mall checks and plaids may sometimes be becoming.

Neither the too thin nor the too stout should adopt a style of gown
that caricatures the form as does the voluminous wrapper, finished with
a box-pleat, as shown in No. 57. There is no grace in straight lines.

[Illustration: NOS. 57 AND 58]

No. 58, which accentuates the height of the over-tall, thin woman, is
better adapted to enhance the charms of a woman of finer proportions.
The bony and scrawny, of the type of No. 58, seem to have a perverse
desire to wear what makes their poverty in physical charms only more
conspicuous. A woman of distinction in Boston, who is exceedingly thin
and tall, wore Watteau pleats so frequently, even on reception and
evening gowns that she was dubbed by a wag "the fire-escape," a title
which so strikingly characterized her style, that the term was adopted
by all her friends when they exchanged confidences concerning her.

The garment with the Watteau pleat is not unlike the princesse gown
which is a very trying style except to handsomely proportioned women. A
tall, well-developed woman, such as shown in sketch No. 59, adorns the
princesse gown and attains in it a statuesque beauty. In suggesting
statuary it fulfils the true ideal of dress, which should hint of
poetry, art, sculpture, painting. The massing of colors; the arrangement
of lines, the quality of textures, the grace and poise of the wearer--do
not these hint of picture, statue, music?

CHAPTER V.

CORSAGES APPROPRIATE FOR WOMEN WITH UNBEAUTIFULLY MODELLED THROATS AND
SHOULDERS.

Despite the traditional belief that a decollete corsage is a tyrannous
necessity of evening dress, a woman not graciously endowed with a
beautifully modelled throat and shoulders may, with perfect propriety,
conceal her infelicitous lines from the derisive gaze of a critical
public.

Women are indebted to that gentle genius, La Duse, for the suggestion
that a veiled throat and bust may charmingly fulfil the requirements of
evening dress, and also satisfy that sense of delicacy peculiar to some
women who have not inherited from their great-great-grandmothers the
certain knowledge that a low-necked gown is absolutely decorous.

The women who does not possess delicate personal charms commends herself
to the beauty-loving by forbearing to expose her physical deficiencies.
Unless it is because they are enslaved by custom, it is quite
incomprehensible why some women will glaringly display g