NOT MINIMUM WEIGHT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 134, 18 March 1940, Page 7

NOT MINIMUM WEIGHT.

SENSE OF PROPORTION NEEDED.

The average woman invariably thinks she ought to lose about 10 pounds. It seems to. be a mythical sum that stands forever between her and a. perfect figure. And now, since the inception of the wafer-waist, the average woman seems to think she must lose thxree inches around her midriff. Maybe she would. Maybe she shouldn’t. Proportion, rather than weight, or isolater] measurements, should answer that question. What’s the point in reducing to a twenty-one-inch waist if you have the rib cage of a Wagnerian soprano, that sticks out like a corrugated shelf? Maybe twenty-eight inches is a hand-swan waist for you. Proportion is the thing, not merely minimum weight. Unfortunately, perfecting your proportions takes more work and more discipline than merely reducing. It means exorcise and diet and a properly fitted foundation to acquire the shgpely figure that has been the envy of the ages. It takes, probably a rehabilitation of your posture, lifting your ribs off your hipbones, a forward thrust of your i>elvjis to flatten your flanks. It takes character (not a capacity for suffering) to stick to a diet. And by diet we mean sensible eating with a minmum of fattening foods, and not a spartan and rather ridiculous effqvt to live on a lettuce leaf. It/is -nit© hopeless, of course, to expect to achieve that wiifer-waisjfcd look with a foundation designed perhaps several years ago to minimise hips. This season more than ever it is necessary to have your corset fitted, and to shop with an open mind, determined to try on a number of garments, to select the most appropriate, and not to dash into a shop., ask for the number you had before, and walk out with an old model under your arm.