Читать книгу Dress and Look Slender - Jane Warren Wells - Страница 8

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Sometimes we women of over 36 bust become discouraged. There is really no reason for this because most of us have a great many good points that we simply do not use to the best of our advantage. We worry so unnecessarily about our bad points that we forget about the good ones, but there is much that we can do with little or no effort and the improvement in our appearance is its own reward. For instance, most big people have nice hair, and they should keep it. Any big woman who bobs her hair and leaves it that way hasn’t eyed herself sufficiently in her mirror. From her neck up she may look ten years younger, but from the neck down she probably looks ridiculous. For one of the chief rules for good looks is right balance, poise, and dignity. So why do anything to hinder these? You have one handicap—too many pounds. You must do everything you can, therefore, to retain every possible attraction, and your hair is one of them for it suggests womanliness.

We don’t want our friends to say that we have a great “mother lap” or a shoulder of Gibraltar to weep on, but we must set out to be substantial in thought, act, and deed to be attractive. A little slim girl can giggle and be silly if she wants to—she can even wear mussed up dresses—but a big girl must be modest, and always immaculate in every particular. And why not? It’s an effort, yes, to be always striving for perfection, but it can be made a real hobby. Study the attractive slender girl who looks well and dresses well. Adapt what you can of her attire. Oftentimes, you can learn more of the “trick” from the slim looking girl than from the stout.

As you go through fashion books, don’t discredit all the styles and say they are planned only for the slim. Study them carefully, find a collar from one and waist line from another, fabric suggestions from another. Dress to be fashionable, but learn to discriminate so that you can find the best for you in the new.

Sometimes I have thought what fun it would be if we big folks could dress up and reach a point of perfection—so much so that the artist would have to get a more flexible pencil to express the varying grace of line that would be manifest. And why not? Isn’t it our own fault if fashion forgets us? We deserve to be dowdy if we haven’t enough pride, ingenuity, and perseverance to conceal intelligently and comfortably a few extra pounds.

If you are tall and large but not fat, consider yourself a full well-proportioned figure and dress correctly but in plain good quality fabrics so that neither height nor width will be accentuated.

Don’t try to fool yourself by wearing clothes that are too small for you. It is said that fat men need the best tailors, and surely all large women should strive to have perfect fitting clothes.

When I was fourteen I wore on a special Sunday a long skirt and a bustle, thinking that it was better to look eighteen and “ladylike” than fourteen and overgrown. Don’t look overgrown in your clothes, but don’t ever make yourself any older than you are.

If your ankles are large, have your dresses a wee bit longer than fashion calls for. If your ankles are small and the legs large above the ankle, have your dress slightly long for the same reason. If the legs and ankles are correctly proportioned for the rest of the body, remember that even you need to have the skirt just a little bit longer because when you sit down you take up some of the skirt length. A fat woman sitting down with a dress that is too short is not pleasing to see—and we big women do love to sit down.

And in speaking of sitting down, a sanitary apron is a real protection to the backs of big folks’ dresses as it prevents wrinkling. Buy one, try it, and you will realize that the back of your dress looks much better after you get up from a two-hour sitting. And, besides, you can console yourself with the fact that if perspiration really reduces, your apron is serving you twofold—melting the fat and preventing skirt wrinkles all at the same time.

Don’t ever be tempted to wear frills, ruffles, tassels, or ornaments that go forward or wave about as you walk. They double your size every time and must be avoided.

A good plan for those of us who like ruffles, frills, and bright colors is to put them on our night clothes where no one but our very own selves can see.

The house, too, lends opportunity for our color appetites and there we may use color freely and safely. But because we love red, orange, or King’s blue is no sign we must wear it on our backs for all to see. Buy a little piece of fabric with just the colors you revel in; put it in the dresser drawer, or let it ornament a chair back, look at it every day, and thus satisfy your longing for color. Then wear those very simple things that you know will be becoming.

One woman whom I know and who looks like a fashion plate in the day time and like a dream lady at night, always gets everything together on the bed before she starts to dress. She insists that it takes only a little longer to do this, that it saves time when she does get ready to dress, and that she is always better satisfied with the results. She says, “I know then that I have the right slip, the right stockings, that my gloves are suitable, and that there are no holes that need attention. In putting them on the bed, I always make all the little repairs that are necessary and do all the brushing or freshening that is needed; then when I am ready to dress I feel a sense of satisfaction that I can find in no other way.”

And so, why don’t you, who are striving to express yourself more beautifully, to dress with more satisfaction and peace of mind, try this simple little plan of thinking about what you are going to wear and getting it ready before you start to dress? Then, watching always what you see in your mirror, your fashion books, on the streets, and in the shops, you will find that which is appropriate, becoming, and wholly lovely for you.

And to these material fundamentals, add your own wholesome pride. Don’t cheat yourself or those who must see you. Don’t be dowdy. Life is too short and too real for that. Learn to be proud of yourself and dress so that even you will feel a sense of security and assurance. After all, we can be rather selfish about just looking right. Other folks are glad to see us in pretty clothes—looking our best. A right hat, a right dress, correctly worn, can really do wonders as a tonic. Try it. It really is a good prescription.