The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-01-21
SCHEME OF COLOR.
Why 50 Many Women Present an
Appearances That Is Not
Attractive
Tho Proper Respect for Contour
Is Not Shown in Select
ing Raiment
ths Ihin 0ns-whits suits All
OF Them.

One sees 50 many women presenting an
unattractive appearance, which inspection
shows 10 be unnecessary, that the wish
comes involuntarily that some one wodld
instruct them as 20 their good points and,
ignoring their vanities. as 20 their bad
points too. For instance, woman whose
90 pounds Of avoirdupois ought 70 be ont
Of sight as much as may be will be found
putting every ounce Of her weight In evi-
dence in a big plaid which has taken her
fancy, or which she has an idea diminishcs
distance, but every line Of which is in real
fly like a chalk mark 10 fix the glance and
rest IL and let il begin again. And il she
has not arrayed herself ia plaid she has
encirclod and magniled her form with ruff
les that Increase her circumference like
halos round the moon.
Yet such a woman should preferably
wear black or the darkest shade OF invisi-
bic green, blue or prune color. aud should
always remember that the cut of her clothes
which allows long lines Of slow curves is
that which will make her seem less un-
wieldy than any other. Yet, strange con
tradiction, few things are more becoming
20 a large woman than a white cambria or
muslin or india silk IL acknowledge 40
once that she is stout. but it gives her stout
ness an air of wholesomeness and sweetness
that overbalanoes any disadvantage Of SUI
perfiuous flesh.
White indeed Is one Of the colors that
are becoming TO almost all women espe-
cially with ribbons OF flowers Of the colors
that suit them best And next 20 white a
fair and rosy woman seldom looks so well
In anything as in pale pink; she may be al
most plain, aud a white dress and pink rib
bons will make her seem lovely. Pink, the
delicate pink with a yellow cast in it, is
peculiarly suitable 60 the red haired woman
who has a clear complexion; yet such n
woman should avoid scarlet and crimson
as she would ERE. Pale blue suits her, but
she viii look delicate and perhaps a little
pinohed in IL; in pale green she viii be as
fresh as Galatea-other things being equal:
indark green. as blooming as a wood nymph,
and there are tints Of terra Gotta and brown
bronze that will shade up TO her hair and
mingle with il as II she were picture.
But all women should bear IN mind that
the brightest and most striking colors, like
yellow and scarlet, are seldom to be used
in a mass except for very striking effects
and as a luxury. and in the ornament rath-
er 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 II they are Of the washed
out and gray skinned type then the CON
trnst is disagreeable 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 pleasanter OBJ
jects TO the eye than in anything abrupt, or
even in 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 avoir-
dupois 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
it approaches. She is already thin, and
then black makes her seem like a mere ex-
clamation point, and unless she is Of rather
extraordinary beauty makes her look
much older than she is and now as gray as
cid and now as yellow as a lemon. IL 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 discover by
the chance remarks Of the man in the cars
who gets up 20 give the old woman his seat
or of the mother who reproves her boy for /
running against the old lady. There is, in I.
fact, as much art in the choosing Of colors /
for dress as in any other scheme of decora- Z
tion. Properly observed, il must not only I
increase the charm Of good looks. but it can
make something like beauty where under /
other circumstances beauty does not exist. 1
-Harpers Bazaar.