BEAUTY IN DRESS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2287, 1 August 1881, Page 4

BEAUTY IN DRESS.

Mrs Hawaii, in a volume entitled “ The Art of Beauty,” makes the following points with regard to beauty in dress : —“ The reason that an ordinary low neck with short sleeves looks worse in black than in any other color is because the hard line round he bust and arms is too great a contrast to the skin. A low neck always lessens the height, and a dark dress made thus lessens it still more, and it strikes the artistic eye as cutting the body in pieces in this way ; if you see a fair person dressed in a low dark dress standing against a light background some way off, the effect will be that of an empty dress hung up, the face, neck, and arms being scarcely discernible. On the other hand, against a dark background, the head and bust will be thrown up sharply, and the whole dress and body will disappear. This effect, common enough, is execrably bad. If you must wear a low

clack bodice, lot it be cut square, giving the height to the shoulders (or, better, with the angles rounded, for corners are very trying), ■»nd have plenty of white or pale gauze, or -bin black net to soften the harsh line between the skin and the dress. White gauze or lace softens down the blackness of the dresa at the edge of the bodice, and thin black stuff has an equally good effect, as it shades the whiteness of the skin into the dart color of the govrn. Only under these conditions dots the sudden contrast enhance, as some people suppose the fairness of the complexion. Short women should never wear double skirts or tunics —they decrease the height so much—unless, indeed, the tunic is very short and the skirt very long. So also do large sprawling patterns used for trimmings : let those bo left to women toll enough to carry them off. Neither let a very little.woman wear her hair half down her back ; let her lift it clean up as high ns possible. Largo feet should never bo cased in kid—least of all white kid slippers—for kid reveals so clearly the form and movements of the feet, and stretches fo easily that few feet haye a chance in them. Those who sro yery atoU£ should nothing but black, those who are very thin should put a little padding in their gowns ; and neither should be in the least decollette. Perpendicular stripes in dresses give height and increase fulness, and are therefore particularly suitable for very slight small people, and particularly unfitted for stout figures.