conders whether thin spirit herald One hears a good deal about the modern spirit of drs. And one different from past epiits charmingly expressed present day fashions, is really very mud Bie easentiais of des si laces Only the very inexperienced eye will assume. that doties make the juan—or woman. The wearing of the clothes is. what does it, if one is going to credit clothes with the Amportanee which they undoubtedly Moserve in a well-dressed age, The grieve fact that everyone is now able Wear silk stockings where once [isle or greenish-black cotton se-atated uncouth from elite femin-
Inity does not prove that we have tentoved into a new split of dress. More than ever important is the Way now'in which clothes are worn.
The - way one wears one's clothes Ss as much an indication of character as one's~oupacity for ly morning indication of character; they are merely the indication of one's natural ov acquired taste, One recalls the lovable "tramps' one. has known, who had an "air' fin dress. If they turned suddenly fashionable they would fail us in orna indefinable respect. They might proceed to turn over a new leaf, dress themselves in clothes exproasing the. Ietest, word in fashion, a tasteful, and harmonious fashion; nnd yot these people would somehow obscure their individuality they never did while remaining "frumps." Of course, one would not wish to be accused of holding.
brief for frumpishness. But there tean be no doubt that when magination does not extend to the lengths of the frump who ignores her lethes woefully to. the dismay of til, nor to the heights of others who adapt fashion to their own per-but which simply fol-Nindly the dictates of fashion plates, a considerable tot life is missed. The clothes of such an unimaginative one, moreover, obscure her with that unpleasant sense one frequently has about people who think too much, and yet not sufficiently well about their clothes.
Not that one means to let the imagination ran to flamboyancy, though even such a person has not obscured her personality by her clothes. She has merely expressed rather too lurid terms.
That look which some ' women have of enlivening whatever they put on,9f nanking you sense that they are in their clothes, and not there clothes merely on them, is thi test of the so-called modern spirit in dress, Go to any public gathering and see how many women there are who possess the necessary esprit to counteract the expensiveness or ultra-smartness of their clothes.
Sometimes women do dominate the non-rescript in dress. But only the very, very clever indeed, those qualified at pith through a kindly dis pensation, are able to invest expensive and beautiful clothes with the necessary "air." Think of the few women you have seen who the pink of—perfection. Think of the countless others whose dressmakers are second to none, and who spend hours out of each we planning wardrobes and having fittings, and yet who never manage to look other than dressed up in thei clothes, The secret must be that some accept the idea of dress sing as a necessary—accomplish-ut, and then go blithely on being themselves over and abo it all; whereas others, think that the clothes really count.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.