IN PRAISE OF OLD FROCKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16987, 10 March 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

IN PRAISE OF OLD FROCKS.

It is only extreme youth that clamours for all things new. New frolics, flirtations and fripperies are all very well for our salad days, but when we are “forty and a bit took ” we have the value of old friends, old furniture, and old frocks. If we possess the first, can afford the second, and appreciate the last, what more can wc reasonably desire? But it is only after we have crossed the comfortable meridian of middle life that we do realise- the blessedness of old frocks, for then we have learnt tho great secret—that to appear really well dressed a woman must feel thoroughly at home in a frock. It must have had time to grow round us, so to speak, like ivy round a wall, to have mellowed ancl moulded itself to our form, lief ore it can look as if it “belonged.” Only the woman with a flair for good dressing knows the trouble it is to “ break in ” a new frock to her personality. thereby giving it the only chance it has of looking well. Imagine that the woman who always looks charming in her clothes wears her frocks “ about the house ” till a complete understanding arises between her and them. Then onlv does she feel that she can emerge with pleasing confidence, that she can triumphantly “meet her enemy in the gate.” and strike envy into lief* bosom. For is that not the supreme test of any frock? . Tho “ breaking-in ” of a frock, how- j ever, requires a care and patience be- j vond the average woman’s capacity, j Most of us, when we get a new dress, j can hardly await the first- opportunity . of wearing it. Tlio result generally is | that, even after the entire household \ lias gathered round with pins, needles j and cottons to adjust its smaller defects. wo still look and feel painfully “ new ” and self-conscious in it, and miss the dazzling effect we had pictured ourselves creating. ... A little care and time spent on the early education of our frocks would avert sartorial tragedies. O.M.S.