their relation to background, unless some chameleon-like material

be invented to take on the colour of any background, one must be content

with the consideration of one's own rooms, porches, garden, opera-box or

automobile, etc. For a gown to be worn when away from home, when lunching, at

receptions or dinners, the first consideration must be becomingness,--a careful

selection of line and colour that bring out the individuality of the wearer. When

away from one's own setting, personality is one of the chief assets of every woman.

Remember, individuality is nature's gift to each human being. Some are more

markedly different than others, but we have all seen a so-called colourless woman

transformed into surprising loveliness when dressed by an artist's instinct. A

delicate type of blond, with fair hair, quiet eyes and faint shell-pink complexion,

can be snuffed out by too strong colours. Remember that your ethereal blond is

invariably at her best in white, black (never white and black in combination unless

black with soft white collars and frills) and delicate pastel shades.

PLATE VI

Fifteenth-century costume.

"Virgin

and

Child" in painted terra-cotta.

It is by Andrea Verrocchio, and now in

Metropolitan Museum. We have here an

illustration of the costume, so often shown on

the person of the Virgin in the art of the

Middle Ages.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Woman in Art

of the Renaissance Sculpture-Relief in Terra-

Cotta: The Virgin

The richly-toned brunette comes into her own in reds, yellows and low-tones of

strong blue.

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