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FOOTWEAR

<< COLOUR IN WOMAN'S COSTUME
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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
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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