The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-17

One sees so many women presenting
an unattractive appearance. which in
spection shows TO be unnecessary, that
the wish comes involuntarily that some
one would instruct them as TO their good
points and, ignoring their vanities, as 10
their bad points too. For instance. a
woman whose 200 pounds of avoirdupois
ought to be out of sight as much as may
be will be found putting every ounce Of
her weight in evidence in a big plaid
which has taken her fancy, or which
she has an idea diminishes distance. but
every line of which is in reality like
a chalk mark to fix the glance and rest
II and let IL begin again. And il she has
not arrayed herself in plaid she has
encircled and magnified her form with
ruffles that increase her circumference
like halos around the moon.
Yet such a woman should preferably
wear black or the darkest shade of in
should always remember that the cut OF
her clothes which allows long lines Of
slow curves is that which will make her
seem less unwieldly than any other.
Yet, strange contradiction, few things
are more becoming 10 a large woman
than white cambria or muslin or India
silk. 1t acknowledges at once that she
is stout, but il gives her stoutness an air
of whOlesomeness and sweetness that
overbalances any disadvantage of SUI
perfiuous flesh.
White indeed is one Of the colors that
are becoming to almost all women. es-
pecially with ribbons or flowers of the
colors that suit them best. And next
TO white a fair and rosy woman seldom
looks SO well in anything as in pale
pink; she may be almost plain, and
white dress and pink ribbons will make
her seem lovely. Pink, the delicate pink
with yellow cast in it, is peculiarly
suitable to the red-haired woman who
has a clear complexion; yet such
woman should avoid scarlet and Grim
son as she would fire. Pale blue suits
her. but she will look delicate and per-
haps little pinched in il; in pale green
she Will be as fresh as Galatea-other
thing being equal: in dark green, as
blooming as a wood nympth; and there
are tints of terre Gotta and brown
bronze that will shade up TO her hair
and mingle with it as if she We're a
picture.
But all women should bear in mind
that the brightest and most striking
colors. like yellow and scarlet, are sell
striking effects and as a luxury, and in
the ornament rather than in the body of
a toilet If they are of the blown and
blowzy sort, the high colors will only
make their defect more noticeable, and
if they are of the washed out and gray
skinned type then the contrast is dis
agreeable. The former variety can tone
themselves down. as we have said; the
latter would best accept their fate, and
they will find themselves in the dull
blues and soft rose colOrs much pleas
auter objects to the eye than in any
thing abrupt. or even i'm the grays and
browns that make them seem all of a
piece and as if they were fading out Of
sight
But. again, the woman who has no
avoirdupois at all, whose contours best
represent the shortest distance between
two points. should put far away from
her black and all the deeper shades but
especially black, as its own poverty is
reflected on every surface IL approaches.
She is already thin, and then black
makes her like mere exclamation
point, and unless she is of rather extra
ordinary beauty makes her look much
older than she is and now as gray as
cid and now as yellow as a lemon. 1t
needs a very fine color indeed in black
not to look sallow.
The woman in middle life who wears
her widows weeds deliberately places
herself as an old woman, as she will dis
cover by the chance remarks of the man
in the cars who gets up TO give the old
woman his seat, or Of the mother who
reproves her boy for running against the
old lady. There is, in fact, as much art
in the choosing of colOrs for dress as in
any other scheme of decoration. Prop
erIy observed. it must not only increase
the charm of good looks, but ii can
make something like beauty where un-
der other circumstances beauty does not
eXist-Harper's Bazaar.