in the
colour of your costume. White,--hat, shoes and all, cannot be excelled,
but colour has charm of another sort, and turning the pages of memory,
one realises that not a shade or artistic combination but has scored, if
the outline is chic. Since both outline and colour 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, colour 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 colour, one 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. A buckle 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, most women recognise when they look 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 with
those which are failures.

Elimination characterises 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.

It is the decorative value gained by the judicious placing of one object
so that line and colour 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.

III. WOMAN DECORATIVE ON THE BEACH

With a background of grey sand, steel-blue water and more or less blue
sky, woman is given a tempting opportunity to figure as colour when by
the sea. That it is gay colour or white which makes decorative effects
on the beach, even the least knowing realise. _Plein a