Any Woman May be Beautiful.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue II, 9 January 1904, Page 59

Any Woman May be Beautiful.

CAMILLE ROGER, FAMOUS PARISIAN MILLINER, SAYS IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF MAKING THE HAT FRAME THE FACE. A carping man or two may smile, but I shall not be laughed at by any woman for the statement that far too little time and certainly too little attention

are given by the softer sex to face framing, or, in simpler language, to the choice of their hat* In choosing a hat for our customers, or in imposing our opinion on them, the first consideration is the shape and character of the face. I make a point of talking for some moments with a new customer on any subject which comes upermost, so as to see how her face varies. There are women whose faces sadden, and whose eyes grow deeper when they smile. Early Victorian suits these faces best. A woman with this depth in her expression would not look well in a galette or flat creation, with but little ornament upon it. even although such a hat would probably suit her face well indeed while in repose, and in such things as this, I would point out, lies all the difference between a face framing artist and a mere modisteGENERAE IMPRESSION AN ERROR. There is a general impression that big women need big hats, and that small hats are for small women only. This, like most generalities, errs in a want of detail, for, like those verbs in French whose irregularities give such dreadful trouble to the learner of our language, not only do the exceptions in face framing prove the rules but they far outnumber them. • A broad face, with a fine, broad forehead, eoiffe en bandeaux, a full, round neck, and a soupcon of double chin, will, if the eyes be good and nose and mouth not too small, look best in a

large hat, raised on one side, with a buckle and a feather, a chapeau cavalier. But if—and this is one of nature’s little witticisms- —the nose tip in this face be, as it so often is. a dainty retrousse, the chapeau cavalier would be impossible, for it would give the wearer the appearance that her head was trying to free itself and fly away from the shoulders. A hat like that is what we call un chapeau qui enleve, a hat which carries off and lends a certain dash, and this the upturned nose tip does itself without extraneous aid, so that the chapeau cavalier would be an exaggeration and most inartistic. SOME REQUIRE SEVERITY. Again, just as there are pictures of great beauty, Burne-Jones’ pictures, for instance, which, in the framing of them need a plain severity, so there are perfect faces which need plainly severe hats- For these, a thin face, forming to an oval at the chin, with well mark ed eyebrows, a straight, thin lipped mouth, and a large nose, a perfectly plain hat which overshadows the face, is the best. In fact, the more we work upon face framing the more we find that eyes and nose are the two portions of the face which give us the most trouble. The form of the hat must be in sympathy with the nose. The character of it—its soul* if 1 may say so, must he in harmony with the expression of the eyes. Mouth do not bother us particularly, for they go with the eyes almost invariably, and grave, grey eyes will rarely have a rosebud mouth and dimpled chin beneath them. The modiste who wishes to do more than merely match a dress with her creation and to hat her customer, instead of simply putting a hat on her must know her and know something of her. My experience teaches me that one of my assistants who knows a customer will succeed in framing her face with greater ease than a more skillful one who does not known her. and I make a point of either knowing each individual customer myself or taking care that my daughter or one of my premieres does so. FASHION DOESN’T ATJWAYS SUIT. It is. of course, a great mistake to fancy that because a particular style of hat is fashionable it must suit every face. But there are managements—l do not think there is an English word exactly to express it. for modifications mean too much and accommodation means too little —which may be made with fashion, and so adapt the fashionable hat to a face which nt the first flush it would not appear to suit.

A striking woman ought to wear a striking hat. but it must not he an exaggeration. nor must n wee face be allowed to sink into insignificance under a hat too big for it, or to be made to pass unnoticed with too plain a one. Hats are a combination of face frames and face backgrounds. Tn choosing them the face must be carefully studied

by an expert and the hat suited to it* My last word is. “Don’t trust your looking glass too much.” Take your modiste’s advice as you would listen to that of your doctor, for she knows your face, not as you yourself fancy that you know it, but as it really is, and knows bv her experience how that face and the hat she gives you can best he blended into one harmonious whole.