Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-01
TELLS STOUT GIRLS HOW
TO DRESS EFFECTIVELY

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 31.-You may be
of uncertain age and ungainly dimen-
sions; you may measure forty-two in one
place and fifty-four in another with very
little indication of a waist line in between
and yet you may have good figure.
This sounds psradoxicsl, but it's true.
Mrs. Belle Armstrong Whitney author
ity on feminine figures and fixings, said
so in all sincerity to gathering Of wo-
men who thronged Gimbels auditorium
yesterday to hear her deliver the last of
her talks on dress.
The middle-aged woman had her inning
at this seance. With the consoling as
surance that it's never too late to be
beautiful, and that a good figure depends
upon the adaptation of lines and the use
of corrective dressmaking aids, Mrs
Whitney bolstered up the hopes of her
not over-slender audience.
Now she began brlskly, don't dress
yourself up like fowl fixed for the oven.
with a string around the middle and an
undisguised distribution of fat above and
below.
The short, stout women should avoid
skin-tght clothes. She should not encase
herself in plain black satin, with bursting
seams and tight armholes. nor should
she wear a fussy, fluffy light gown de-
signed for a slender debutante."
Has Fine Model
With the aid of a model who appeared
on the stage costumed in a plum-colored
suit, cinging loosely to her generous fig
ure, Mrs. Whitney demonstrated to her
hearers just what constituted the snags
a fat woman is likely to run up against
In the first place, the lecturer said IL
you are fat in one place it's a good idea
to add little appearance of fat in an
other, instead of accentuating the areas
that are out Of proportion. For instance,
a woman with big hips and small shoul-
ders shouldn't wear her clothes tight over
the shoulders, and vice versa.
Distract the eye from the point OF
overdevelopment and you'll get the de-
sired effect" she said.
Some of her axioms seemed a Nttie
complex and for while there was a
great deal SAID about cross lines points
of prominence and given dimensions that
sounded like propounding a proposition
in Euclid; but the part of the audience
given to middle and embonpont looked
as if everything was perfectly clear
Nothing makes a short, stout woman
more ungainly,' the figure expert said,
than short skirt that hikes up in front
and Says down In back. II an elderly
woman hasn't achieved a straight trout
there Is danger of this. and 1t is of vital
Importance that short skirt should have
a clean. sharp line at the bottom.
Those plaits and gathers beginning at
the waist line should be tabooed BY the
woman Of ample proportions. She should
have her skirts s, sped around the hips
and the fare should come from below.
bad standing, bad corseting and bad
walking give the middle-aged woman an
undesirable prominence below the waist
line. She is inclined to be hollow In the
back and prominent in front, and to elm
mate this appearance she must avoid
sharp curves over the hips and not try
to attain a sylphlike waist"
Summing up her discourse, Mrs. Whit
ney pronounced the following "don'ts'' IN
telling women how to look thin, though
fat:
Don't wear unrelieyed black.
Don't fail to cultivate long lines.
Don't wear too many petticoats
Don't try to adapt a thirty-six pattern
to a forty-four figure.
Don't sag in one place and stick cut In
another; and. above all
Don't wear your clothes skin tight.