The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-01
D0RoTMY DIX TALKS
The Psychology of Clothes.
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer.

AS regards clothes, people have
mainly been divided into two classes
those who held that the purpose OF
clothes was merely to cover their max
edness and keep them warm in win
ter and cool in summer, and 1t was
matter of small Importance now
they looked and those who believe
minister to ones vanity ana tnat
neither comfort nor use mattered SO
long as they were beautiful
The result of this controversy mas
been that part of our fellow creatures
have paid too. little attention to their
clothes and have gone about sloucny
and sloppy and looking like human
rag bags, while others have paid too
much attention to their clothes ana
have spent too much time and thought
and money turning themselves INTO
living fashion plates
Both the under-dressed and the
oYerdressed have thought OF CLONES
merely in terms of their bodies. They
have not considered the way they
| dressed as it reacted on their charac-
te1s, and yet the moral effect OF
coat on a man or a frock on woman
| is far more important than Wnether
| the garment becomes his or her com
plexion. 1t has been said, as man
| thinks, so he is" 1t may be said with
equal truthfulness that as man
dresses, so will he be.
| : We could have no more vivid illus
tration of this than has been afforded
| by our volunteer army, who by the
mere putting on of uniform appear
| to have acquired automatically
strength, stamina and backbone-al
| of those intangible qualities that we
| Jumped into the word manl1neSS.
So great has been the transforma-
| ton wrought by a suit of khaki that
we have actually failed to recognize at
first sight boys with whom we nave
oil 49, 7nfr
There was Jimmie johnson, round
shouldered and flat-chested, and
whose knees always appeared to Wab-
BILE as he walked. Jimmie's clothes
always looked as if he slept in them
and he had a general air of going to
seed and of being too lazy and shift
less to care if he did. But Jimmie in
his new uniform is butterfly
emerged from the chrysalis. Trim,
| trig and taut, buttoned up to the chin,
with polished puttees and every
i buckle shining, he has squared his
shoulders, stuck out his chest and
/ held up his head for the first time in
/ his life, because he's trying to live up
i to that soldiers coat he's got on,
And there's Percy Perkins who has
always been a sissy sort of chap
who ran to silk pajamas and four
dollar necktieS and embroidered
things generally, and hadn't spunk
enough to say scat to a cat. Some
| how Percy's foolish little artificial
| ties and sentimentalities 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 courage and grit
| into the weakest spine and the poor
est spirit of the man who puts it on.
| OF the well known and irresistible
| effects of brass buttons and uniforms
| on the female sex it is unnecessary to
speak here. Women have never
| been able to resist them and the rec
ord breaking crop of war brides is
merely another illustration of the
psychology of clothes. Girls who
have said mo- a thousand times to
suitors in business suits, golfing
| have said yes. and thank you kind
| ly' the very first time their lovers
| popped the question camouflaged as
| gallant soldier boys.
| Further proof of the effect that
ones personal appearance has on
ones morale also comes from the
| front where We are told that even
| the men in the trenches, who are
| forced to live in incredible filth, are
urged to shave every day and keep
! their uniforms as clean as possible
because it bucks man up and gives
him courage. Also We are told that
the officers find that they have more
control over their men and inspire
more respect if they are always
turned out spic and span as if on
dress parade.
Certainly one finds it easy to be-
lieve this because it matches ones
own personal experience. All of us
40 pay difference to good clothes.
All of US are impressed by them and
| there is not one of US who is not in
| tangfbly braced up and given more
| courage by feeling that we are suit
ably attired.
The first subtle indication that a
man or woman is slumping, that he
or she has let go and has given up
( the fight is shown in his or her APP
! pearance When man ceases to
| shave and black his shoes, when he
4 let's his trousers bag at the knees he
is on the toboggan slide. So is the
woman who leaves off her corsets
and takes to mother Hubbards and
| foppy slippers and screws her hair
up into knot the size of a hickory
nut on the top of her head
The man with a three days stubbIe
| of beard on his face, and spotty
clothes, will shuttle and shan1bIe
around to the back door and whine out
| a hard luck story He will ask for
| aims instead of work because he's law
and shiftless and has lost courage and
determination. The man who is clean
| shaver, whose clothes are brushed
and pressed. even if they are thread
bare, will look you in the eye and ask
| for a job, because he's still got self
respect and fight left in him He is
braced up by knowing that he doesn't
| look like a bum.
So well recognized is the effect of
ones clothes on ones attitude toward
i life that the very first thing a society
in this city for retaining men does is
| to give hem shoes with straight heels.
The psychologist at the head of this
| charity claims that crooked and run
over heels always carry their wearers
| down into the pit.
If clothes have such an effect on
mems characters. their effect on
women is infinitely greater. because
| women are naturally more susceptible