a loose, full garment bound at the
waist with a girdle."

Full waists and plain skirts, or _vice versa_, betray at once that
skirt and bodice do not belong to each other. This course, however, is
admissible at times, for instance, in case of the lovely, loose
tea-jackets worn now, or in donning any cool lawn blouse, or dressing
sacque for comfort.

The trained skirt is a most graceful garb, adding to height and
diminishing stoutness, but it is never suitable for the street. For
house, evening or carriage toilets it is eminently proper and pretty.
All the movements of the form are softened and dignified by its
sweeping undulations until one comes to feel that short skirts are
really a mistake for a house gown, since so much grace and beauty of
motion are sacrificed thereby.

Graceful Sleeves.

Few women have beautiful arms above the elbow. Fatness is not
correctness of form, so that a short sleeve, no sleeve, or the painful
strap which is all so many evening dresses can boast, is by no means
always a thing of beauty.

A sleeve that falls in lace and frills just below the elbow hides many
defects, besides softening, and rendering delicate, the lower arm and
the hand.

A sleeve long enough to turn upward as a cuff, is much more effective
than a simulated cuff, just as the thing itself is always better than
an imitation. A sleeve that stops short at the wrist joint should be
relieved by lace to be artistic.

Full sleeves improve every form. The very stout should never make the
mistake of wearing a very tight sleeve, since to do so simply
increases the apparent size of the arm. A full sleeve bound to the arm
between joints gives an impression of comfort and beauty like the
slashed sleeve before mentioned.

Painters have immortalized beautiful sleeves, as well as beautiful
costumes. Indeed, to decide on really beautiful gowns one must study
the great masters--Gainsborough, Reynolds, Watteau--until the study of
costume becomes what it should be--a study of art.

Purchasing.

There should never be trying contrasts in the quality of the various
articles that go to make up the sum-total of dress. To expend almost
the entire allowance on a gorgeous bonnet that puts every other detail
of the costume to blush, or to wear a shabby cloak with an elegant
gown are examples of injudicious expenditure.

Instead, let it be remembered how many articles must be purchased and
then so expend the sum to be drawn upon that i