Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-03-18
HOW SHOULD SHE DRESS ?
Some Serious Questions Confronting
Business Girl Answered by an
Eastern Writer.

Have you ever watched the people in
the trolley cars? It's a liberal education
in the art of dressing, if you will notice
these men and women who day by day
travel in the same car with you, pre-
sumably to business, and more than thar.
it is liberal education in the art OF
proper department.
Conspicuous is the girl in fiashy clothes
the girl who wears her worn-out tinery
to the office, unconscious, perhaps, that
she is day by day an eyesore to those
with whom she is affiliated in that office.
She wears train and heels on her shoes
that almost make you dizzy. More than
likely she has Open-work stockings, even
i'll the winter. 1t is surprising how many
girls take the opportunity OF wearing out
their "dressy' clothes. too old to appear
among their social friends, at work in
store or office. One wonders II perchance
they think their employers are blind, or
that they are sufficiently clever and capa-
bic to have their shortcomings III appear
ance overlooked. A man seldom makes
remarks upon womans dress-unless 1T
is the dress of some one near and dear 10
him. and so many much-needed scold-
ing goes unsaid. And yet for all he says
little. a man usually has large ideas
about the way woman ought to dress
when she is at work.
dressed with the one who wears plain,
neat clothes. Compare the trim skirt,
short enough to escape the dust and dirt
of the sidewalk and the Office floor, with
the trained frock; compare the neat,
clean linen collar with the bedraggled
frillS and ruchings; the hat that is I'M
assuming and becoming, with the feath-
cred and wide-brimmed picture hat; the
stout, serviceable dark gloves, with the
solied white ones; the heavy, sturdy
shoes with the high heeled ties.
lou can read the character of those
girls whom you see daily in the trolley
almost unerringly. OF course. the girl
with the WORKOUT fussy clothes may BE-
obliged to wear such things because of
her inability to get others. She may NOT
be able to afford new clothes until the
others are worn out. Still if she has
even One-half the wisdom usually at
tributed to w0mankind, she should know
that her clothes ought to be chosen with
Il view of doing double service. She GER
ialnlY knows when she buys n pair of
shoes that after they have had their
newness worn off she must wear them to
business. and she should choose her shoes
with that end i'll view. Surely she would
look better at her social gatherings in
shoes of modest and comfortable shape
than ut business in high French heels
She should know when she selects her
evening bodice that when it is half worn
she must wear it to the office Would
she not feel better ut the card party in
waist of dark color, relieved by dainty
stock and cuffs, than at her typewriter
IN a bedraggled chiffon and lace affair?
Inc working woman must have that
second sense of what is appropriate if
she is going to succeed. Almost every
employer inStinctively wants his clerks
and his typewriters to show good taste.
He wants them to look well-paid and
contented; he wants them to hold uD
their end of the contract Nothing sue
ceeds like success has been said many a
time; the girl who really would succeed
must try to look as though she were n
success. Put yourself in the place OF
the head of an establishment and you
will soon see why he does not want his
employees to look underpaid. In some
stores there is aarue that the girls must
dress in black. There We're hard feel
ings in some quarters when that edict
went forth, and friends of the saleswom-
en- all over declared they had a right TO
dress as they pleased Who knows but
that some employer was goaded to it by
seeing his saleswomen wearing their
wornOut finery and clothes that were
never in the wide world intended for
business? 1t is NOT easy to dictate to a
woman i'll regard to what she snail wear,
and the general rule for black clothes
was probably the simplest way out of
the difficulty.
If women would recognize that they
have duty to their employers more
than simply doing the work they have
| been assigned, and that it is ''up TO
| them to give to store or office that air
of quiet prosperity which every employ
er must have. they would be far more
sure of success and their employers CON
fidence.-New York Evening News