Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-12-14
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLOTHES
IS (By DOROTHY DIX,
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
3 writer.)

- NE of the interesting and valuable
lessons that the war is teaching
us is the effect that clothes have
on us.
As regards clothes, people have
mainly been divided into two classes
Those who held that the purpose OF
clothes was merely to cover their
nakedness and keep them warm in
winter and cool in summer, and # was
matter OF small Importance how
they looked; and those who believe
that the purpose Of clothes was to
minister to ones vanity and that
neither comfore nor use mattered so
long as they were beautiful
The result of this controversy has
been that part Of our fellow creatures
have paid too little attention to their
clothes and have gone about slouchy
and sloppy and looking like human
rag bags, while others have paid too
much attention to their clothes and
have spent too much time and thought
and money turning themselves into
living fashion plates.
Both the underdressed and the over.
dressed have thought Of clothes mere
Ii in terms OF their bodies. They have
not considered the way they, dresset
as it reacted on their characters, and
yet the moral effect of coat on a
man or q frock on woman is far
more important than whether the gar
ment becomes his or her complexion.
Il has been said, as man thinks, so
he IS" It may be said with equal
truthfulness that as a man dresses,
90 will he be.
We could have no more vivid illus
&C by our volunteer army, who by the
mere putting on Of uniform appear
70 have acquired automatically
strength, stamina and backbone-all
OF those intangible qualities that we
Jumped into the word manliness.
So great has been the transforms.
lion wrought by suit Of khaki that
we have actually failed to recognize
at first sight boys with whom we
have been acquainted all OF their
lives.
There was Jimmie Johnson, round
rhouldered and flat-chested, and
whose knees always appeared to wab-
bic as he walked. Jirnmie's clothes al.
Eays looked as n he slept In them,
and he had general air of going to
seed and OF being too lazy and shift.
less to care II he did. But Jimmie In
his new uniform Is butterfly emery
cd from the chrysalis. Trim, trig and
faut, buttoned up, TO the chin, with
polished puttees and every buckle
shining, he has squared his shoulders,
stuck out his chest and held up his
head for the first time In his life, be.
cause he's trying to live up TO that
soldiers coat he's got on.
And there's Percy Perkins, who has
always been q sissy sort Of chap
who ran to silk pajamas and four dol |
lar neckties and embroidered things |
generally, and hadn't spunk enough |
% say scat" TO q cat. Somehow |
Percy's foolish little artificialities and |
dropped from him |
like an outgrown garment when he
put on his soldiers uniform.
There's Just something of sweat |
and blood, strain and struggle, hero. |
Ism and high endeavor and danger |
and death that is so interviewer into
the very fabric Of that dull brown
cloth that It puts couraee and grit in.
70 the weakest spine and the poorest |
spirit Of the man who puts il on.
or the well known and Irresistible
effects OF brass buttons and uniforms
On the female sex Il is unnecessary to |
sEeak here. Women have never been
able to resist them and the record |
breaking crop Of war brides is merely |
another illustration Of the psychology
Of clothes. Girls who have said no
q thousand times to suitors in husi- /