THE ART OF LOOKING ONE’S BEST

Southland Times, Issue 17620, 7 April 1914, Page 7

THE ART OF LOOKING ONE’S BEST

THE MORAL VALUE OF DRESS \S \ SERVANT. REFLECTIONS FOR WOMEN, i (• roni I Mir Lady Correspondent.) LONDON, Feb. 13. one writes of the art of looking one's best. It is almost a science. Tt is one toe. that no woman in the world one speaks advisedly can afford to forget and it is something that is worth study. Over here, in England, so many things ale done tli rough the mere agency of money, by dressmakers, tailors, milliners. and their ilk that it is its misleading olten to attempt to read character in dress as it is to discover personalities behind trie sort of talk that is considered interesting enougli to liven a community of women nt suburban afternoon teas. In New Zealand, where girls lake a practical band in the making of a gieat deal of what they wear, they have deservedly acquired a reputation for generally looking very spick and span and original, anti it s a tribute of which they have every right to feel proud. The dreary prognostications of those past times that wailed that all women would follow the few who chose the strange way of declaring their independence of man hy becoming bis parasite in clothes have long ago been forgotten. and we. fortunately no longer have tame monstrosities in severe coats, stiff collars, and bold ties and straw hats stalking our screens. Though expressing itself no less forcibly our sex manages to do so more gracefully to-day. and it is no more uncommon to see a welldressed woman factory inspector, let us say. Ilian a well-gowned dame of Kensington.

An interesting senuinr' belief In the efficacy of dress tn do imic-h more than merely clothe one's person or conform lo fashion is nothing new, of course, but not all women remember all that dress can be made to do and that is an immense pity. They how to tne belief unconsciously, nevertheless, every time they don clothes they're not interested in simply because the world seems topsy tnrvey and unb*-untiful for a while, .lust us surely when, feeling radiant, they express themselves in as happy Raiments as possible. The very habits conm-cled with clothes which Rive a clue to the important place lo ahico we've exalted dress are wortli remernberi nR in thinking; the matter out. for if work is a panacea for all ills habit is a wonderful avenue lo Steadiness and consideration. PRESf I HUTTON FOR WANT OF TASTE It is a maddening; tiling; to one who cares for human people sufficiently stronßly to want to sec each making the most of herself - to note that simply through thoughtlessness or want of taste Can illness that we ought to provide a prescription for in the form of a wise friend) actual thousands of women are not even aware themselves of the charm in them. For years a woman will do her hair in exactly the most unbecoming fashion possible to her probably far too elaborately till some appreciative one. seeing her softly braided for the night, discovers a secret to change her whole appearance. And, incidentally, the writer would claim, quite a good deal of her life As it may be the other way about hair clawed back as if with a garden rake might easily bear a little wholesome vanity and be vastly improved by it Of itself dress is ” nothing worth." which, at once, explains the indifferent and unoriginal appearance of the ones who merely dress because it Is the thing lo do, and. on the other hand, illustrating the truism that what is worth doing is worth doing well. Like housework it is a valuable servant but a despicable master, and like housework it can be trained to take a useful and absolutely helpful place in one's life. To make the host of oneself in dress may seem to have nothing at all in common with making the best of one’s finer self in what are of course finer matters. Why not? It is a particularly telling form of expression and we have not many of those. Dressing in itself falls into a habit and habits are the outward and visible signs of our inward invisible selves. It requires tijne. often wit and patience, always care, it expresses radiance, depression, daintiness, carelessness, sparkling originality. stodginess. Arc not these enough to show- that it Is something of a science and assuredly worth remembrance 7