Page:A complete course in dressmaking, (Vol. 1, Introduction) (IA completecoursein01cono).pdf/41

 Don’t wear a suit coat that cuts you right in two. A hip-length coat or a three-quarter coat is far more becoming.

A belted top coat is to be preferred to a bulky wrap or cape.

If you wear a fur, choose a small neck-piece and have a short-haired pelt such as mole, beaver or seal.

Study yourself as a whole and balance your costume. Don’t trust a shoulder length or a waistline mirror. A hat may be becoming to your face, but be top heavy for your body. It takes a full-length mirror to make us see ourselves as others see us.

There is the question of the length of skirt! You can’t make a rule of so many inches from the floor that will apply to everyone. It may be just above the shoe tops for the tall woman, but half-way to the knees of a short woman.

Standing on a chair and looking in a small mirror doesn’t tell much either. A cut-off view of feet, ankles and skirt may look very graceful, and yet the length of skirt from bottom to waistline may be very awkward.

There is danger in the too-short skirt for the short woman. One short woman expressed the idea concisely herself, when she said, “She didn’t want her skirt to look like a ruffle.” It’s a fact, that often an inch on