 Forward to Woman as Decoration. This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Julie Vermolgan. Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank. Forward. Woman as Decoration is intended as a sequel to The Art of Interior Decoration, Grace Wood and Emily Burbank. Having assisted in setting the stage for Woman, the next logical step is the consideration of Woman herself as an important factor in the decorative scheme of any setting. The vital spark to animate all interior decoration, private or public. The book in hand is intended as a brief guide for the Woman who would understand her own type, make the most of it and know how simple a matter it is to be decorative if she will but master the few rules underlying all successful dressing. As a costuming of Woman is an art, the history of that art must be known to a certain extent by one who would be an intelligent student of our subject. With the assistance of thirty-three illustrations to throw light upon the text, we have tried to tell the beguiling story of decorative Woman as she appears in frescoes and barilièves of ancient Egypt on Greek vases, the Gothic Woman on Tapestry and Stained Glass, Woman in Painting, Stecco and Tapestry of the Renaissance, seventeenths, eighteenths and nineteenth-century Woman in Portes. Contemporary Woman's costume is considered not as fashion but as decorative line and colour, a distinct contribution to the interior decoration of her own home or other setting. In this department Woman is giving suggestions as to the costuming of herself, beautifully and appropriately, at the ballroom, at the opera, in her boudoir, sunroom or on her shaded porch, in her garden when driving her own car by the sea or on the ice. Woman's decoration has been planned in part also to fill a need very generally expressed for a handbook to serve as guide for beginners in getting up costumes for fancy dress balls, amateur theatricals or the professional stage. We have tried to shed light upon period costumes and point out ways of making any costume effective. Costume books abound, but so far as we know, this is a first attempt to confine the vast and perplexing subject within the dimensions of a small, accessible volume devoted to the principles underlying the planning of all costumes regardless of period. The author does not advocate the preening of her feathers as Woman's sole occupation in any age, much less at this crisis than the making of world history, but she does lay great emphasis on the fact that a woman owes it to herself, her family and the public in general, to be as decorative in any setting as her knowledge of the art of dressing admits. This knowledge implies an understanding of line, colour, fitness background and the bottle one's own type. To know one's type and to have some knowledge of the principle underlying all good dressing is of serious economic value. It means a saving of time, vitality and money. The watchword of today is efficiency and the keynote to modern costuming, appropriateness, and so the spirit of the time records itself in the interesting and charming subdivision of a woman's attire. One may follow Woman, decorative in the Orient phase, fans, green and cagamono, as she struts in the stiff manner of Egyptian bariliefs, across walls of ancient ruins or sits in angular serenity, gazing into the future through the narrow slits of Egyptian eyes, oblivious of time. One went beautiful in the European sense, and decorative to the superlative degree, on Greek phase and sculptured wall. Here, in rhythmic curves, she dendles lovely cupid on her toe, serves as festival virgin at a woodland shrine, where's the bronze helmet of Minerva, makes laws or espionelope, the wife, rarely awaits her roving lord. She moves an august majesty, a sore-tried queen, and leaps a merry laughter as a carefree slave. Pipes, sings and plies the dystaph. Sauntering on down through Gothic Europe, Tudor England, the adolescent Renaissance, Bourbon France, into the picturesque changes of the eighteenth century, we ask, can one possibly escape our theme, woman as decoration? No, for she is carved in wood and stone, as Martha of Garden, Queen of Heaven, gleams in the jewelled windows of the church, looks down in placid serenity and light at altar, is roven in tapestry, in fact, dominates all art, painting, stecco, or marble throughout the ages. If one would know the story of woman's evolution and retrogression, that rising and falling tide in civilization, we commend the study of her, as she is presented, in art, a knowledge of a costume frequently throws light upon a rage, a thorough knowledge of a rage will throw light upon a costume. A study of the essentials of any costume of any period drains the eye and mind to be expert in planning costumes for everyday use. One learns quickly to discriminate between details which are ornaments, because they have meaning, and those which are only illiterate superfluities, and one learns to master many other points. It is not within the province of this book to dwell at length upon national costume, but rather to follow costume as it developed with and reflected caste, after human society seems to be all alike as to occupation, diversion, and interest. In the world of caste, costume has gradually evolved until it aims, if through appropriateness, at assisting woman to fulfil her role. With peasants, you know, only the traditional costume of their province, the task must often be done in spite of the costume, which is picturesque or grotesque, inconvenient, even impossible, but long made linger to divert the eye, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, all have an endless variety of costumes, rich and souvenirs of folk history, rainbows of colours and bizarre in line, but it is costuming the woman of fashion which claims our attention. The succeeding chapters will treat a woman, the fight and spark which gives meaning to any setting, indoors, out of doors, at the opera, in the ballroom, on the eyes, where you will. Each chapter has to do with modern woman, and the historical paragraphs are given primarily to shed light upon her costume. It is shown that woman's decorative appearance affects her psychology, and that woman's psychology affects her decorative appearance. Some chapters may at first glance seem irrelevant, but those who have seriously studied any art and then undertaken to tell its story briefly in simple direct language, with a hope of quickly putting audience or reader in touch with the vital links in the chain of evidence, will understand the author's claim that no detour which illustrates the subject can in justice be termed irrelevant. In the detours often lie invaluable data, for one with the mind for research was a author or reader. This is especially true in connection with our present task, which involves unraveling some of the threats from the ten-god's gain of religion, dancing, music, sculpture and painting, that marks of bright and somber colour, of golden silver threats, strung with pearls and glittering gems strangely broken by age, which it tells the epic lyric tale of civilisation. While we state that it is not our aim to make a point of fashion as such, some of our illustrations show contemporary woman, as she appears in our homes on our streets, at the play, in her garden, etc. We have taken examples of woman's costumes, which are preeminently characteristic of the moment in which we ride, and as we believe, illustrate those laws upon which we base our deductions concerning woman as decoration. These laws are, appropriateness of a custom to the occasion, consideration of the type of rarer background against which costume is to be worn, and all decoration which includes jewels as detail with raison d'être. The body should be carried with form, in the sporting sense, to assist in giving line to the costume. The chic woman is one who understands the art of elimination in costumes, where your costumes with conviction, by which we mean decide what picture you will make of yourself, make it and then enjoy it. It is only by letting your personality animate your costume that you make yourself superior to the lay figure or the sawdust doll. And off forward. Woman as decoration by Emily Burbank, Chapter 1 A few hints for the novice who would plan her costumes. There are a few rules with regard to the costuming of woman, which, if understood, put one a long way on the road toward that desirable goal, decorativeness, and have economic value as well. There are simple rules deduced by those who have made a study of woman's lines and colouring, and how to emphasise or modify them by dress. Temperaments are seriously considered by experts in this art, for the carriage of a woman under manner of wearing her clothes depends in part upon her temperament. Some women instinctively feel, line, and are graceful in consequence. As we have said, but where one is not born with this instinct, it is possible to become so thoroughly schooled in the technique of controlling the physique, poise of the body, carriage of the head, movement of the limbs, use of feet and hands, that a sense of line is acquired. Study portraits by great masters, the movements of those on the stage, the carriage, and positions natural to graceful women. A graceful woman is invariably a woman highly sensitised, but remember that, alive to the fingertips, or toe tips, may be true of the woman with few gestures, a quiet voice, and measured words, as well as the intensely active type. The highly sensitised woman is the one who will wear her clothes with individuality, whether she be rounded or slender. To dress well is an art, and requires concentration as any other art does. You know the old story of the boy, who, when asked why his necktie was always more neatly tied than those of his companions, answered, I put my whole mind on it. There you have it, the woman who puts her whole mind on the costuming of herself is naturally going to look better than the woman who does not, and having carefully studied her type, she will know her strong points under weak ones, and by accentuating the former, draw attention from the latter. There is a great difference, however, between concentrating on dress until an effect is achieved, and then turning the mind to other subjects, and that tiresome dawdling, indefinite, fruitless way to arrive at no convictions. This variety of woman never gets dress off her chest. The catechism of good dressing might be given in some such form as this. Are you fat? If so, never try to look thin by compressing your figure or confining your clothes in such a way as to clearly outline the figure. Take a chance from your size, aim at long lines, and what dressmakers call an easy fit, and the use of solid colors. Stripes, checks, plates, spots and figures of any kind draw attention to dimensions. A very fat woman looks larger if her surface is marked off into many spaces. Likewise, a very thin woman looks thinner if her body on the imagination of the public. Subtracting is marked off into spaces absurdly few in number. A beautifully proportioned and rounded figure is the one to indulge in striped, checked, spotted or flowered materials or any party-colored costumes. Never try to make a thin woman look anything but thin. Often by accentuating her thinness, a woman can make an effect as type which gives her distinction. If she were foolish enough to try to look fatter, her lines would be lost without attaining the contour of the rounded type. There are, of course, fashions in types. Pale ash blondes, red-haired types, auburn or golden red with shell-pink complexions, dark-haired types with pale white skin, etc. and fashions in figures are as many and as fleeting. Artists are sometimes responsible for these works. One here is of the Rubens type or the Sir Joshua Reynolds, Hopner, Bern Jones, Gruz, Henner, Zuluaga and others. The artist selects a type and paints it. The attention of the public is attracted to it and thereafter singles it out. We may prefer soft, round blondes with dimpled smiles, but that does not mean that such indisputable loveliness can challenge the attractions of a slender serpentine tragedy queen if the latter has established the vogue of her type through the medium of the stage or painter's brush. A woman well known in the world of fashion both sides of the Atlantic, slender and very tall, at times deliberately increased that height with the small, high-crowned hat surmounted by a still higher feather. She attained distinction without becoming a caricature by reason of her obvious breeding and reserve. Here is an important point. A woman of quiet and what we call conservative type can afford to wear conspicuous clothes if she wishes, whereas a conspicuous type must be reserved in her dress. By following this rule the overblown rose often makes herself beautiful. Study all types of women. Beauty is a wonderful and precious thing and not so fleeting either as one is told. The point is to take note not of beauty's departure but its gradually changing aspect and adapt costume, line and colour to the demands of each year's alterations in the individual. Make the most of grey hair. As you lose your colour soften your tones. Always star your points. If you happen to have an unusual amount of hair, make it count even though the fashion be to wear but little. We recall the beautiful and unique Madame X of Paris, blessed by the gods with hair like bronze, heavy, long, silken and straight. She wore it wrapped about her head and finally coiled into a French twist on the top, the effect closely resembling an old Roman helmet. This was design not chance and her well modelled features were the search to stand the Sivia quaffa. Madame's husband always had to decide that season at Lake Lucerne was curator of the Louvre. We often wondered whether the idea was his or hers. She invariably wore white, not a note of colour, save her hair. Even her well-bred fox terrier was snowy white. Worth has given distinction to more than one woman by recognising her possibilities, if kept to white, black, grey and moffs. A beautiful English woman dressed by this establishment, always a marked figure at whatever embassy her husband happens to be posted, has never been seen wearing anything in the evening but black or white with very simple lines cut low and having a narrow train. It may take courage on the part of dressmaker as well as the woman in question but granted you have a distinct style of your own and understand it, it is the part of wisdom to establish the habit of those lines and colours which are yours and then to avoid experiments of neutral lines and shades. They are almost sure to prove failures. Taking on a colour and its variants is an economic as well as an artistic measure. Some women have so systemised their costuming in order to be decorative at the least possible expenditure of vitality and time. These are the women who dress to live, not live to dress. That they know at a glance if dress materials, hats, gloves, jewels, colour of stones and style of setting are for them. It is really a joy to shop with this kind of woman. She has definitely fixed in her mind the colours and lines of her rooms, all her habitual settings and the clothes and accessories best for her. And with the eye of an artist she passes swiftly by the most alluring bargains calculated to undermine firm resolution. In fact one should not say that this woman shops, she buys. What is more she never wastes money though she may spend it lavishly. Some of the best dressed women by which we always mean women dressed fittingly for the occasion and with reference to their own particular types are those with decidedly limited incomes. There are women who suggest chiffon and others brocade. Women who call for satin and others for silk. Women for sheer muslins and others for heavy linen weaves. Women for straight brims and others for those that drew. Women for leg horns and those they do not suit. Women for white furs and others for tawny shades. A woman with red inner hair is the one to wear red fox. If you cannot see for yourself what line and colour do to you surely you have some friend who can tell you. In any case there is always the possibility of paying an expert for advice. Allow yourself to be guided in the reaching of some decision about yourself and your limitations as well as possibilities. You will by this means increase your decorativeness and what is of more serious importance your economic value. A marked example of woman decorative was seen on the recent occasion when Miss Isadora Duncan danced at the Metropolitan Opera House for the benefit of French artists and their families victims of the present war. Miss Duncan was herself so marvellous that afternoon as she poured her art of glow and vibrant with genius into the mould of one classic pose after another that most of her audience had little interest in any other personality or effect. Some of us however when scanning the house between the acts had her attention caught and held by a charmingly decorative woman occupying one of the boxes a quaint outline and silver grey taffeta. Exactly matching the shade of the woman's hair which was cut in Florentine fashion forming an aureole about her small head a becoming frame for her fine highly sensitive face. The deep red curtains and upholstery in the box threw her into relief a lovely miniature as seen from a distance. There were no doubt other charming costumes in the boxes and stalls that afternoon but none so successful in registering a distinct decorative effect. The one we refer to was suitable becoming individual and reflected personality in a way to indicate an extraordinary sensitiveness to values that subtle instinct which makes the artist. With very young women it is easy to be decorative under most conditions. Almost all of them are decorative as seen in our present fashions but to produce an effect in an opera box is to understand the carrying power of colour and line. The woman in the opera box has the same problem to solve as the woman on the stage. Her costume must be effective at a distance. Such a costume may be white, black or any colour, gold, silver, steel or jet, lace, chiffon. What you will provided the fact be kept in mind that your outline be striking and the colour an agreeable contrast against the lining of the box. Here outline is of chief importance. The silhouette must be definite. Hair, ornaments, fan, cut of gown calculated to register against the background. In the stalls colour and outline of any single costume become a part of the mass of colour and black and white of the audience. It is difficult to be a decorative factor under these conditions yet we can all recall women of every age who so costume themselves as to make an artistic memorable impression not only when entering opera, theatre or concert hall but when seated. These are the women who understand the value of elimination, restraint, colour harmony and that chic which results in part from faultless grooming. Today it is not enough to possess hair which curls ideally. It must willy-nilly curl conventionally. If it is necessary, prudent or wise that your purchases for each season include not more than six new gowns, take the advice of an actress of international reputation who is famous for her good dressing and private life and make a point of adding one new gown to each of the six departments of your wardrobe. Then have the cleverness to appear in these costumes whenever on view making what you have fill in between times. To be clear we would say try always to begin a season with one distinguished evening gown, one smart tailor suit, one charming house gown, one tea gown, one negligee and one sports suit. If you are needing many dancing frocks which have hard wear, get a simple becoming model which a little dress maker, seamstress or maid can copy in inexpensive but becoming colours. You can do this in summer and winter alike and with dancing frocks, tea gowns, negligee and even sports suits. That is if you have smart up-to-date models to copy. One woman we know bought the finest quality jersey cloth by the art and had a little dress maker copy exactly a very expensive skirt in sweater. It seems incredible but she saved on a ready-made suit exactly like it $40 and on one made to measure by an exclusive house $100. Remember, however, that there was an artist back of it all and someone had to pay for that perfect model to start with. In the case we cite, the woman had herself bought the original sports suit from an importer who is always in advance with Paris models. If you cannot buy the designs and workmanship of artists, take advantage of all opportunities to see them. Hats and gowns shown at openings or when your richer friends are ordering. In this way, you will get ideas to make use of and you will avoid looking homemade than which no more damning phrase can be applied to any costume. As a matter of fact, it implies a hat or gown lacking an artist's touch and describes many a one turned out by long-established and largely patronized firms. The only satisfactory copy of a Fortuny tea gown we have ever seen accomplished away from the supervision of Fortuny himself was the exquisite handwork of a young American woman who lives in New York and makes her own gowns and hats because her interest and talent happens to be in that direction. She told a group of friends the other day to whom she was showing a dainty chiffon gown posed on a form that to her the planning and making of a lovely costume had the same thrilling excitement that the painting of a picture had for the artist in the field of paint and canvas. This same young woman had worked constantly since the European War began both in London and New York on the shapeless surgical shirts used by the wounded soldiers. In this, does she outrank her less accomplished sisters? Yes, for the technique she has achieved by making her own costumes makes her swift and economical both in the cutting of her material and in the actual sewing and she is invaluable as a buyer of materials. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of Woman as Decoration This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Shalee from William Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank Chapter 2 The Laws Underlying All Costuming of Woman That every costume is either right or wrong is not a matter of general knowledge. It will do, or it is near enough, are verdicts responsible for beauty hidden and interest destroyed. Who has not witnessed the mad mental confusion of women and men to decide upon costumes for some fancy dress-ball and the appalling ignorance displayed when, at the costumers, they vaguely grope, among battered-looking garments, accepting those proffered, not really knowing how the costume they ask for should look. Absurd mistakes and purehoods costumes ought to be taken more or less seriously according to temperament. But where is a fair woman who will say that the failure to emerge from a dressmaker's hands in a successful costume is not a tragedy? Yet we know that the average woman, more often than not, stands stupefied before the infinite variety of materials and colours of our twentieth century, and, unless guided by an expert, rarely presents the figure she is ill or when on view in public places, which she would or could, if in possession of the few rules underlying all successful dressing, whatever the century your circumstances. Six salient points are to be borne in mind when planning a costume, whether for a fancy dress-ball or to be worn as one goes about one's daily life. First, appropriateness to occasion, station and age. Second, character of background you are to appear against, your setting. Third, what outline you wish to present to observers the period of costume? Fourth, what materials of those in use during period selected you will choose? Fifth, what colours of those characteristic of period you will use? Six, the distinction between those details which are obvious contributions to the costume and those which are superfluous because meaningness or line-destroying. Let us remind our reader that a woman who dresses in perfect taste often spends far less money than she who has contracted the habit of indefiniteness as to what she wants, what she should want and how to wear what she gets. Where one woman has used her mind and learnt beyond all wavering what she can and what she cannot wear, thousands fill the streets by day and places of amusements by night, who blissfully carry upon their persons costumes which hide their good points and accentuate their bad ones. The Rara Avers among women is she who always presents a fashionable outline so subtly adapted to her own type that the impression made is one of distinct individuality. One knows very well how little the average costume counts in the theatre, opera house or ballroom. It is a question of background again. Also, you will observe that a costume which counts most individually is the one in a key higher or lower than the average, as was a voice in a crowded room. The chief contribution of our day to the art of making woman decorative is the quality of appropriateness. I refer of course to the woman who lives her life in the measures of civilisation. We have defined the smart woman as she who wears the costume best suited to each occasion when that occasion presents itself. Accepting this definition, we must all agree that beyond question the smartest women as a nation are English women, who are so fundamentally convinced as to the invincible law of appropriateness that from the cradle to the grave, with them evening means and evening gown, country clothes are suited to country uses, and a tea gown is not a bedroom negligee. Not even in Rome can they be prevailed upon to do as the Romans do. I propose of this, recall an experience in Scotland. A house party had gathered for the shooting, Englishmen and women. Among the guests were two Americans, done to a turn by Ratfern. It really turned out to be a tragedy, as I saw it, for though their cloths, skirts were short, they were silk lined, outing shirts were a crepe, not flanner. Ten boots, but thinly sold. Hats most chic, but a sort that drooped and amissed. Well, those two American girls had to choose between long days alone, while the rest trumped the moors, or to being tugged out in broad tweets, flannel shirts, and thick sold boots. That was some years back. We are a match for England today, in the open, but have a long way to go before we wear with equal conviction, and therefore easy craze, cheek-gown and evening dress. Both how and when still annoy as a nation. On the street we are supreme when, tire, in carriage, attire, the French woman is supreme, by reason of that innate Latin cockatry which makes her feel line and its significance. The ideal pose for any head is a French secret. The average woman is partially aware that if she would be a decorative being, she must grasp consecutively two points. First, the limitations of a natural outline. Secondly, a knowledge of how nearly she can approach the outline demanded by fashion is out of bearing in caricature. Which is another way of saying that each woman should learn to recognise her own type. The discussion of silhouette has become a popular theme. In fact, it would be difficult to find a maker of women's costume, so remote and unread as not to have seized and embedded deep in a vocabulary that mystic word. To make our points clear, constant reference to the stage is necessary, for from stage effects we are one and all free to enjoy and learn. Nowhere else can the woman see so clearly presented the value of having what she wears, harmonised with the room she wears it in, and the occasion for which it is worn. Not all plays depicting contemporary life are plays of social life, staged and costumed in a chic manner. What is taught by the modern stage, as shown by Baxter, Reynard, Barker, Urban, Jones, the Portmanteau Theatre and Washington Square players, is values, as the artist uses the term, not fashions. The relative importance of background, outline, colour, texture of material, and how to produce harmonious effects by the judicious combination of furnishing and costumes. Today, when we want to say that a costume, or the interior decoration of a house, is the last word in modern line and colour, we are wrapped to call it a la Baxter, meaning, of course, Leon Baxter, whose American poster was a Russian ballet. If you have not done so already, buy or borrow the wonderful Bextbook, showing repetitions in their colours of its extraordinary drawings, the originals of which are owned by private individuals or museums, in Paris, Petrograd, London, and New York. They are autré to a degree, yet each one suggests the hollow part of costumes for modern women, adorable lines, unbelievable combinations of colour. No wonder Poiré, the Paris dressmaker, ceased upon Bext as designer, or was it Bext who ceased upon Poiré? Bext calls his inspiration in the Orient, as a bit of brew for your own satisfaction. There is a book entitled Six Monuments of Chinese Sculpture by Edward Chauvin, published in 1914 by G. van Oest and company of Brussels and Paris. The author, with a highly commendable desire to perpetuate for students a racket of the most ancient specimens of Chinese sculpture, brought to Paris and sold there from time to time to art collectors from all over the world, selected six fine specimens as a theme of text and for illustrations. Plate 23 in this collection shows a woman whose costume in outline might have been taken from Bext, or even Vogue, but put it the other way round. The Vogue artist today, we use the word as a generic term, finds inspiration through museums and such works as the above. And this is particularly true, as our little handbook goes into print, for the reason that a great wall between the centre-of-powers and the entente has to a certain extent jacketed the invention and material output of Europe. And driven designers of and dealers in costumes for women to China and Japan. Our great-great-grandmothers here in America wore Paris fashion shown on the important fashion dolls and made up and brocades from China by the colonial mantra-makers, though we are but repeating history. Today, war, which means horror, ugliness, loss of ideals and delusions, hold most of the world in its grasp, and we find great of artists, apostles of the beautiful, seeking the Orient because it is remote from the great world struggle. We hear that Edmund Delac, who has shown in a superlative manner woman decorative when illustrating the Arabian knight and other well-known books, is planning a fly-to-the-Orient. He says that he longs to bury himself far from carnage in the hope of wooing back his muse. If this subject of background, line and colour, in a relation to customing of woman interests you, there are many ways of getting valuable points. One of them, as we have said, is to walk through galleries, looking at pictures only as decorations, that is colour and line against the painter's background. Fashions change in dress, arrangement of hair, jewels, et cetera, but this does not affect values. It is l'aligno, the grand gesture, or line fraught with meaning and balance and harmony of colour. The reader knows the colour scheme of her own rooms and the character of Gauchy's planning, and for suggestions as to interesting colour against colour, she can have no higher authority than the experience of recognised painters. Some develop rapidly in this study of values. If your rooms are so-called period rooms, you need not of necessity dress in period costumes. But what is extremely important, if you would not spoil your period room, nor fail to be a decorative contribution when in it, is that you make a point of having the colour and texture of your house-gowns in the same key as a hanging and upholstery of your room. Why, to save in any room? Black is at times too strong. It depends on part upon the size of your room. If it is small and in soft tones, delicate harmonising shades will not uproot themselves as black can, and so reduce the effect of space. This is the case not only with black, but with emerald green, decided shades of red, royal blue and purple or deep yellows. If artistic creations, these colours are all decorative in a room done in night-tones, provided the room is large. A Louis XVI's salon is far more beautiful as the costumes are kept in Louis XVI's colouring, and all details, such as lace, jewellery, fans, etc, kept strictly within the picture. Fine in design, delicate in colouring, workmanship and quality of material. Beyond these points one may follow the outline demanded by the fashion of the moment, if desired. But remember that a beautiful, interesting room, furnished with works of art, demands a beautiful interest in costume, if the woman in question would sustain the impression made by her rooms. To the arranging of which she has given thought, time and fatality to say nothing of financial outlay, she must take her own decorative appearance seriously. The writer has passed wonderful hours, examining rare illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, missiles, hours of the Virgin, and breviaries, but a sole purpose of studying woman's costumes, their colour, line and details, as depicted by the old artists. Gothic costumes in Gothic interiors, and early Renaissance costumes in Renaissance interiors. The art of moderns in various media, has taken from these creations of medieval genius, more than is generally realised, we were looking at a rare illuminated Gothic manuscript recently, from which William Morris drew inspirations and ideas for the books he made. It is a monumental achievement of the 12th century, a Mars book, written and illuminated in Flanders, at one time in the possession of a Cistercian monastery, but now one of the treasures in the noted private collection, made by the late J. Pierre Paul Morgan. The pages are of vellum, and the illumination shows the figures of saints and jewellery colours on backgrounds of pure gold leaf. The binding of this book, Sides of Woods held together by heavy white vellum, hand-tooled with clasps of thin silver, is a work of Morris himself, and very characteristic of his manner. He patterned his handmade books after these great models, just as he worked years to duplicate some wonderful old piece of furniture, realising so well the magic which lies in consecrated labour, that labour which takes no kind of time nor pay, but is led on by the vision of perfection possessing the artist's soul. We know women who have copied the line, colour and material of costumes depicted in Gothic illuminations that they might be in harmony with their own Gothic rooms. One woman familiar with this art has planned a frankly modern room, covering her walls with gold Japanese fibre, gilding her woodwork and doors, using the brilliant blues, purples and greens of the old illuminations in her hangings, upholstery and cushions, and as a striking contribution to the decorative scheme, costumes herself in wide, some soft clinging materials such as creptichine, liberty satin or chiffon velvet, which take the medieval lines in long folds. She wears a silver girdle, formed of the handmade clasps of old religious books, and her rings, neck chains and earrings are all of hand-rood silver, with precious stones cut in the ancient way and irregularly set. This woman got her idea of the effectiveness of white against gold, from an ancient missile in a famous private collection, which shows the saints all clad a marvellous white against gold leaf. Whistler House, a two-chain road London, had a room the dado and doors of which were done in gold, on which he and two of his pupils painted the scattered petals of white and pink resentiments. Possibly a Persian or Japanese effect, as Whistler learned that way, but one sees the same idea in an illumination of the early sixteenth century, hours of diversion and reverie made for Eleanor of Portugal, Queen of John II. The decorations here are in the style of the Renaissance, not Gothic, and some think Memling had hand in the work. The borders of the illumination, characteristic of the Bruges school, are called leaf, on which is painted, in the most realistic way, in immense variety of single flowers, small roses, pansies, violets, daisies, etc., and among them, butterflies and insects. This border surrounds the pictures which illustrate the text. Always the marvellous colour, the astounding skill in laying it onto the valent pages, an unforgettable lesson in the possibility of colour applied effectively to costumes, and background is kept in mind. This breviary was bound in green velvet in clasp with hand-rode silver, for cardinal Rodrigo de Castro, 1520-1600 of Spain. It is now the private collection of Mr. Morgan. The cover alone gives one great emotion, genuine ancient velvet of the sixteenth century, to imitate which attacks us of the ingenuity of the most skillful of modern manufacturers. In this video, please visit LibriVox.org Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank Chapter 3 How to Dress Your Type A few points applying to all costumes. Needless to say, when considering women's costumes for ordinary use in their relation to background, unless some chameleon-like material be invented to take on the colour of any background, one must be content with the consideration of one's own rooms, porches, garden, opera box, or automobile, etc. For a gown to be worn when away from home, when launching, at receptions or dinners, the first consideration must be becomingness, a careful selection of line and colour that bring out the individuality of the wearer. When away from one's own setting, personality is one of the chief assets of every woman. Remember, individuality is nature's gift to each human being. Some are more markedly different than others, but we have all seen a so-called colourless woman transformed into surprising loveliness when dressed by an artist's instinct. A delicate type of blonde with fair hair, quiet eyes, and faint shell-pink complexion can be snuffed out by two strong colours. Remember that your ethereal blonde is invariably at her best in white, black, never white and black in combination unless black with soft white colours and frills, and delicate pastel shades. The richly toned brunette comes into her own in reds, yellows, and low tones of strong blue. Colourless jewels should add on your perfect blonde, colourful gems your glowing brunette. What of those betwixt and between? In such cases, let complexion and colour of eyes act as guide in the choice of colours. One is familiar with various trite rules such as match the eyes, carry out the general scheme of your colouring, by which is meant, if you are a yellow blonde, go in for yellows. Your hair is ash-brown, your eyes but a shade deeper, and your skin inclined to be lifeless in tone, where beaver browns and content yourself with making a record in harmony with no contrasting note. Just here let us say that the woman in question must at the very outset decide whether she would look pretty or chic, sacrificing the one for the other, or if she insists upon both, carefully arrange a compromise. As, for example, combine a semi-picture hat with a semi-tailored dress. The strictly chic woman of our day goes in for appropriateness. The lines of the latest fashion but adapted to bring out her own best points while concealing her bad ones, and an insistence upon a colour and a shade of colour sufficiently definite to impress the beholder at a glance. This type of woman, as a rule, keeps to a few colours, possibly one or two and their varieties, and prefers gowns of one material rather than combinations of materials. Though she possesses both style and beauty, she elects to emphasise style. In the case of the other woman who would star her face at the expense of her toot ensemble, colour is her first consideration, multiplication of detail and intelligent expressing of herself in her mise-en-scène. C'est duissant, instead of chic, is the word for this woman. Your black-haired woman with white skin and dark, brilliant eyes is the one who can best wear emerald green and other strong colours. The now fashionable mustard, sage green and bright magentas are also the affair of this woman with bright skin, brilliant colour and sparkling eyes. These same colours, if subdued, are lovely on the middle-aged woman with black hair, quiet eyes and pale complexion. But if her hair is grey or white, mustard or sage green are not for her and the magenta must be the deep, purplish sort, which combines with her violets and morphs are delicate pinks and faded blues. She will be at her best in shades of grey which don't with her hair. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Woman as Decoration This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Shaleefa Malikiam. Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank Chapter 4. The Psychology of Clothes Has Derrida ever observed the effect of clothes upon manners? It is amazing and only proves how besattically childlike human nature is. Put any woman into a marion-tornette costume and see how during an evening she will gradually take on the menu-risms of their time. This very point was brought up recently in conversation with an artist, who in referring to one of the most successful costume balls ever given in New York, the Cronylin Ball at the Old Esther House, spoke of how our unromantic Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks ruffled shirts and knickerboxes and as the evening advanced were quite themselves in the minuet and polka, wearing low in solemn rigidity, leading their lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist and swinging her beruffled crinolent form in quite the 1860s manner. Some women, even girls of ten years, have a natural instinct for costuming themselves so that they contribute in a decorative way to any setting which chance makes sares. Watch children dressing up and see how, among a large number, perhaps not more than one of them, will have this gift for effect. It will be she who knows at a glance which of the available odds and ends she wants for herself and with a sure swift hand will wrap a bright shawl about her, tie a flaming bit of silk about her dark haired and with an assumed manner, born of her garb, cast a magic spell over the small band which he leads on at which, without her intense conviction and their susceptibility to her mental attitude towards the masquerade, could never be done. This illustrates the point you would make as to the effect of clothes upon psychology. The actor's costume affects real actor psychology as much or more than a dose of that of his audience. He is the man he has made himself appear. The writer had the experience of seeing a well-known opera singer, when a victim to a bad case of the grip, leave her hotel voiceless, facing a matinee of Juliet, arrived in a dressing-room at the opera, she proceeded to change into the costume for the first act. Under the spell of her role, that prima donna seemed literally to shed her malady with her ordinary garments and to take on health and fatality with her Juliet robes. Even in the waltz song her voice did not betray her, and apparently no critic detected that she was indisposed. In speaking of periods and furniture, we said that their story was one of ways of types which repeated themselves, reflecting the ages in which if they prevailed. With clothes we find it is the same thing. The scarlet and silver and gold of the early Jacobians is followed by the draps and grays of the Commonwealth. The marvellous colour of the church, where beauty was enthroned, was damned out by the iron will of Cromwell, who, in setting up his standard of revolt, wrapped soul and body of the new face in penal shades. New England was conceived in this spirit, and as mind has affected the colour of the Puritan's clothes, so, in turn, the drap clothes, prescribed by their new creed, helped to remove colour from the New England mind and nature. But observe how, as prosperity follows bravation, the mind expands, reaching out for what a changed psychology demands. It is the old story of Rome grown rich and gay in mood and dress. There were, of course, villains impugned and drab and greet him wide, but the child in every man takes symbol for fact. So it is that today, some shudder with the beliefs that beauty, re-enthroned in all her gorgeous modern hues, means near disaster. The progressive claim that enters the world has come a new hope, that beneath our lovely clothes of rainbow tints and within our homes, where beauty surely reigns, a new psychology is born to radiate colour from within. Our advice to a woman not born with closed sins is, employ experts until you acquire a mental picture of your possibilities and limitations, or buy as you can afford to good French models under expert supervision. You may never turn out to be an artist in the treatment of your appearance, instinctively knowing how a prevailing fashion in line and colour may be adapted to you, but you can be taught what your own type is, what your strong points are, your weak ones, and how, while accentuating the former, you may obliterate the latter. There are two types of women familiar to all of us. The one gains vital charm and abandon of spirit from the consciousness that is faultlessly gowned. The other succumbs to self-consciousness and is pitifully unable to extricate her mood from her material trappings. For the darling of the gods who walks through life on clouds, head up and spirit free, know she is perfectly turned out, and let it go is that. We have only grateful applause. She it is who carries every occasion she graces, indoors, out of doors at home, abroad. May her kind be multiplied. But to the other type, she who droops under her silk-sangle tissue, who spells our chains and deed, he would throw out a lifeline. Submerged by clothes, the more she struggles to rise above them, the more her spirit flags. The case is fierce. The woman's mind is wrong. Her clothes are right. Lovely as ever seen. Her jewels, gems, her house and car and dog the best. It is her mind that is wrong. It is turned in instead of out. Now this intense and sore, as well as line-destroying self-consciousness, may be pre-nater and it may result from the Puritan attitude toward beauty, that old New England point of view that are beautiful and the vicious are akin. Every young child needs to have cultivated a certain degree of self-reliance to know that one's appearance is pleasing, to put it mildly, is of inestimable value when it comes to meeting the world. Every child, if normal, has its good points, hair, eyes, teeth, complexion or figure, and he all knows that many a stage-beauty has been built up on even two of these attributes. Star your good points. Clothes will help you. Be a winner in your own setting, but avoid the fatal error of damning your clothes by the spirit within you. The rider has in mind a woman of distinguished appearance, beauty, great wealth, few cares, wonderful clothes and jewels, palatial homes, and yet an envious unrest poisons her soul. She would look differently, be different, and has not the wisdom to shake off her fetters. Her perfect dressing helps this woman. You would not be conscious of her otherwise, but with the natural equipment, granted that she concentrated upon fleshing her spirit instead of her wealth, she would be a leader in a fine sense. The beauty doctor can do much, but shows one who can put a gleam in the eye, tie him the grasp, teach one that ineffable craze which enables woman, young or old, to wear her clothes as if an integral part of herself. This quality belongs to the woman who knows, though she may not have sorted out, that clothes can make one a success, but not a success in the enduring sense. Dress is a tyrant if you take it as your guard, but on the other hand, dress becomes a magician's wand when dominated by clever brain. Garn yourself as beautifully as you can afford, but with judgment. What we do and how we do it is often seriously and strangely affected by what we have on. The writer has in mind a literary woman who says she can never talk business except in a line in colour. Mark Twain, in his last days, insisted that he wrote more easily in his night-shirt. Richard Wagner deliberately put on certain rich materials in colours and hung his room with them when composing the music of The Ring. Chopin says in a letter to a friend, after working at the piano all day, I find that nothing rests me so much as to get into his evening dress which I wear on formal occasions. In monarchy's base on militarism, royal princes, as soon as they can walk, are put into military uniforms. It cultivates in them the desired military spirit. We all associate certain duties with certain costumes, and the extraordinary response to colour is familiar to all. We talk about feeling colour, and say that we can or cannot live in green, blue, violet or red. It is well to follow this colour instinct in clothes as well as in furnishing. You will find you are at your best in the colours and lines most sympathetic to you. We know a woman who is an unusual beauty and has distinction, in fact is noted for her chic when in white, black or in the combination. She once ventured a serese head and instantly dropped to the ranks of the commonplace. Fine eyes, hair, skin, teeth, colour and carriage were still hers, but her effectiveness was lessened, as that of a pearl might be if set in a coral circle. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of Woman as Decoration This is LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Shulif Amaliyam. Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank Chapter 5 Establish habits of carriage which create good line. Woman's line is a result of a custom in Pardole. Far more is woman's custom affected by her line. By this we mean the line she habitually falls into, the pose of torso, the line of a lexinexion and when seated, her arms and hands and repose and gesture, the poise of her head. It is woman's line resulting from a habit of mind and the control which her mind has over her body, the thing quite apart from the way God made her, and the expression her body would have had if left to itself, ungoverned by mind stucked with observations, conventions, experience and attitudes. We call this the physical expression of woman's personality. This personality more to bodily lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes she wears, determines also whether she be a decorative object which says something in line and color or an undecorative object which says nothing. Woman to be decorative should train the character of her body from childhood by wearing appropriate clothing for various daily roles. There is more in this than at first appears. The criticism by foreigners that Americans, both men and women, never appear really at home in evening clothes, that they look as if they fell dressed is true of the average man and woman of our country and results from the lex standards of a new and composite social structure. America as a whole, lex traditions and still embodies the piny spirit, equally characteristic of Australia and other offshoes from the old world. The little American girl who's brought up from babyhood to change for his evening even though she have a nursery tea and be allowed only a brief good night visit to his grown-ups is still the exception rather than the rule. A wee English maiden, we know, created a good deal of amused comment because on several occasions, when passing rainy afternoons indoors, with some effluent little New York friends whose luxurious nurseries and marvellous mechanical toys were a delight, always insisted upon returning home, a block distant, to change into white before partaking of milk-taste and jam at a nursery table, the American children keeping on their pink and blue linings of the afternoon. The fact of white or pink is unimportant, but our point is made, when we have said, that the mother of the American children constantly remarked on the unconscious grace of the English tot, whether in her white muslin and pink ribbons, her riding clothes, or accordion-plated dancing frock. The English woman child was acquiring decorative lines by wearing the correct costume for each occasion as naturally as a bird wears its feathers. This is one way of obfieting self-consciousness. The eaten boy masters his stick and topper in the same way when young, and so more easily passes through the formless stage conspicuous in the American youth. Call it technique, or call it efficiency. The object of our modern life is to excel, to be the best of our kind, and appropriate dress is a means to that end, for it helps to liberate the spirit. We of today make no claim to consistency or logic. Some of us wear too high heels, even with strictly tailored suits, which demand in the name of consistency a sensible shoe. Also, our sensible skirt may be far too narrow for comfort. But on the whole, women have made great strides in the matter of costuming. It's a few to appropriateness and efficiency. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Color is the hallmark of our day, and women, decoratively costumed and as decorator, will be largely responsible for recording this age as one of distinct importance, a transition period in decoration. Color is the most marked expression of the spirit of the times. Color in women's clothes, color in house furnishing, color on the stage and in its setting, color in prose and verse. Speaking of color and verse, Rudyard Kipling says, we quote from an editorial in the Philadelphia Public Ledger, January 7, 1917. Several songs written by Tommy and the poilu at the front celebrate the glories of camp life in such vivid colors they could not be reproduced in cold black leaden type. It is no mere chance this use of vivid color. Man's psychology today craves it. A revolution is on. Did not the strong red, green and blue of Napoleon's time follow the delicate sky blues, rose and sunset yellows of the louis? Color pulses on every side, strong, clean, clear rainbow color, as if our magicians of brush and dipot were prism to the sunbeam. Violet, orange and green, magenta and strong blue against backgrounds of black and cold gray. We had come to think of color as vice and had grown so conservative in its use that it had all but disappeared from our persons, our homes, our gardens, our music and our literature, more than this, from our point of view. The reaction was bound to come by reason of eternal precedent. Half tones, antique effects and general monotony, the material expression of complacent minds has been cast aside and the blasé man of ten years ago is as keen as any child with his first linen picture book and for the same reason. Color, as we see it today, came out of the East via Persia. Boxed in Russia translated it into terms of art and made the ballet ruse an amazing and thralling vision. Then Poiré, wizard among French couturiers, assisted by Boxed, adapted this oriental color and line to women's uses in private life. This supplemented the good work of Legazette du Bantan of Paris that a feet fashion sheet devoted to the decoration of women, whose staff included many of the most gifted French artists, masters of brush and pen, always a regular, no issue of the Bantan has appeared of late. It is held up by the war. The men who made it so fascinating a guide to women who would be decorative are at the front, painting scenery for the battlefield, literally that, making mocked trees and rocks, grass and hedges and earth to mislead the fire of the enemy and doubtless the kindred Munich art has been diverted into similar channels. This oriental color has made its way across Europe like some gorgeous bird of the tropics, and since the war has checked the output of Europe's factories, another channel has supplied the same wonderful colors in silks and gauze. They come to us by way of the Pacific, from China and from Japan. There is no escaping the color spell. Writers from the front tell us that it is as if the gods made sport with fates anvil, for even the blackened dome of the war zone blured by night with sparks of purple, red, green, yellow and blue, the flare of the world destroying projectiles. The present costuming of women when she treats herself as decoration owes much to the profits of the new theater and their color scale. These men have demonstrated, in an unforgettable manner, the value of color, the dependence of every decorative object upon background, shown how fraught with meaning can be an uncompromising outline and the suggestiveness of really significant detail. Boxed, Reinhart and Granville Barker have taught us the new color vocabulary. Gordon Craig was perhaps the first to show us the stage made suggestive by insisting on the importance of clever lighting to produce atmosphere and elimination of unessential objects. The argument of his school being that the two detailed reproducing of nature, on the stage, acts as a check to the imagination, whereas by the judicious selection of harmonics the imagination is stimulated to its utmost creative capacity. One detects this creed today in certain styles of home decoration, women's background, as well as in women's costumes. Portable backgrounds. The staging of a recent play showed more plainly than any words the importance of background in one of the scenes, beautiful artistic gowns and delicate shades were set off by a room with wonderful green walls and woodwork, Minionette. Now, so long as the characters moved about the room they were thrown into relief most charmingly, but the moment the women seated themselves on a very light colored and characterless chint sofa they lost their decorative value. It was lacking in harmony and contrast. The two black sofa cushions with the service background being small instantly disappeared behind the seated women. A sofa of contrasting color or black would have looked better in the room and served as immediate background for gowns. It might have been covered in dark chints, a silked a mask in one or several tones or a solid color since the gowns were of delicate indefinite shades. One of the sofas did have a sense of the layout of serving as effective background but the point seemed to escape the daintily gowned young woman who poured tea for she failed to take advantage of it occupying the opposite end of the sofa. A modern addition to a women's toilet is a large square of chiffon edged with narrow metal or crystal fringe or a gold or silver flexible cord. This scarf is always in beguiling contrast to the costume when not being worn is thrown over the chair or end of sofa against which our lady reclines. To a certain degree this portable background makes a woman decorative when the wrong color on a chair might convert her lovely gown into an eyesore. One woman we know who has an empire room admires the lines of her sofa as furniture but feels it ineffective unless one reclines is made a square one and a half yards of lovely soft mauve silk de masque lined with satin charmous of the same shade and weighted by long heavy tassels at the corners this she throws over the empire roll and a part of the seat which are done in antique green velvet now the woman seated for conversation with arm and elbow resting on the head looks at ease a part of the composition serves at other times as a couvre rapide end of chapter 6 recording by Leanne Howlett Chapter 7 of woman's decoration this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ellie woman's decoration by Emily Burbank with most careful attention to extremities shoes, gloves and hats the genius of fashion's greatest artist counts for naught if his costume may not include head, gloves, shoes and we would add umbrella, parasol, stick, fin, jewels in fact every detail if you have the good sense to go to one who deservedly ranks as an authority online color in woman's costume have also the wisdom to get from this man or woman to be able to principles underlying his or her creations common sense tells one that there must be principles which underlie the planning of every head and gown serious reasons why certain lines colors and details are employed principles have evolved and clarified themselves in the long journey which textiles colors and lines have made traveling down through the ages a great cathedral a beautiful house all are the results of knowing and following laws the clever woman of slender means may rival her friends with munition incomes if only she will go to an expert with open mind and through the thoughtful purchase of a complete costume head, gown and all accessories learn an artist modest point of view then and we will put it in italics take seriously with conviction all his or her instructions as to the way to wear your clothes anyone can buy costumes perhaps on far more than you but it is quite possible that no one can more surely be a picture a delightful decorative object on every occasion than you who knows instinctively or has been taught beyond all shadow of doubt how to put on and then how to sit or walk in your one tailor suit your one tea gown your one sports suit or ball gown if you want to wear light spets stop and think whether your heavy ankles will look more dreamy boots with light in steps that white slippers or low shoes might be worn with black or colored stockings but it is playing safe to have your stockings match your slippers or shoes buckles and bows on slippers and pumps can destroy the line of your shoe and hands and foot or continue an accentuate line there are fashions in buckles and bows but unless you bend the fashion until it allows nature's work to appear at its best it will destroy artistic attention some people buy footwear there are so many women young and old who do this that our advice is try to recall those who don't yes now you see what we aim at the woman you have in mind always continue the line of the gowns with their feet you can see with your mind's eye how this lender black satin slippers one of which always protrudes from the black evening gown carried to its eloquent finish the line from a head through torso hips to knee you have wrong in color and line if your gown is white and your object to create line can you see how you defeat your purpose by wearing anything but white slippers or shoes at the recent dinner one of the young women who had sufficient good taste to wear an exquisite gown of silk and silver gauze showing a pale magenta ground with silver roses continued the color scheme of her designer with silver slippers tapering a Cinderella's this could have been provided by the use of silver stockings or magenta slipper with magenta stocking when procades in several colors are chosen for slippers keep in mind that the crown of the silk must absolutely match your costume it is not enough that the figure of procade is the color of the dress because so distorting the line figure silks or colored procades for footwear are seldom a wise choice to those who cannot own a match in slippers to each gown we would suggest that the number of slippers is the highest variety by varying shades of the color and then using slippers a trifle higher in shade than the general color selected end of chapter 7 recorded by ellie July 2009 Chapter 8 of woman as decoration this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer in the public domain women as decoration by emily burbank chapter 8 jewelry as decoration the use of jewelry as color and line has really nothing to do with its intrinsic worth just as when furnishing a house one selects pictures for certain rooms with regard to their decorative quality alone their color with relation to the color scheme of the room the art of interior decoration so jewels should be selected for the costumes or to give the keynote upon which a costume is built a woman whose artist dressmaker turns out for her a marvelous green gown with far better carry out the color scheme with some semi precious stones then insist upon wearing her priceless rubies on the other hand granted one owns rubies and they are becoming then plan a gown entirely one of the most picturesque public events in Vienna each year is a bizarre held for the benefit of a charity under court patronage to draw the crowds and induce them to give up their money it has always been the custom to advertise widely that the ladies of the Austro-Hungarian court would conduct the sale of articles at the various booths and that the said noble ladies would wear their family jewels also that there be no danger to celebrities the names of those selling at each booth would be posted in plain lettering over it programs are sold which also inform patrons as to the name and station of each lovely vendor of flowers and sweets it is an extraordinary occasion and well worth witnessing once the jewels worn are as amazing and fascinating as is Hungarian music there is a barbaric sumptuousness about them by the oriental combining of stones which to the western European and American seem incongruous enormous pearls regular and irregular are set together in company with huge sapphires, emeralds, rubies and diamonds cut in the antique way looking about one feels in an Arabian night's dream on the particular occasion to which we refer the most beautiful woman present was the princess Metternich and in her jewels the women of the Austrian court especially the Hungarian women are notably beautiful and fascinating as well it is the Magyar Elan that abandoned which prompts a woman to toss her jeweled bangle to a gypsy leader of the orchestra when his violin moans and flashes out a shardash but the rule remains the same whether your jewels are inherited and rich in souvenirs of European courts or the last work of Cartier is the harmonious part of a carefully designed costume or used with discretion against a background of costumes planned with reference to making them count as a soul decoration we recall a Spanish beauty representative of several mobile strains who was an artist in the combining of her gems as to their class and color hers was that rare gift infallible good taste which led her to contribute an individual quality not only as a beautiful and brilliant woman but as a decorative contribution to any room she entered it was not uncommon to meet her at dinner wearing some very chic blue gown often of velvet the soul decoration of which would be her sapphires stones rare in themselves famous for their color their matching the manner in which they were cut and their setting the unique hand work she entered the room in a princess gown made to show the outline of her faultless figure and cut very low against the background of her white neck and the simple lines of her blue gown the sapphires became decoration with artistic restraint though they gleamed from a coronet in her soft black hair encircle her neck many times and fell below her waistline clasped her arms and were suspended from her ears in long graceful pendants with a hurdle of indescribable beauty later the same night one would meet this woman at a ball and discover that she had made a complete change of costume and was as elegant as before but now all in red a gown of deep red velvet or some wonderful soft satin unadorned saved by her rubies as numerous and as unique as her sapphires had been there were other women in Madrid wearing wonderful jewels when going to court functions always had a carriage follow hers and which were detectives how strange this seems to Americans but this particular woman in no way illustrated the point we would make for she had lost control of her own lines had no knowledge of line and color and costume and when wearing her jewels looked very much like the showcase of a jeweler's shop jewelry must be worn to make lines continue or terminate lines or hide a bad one remember that a jewel like any other of J. Dar is an ornament and unless it is ornamental and an added attraction to the wearer it is valueless in a decorative way for this reason it is well to discover by experimenting what jewelry is your affair what kind of rings for example are best suited to your kind of hands it may be that small rings of delicate workmanship set with colorless gems with color in the larger heavier sort set with stones of deeper tones this finding out what one can and cannot wear from shoe leather to a feather in the hat and the inventory includes even width of hem on a linen handkerchief is by no means a frivolous fruitless waste of time it is a wise preparedness which in the end saves time vitality and money and if it does not make one independent of expert advice and why should one expect to be that should improve with practice it certainly prepares one to grasp and make use of expert suggestions we have often been told and by those whose business it is to know such things that the models created by great Paris dressmakers are not always flashes of genius which come in the night nor the willful perversion of an existing fashion to force the world of women into discarding and buying everything new it may look suspiciously like it carrying of the pendulum carrying the straight sheath out to the ten yard limit of Quinlan skirts as a matter of fact decorative woman rules the fashions and if decorative woman makes up her mind to retain a line or a limit she does it the open secret is that every great Paris house has its chic clientele which in returning from the Riviera Europe's peacock alley is full of knowledge as to how the last fashions line and color succeeded in scoring those points found to be desirable becoming beautiful comfortable appropriate said ishwa what you will are taken as the foundation of the next wardrobe order and with this inside information from women who know know the subtle distinction between daring lines and colors which are good form and those which are not the men or women who give their lives to the exclusive few this year for the whole world the next year in conclusion to reduce one of the rules as to how jewels should be worn to its simplest form never use imitation pearl trimming if you're wearing a necklace and other ornaments of real pearls the pearl trimming may be very charming in itself but it lessens the distinction of your real pearls in the same way rhinestones may be decidedly decorative in time it can be done by keeping the rhinestones off the bodice an artist can conceive and work out a perfect adjustment of what in the mind and hand of the inexperienced is not to be attempted your French dressmaker combines real and imitation laces in a fascinating manner that same artist's instinct could trim a gown with emerald pastes and hang real gems of the same in the ears using brooch and chain but you would find the green glass in use in some telling manner to score as trimming not to compete as jewels we have seen the skirt of French gowns of black tool or net caught up with great rhinestone swans and at the same time a diamond chain and diamond earrings worn nothing could have been more chic we recall another case of the discreet combining of gems and pastes it was at the spring races Longchamp Paris the decorative woman we have never forgotten had marvelous gold red hair wore a costume of golden brown chiffon a close toque to show her hair of brown long topaz drops hung from her ears set in hand wrought atruscan gold and her shell lorn yet hung from a topaz chain now note that on her toque and her girdle were buckles made of topaz glass obviously not real topaz and because made to look like milliner's garniture and not jewelers work they had great style and were as beautiful of their kind as the real stones End of Chapter 8 Recording by Leanne Howlett Chapter 9 of Woman as Decoration This is a LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ruth Golding Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank Chapter 9 Woman Decorative in Her Boudoir By the way do you know that Boudoir originally meant pouting room a place where the ceremonious grand dame of the Louis might relax and express a ruffled mood if she would which only serves to prove that even the definition of words alter with fashion imagine that our supinely relaxed modern beauty of the country club type has on the whole more self-control than she of the Boudoir age Since a Boudoir is of all rooms the most personal we take it for granted that its decoration is eloquent with the individuality and taste of its owner walls, floors woodwork, upholstery hangings, cushions and obje d'art furnish the colour for my ladies background and will naturally be a scheme calculated to set off her own particular type Here we find woman easily made decorative in negligee or teagun and it makes no difference whether fashion is for voluminous flowing robes ruffled and covered with ribbons and lace those creations of fortune which cling to the form in long crinkled lines and shimmer like the skin of a snake the fortune in question son of the great Spanish painter devotes his time to the designing of the most artistic and unique teaguns offered to modern woman we first saw his work in 1910 at his Paris atelier his guns then popular art women were made in Venice where Monsieur Fortune was at that time employing some five hundred women to carry out his ideas as to the dyeing of thin silks the making and colouring of beads used as garniture and the stenciling of designs in gold, silver or colour the lines of Grecian and a woman in her fortune teagun suggests a tannagra figure whether she goes in for the fort kept tightly twisted and coiled when not in use to preserve the distinguishing fine pleats or one with smooth surface and stenciled designs these fortune teaguns slip over the head with no opening but the neck with its silk sharing cord by means of which it can be made high or low at will they come in black, gold and the tones of old Venetian dyes one could use a dozen of them and be a picture each time in any setting though for the Epicure they are at their best when chosen with relation to a special background the black fortunis are extraordinarily chic and look well when worn with long oriental earrings and neck chains of links or beads which reach at least one strand of them halfway to the knees the distinction which this long line of a chain or string of pearls gives to the figure of any woman is a point to dwell upon real pearls are desirable even if one must begin with a short necklace but where it can be afforded woman cannot be urged too strongly to wear a string extending as near to and as much below the waistline as possible a long string of pearls or earrings whether wearer is standing or seated you can use your short string of pearls too but whatever your figure is if you are not a young girl it will be improved by the long line and if you would be decorative above everything we insist that a long chain or string of less intrinsic value is preferable to one of meaningless lengths to the best in short necklaces women whose throats are getting lined should take to jeweled dog collars in addition to their strings of pearls or diamond chains the woman with firm throat and perfect neck was made for pearls for those less blessed there are lovely things too jewels to match their eyes or to tone in with skin or hair the line of profile rings to illuminate the swift gesture or nestle into the soft white dimpled hand of inertia every type has its charm and followers but we will say avoid emphasising your lack of certain points by wearing unsuitable costumes and accessories and by so doing lose the chance of being decorative by the way the American Prima Donna whose career was in Paris was the most irresistibly lovely vision ever seen in a teagun she was past mistress at the art of making herself decorative and the writer recalls her as she last saw her in a douce model of chiffon one layer over another of flesh palest pink and pinkish mauve melted into the creamy tones of her perfect neck and arms Sibyl Sanderson was lovely as nature turned her out but Paris taught her the value of that other beauty the beauty which comes of art and attained like all art only through conscious effort an artistic appearance once meant letting nature have its way it has come to mean nature directed and controlled by art and while we do not resort to the artificiality in this moment of hoops, crinoline pyramids of false hair monstrous headdresses laced wastes low neck and short sleeves for all hours and all seasons paper sold shoes in snowdrifts etc we do insist that woman be bien soignée hair, complexion hands, feet, figure perfection, partout woman's costumes her jewels and all accessories complete her decorative effect but even in the age of powder and patches hair, oil and wigs no more time or greater care was given to her grooming and what we say applies to the average woman of affairs and not merely to the parasite type End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of Woman as Decoration This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 10 Woman Decorative in Her Sunroom The sunroom as the name implies is a room planned to admit as much sun as is possible An easy way to get the greatest amount of light and sun is to enclose a steam heated porch with glass which may be removed at will Sometimes part of a conservatory is turned into a sunroom awnings, rugs, chairs, tables, couches making it a fascinating lounge or breakfast room useful too at the tea hour Often when building a house a room on the sunny side is given one, two, or three glass sides To trick the senses ferns and flowering plants birds and fountains are used as decorations suggesting out of doors The woman who would add to the charm of her sunroom in winter by keeping up the illusion of summer in gowns, hats, and footwear which she would select for a warm climate To be exquisite if you are young or youngish well and active you would naturally appear in the sunroom after eleven in some cheerful material of a delicate tint made walking length with any graceful summer hat which is becoming and either harmonizes with color of gown with a close tailored hat of action One woman we know always uses her last summer's muslins and wash silks shoes, slippers, and hats in her sunroom during the winter In her wardrobe there are invariably a lot of sheer muslins voils and wash silks in white mauve, greys, pinks or delicate stripes the outline following the fashion voluminous, straight, or clinging the bodice tight with trimmings that are full be ruffled or kerchiefed her hats are always entirely black or entirely white in type the variety we know of as picturesque made very light in weight and with no thought of withstanding the elements the woman who knows how can get the effect of a picture hat with very little outlay of money it is a matter of line when on the head that look of lightness and general airiness that comes in from the lawn the artist's hand can place a few simple loops of ribbon on a hat and have success while a stupid arrangement of costly feathers or flowers may result in failure the effect of movement got by certain line manipulation suggesting arrested motion is of inestimable value especially when your hat is one with any considerable width of brim the hat with movement is like a free hand sketch that is in a linear if the owner of the sun room is resting or invalid then away with out of door costume for her a tea gown and satin slippers are in order as they would be under similar conditions on her furnished porch if the mistress of the sun room is young and athletic one who never goes in for frufrues but wears linen skirts and blouses when pouring tea for her friends let her be true to her type of faculate daintiness rather than the ready for sport note a sheer blouse and french heels on white pumps will transpose the plain linen skirt into the key of picturesque relaxation the hallmark of sun rooms more than any other room in the house the sun room is for drifting one cannot imagine writing a check there or going over one's monthly accounts we assume that the color scheme in the sun room was dictated by the owner if this be true we can go farther and assume that the delicate tones of her porch gowns and tea gowns will harmonize if her sun room is done in yellows and orange and greens nothing will look better than cream white as a costume if the walls, woodwork and furniture have been kept very light in tone relying on the rugs and cushions and dark foliage of plants to give character then a costume of sheer material would be a welcome contribution to the decoration of the sun room additional effect can be given a costume by the clever choice of color and line in a work bag end of chapter 10 chapter 11 of woman as decoration this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 11 one woman decorative in her garden in your garden if you would count as decoration keep to white or one color the flowers furnish a variegated background against which your costume of color gray or white stands out the great point is that your outline be one with pictorial value from the artist's point of view if merely strolling through your garden to admire it keeping to the well-made paths the fragile gown of sheer material and dainty shoes with perishable hat or fragile sunshade is in order but if yours is the task to gather flowers then wear stout linen or pretty light ginghams good to the eye and easily laundered while resisting the briars and branches smocks those loose overall garments of soft toned linens reaching from neck halfway to the knees and unbelted are ideal for garden work with a distinct charm for one catches the movement of the lithe form beneath you can be decorative in your garden in a large enveloping apron of gingham if you are wise in choosing a color which becomes you one lover of flowers who has an instinct for fitness and color may be seen on a summer morning trimming her porch boxes in snowy white shoes and all over which she wears a big encircling apron extending from neck to skirt hem across the entire front convenient for clippers, scissors and twine this apron is low necked with shoulder straps and no sleeves the woman in question is tall and fair and on her soft curling hair she wears sun hats of peanut straw the edges sewn over and over with wool to match her gingham apron which is a solid pink pale green or lavender dark women look uncommonly well in khaki color and so do some blondes decorative against vegetation and serviceable above all garden costumes for actual work vary according to individual taste and the amount and character of the gardening indulged in lady deboth mrs. Langtree owns one of the most charming gardens in England though not as famous as some it is attached to regal lodge her place at new market the blue wok is something to remember with its walls of blue lavender between the cracks of which lovely blue bells and larks bring up in irrelevant poetic license lady deboth digs and climbs and clips and gathers therefore she wears easily laundered garments a white linen or cotton skirt and blouse a Chinese coat to the knees of pink cotton crate and an Isle of Jersey sun bonnet a poke with curtain to protect the neck and strings to tie it on she claims never to have consciously considered being a decorative note in her own garden her trained instinct for costuming herself appropriately and becoming brings about the desirable decorative effect two woman decorative on the lawn when on your lawn with the unbroken sweep of green underfoot and the background of shrubs and trees be a flower or a bunch of flowers in the color of your costume shoes and all cannot be excelled but color has charm of another sort and turning the pages of memory one realizes that not a shade or artistic combination but has scored if the outline is chic since both outline and color scheme vary with fashion we use the word chic or smart to imply that quality in a costume which is the result of restraint in the handling of line color and all details whatever the period a chic outline is very telling on the lawn gown or hat must be appropriate to the occasion becoming to the wearer its lines following the fashion yet adapted to type and the color once sympathetic to the wearer the trimming must accentuate the distinctive type of the gown or hat instead of blotting out the lines by an overabundance of garniture the trimming must follow the constructive lines of gown or have meaning the original must buckle something buttons must be used where there is at least some semblance of an opening let us repeat to be chic the trimming of a hat or gown must have a raison d'etre when in doubt omit trimming as in interior decoration too much detail often defeats the original idea of a costume an observing woman knows that few of her kind understand the value of restraint when turned out by an artist their best but how to achieve it alone is beyond them this sort of knowledge comes from carefully and constantly comparing the gown which is a success to those which are failures elimination characterizes the smart costume or hat and the smart designer is he or she who can make one flower one feather one bow of ribbon band of fur bit of real lace or hand embroidery say a distinct something defined by the judicious placing of one object so that line and color count to the full as we have said in interior decoration one pink rose in a slender Venetian glass vase against a green silk curtain may have far more decorative value than dozens of costly roses used without knowledge of line and background so it is with ornaments on wearing apparel three woman decorative on the beach real blue water and more or less blue sky woman is given a tempting opportunity to figure as color when by the sea that it is gay color or white which makes decorative effects on the beach even the least knowing realize plein air artists have stamped on our mental visions impressions of smart society distorting itself on the sands of Truville Brighton or where not whatever the period most conspicuous is white on woman and man then each color in the rainbow with its half tones figures as sweaters, veils, hats and parasols the striped marquees and gay wears of the vendors of nosegays balloons and lollipops the artist picks out the telling notes when painting learn from him and figure is one of these on the beach avoid being a dull note dead grays and browns have no charm there the artist's costume for the beach applies equally to costumes to be worn on the deck of a steamer or yacht End of chapter 11 Chapter 12 Woman's Declaration This is a LibreWax recording All LibreWax recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibreWax.org Recording by Ellie Woman's Declaration by Emily Burbank Chapter 12 With decorative and skating two things are necessary first know how to skate then see to it that you are costumed with reverence to appropriateness becoming less than the outline demanded by fashion of the moment the woman who excels in the technique of her art does not always excel in dressing her role it is therefore with great enthusiasm that to record Mr. Ease a world of Boston hold of woman's figure skating championship as the most jiggly costumed woman the cup offered by Mr. Charles B. Dillingham on March 23, 1917 and Ms. Weld again won this time over the men as well as the women Ms. Weld combined good work with perfect form and her edges, fronts, ins, 3s, 2s, 3s, etc, etc were delight to the eye as she passed and repassed in her wine-colored velvet trimmed with small skin and narrow band at the bottom of her full skirt full to a loudly required amount of leg action deep cuffs in the band the clothes velvet tuck this is reproduced as the ideal costume because while absolutely up to date in line material color and character of fur it follows the traditional idea as to what is appropriate and beautiful for skating costume regardless of the poch we have seen its ancestors in many parts of Europe year after year some of us recall with keen pleasure the wonderful skating in Vienna and Berlin on natural and artificial ice invariably hung with flags we can see how those German girls some of them trim and good to look at in costumes of sapphire blue, deep red and green velvet fur trimmed gliding swiftly across the ice to the irresistible swing of false music and accompanied by flashing uniforms in the German speaking countries everyone skates the white bearded grandfather and the third generation going hand on hand on Sunday mornings to the nearest ice pond with them skating as a communal recreation as beer garden concerts are with us in America most sports are fashions not traditions the rage for skating during the past few seasons is the outcome of the exhibition skating done by professionals from Austria, Germany, Scandinavian countries and Canada at the New York keyboard room those who madly danced are now as madly skating and out of town the young women delight the eye in bright wool sweaters, broad long wool scraps and bright wool caps or small close felt heads fascinating against the white background the boots are high reaching the top of calf a popular model having a seam to the tip of the toe no sport so perfectly throws into relief command of the body as does skating watch a group of competitors for honors at any gathering of amateur women skaters and note how few have command of themselves no absolutely what they want to do and then are able to do it once skater in the language of the eyes can do the actual work but has no form it may be she lacks temperament but the true rhythm is stiff or while full of life has bad arms it is as necessary the defensive skater should learn the correct position of the arms as that the solo dancer should certain lines must be preserved say from fingers of right arm through to tip of left foot or from tip of left hand through to tip of right foot form is the manipulation of the lines of the body to produce perfect balance perfect freedom and when required perfect control in the rest of motion this is the mastery of this skating that melting of one figure into another which so hypnotizes the onlooker this because Mrs. Veldt has mastered the above qualifications that she is amateur champion in fancy skating she has mastered her medium this control of every muscle in her body in consequence she is decorative and delightful to watch to be decorative when not on skates where the walking standing or sitting a woman must have cultivated the same feeling for line and position head up, shoulders back, chest out, stomach in one must study the possibilities of the body in acquiring and perfect imposes which have line making pictures with oneself in the art of interior decoration we insisted every room be a beautiful composition but we would now impress upon the mind of the reader is that she is a part of the picture must compose with her setting to do this she should acquire the mastery of her body as well as acquired good habits and the assuming of line where the inactionary pose this can be done to an astonishing degree even if one lacks the instinct to be born with the sense of line is a gift and the development of this sense can give artistic delight to those who witness the resorts and through them quite the sculpture music or any other art does the Greek idea of regarding the perfectly trained body as a beautiful temple is one to keep in mind a woman would fulfill her obligation with a sense of efficiency if properly understood and carried out according to the spirit not to the letter of law form implies the human body under control ready for immediate action the man or woman with form will be the first to fall into action when required because so to speak no time is lost in collecting and aiming the body one of the great points in the teaching of the late C.O. Dolishitzky the world's greatest master the instant it was lifted from the keys preparedness the crack regiments of Europe noted for their form have for years been the object of chests in those new worlds the prawn and muscle with mental acumen have converted primeval forests into congested commercial centers but that form so derided by the pioneer spirit has proved its worst during the present European war the United States and the central powers are now at war with vulnerable points only today we saw one of Uncle Sam's soldiers one of three patrolling the front of a big armory standing in an absolutely relaxed position his gun held loosely in his hand and his bayonet propped against the iron fence one could not help sinking no form no preparedness no efficiency it goes without saying that prompt obedience cannot be looked for but there is a lack of form no matter how willing the spirit the modern woman when on parol to be efficient must have trained the body until it has formed and dress it appropriately if she would be efficient as well as decorative in the modern sense of the term no better illustration of our point can be found than in the popular sport cited at the beginning of this chapter end of chapter 12 recording by Ellie July 2000