LET HER BE WELL-DRESSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1940, Page 12

LET HER BE WELL-DRESSED.

A Resolution For All Bridegrooms. Young bridegrooms are always overwhelmed witli advice, yet there is one very important suggestion which is probably not made as often as it could be.

Dress your wife! Remember this, and you will save her a heartache most women have at some time or other. Your bride is coming to you with a lovely trousseau. They were designed, those frocks and • coats- and evening clothes, to make her lovely, for you. But when the trousseau is worn out, and j'uur wife is worrying over budget® and economising because neither of you knew that babies cost so much, then it is for you to see that she continues to look iovely. She won't care, so long as she has the newest model of a pram for the newest baby in her world. But unless her clothcs are up to date and becoming, unless her hair is cut in the latest way, and her permanent soft and curly, iinsist that she take the difference between the best pram and the least expensive, and invest it in a new wardrobe. She will protest, but you must 'be firm. And not only for her «ake, but for your own. No asset is is important to a man as a well-groomed wife. You may doubt this, you may grumble at the txpenee, yet some time there may be an important business luncheon which you hope will bring you advancement, You will want your wife to be there, and you will want her to look smart and attractive. When she arrives, wearing last year's rather shabby coat, you will be irritated, forgetting that instead of buying a new winter coat for herself she bought a much-desired bicycle for Junior. Or you may find • yourself at a party, comparing her not-too-new evening frock with another woman's beautiful gown. Yet she has probably economised on her own appearance in order that her children may be well-turned out, and her house newlycurtained. Self-sacrificing Mothers.

Men age with distinction. Most women age in a faded, mousy sort of way, largely because of this very inclination to supply household extras from the itetn in the budget erroneously described as "wife's dress allowance, personal expenditures," and eo on. There is no bitterer moment in a wife's life than when she sees her husband appraising her in the light of comparison with the superbly groomed unmarried woman. She becomes conscious of the years and their mark . . . of her failures, her loss of grace, and nothing he can ever say to her will efface that revealing moment of unconscious criticism. A fading woman needs all the help that art can give, and your wife will never be so old that she won't want you to be as proud of her as when you took her out first. When Junior wants a bicycle and your wife smiles and says, "I can do without a coat this season," let Junior wait! Interest and pride in her appearance will do more to keep your wife happy than anything else. It is a crown few women wear, yet it is balm to much that life brings. So when you sec her coming down the aisle, radiantly lovely in her wedding gown, make a vow in your heart to keep her so, so that each year may be a confirmation of the beauty that drew you to her first. 1