Page:Costume, fanciful, historical, and theatrical (1906).djvu/311

XX fitting closely to her powdered head. She was amazingly hooped and paniered, and looked her most gorgeous in the second act, in a dress of white satin flounced with silver lace, profusely ornamented with ruches and rosettes of pink chiffon. A scarf of silver tissue was draped across the front of the skirt, a knot of black velvet decked the low bodice, and a fascinating little black feather nodded on one side of the head.

Again, as Becky Sharp, Miss Marie Tempest showed her nice sense of the fitness of things, gracing the historic ball on the eve of Waterloo in pink chiffon with clusters of roses, and choosing a Court gown of Empire tendency, made with a white satin train lined with cloth of gold, and embroidered in a leaf design of gold, which also appeared across the bust and on the hem of the chiffon under-skirt.

Yet Miss Tempest avowedly does not believe that the actress should subordinate her personality in any way to a general scheme. Discussing the question, she said: "I think that designers of theatrical costume as a rule are altogether oblivious of the special requirements of individual faces and figures. To the designer, it seems to me, the actress is merely a note of colour in his general scheme. Only that, and nothing more! I would urge that exactly the same kind of costume cannot possibly be becoming alike to tall, majestic women and a little insignificant nez retroussé person like me! I cannot afford to have two or three lines going across my figure and cutting me up into slices; nor can I have my neck muffled and ruffled up to the eyes, and my shoulders loaded with heavy cloaks, without feeling perfectly swamped