Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — PLAIN-LOOKING GIRLS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PLAIN-LOOKING GIRLS.

THEY SHOULD DRESS WITH RICHNESS AND TASTE. Anxious and Bewailing Mothers Should Do for Their Plain-Looking Daughters What the Fairy Godmother Did for Cinderella—Some Exquisite Styles for Young Ladies. Tress Them Richly.

QUESTION whleh often agitates the minds of mothers is: What shall we do with our plain daughters? Everybody wants the pretty ones. Attentions, invitations and presents galore arc showered upon them, but we sit and wait in vain for some good fairy godmother to rescue our Cinderellas. My advice to these anxious and bewailing mothers, says our fashion writer, is to do for th o plain-looking daughters exactly what the fairy godmother did for Cinderella. Dress them

as richly and becomingly as possible, study their good points—for what girl has not some good points—and above all impress upon their minds the necessity of making a greater effort to please than is required of her more favored sister. If the plain girl has a good figure, take good care that it be accentuated. If her strong point be her complexion, exercise the greatest skill and care in selecting the proper tones to enhance its beauty. The plain girl often has what is known as style. In‘that case, the mother should sit up nights thinking out ways and means to underscore this strong point. A simply pretty woman is generajly annihilated when she comes in contact with a thoroughly stylish woman. Style may be indefinable, but it has a dynamic force that impresses itself upon the mind of every beholder. Men adore style, and the charm of style is that ago cannot wither it nor custom stale it. But clothes may injure or suppress it, and therefore should these same anxious mothers take heed lost they mar a charm more valuable than beauty itself. But, still urges this anxio'j j mother, “Dress is so expensive, and when one has an unlimited supply of daughters and limited means it becomes a question of terrible seriousness how to make them all look when nature has done so little for them.” In my initial illustration I present an exquisite ball toilet for the non-dancer,

who, either because her husband objects or her embonpoint forbids, never essays the triple beat of poetic motion. This gown is a white cloth embroidered with chrysanthemums in a delicate cream, the bottom of the skirt, sleeves and bodice being outlined with swan’s down and the corsage filled in with white lace or chiffon. A band of the swan’s down also serves for shoulder straps. ,Of eourse, it would be out of the question to think of waltzing in this elegant costume, but it would serve to make a box glow with a radiance powerful enough to attract all eyes, and therefore it would accomplish its purpose, for the world may be divided into two classes, the lookers on and the looked at, and many of our professional beauties are like spatula paintings—they must be surveyed from an artistic distance. My second illustration portrays quite another type of costume and character — the ingenue. The ingenue is not native here and to the manner bom. She belongs, strictly speaking, on the other side of the Atlantic, but still she is occasionally met with among our society people. It is hard to tell exactly what an ingenue is. Possibly you might say that she is in the world but not of it. She is a child woman, who wonders but doesn’t comprehend. Something tells her that she has a power of fascination but, like the newly fledged bird, she hops on the ground, not daring to use her wings. Many ingenues are spoiled in dressing, just as pictures are spoiled in framing. This particular ingenue

wears an ideal gown for such a person—an ivory silk made up with extreme simplicity, having a broad eeinture of white satin and a large white satin bow at the back with long ends, and a white satin ribbon tied around her hair as Indicated. A white feather boa completes her costume. The only jewels permissible are a plain string of pearl beads, not real,

TT around the neck. Slio thus stands elad in her own beauty, aud, although she may apprehend its charm, she hasn’t the necessary guide to attempt to please for the mere pleasure of pleasing. My third and fourth illustrations will give you an excellent idea of the latest styles of coiffure. To attain the charming effect shown in number three, you divide the hair in two parts from the forehead to the nape, and then from each side you take small locks for waving purposes. The hair which usually goes to make the braid is twisted into a small chignon with crimped ends. The frizettes cover the whole top of tire head, reaching down on the forehead. Three rows of pearls are made use of for ornaments. With this particular coiffure, as represented, is worn a marabout ruche, the feathers being laid on a pleat ed band of crepe de chine. On the inside there is a bullion, and the lower portion has also a bouillon and a pleated volant. The coiffure represented in my fourth illustration is intended for a young girl. To accomplish it, you take a strand of hair extending from the forehead to tho back of the ear and wave it, combing it backward. With tho remainder of the hair you make a small chignon, crimping the ends in curls which fall forward and baokward. The frizettes are carried backward. No matter how much pains you may take in making up a cloth dress, when you put it on a plain girl the combination is not entirely satisfactory. The ensemble is too plain, but by the simple addition of a narrow astrakhan trimming round the bottom of the skirt, down tho front of the long jacket bodice, and also edging the collar and basques, you at once help out the plain girl amazingly. I may say, before leaving this

subject, that very few skirts are now made without borders of some kind, velvet being commonly chosen, either ol the same tone or of a contrasting color. And in many cases you see such a border headed witli a tiny lino of fur. If you prefer, instead of a single band, you may trim a skirt with three bands of colored velvet. It Is also quite necessary that there sho.uld be a velvet corselet and collar. The princess skirt is quite in vogue again and I have seen some finished with a deep band of embroidery on cloth or velvet.

Now for a hunt for a house dress. Nothing can be prettier than the modish gray crepons of a soft steel tone, but, made up ever so tastefully, it will not help the plain girl out. (she may still remain somewhat of a disappointment to her solicitous mamma, who so often wonders where her daughters got their plainness from. Let her not despair, the crepon meeds something to set it off, to give it character. The tiling is easily managed. Make it up with a dark-green velvet corslet, having long' basques, and cross the ends of the oorselet stylishly over the bust, then edge this velvet addition with jet and you can at once impart ti> the plain costume the very something which it needed in order to help the plain girl out. The collar too, I should have added, must be velvet. There is this consolation about the plain girl that, while she may be more difficult to dross effectively than her pretty sister, yet when you do hit her peculiar style the surprise is as startling as it is pleasing. Although this is of ail times the time to dance, yet many of our fashionable ladies never attempt that most difficult of feats, th<% waltz. There is but one thing more difficult to do than to waltz gracefully, and that is to walk graeofully; but walk we must, gracefully or not, while there is no compulsion about waltzing. Hence many there are who go to balls as they go to concerts, not for the music's sake, but for the occasion’s sake. Nothing puts the dotlet on the "i” of finish to an elegant ball dress so much as a stylish coiffure, arranged to suit the

shape of the head and the contour of the features. In fact, it is an Indispensable adjunct to evening dress and is justly regarded as the outward sign of culture and refinement. The exquisite floral ornaments, which the art of to-day fashions so like nature herself, make charming decoration for the hair, either in coronal or wreath shape. The novelties run in daisies, tiny rosebuds and forget-me-nots and are altogether dainty and refined.

My last illustration pictures a very becoming light-gray felt, ornamented with a ruche of white faille ribbon having a small roll of corn-colored velvet running through it, and holding It in place. At the back on the turned-up there is a bow of yellow velvet and araped faille ribbon. To the right is placed two small birds, with long extended wings. I see many charming round hats In velvet trimmed with velvet ribbon-wise in front and a Prince of Wales aigrette at the back. The capotes still retain their pastry cook’s crowns, the brims being lattened so as to retain the bent outlines given them. The Russian toque in chinchilla Is also much affected, and sometimes has a bird placed at the front. Muff of the same fur, which also appears as trimming on the velvet jacket, the latter opening on a plastron of the chinchilla. A surprising phenomenon occurred the other day in Warren, Ohio. A young man took refuge under a maple tree during a thunder-storm. Lightning struck the tree and killed the man. An examination of him disclosed the amazing fact that the lightning had photographed on various portions of his body pictures of the branches and leaves of the tree.

IVORY SILK AND SATIN.

MODISH COIFFURES.

COIFFURE FOR YOUNG Girl.

STYLISH GRAY FELT.