your own
setting, but avoid the fatal error of damning your clothes by the spirit
within you.

The writer has in mind a woman of distinguished appearance, beauty,
great wealth, few cares, wonderful clothes and jewels, palatial homes;
and yet an envious unrest poisons her soul. She would look differently,
be different and has not the wisdom to shake off her fetters. Her
perfect dressing helps this woman; you would not be conscious of her
otherwise, but with her natural equipment, granted that she concentrated
upon flashing her spirit instead of her wealth, she would be a leader in
a fine sense. The Beauty Doctor can do much, but show us one who can put
a gleam in the eye, tighten the grasp, teach one that ineffable grace
which enables woman, young or old, to wear her clothes as if an integral
part of herself. This quality belongs to the woman who knows, though she
may not have thought it out, that clothes can make one a success, but
not a success in the enduring sense. Dress is a tyrant if you take it as
your god, but on the other hand dress becomes a magician's wand when
dominated by a clever brain. Gown yourself as beautifully as you can
afford, but with judgment. What we do, and how we do it, is often
seriously and strangely affected by what we have on. The writer has in
mind a literary woman who says she can never talk business except in a
linen collar! Mark Twain, in his last days, insisted that he wrote more
easily in his night-shirt. Richard Wagner deliberately put on certain
rich materials in colours and hung his room with them when composing
the music of The Ring. Chopin says in a letter to a friend: "After
working at the piano all day, I find that nothing rests me so much as to
get into the evening dress which I wear on formal occasions." In
monarchies based on militarism, royal princes, as soon as they can walk,
are put into military uniforms. It cultivates in them the desired
military spirit. We all associate certain duties with certain costumes,
and the extraordinary response to colour is familiar to all. We talk
about feeling colour and say that we can or cannot live in green, blue,
violet or red. It is well to follow this colour instinct in clothes as
well as in furnishing. You will find you are at your best in the colours
and lines most sympathetic to you.

We know a woman who is an unusual beauty and has distinction, in fact is
noted for her chic when in white, black or the combination. She once
ventur