WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR

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Costume of Empire Period

An English Portrait

CHAPTER IX

WOMAN DECORATIVE IN HER BOUDOIR

Y the way, do you know that boudoir originally meant pouting room, a

place where the ceremonious grande dame of the Louis might relax and

express a ruffled mood, if she would? Which only serves to prove that

even the definition of words alter with fashion, for we imagine that our

supinely relaxed modern beauty, of the country club type, has on the whole more

self-control than she of the boudoir age.

Since a boudoir is of all rooms the most personal, we take it for granted that its

decoration is eloquent with the individuality and taste of its owner. Walls, floors,

woodwork, upholstery, hangings, cushions and objects d'art furnish the colour for

my lady's background, and will naturally be a scheme calculated to set off her own

particular type. Here we find woman easily made decorative in negligée or tea

gown,

and it makes no difference whether fashion is for voluminous, flowing robes,

ruffled and covered with ribbons and lace, or the other extreme, those creations of

Fortuny, which cling to the form in long crinkled lines and shimmer like the skin of

a snake. The Fortuny in question, son of the great Spanish painter, devotes his time

to the designing of the most artistic and unique tea gowns offered to modern

woman. We first saw his work in 1910 at his Paris atelier. His gowns, then popular

with French women, were made in Venice, where M. Fortuny was at that time

employing some five hundred women to carry out his ideas as to the dyeing of thin

silks, the making and colouring of beads used as garniture, and the stenciling of

designs in gold, silver or colour. The lines are Grecian and a woman in her Fortuny

tea gown suggests a Tanagra figure, whether she goes in for the finely pleated sort,

kept tightly twisted and coiled when not in use, to preserve the distinguishing fine

pleats, or one with smooth surface and stenciled designs. These Fortuny tea gowns

slip over the head with no opening but the neck, with its silk shirring cord by means

of which it can be made high or low, at will; they come in black, gold and the tones

of old Venetian dyes. One could use a dozen of them and be a picture each time, in

any setting, though for the epicure they are at their best when chosen with relation

to a special background. The black Fortunys are extraordinarily chic and look well

when worn with long Oriental earrings and neck chains of links or beads, which

reach--at least one strand of them--half-way to the knees.

The distinction which this long line of a chain or string of pearls gives to the figure

of any woman is a point to dwell upon. Real pearls are desirable, even if one must

begin with a short necklace; but where it can be afforded, woman cannot be urged

too strongly to wear a string extending as near to and as much below the waist-line

as possible. A long string of pearls gives great elegance, whether wearer is standing

or seated. You can use your short string of pearls, too, but whatever your figure is,

if you are not a young girl it will be improved by the long line, and if you would be

decorative above everything, we insist that a long chain or string of less intrinsic

value is preferable to one of meaningless length and priceless worth. Very young

girls look best in short necklaces; women whose throats are getting lined should

take to jeweled dog-collars, in addition to their strings of pearls or diamond chains.

The woman with firm throat and perfect neck was made for pearls. For those less

blessed there are lovely things too, jewels to match their eyes, or to tone in with

skin or hair; settings to carry out the line of profile, rings to illuminate the swift

gesture or nestle into the soft, white, dimpled hand of inertia. Every type has its

charm and followers, but we still say, avoid emphasising your lack of certain points

by wearing unsuitable costumes and accessories, and by so doing lose the chance of

being decorative.

Sibyl Sanderson, the American prima donna, whose career was in Paris, was the

most irresistibly lovely vision ever seen in a tea gown. She was past-mistress at the

art of making herself decorative, and the writer recalls her as she last saw her in a

Doucet model of chiffon, one layer over another of flesh, palest pink and pinkish

mauve that melted into the creamy tones of her perfect neck and arms.

Sibyl Sanderson was lovely as nature turned her out, but Paris taught her the value

of that other beauty, the beauty which comes of art and attained like all art, only

through conscious effort. An artistic appearance once meant letting nature have its

way. It has come to mean, nature directed and controlled by Art, and while we do

not resort to the artificiality (in this moment) of hoops, crinoline, pyramids of false

hair, monstrous head-dresses, laced waists, low neck and short sleeves for all hours

and all seasons, paper-soled shoes in snow-drifts, etc., we do insist that woman be

bien soiné--hair, complexion, hands, feet, figure, perfection par tout.

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