terior decorators specialise along this line and devote
their time to inventing colour schemes calculated to reflect the
personality of the owner of the car.

Special orders have raised the standard of the entire industry, so that
at the recent New York automobile show, many effects in cars were
offered to the public. Besides the putty-coloured roadster lined with
scarlet, black lined with russet yellow, orange lined with black; there
were limousines painted a delicate custard colour, with top and rim of
wheels, chassis and lamps of the same Nattier Blue as the velvet lining,
cushions and curtains. A beautiful and luxurious background and how easy
to be decorative against it to one who knows how!

Another popular colour scheme was a mauve body with top of canopy and
rims of wheels white, the entire lining of mauve, like the body. Imagine
your woman with a decorative instinct in this car. So obvious an
opportunity would never escape her, and one can see the vision on a
Summer day, as she appears in simple white, softest blue or pale pink,
or better still, treating herself as a quaint nosegay of blush roses,
for-get-me-nots, lilies and mignonette, with her chiffons and silks or
sheerest of lawns.

"But how about me?" one hears from the girl of the open car--a racer
perhaps, which she drives herself. You are easiest of all, we assure
you; to begin with, your car being a racer, is painted and lined with
durable dark colours--battleship grey, dust colour, or some shade which
does not show dirt and wear. The consequence is, you will be decorative
in any of the smart coats, close hats and scarfs in brilliant and lovely
hues,--silk or wool.

CHAPTER XIV

HOW TO GO ABOUT PLANNING A PERIOD COSTUME

Here is a plan to follow when getting up a period costume:

We will assume that you wish to wear a Spanish dress of the time of
Philip IV (early seventeenth century). The first thing to give your
attention to is the station in life which you propose to represent.
Granted that you decide on a court costume, one of those made so
familiar by the paintings of the great Velasquez, let your first step be
to get a definite impression of the _outline_ of such a costume. Go to
art galleries and look at pictures, go to libraries and ask for books on
costumes, with plates.

You will observe that under the head of crinoline and hoop-skirt
periods, there are a variety of outlines, markedly different. The slope
of the hip line and