The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-23

Since PaQuln, DOucet anu Oui lCe1u
ing importers of fashion nave decreeo
it. women's necks may be free 1or
little Even brief experience OF thls
freedom shows what beauty and what
comfort have been sacrificed by con-
filming necks to high, stiff, tight collars
or stocks.
A magnetic motion wave that is born
in the breast has hard work TO pass un-
broken through tightly collared neck
to expression in head and face and
hand.
This obstruction is usually the first
interruption that natural normal grace
encounters. With this first interference
the body's unity of mobility is ham
pered and deranged and all motion is
thereby disordered.
AS the plainest or the prettiest flower
is prettier for having stem, so every
face is prettier when its relation to its
neck is evident. Long necks and short
necks, like other long and short stems,
all have their peculiar illnesses and ad-
vantages, and there is no neck but can
be more profitably utilized than de-
stroyed
The decorative treatment of the neck
may artistically be anything that does
not interfere with it's texture, its out
line relation to the face, head and
shoulders, and its mobility.
The art value of the relation of neck
ana shoulders 10 the u6dO anu has
been Valiantly championed for evening
dress; but, alack-a- day, if the neck is
bound and imprisoned all day long it is
rendered incapable of serving credit
ably at night During its hours of
bondage bad habits of motion or or
immobility are formed and the muscu-
lar formation and the texture of the
skin suffer deterioration.
The neck and head lose their sensi-
tive vigorous responsiveness to mo-
tion prompting. Instinct, after being so
often thwarted and defeated, loses its
initiative, and abnormal mannerisms of
stiffness and aWkWardneSS soon become
habitual.
From ugly motion habits such bad
form results as head poking forward or
dropping weakly upon crooked necks.
The muscles of an imprisoned neck
have no chance to develop roundly, and
the skin withers and wrinkles and dis
colors from want of exercise and from
impaired circulation.
Tight, high collars have cost many
women not only comfort and the beau
ty of outline and texture of normal
neck, but the browning grace of their
bodies every motion as well:
Beauty of texture and outline and
color have undeniable charm, charm
so great that many sWarthy skinned,
over slender necks have been ruthless
ly sacrificed because their owners saw
no hope of beauty in them.
What is it in many plains Skinned.
homely built woman that sometimes
makes a pretty woman near her look
commonplace and unintereSJing? it IS
motion. We call it magnetism or ex-
preston, and it is the magnetic eX-
preston of motion. Form and texture
may or may not have living signlfl-
canoe but motion unfailingly expresses
70 II oil Of if- hit int
ing possibilities and interests. Beauty
of motion is the resource that kindly
nature leaves largely to our free will
for development, however badly our
forebears may have handicapped our
color, texture or outline. And beauty
of motion is no mean advantage. If it
be used for all that it is worth it is I'M
failingly a winning card.
A neck that moves beautifully makes
one forget all else about it but tat SUI
preme charm of its sensitive, potent
eXpreSsiveness.
The artistic use of the shoulders as
a pedestal to the head and neck is one
of the incest points of costume. The
lines of the shoulders and bust are not
only needed to help the face and head,
they also set the key for the style of;
the entire figure. The quality of ex-
preston in figure never rises above
the expression of the chest and Shout
ders. This is the starting point for all
artistic costume designing.
The cut and trimming of uncollared
gowns for daytime. use is more deli
cate and complex problem than the adj
justment of low cut evening gown.
The lower lines of neck trimming, those
that approach the bust and shoulders,
Iriust'1ead the scheme, and the cut and
finish at the base of the throat should
blend tremendously up to the shape OF
the face and lines of the head.
The old-fashioned crowding up of the
bust by high corsets" was wholly in
artistic. The uppermost swell of the
bust was beauty of outline and spirit
ual loneliness of expression. The mid
die and lower swell of the bust quick
ly grow emphatically physical in ex-
preston; and either to push physically
into undue prominence or to cut an
evening gown so low as to expose
physicality unduly is inartistically
gross and unaesthetically disagreeable.
There is a question of balance to be
carefully considered in relating the
low cutting of the back of gown to
the cut of the front. A gown cut low
in front and not low enough in the
back gives an unpleasant impression
of construction of the shoulders dispro-
portionate to the free expansion of the
chest. On the other hand, if the back