Dress to Suit Your Type!

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 5, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 23

Dress to Suit Your Type!

"By Marie Tempest

(Miss Marie Tempest, who designs all her own frocks, wears some remarkably dainty gowns on the stage. She maintains that “The Secrets of (food “Dressing ” are individuality and femininity.

When I first saw the chemiselike modern frock I confess I did not like it. But by degrees as I grew used to the unaccustomed severity of the garment I came to recognise its allure. At length, however, the growing popularity of a style of dressing which appealed by its simplicity had the inevitable result of monotony and loss of individuality. Very soon everyone adopted it, and every woman cultivated a perfectly straight figure. Young and

old, fat and thin, took to the tubular dress, a style that reduced them all to shapeless uniformity. Skirts grew shorter and shorter, revealing legs of every shape and kind of ugliness, exaggerated by the übiquitous flesh-coloured stockings. I sincerely hope that never again shall we trail into our drawingrooms the street sweepings we used to accumulate in the days of long skirts, the days of horse transport. But there are possibilities of compromise. We need not drag our skirts in the gutter, but that is not

to say that we need show how deplorably our knees knock or retreat from each-other. Uniformity zA Virtue ABOVE all we must discard the idea that uniformity is a virtue. Let us wear long dresses or short dresses, crop our hair or wear it long, according to our personality and style. The secrets of good dressing are individuality and femininity.

There must be something wrong with a fashion which admits of every woman being able to wear another woman's dress and look just the same in it. Individuality, to my mind, is the keynote of success in dress. Every woman should .be able to dress in such a way as to emphasise her good points and minimise her bad ones. The great fault of the pres-ent-day fashions is not only their monotony, but their lack of femininity, i . i '■■

There is nothing more lovely than the natural figure with its pretty curves, yet women are all expected to dress as if they were straight planks from top to toe. When Fashions Were Terfect T?ROM many points of view the -*- most perfect period of dress is that of the 18th century, for during this period dress was at its most feminine. It was planned to bring out the beauty of the figure, to indicate curves without exaggerating them, as did the ugly fashions of the mid-Victorian period. Skirts were full and pretty; materials were lovely also, and not only the dress, but the coiffure, was a thing of charm. Think of the dainty buckle shoes with their Louis Quatorze heels, and the beautiful stockings to match the frocks, too. Think of the billowy, rustling petticoats with their frills and flounces. The present-day woman has discarded petticoats —it is a great pity! There is nothing, to my mind, more enchanting than the rustle of a silken petticoat accompanied by the tap of high heels on a polished floor. j . 'The Charm of ''Taffetas IT requires some strength of mind in view of the trend of presentday modes, to preserve one's individuality in dress; but this I strive, perhaps vainly, to do. I like feminine styles and feminine materials. Taffetas, to my mind, is one of the most seductive materials a woman can choose—it lends itself so admirably to the fashioning of picture frocks. For my stage frocks I always try to arrive at something that will indicate the character of the part I am playing. Many women have admired the garden hat I wear in "Hay Fever"; this was really a joke. I thought it the incongruous thing "Judith" would wear; and yet such is the reaction from the "cloche" that I am told it is quite becoming. I practically put this hat together myself. I bought a little coarse straw shape for a few shillings, got a huge poppy and placed it in front, and some trailing leaves at the side. It is amusing, and apparently quite effective. Reaction Will Qome IF every woman made up her mind to emphasise her own personality by her dress, women would no longer be the slaves of a monotonous fashion. To my mind, the present monotony has lasted too long already, and women with good sense will rebel against it, with the result that we shall once more see women dressing to suit themselves, instead of dressing to make themselves merely the doubles of their sister women. I hope this day will come soon now !