Evening star., 1932-11-13
Ultra.Smart' Women
Stand as Examples
Of Self.Confdence
BY MILE. PAuLE-MADoC.


NRY enthusiasm at present is all
NH for black, and wherever you go
NA in and around Paris, if you
study the clothes truly fash
ionable women are wearing.
you will find their ensembles are either
entirely black or black enhvened by
some lighter color playing q decidedly
subordinate role.
Certainly there are many smart
women wearing other colors. Navy blue
is q conspicuous favorite and many
rich browns varying In shade from the
lightest beige to the deepest maroon
are the preference OF many, followed by
fancy mixtures of woolenS, dark green,
purple and a long list of other shades.
But when sac a congregation OF wom-
en- dressed smartly enough to defend
and maintain the Partisan reputation
for chic l survey the gathering and
divide the women INTO three classes, in
stinctively 1 have been doing this all
my life, so that it represents no effort
and comes to me as naturally as 1t
would, with closed eyes, to distinguish
between roses, violets and weeds.
There are the not dressed, the we'll
dressed and the ultra-smartly dressed,
and manifestly I am interested only in
GAAE AoOSbOAJ'
*.%
THE not dressed are those who have
made no apparent effort to be any
more than clothed. This takes in wom-
en- who are expressing dissatisfaction
with life through the medium Of dress.
Indifference and ignorance are some Of
the misfortunes lurking behind those
who appear so shabby.
The well dressed are those who con-
stitute the majority by far. Forty -flve
out of fifty viii fall into this class.
They wear beautiful clothes, have taste
and money for possessing all the lovely
things they see in the shops they visit.
II blue be the fashionable color of the
season they will be buried in blue. II
the seasons color range be red they will
lcok like flock of glorifled redbirds,
and if it be green they will lose no time
assuming the guise CT meadow IN
Spring. They follow the examples Of
others and will not wear what has not
been given the appreciation OF others.
They lack all the initiative OF the fore
runner You will not find them wear
ing what has not been previously seen,
and the minute a certain vogue passes
they will not wear it again. They are
the slaves to somebody else who IS set
ting the law from above. Still they
are unconscious of this bondage and
dependence and believe themselves the
sources OF smartneSs when they art
only drinkers at the well.
THE ultra -smartly dressed woman vii
not be conspicuous. On the con-
trary, she will be inconspicuous ano
more likely than not her seat viii be II
some obscure corntr and you will have
to possess a trained eye to single hel
out from the others Immediately She
Is the maker of fashions. She Is thu
one who will wear whatever she please.
without care or regard for what other!
are approving, and 60 her Independent
way, garmented often in things tina
have never been in style and things tina
were so but are no more. In the hast
with which the masses of women gal
lop by, changing their styles, beautiful
VoRueS are sometimes dropped befor'
they have really been developed TO thei
best possibilities, and these wome1
finger.
It is the women Of this class who ar
wearing black. Velvet evening gown
and daytime suits are black and theru
are ensembles of incompatible smart
ness composed OF Dlack dress with per
hapS some white in the bodice. though
this is not always the case, and a sole
black coat, usually of three-uuarter
length and trimmed in great likelihoot
in astrakhan or other black fur.
1t is harder to achieve the real smart
ness have described, in black, perhaps
but the woman who possesses taste
initiative, self f-confidence, enjoys tn
dinculties imposed by this restrain
Just as a poet enjoys adhering TO tn
hard laws Of versifcation and writes i,
verse rather than prose. When one /
master of the technique by which
certain art Is made, it Is Q JOY TO dis
play this knowledge and ability and
IL equally true In painting, poetr1
sculpture and dressing.
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