ARE YOU GOOD AT FIGURES?

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21096, 24 April 1940, Page 4

ARE YOU GOOD AT FIGURES?

A SIMPLE LESSON IN ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION

No, I’m not urging you all to become book-keepers, accountants, or Senior Wranglers. Nor even to take up mathematics as a blackout evening hobby. I’m just suggesting that you should put a certain amount of effort into the important job of making the best of the figures you all possess. Those figures that are yours for better, for worse; that can cause you to experience every emotion from honest pride to black despair. “But,” you cry, “I’ve tried dieting already, and it was no good. And I can’t afford reducing corsets at about four guineas. And the job of running a house leaves me no time for rolling on mats and waving my legs in the air!” Forget all that. Don’t think, for the moment, of actual alterations in measurements and weight. But consider the subtle game of making yourself appear taller, shorter, thinner or fatter by means of the cleverly chosen clothes you wear. The first rules of this game, of course, are not subtle at all. They are glaringly obvious. One is: If you are fat and dumpy, don’t wear large checks. Yet if you’ll stop and think for an instant of the short stout people you know, I’m fairly sure you’ll remember seeing one at least attired in outsize checks of the kind that wouldn’t shame a horse-blanket. For the Thin and Tall

too thick nor too thin; a hairy tweed and a clinging jersey can be equally catastrophic. Wear dresses and long coats, rather than suits whose jackets stop as though exhausted at the hips; discard belts in favour of waistlines that are lightly indicated but not, so to speak, pressed home. Wear skirts a little longer than fashion dictates. Have reasonably dark-toned stockings. Lastly, avoid with equal care the shapeless and the skin-tight fit. Its Smart to be Covered Up

The woman who wants to seem shorter and plumper has an easier game to play, especially this season. It’s smart to be “covered up” in the evening, so she’ll wear high-necked, bracelet-length sleeved dinner dresses that kindly conceal obtrusive elbows and collar-bones. It’s smart to be short-skirted, so she’ll choose fairly brief daytime skirts with a moderate flare, that seem to subtract inches from her height. Double-breasted suits will be hers. Her dresses will be boldly belted to break her height and accent her small waist; so will her coats, except her swing-backed, box-fronted sports coat of hairy check tweed. She will pad her shoulders and revel in the present mode for rounding the hips. She won’t wear a bustle, of course, in these sternly practical times, but she will have fulness at the back of her skirt—that fulness that works miracles of simple addition. And, in spite of the fart that fashion is swerving from colourcontrast towards monotone, she’ll wisely stick to her favourite contrasting, length-cutting jackets and skirts. Third case: the girl who is short and longs to be taller. Fashion just now is kind to her, too; she can wear with great profit the princess frock, beltless and fitting, or, its near relation, the frock with the long front panel slightly shirred at the sides. The One-Colour Vogue The new one-colour vogue will suit her; she’ll put over her princess dress a slim beltless coat to match, and add a little cap with a skywardsoaring crown. Or a fitted doublebreasted coat with long rows of buttons set closely together, topped by a high postilion hat. Well, there you have the main rules of the game sketched out for you to follow. They don’t cover all contingencies, and your own particular problem may be one that hasn’t been dealt with. But it can be dealt with, if you work on these lines. You’ll produce optical illusions that will deceive your husband, your friends, even yourself until you test them with a tape-measure; and you’ll find that the figure you’ve always considered an Unalterable Fact is as capable of artistic improvement as plasticine

Another primary rule is: If you are tall and thin, don’t wear up-and-down clothes. Yet a run through your visiting list will almost certainly remind you of some long and angular friend arrayed in north-to-south stripes, or perhaps in a tubular frock adorned with a never-ending neck to hem procession of buttons. Why is it that so many women appear to feel magnetic attraction towards the very clothes that exaggerate their figure faults? Possibly it’s natural association; a long narrow dress reminds a tall thin woman of herself, .and she vagely feels that it is therefore bound to suit her.

Let’s get down to details. Probably the most difficult—and the most frequent—case is that of the woman who wants to be slimmer. She is either too plump in places, or too thick and solid all the way down; she has given up all idea of elegance, and dresses in shapeless clothes which she hopes will disguise her outline.

What should she do? First, buy a good corset, putting into it every penny she can afford. This corset is worth taking pains over; a couple of hours should be allotted to choosing it, trying it on, and profiting by the advice of an expert fitter. Next, she should pick clothes with up-and-down lines unobtrusive stripes, tucks, long seams, or perhaps a vertical row of buttons. Rule out with a firm hand _ all large prints, shiny surfaces, bright colours. Use fabrics that are neither