The Basic Dress

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 167, 4 September 1942, Page 14

The Basic Dress

N ultra-fashionable style is to be avoided, as it also makes a garment conspicuous — and our basic dress should never be that. What it should do is to give us the. most pleasing silhouette possible, and be cut on lines that emphasise the good points of our figures and draw attention away from their worst features. For greatest usefulness a dress buttoning up the front and with a high neck is the best, for this, worn with a scart tied cravatfashion, gives a good style for street wear. With the top buttons opened and the front folded back it gives a V-neck which can be worn with a variety of collarssome dressy and fluffy, for evening wear, some smartly tailored for heat house-dress effects. The skirt should be neither too wide, nor too tight. Pleats, especially the narrower type, are suitable for all purposes though they do make more work when it comes to laundering. A gored skirt, with a moderate flare, is perhaps the most useful type of skirt-as it is roomy enough to permit of activities of all kinds, plain enough to give a smart tailored effect, and yet not so tailored as to be too severe for dressy or indoor wear. The waistline should be where it is most becoming to the wearer; and again the back may be bloused over a belt or lett straight, and the front plain or given fullness to suit the particular figure. The type of sleeve should be the one that suits the arm and figure, and gives the best silhouette -From an A.C.E. Talk.