FOOTWEAR

<< COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME

JEWELRY AS DECORATION >>

A sofa of contrasting colour, or black, would have looked better in the room, and

served as immediate background for gowns. It might have been covered in dark

chintz, a silk damask in one or several tones, or a solid colour, since the gowns

were of delicate indefinite shades.

One of the sofas did have a dark Chinese coat thrown over the back, with the intent,

no doubt, of serving as effective background, but the point seemed to escape the

daintily gowned young woman who poured tea, for she failed to take advantage of

it, occupying the opposite end of the sofa. A modern addition to a woman's toilet is

a large square of chiffon, edged with narrow metal or crystal fringe, or a gold or

silver flexible cord. This scarf is always in beguiling contrast to the costume, and

when not being worn, is thrown over the chair or end of sofa against which our lady

reclines. To a certain degree, this portable background makes a woman decorative

when the wrong colour on a chair might convert her lovely gown into an eyesore.

One woman we know, who has an Empire room, admires the lines of her sofa as

furniture, but feels it ineffective unless one reclines á la Mme. Récamier. To

obviate this difficulty, she has had made a square (one and a half yards), of lovely

soft mauve silk damask, lined with satin charmeuse of the same shade, and

weighted by long, heavy tassels, at the corners; this she throws over the Empire roll

and a part of the seat, which are done in antique green velvet. Now the woman

seated for conversation with arm and elbow resting on the head, looks at ease,--a

part of the composition. The square of soft, lined silk serves at other times as a

couvrepied.

CHAPTER VII

FOOTWEAR

OOTWEAR points the costume; every child should be taught this.

Give most careful attention to your extremities,--shoes, gloves and hats.

The genius of fashion's greatest artist counts for naught if his costume

may not include hat, gloves, shoes, and we would add, umbrella, parasol, stick, fan,

jewels; in fact every detail.

If you have the good sense to go to one who deservedly ranks as an authority on

line and colour in woman's costume, have also the wisdom to get from this man or

woman not merely your raiment; go farther, and grasp as far as you are able the

principles underlying his or her creations. Common sense tells one that there must

be principles which underlie the planning of every hat and gown,--serious reasons

why certain lines, colours and details are employed.

Principles have evolved and clarified themselves in the long journey which textiles,

colours and lines have made, travelling down through the ages. A great cathedral, a

beautiful house, a perfect piece of furniture, a portrait by a master, sculpture which

is an object of art, a costume proclaimed as a success; all are the results of knowing

and following laws. The clever woman of slender means may rival her friends with

munition incomes, if only she will go to an expert with open mind, and through the

thoughtful purchase of a completed costume,--hat, gown and all accessories,--

learn an artist-modiste's point of view. Then, and we would put it in italics; take

seriously, with conviction, all his or her instructions as to the way to wear your

clothes. Anyone can buy costumes, many can, perhaps own far more than you, but

it is quite possible that no one can more surely be a picture--a delightfully

decorative object on every occasion, than you, who knows instinctively (or has

been taught), beyond all shadow of doubt, how to put on and then how to sit or

walk in, your one tailored suit, your one tea gown, your one sport suit or ball gown.

PLATE X

An ideal example of the typical costume of

fashionable England in the eighteenth

century,

when

picturesqueness,

not

appropriateness, was the demand of the times.

This picture is known as THE MORNING

PROMENADE: SQUIRE HALLET WITH HIS

LADY. Painted by Thomas Gainsborough and

now in the private collection of Lord

Rothschild, London.

Courtesy of Braun & Co., New

York, London & Paris

Eighteenth Century England

Portrait by Thomas

Gainsborough

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