Evening star., 1927-11-13
BY MARY MARSHALL.

| HE girl of medium height, nor
NAL weight and nearly perfect
proportions naturally looks on
i with a sense of great personal
satisfaction as she sees her
} friends struggle and worry over lines
that are too long or too short, too full
or too meager. Having a neck just
exactly long enough but not too long
for her total height, she is rather
sorry for the girl with a neck that is
like a ducks or a swans. Having a
head neither too small nor too large
for the width of her shoulders and her
other proportions, she has never had
to make a special problem of selecting
her hats. and when Tina nksgiving day
comes she breathes prayer OF
thanksgiving that she at least does
not have to trouble with camoufiage.
But unfortunately for this perfectly
normal woman, this is a day OF spe-
cial types. And the woman whose
claim to beauty or good looks de.
pends almost entirely on perfect
'tnormalcy" is very likely to pass by
unnoticed in an age when the honors
usually go to the woman who IS IN
some way little extraordinary.
These women who are just norman
or average-women who can wear al
most anything and who have never
had to make a specialized problem or
their dressing-f1nd themselves faced
with a problem unlike but just as real
as that of the girl who is too fat or
too lean or too tall or too short. The
normal woman has to dress so as to
hide the fact that she is average. And
that is lust as much camouflage as
the efforts of the fat woman to hide
superfluous hips and podgy shoulders.
You may have noticed that the
woman who lacks perfect symmetry OF
features and form and lacks the pro.
rortions that we consider normal ana
beautiful, quite often possesses mucn
individuality - personality - call II
what you will. She is striking-and
at least not likely TO be passed in
crowd unnoticed. Usually all that she
needs to do is to soften or minimize or
hide her most pronounced defects
and to stress such peculiarities as are
really attractive. =,
Any experienced dressmaker will
fell YOU that the problem of dressing
the woman who is really too thin
presents as many difficulties as that OF
dressing the woman who is too stout
The stout woman, too, has this
much in her favor: She almost always
can be reasonably slender if she wants
NC~@0N
she can take off 10. Is, 90, Is pounds
without doing herself the slightest in
jury. But the woman who is really
gaunt and lean cannot 80 easily be
brought to normal proportions. Her
difficulty frequently lies in the fact
that she is well above average height
that her neck Is long and her shoulders
anG hips just naturally bony. From
the point of view of health she II
frequently all right, but from the
point of view of the inexpert dress
maker she is rather difficult, to say
the least.
Just as in the diet there are certain
things that should be avoided both
by the very lean and by the over
weight, so in dress there are soms
things that should be avoided by WON
en- of both classes. Skirts short enough
In show the knees-which aren't much
worn anyway this season-should b.
avoided by women OF both sorts
50 also frocks cut so as TO show th'
Shoulders 1t is good rule for TIT
thin won1an n TO hide all her joints.
But It is mistake for the thii
woman to have her clothes cut loose