By Beulah Blackmore

To the woman generally falls the responsibility of the wise or unwise expenditure of that part of the family income apportioned to clothing. Whether she spends wisely depends on her knowledge of all phases of the clothing problem.

One of the first questions that arises is whether she shall buy ready-made garments or buy the materials and make similar garments at home. The conditions surrounding each individual or family are so different as to make impossible an answer to this question which will suit all cases. Probably skill, time, and the limitation of one's purse are the most influential factors in such a choice.

When selecting materials or garments, one should be able to judge the durability, including the quality of the material, their suitability to the occasion for which the garments are to be worn and to the wearer, the becomingness of color and line, and the price in relation to the clothing allowance from the income.

Clothes have the power to make persons feel comfortable and at ease or to make them conspicuous and unhappy. This does not mean that the costume need be new or old; it means that it should be appropriate and becoming. It means adapting the prevailing style to one's own type of figure and personality. A person may be just as conspicuous in an ultra-fashionable costume as in one that is very out-of-date; but either may be adapted to conform with good taste, without a great expenditure of time or money.

To be well dressed the woman who makes her own garments must depend largely on familiarity with the principles of design, a critical, discriminating, and thoughtful attitude toward clothing, common sense, skill in the manipulation of fabrics, in draping, or in cutting cloth by a pattern, and knowledge of the best equipment to be used. " Right dress is, therefore, that which is fit for the station in life, and the work to be done in it, and which is otherwise graceful, becoming, lasting, healthful and easy; on occasion splendid; always as beautiful as possible."*

Dictates of fashion too often outweigh one's good judgment, which in this case should have as a background the principles of design. Clothing should interpret the personality of the wearer and emphasize pleasing elements of face or figure rather than exhibit the prevailing fashion, which often exaggerates deficiencies instead of concealing them.

No costume can be artistic or picturesque, although it may be considered fashionable, if it perverts the natural lines of the figure. In good design it is generally possible to emphasize the good points or lines of the figure and to make the less desirable lines inconspicuous. This necessitates careful consideration of the silhouette. Simplicity in silhouette, in line, in the divisions of the costume made by line or dark and light, and in decoration, cannot be overestimated. The search for greater simplicity and for original detail are the two principles followed by the greatest designers.

Of equal importance with line and the spaces formed by these lines is the study of color, texture-an extremely subtle surface quality of a fabric often confused with color-and dark and light values (pages 45 to 47). This is a problem for each individual; it can not be studied too much. After deciding, then, on the type of gown necessary for the occasion for which it is to be worn, the following phases of costume design must be considered, if the result is to be harmonious and beautiful: silhouette; line, including space division and balance; dark and light spacing; color; texture.

It is unwise to lay down hard and fast rules for the use of suitable color in costumes for different types of persons, because general rules may have many exceptions. The following table, however, may be suggestive.

* John Ruskin. Arrows of the Chace.