The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-20
Dorothy Dix Tails

The Psychology of Clothes-2.

The Psychology of ClOthes-2.
For one of the reasons that women
have achieved so little is because they
have not been suitably clothed. You
can't climb the ladder of success in
beaded georgette blouse any more
than you could a fire ladder. Nor
can you run a race in spool heeled
shoes. Common prudence counsels
you not to over exert yourself when
you have got on-a hand made COM
plexion- that is liable to run II you
get heated up about anything. More-
over, when your feet are hurting In
shoes three sizes too small, and you
are laced until you are suffocating
for air and you are half starved be-
cause your lunch money has gone into
French millinery instead of your
stomach. you can't get enthusiastic
about whether your firm is winning or
losing. .--- "a,
But when a girl can wash her face
and comb her hair and put on sub
stantial clothes before she leaves home
of a morning, and forget about them
until she gets back in the evening,
she will have some time and mind to
think about her work. The great
thing, however, about her being sensi-
bly, dressed is the psychological ef-
feet it will have on her.
Not without good cause do women
invariably judge another woman by
the way she is dressed. They know
that a woman'S clothes express her,
and that there is nothing else to
which their sex reacts as it does to
dress. They know from personal ex-
perience that a woman can put off or
put on a mood by changing her frock.
You could take any staid old mother
in Israel and turn her into vamp
who couldn't make her eyes behave,
by putting on her long jade ear rings
and wicked green party frock cut V
in the back and c in front, and,
similarly, you can tone down any
holden and turn her into a prunes and
prisrns miss by decking her out in a
simple white muslin with a blue rib
bon sash.
When a woman feels happy she al
ways puts on something pretty and
fluffy, and when she is miserable and
sulky she drags out the Oldest dowdi-
est gown in her closet and makes her
self still more miserable by wearing
it. Watch a woman in a tailor made
frock. See how erect and jaunty she
carries herself. and note how the same
woman sinks and Tolls in a negligee.
Do you think it is by chance that a
woman in a soiled kimono and with
her hair in curl papers quarrels like n
fish wife with her husband at break
fast? She would l incapable St say
| ing the things she does If she haG on
a pink silk and lace ball gown.
A large part of a woman's backbone
! is whalebone, and much of her =. fine
ment and elegance is silk and lace.
She, does things and says things I'm
her slovenly state that she would be
Mortified at the thought of doing
| when properly girced up.
So it was inevitable that WON. n, on
whom clothes have so potent an in
fluence, should be the victims OF their
errors in dress in business. Az long
as a girl went to- work attired as II
she were going to a party, or we're
/ about to ensnare a desirable sutton
and bring him to TIE proposing point.
she conducted herself like a - ciety
girl, or a bride to be. who was merely
! condescending to sell a few goods, or
i write a letter or tI.o while she v aited
! for her motor or the bridegroom.
But put her into the dress of \ BUSH
ness woman, brace her up with clothes
like a mans. and. my word for 1t. you
are going TO see a lot of hustling,
competent young business women who
won't disgrace their tailor madcs.
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