Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-03-14
ECONOMY IN DRESS.
The Secret of Making a Good App
pcarance ON Small Ex-
pcndfture.

One of the great problems of every
day life is how to dress tastefully and
with due regard for the prevailing
style and yet with reasonable economy.
But few women have solved this prob
lem satisfactorily, and only after years
of painstaking and patient study.
The secret of success lies to a great
extent in the choice of materials
Fancy fabrics in new designs and novel
arrangements of color attract the ma
jority of young and dressy women, and
fiimsy stuffs with dressy possibilities
are irresistible temptations to them.
They buy these fabrics, and pay good
prices for having them made up, for
only an artist can handle them success
fully. The dresses are worn few times,
when they become faded, or draw in
the seams, or a few rain-drops make
ugly spots, and they become worthless
for best dresses. Then there is an i'm
perative demand for something new,
and the same ground is gone over again,
with the same results.
OF course, this sort of thing is eX-
cellent for trade, and pleasing to dress
makers, and all right fer wealthy wom-
en- who can afford to wear such goods
and have them replaced every new
moon, but the woman who would be
economical must put all these tempta-
tions away from her, for economy in
dress means the purchase of only ex-
| cellent fabrics, mostly in plain colors.
and these must be made in styles as
simple and plain as possible.
Some women are always in exaggera-
| ton of the fashion. When trains are
| worn theirs are at least half yard
| longer than those Of other people;
| when high sleeves are in vogue theirs
cover their faces. The woman who
would be well dressed must remember
that there is no greater error than ex-
| aggeration in dress, and to push fash
ion to the extreme is to suggest the
| grotesque. We often blame fashion for
| ridiculous excuses, when it is the eX-
ponents of fashion who by their exag-
| geration bring certain styles into dis
| repute. Any fashion in excess degen-
crates into vulgarity, and the wearer
of such eXaggerations is deficient in
refinement and good taste.
a high-grade silk-warp cloth in black,
made up stylishly, but in plain fash
ion, and finished with little elegant
| garniture, is one of the most useful
and becoming of garments. 1t is also
inconspicuous, and may be worn re-
| peatedly without exciting comment.
a handsome black dress may be worn
again without exciting unpleasant com
ment, or it may be changed in appear
ance by the use of few trifling varia.
lions in the way of neck-dressing trim
mings or by the introduction OF a BIZ
of color.
Another useful costume would be 4
black china crepe trimmed with lace
or ruffles of the same material. Pro-
vide several sets of ribbons, one set OF
black and the others of whatever tints
or tones are the most becoming and
appropriate. In buying ribbons avoid
high colors or fancy patterns, and above
all get good quality. Cheap ribbons
do not belong in the wardrobe of the
economical woman, neither do CHEAP
fabrics of any sort. Everything she
buys must be first-class. and all gar.
ments must be we'll made to be profit
| able.
In outside garments-wraps cloaks
and the like-the economical woman
must be 10 all appearances eXtrava-
| CANT That means that she must buy
the best and richest material, goods
that do not depend upon show, but in
trinsic worth. for their effects. Novel
ties, or what are usually called stylish
| colo
Richness and elegance. not snowy styles
and materials, must be the economical
woman's dependence if she would
achieve satisfactory results.-Farm and
| Preside.