Page:Book of Etiquette, Volume 2, by Lilian Eichler.djvu/83

Rh is especially pleasing and appropriate when the tea is served on the porch or in the garden.

Tea time is always the fashionable time of the day and there is sufficient variety in appropriate materials and style for a woman to find a gown that is more than ordinarily individual and becoming. For an informal tea the hostess may wear a clinging gown of silk but she should not dress very sumptuously for her guests will come simply attired and it is hardly hospitable to be a great deal more elaborately dressed than they. Afternoon frocks of silk, velvet, cloth, etc., or of summer materials are suitable for the guest. When the weather demands it she wears an attractive wrap.

In selecting dresses for teas, and, indeed for all occasions, it is well to remember that the more ornamentation there is the less elegance there will be. The materials should be rich but not showy—the best-dressed person is the one who calls least attention to his or her clothes.

One may wear jewels but not heavy necklaces or glittering brooches or other flashing stones. If the affair is a formal one the hair may be as elaborately marcelled as for the evening. In this case the gown should be a rich creation of the kind suitable only for such events.

If the tea is given for a débutante it may be a very festive occasion and décolleté gowns may be worn. Dark colors are rarely worn and the débutante herself should be a fairy dream in a lovely creation of silk, georgette, crêpe-de-chine, or something else equally girlish and appropriate.

Elderly women wear black lace or satin though certain