ed a cerise hat and instantly dropped to the ranks of the
commonplace. Fine eyes, hair, skin, teeth, colour and carriage were
still hers, but her effectiveness was lessened as that of a pearl might
be if set in a coral circle.

CHAPTER V

ESTABLISH HABITS OF CARRIAGE WHICH CREATE GOOD LINE

Woman's line is the result of her costume, in part only. Far more is
woman's costume affected by her line. By this we mean the line she
habitually falls into, the pose of torso, the line of her legs in
action, and when seated, her arms and hands in repose and gesture, the
poise of her head. It is woman's line resulting from her habit of mind
and the control which her mind has over her body, a thing quite apart
from the way God made her, and the expression her body would have had if
left to itself, ungoverned by a mind stocked with observations,
conventions, experience and attitudes. We call this the physical
expression of _woman's personality_; this personality moulds her bodily
lines and if properly directed determines the character of the clothes
she wears; determines also whether she be a decorative object which says
something in line and colour, or an undecorative object which says
nothing.

PLATE VIII

Queen Elizabeth in the absurdly elaborate costume of the
late Renaissance. Then crinoline, gaudy materials, and
ornamentations without meaning reached their high-water mark
in the costuming of women.

[Illustration: _Metropolitan Museum of Art_
_Tudor England Portrait of Queen Elizabeth_]

Woman to be decorative, should train the carriage of her body from
childhood, by wearing appropriate clothing for various daily roles.
There is more in this than at first appears. The criticism by foreigners
that Americans, both men and women, never appear really at home in
evening clothes, that they look as if they felt _dressed_, is true of
the average man and woman of our country and results from the lax
standards of a new and composite social structure. America as a whole,
lacks traditions and still embodies the pioneer spirit, equally
characteristic of Australia and other offshoots from the old world.

The little American girl who is brought up from babyhood to change for
the evening, even though she have a nursery tea, and be allowed only a
brief good-night visit to the grown-ups, is still the exception rather
than the rule. A wee English maiden we know, created a good deal of
amused comme