WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 151, 22 December 1911, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

3 | (Conducted by "Eileen.") DISTINCTION IN DRESS. SOMETHING A LONG PURSE CANNOT BUY.

London, November 3. Again and again, and yet again, is it brought home to those genuinely interested —as all women ought to be—in the subject of dress that it isn't nearly so much what a woman has on that matters in her general appearance as how she has it on. A score of examples of this can be seen by an intelligent woman any day in London, and probably just as many in New Zealand streets; and tho knowledge should be so full of comfort to the woman who, loving fine clothes, lacks the wherewithal to provide herself with them that, whenever she feels herself down in the dumps over the vexed subject, she should go for a mental as well as a physical airing, and note how her own beautiful neatness and scrupulous attention to detail can enable her to completely outshine the woman of a purse six times the length. Riches will buy beautiful materials—there's no getting over that fact—and riches will enable them to be beautifully road's up; riches, too, will provide all the little etceteras "to match" that make so great a difference to a toilet; and, alas! alas! riches will provide a carriage in which to display and yet protect those same fineries. But there the power of wealth comes to an eml. witii quite the most important item altogether left out. The one thing that money cannot do is to provide- tho atmosphere necessary to make the most exclusive creation an. entire sucess. Of course, it would be quite absurd to pretend that she of the rich material, stylish feathers and frills, and trim, expensive boots and gloves, and she of the oft-donned blue 'serge coat and skirt, a hat chosen with an eye to long service, gloves and boots ditto, could stand side by side and look like twins. Atmosphere in dress language spells character in the wearer oi the dress, and character concerns a woman at all times, not only on one outstanding occasion when, if she's poor, she would be very silly to lay herself open to comparison. She is entitled, if she likes, to shine just as brightly all the same. There are few people of refinement to whom it is not a pleasure to come in contact with a well-dressed woman, but whether there is any intelligent person worth knowing in this busy world who has more than five minutes for the well-dressed woman because she is well dressed, I very much doubt. I said "intelligent person worth knowing."

LACK OF MEANS AND GOOD TASTE.

I sat behind 1 , at a ceremony a few days ago, a wealthy old maiden lady and her | companion. There was no 'comparison | between the appearance of the two, and I the old lady would certainly have emphatically insisted on this—though for quito a different reason from that of onlookers. The mistress was wrapped in a sombre but handsome and doubtless very expensive cape-like coat of sealskin, ruled at once out of all claim to beauty by the fact that it was crowned by a most cantakerously-looking bonnet' of black and white straw that perched like a slightly intoxicated guinea-fowl on the wearer's head. Beside her sat her paid companion, a dark woman with a beautiful complexion. Her gown was of black serge, tailor-made, the bottom of the coat aiwi hem of the skirt finished with a broad, straight band of block satin., She wove a black hat, with two buckleshaped sprays of pink roses on it, a pretty black veil, and a short white coque boa. Youth certainly was in favor of the companion, who is only, probably, . a woman of 35, but then, judging from I exteriors, the age of the wearer has very little to do, with the air of distinction ) she can, if she will, impart to her gown. Looking ahead for the companion who could—on slender means—appear welldressed, one could not see her even in a golden future, with riches at her command, in a criminal bonnet such as that described. Nothing can shame finerystamped such, however magnificent and expensive—like good taste and originality in another gown, even if it is worth not more than a tenth of the first, and there is, therefore, no reason why the woman of moderate means, equipped with an artistic- eye and finger, should not hold her own in ordinary society. Indecision, unfortunately, often shows itself in the general make-up of the toilet of the woman who, knowing herself anything but rich, still likes to mix with her friends more fortunate than herself in this respect. It is very real this dread —so earnest that I know, and my readera will also, not one but several women whose pleasure in a festivity, otherwise whole-hearted, is completely clouded if they must go in a gown they've appeared i in often before.

THE WOMAN-XOT THE DRESS. I sometimes think it a pity that these dear timid ones can't be transplanted to an assembly in London whore are gathered the souls, men and women, who really matter in the world. Many of them—the women—are very beautifully gowned, just as many others wear the very plainest of clothes; but to suggest that, in an assembly of honor such ai this, it matters one puff of smoke, would be to say something ridiculous. Those women who appear gracefully, tastefully or magnificently gowned one admires for that beautiful dressing, but by no means because of it; and that the others are reversed just as sincerely in spite of their plain garb argues again that it is first the wearer that matters, then her dress. This is perhaps a hard saying, because it dogmatises to the effect that everyone should be an interesting personality, and that takes one into a much wider realm than that of dress. Regarding dress a woman must be a personality if she's going to be a success without sufficient wealth at her back to allow herself to be dressed', from head to foot, by the expert sho pays. HINTS TO MOTHERS The habit of crying to be taken up is one to guard against in the young baby's ■ life. Ttis such a temptation to run when he cries, so hard to realise that selfcontrol now is repaid later on by months j and years of leisure. "Never take a child up when ho cries," is a safe nursery precept. Win him back to smiles first, so that the cry and the subsequent taking up will not grow to become associated in his knowing little mind. Never let the small autocrat in the nursery come to realise the power of his own lungs to win him coveted privileges, or your life will be a restless one.

It is worry over the little things in life that makes a woman old before her time. It's the real annoyances that make the silver locks appear in the hair, the net-work of wrinkles on the brow. The thousand-and-one little thing* that should be unnoticed are the things fkmi send to an early grave. The wise woman goes through the days with a smiling face, lets the little annoyances pass by, and preserves a calm demeanor. i