vital
force is needed and none must be wasted.

Personal Appearance.

Trifles show up the real character more than anything else, in clothes,
or the care of the hair, teeth or finger nails. Personal appearance is
one of the strongest factors in the beauty combination. After health,
voice, and poise comes the value of dress as a beauty accessory. Dress
has much to do with a man's classification of feminine beauty although
he may not be dress informed. Many French women are considered beautiful
because of charming dress accessories, which are generally immaculate
and in harmony. A modest girl dresses modestly; a sensible person makes
her clothes fit her person, her height, head, back view, side view,
ankles and heels. A woman's dress soon tells the character of the
wearer and betrays immorality. Even colors talk.

With many people, finery seems to mean good dressing, yet their clothes
jar, cry out, even "scream out their unfitness and unwholesomeness, and
betray their dishonesty, shame and sacrifice." Clothes show silliness,
conceit, and selfishness more than any other thing, and often they shame
a home, so a colored girl should study her individuality and her life
position and dress accordingly. She should wear only becoming colors,
and she might affect a certain color to her advantage. She should
"cling" to what is becoming rather than follow exaggerated fashions. The
exclusive dressers in high society study to get simple lines; with them
severity in line is elegance. Such clothes wear several seasons. No one
minds wearing a becoming style a long time. Few colored women can afford
to keep up the pace of styles. There are women who live to dress no
matter what the cost may be but they are not to be envied for this
slavish passion.

A man wears a good suit several years and looks well. Colored women
could plan their costumes that they might at least last two seasons.
They should study to make the most of what they have on hand.

One good black dress still remains an asset to a wardrobe and most
colored women look well in black especially if it is relieved by a
becoming color.

In France only the "Boulevard" women and actresses wear the exaggerated
styles that we see in the French fashion journals.

The Colored Girl Beautiful will take care of her clothes. She will learn
to press and sponge, also the use of cleaning fluids, and to forbear
from sitting carelessly on coats and other apparel.

Work clothes