Dress and Look Slender

As I told you in Chapter I, the stout woman has a great many good points which she sometimes neglects in worrying about her main problem. This is a great mistake because after all the little things do make the big differences and there are so many little things that you can do with scarcely any effort at all which help so tremendously in gaining the effect that you want.

WATCH YOUR STEP

For instance, there is the matter of walking. I am not going to give you any definite exercises, but it is a very easy and splendid practice to try to walk with a “slipping up” step, that is, practice walking easily so that you won’t appear to weigh a thousand pounds. If you are light on your feet people will forget to guess your weight. Don’t let your body slump down, if you have this tendency. Find some exercises that you can do happily and comfortably, not to reduce, but to cultivate grace and ease of motion. When you are all alone in the house and nobody is looking, trip around lightly and exaggerate a light, easy step. Turn on the victrola and do your dusting to music. It will help you wonderfully in gaining that ease of motion which is attractive and pleasing and encourages youth. Always endeavor to overcome heaviness in step and movement, for it adds years both to your appearance and to your feelings. Remember that your attitude has so much to do with your good looks.

Don’t ever stand with your feet apart or your hands limp at your sides. One foot a little in front of the other gives an easier appearance and makes you seem less weighty. Make a practice of keeping your hands comfortably in front of you, never rest them on your hips wash woman fashion. Such positions broaden the silhouette and give a “set” look that is most unbecoming. A large woman with her feet spread apart and arms hanging like burdens always at her sides makes a very heavy and unattractive picture.

Don’t cross your arms. Two fat arms can look like four, if you are not careful.

Stretch and keep yourself limber. Bend so that you are continually used to it, then your face won’t get red every time you drop your handkerchief. And right here it may be well to say that most women use up more energy than they need to and look much more undignified than they need to when they stoop to pick things up. It is neither necessary nor graceful to bend so that your back almost breaks in the middle. It is a much easier and pleasanter gesture to bend at the knees and go straight down until you can reach the object you want to pick up. In doing this you can keep your head straight up all the while and need not get red in the face at all.

WHAT YOUR POSTURE CAN DO FOR YOU

Learn to stand up straight like a soldier. Most fat women seem to have the idea that they ought to “scrooch” down and disguise their size in that way. But in this campaign to dress and be thin the back-bone must be definitely straight. Don’t hunch yourself up and look like a pillow tied in the middle. Sit straight on your chair and stand straight when you are up. Hold your head high. A constant practice of chin up makes you appear taller and erases in the easiest possible way any tendency towards a double chin.

Dressing up to your weight is good psychology for it keeps you alert. You hold your head a little higher and grow naturally to observe that essential rule of standing always just as tall as you possibly can. Also, your mental alertness is a safeguard against additional fat. I never knew it to fail—a definite interest in clothes, in looking one’s best, keeps the fat away. It has a sort of a rabbit-foot charm about it that really does work.

Remember continually that it isn’t the dress alone that you need watch, but every detail, for the little things can destroy the big, you know, and the principles of optical illusion must be adhered to as strictly in the little things as in the big. For instance, eyeglasses can accentuate a round face or slenderize it, depending upon their prominence and shape. Buttons can stick out and look bulky; shirtwaists when worn with different color skirts can cut you in two; and belts of different color than skirt or blouse can prove even more treacherous. Gloves or shoes that are too small give your size away. Lacy stockings emphasize where they shouldn’t and are as faulty as they are expensive. Before we get through with this book I hope that I can restore your pride and self-assurance and that by making the most of these little pointers you will find your back-bone right where it ought to be. You will then be able to meet the world with a smile, knowing that at last you not only feel but look better than you ever have before.

SHOES AND STOCKINGS MUST BE SELECTED WITH CARE

What kind of shoes and stockings do you wear? Not pumps, I hope, because your

weight is too great to be comfortable in them, and besides if you have studied the principles of optical illusion as carefully as you should have, you will realize that pumps will not give you the harmonious effect that you want to achieve in your costume. A bulge is sure to show at the top which is not only uncomfortable for you but shows in itself that you are fat. Wear a strap or laced slipper—any kind that is in good taste, big enough, and not too heavy. Heavy shoes on a stout woman interfere with lightness of movement which is something for which you must continually strive.

Unless you have very attractive, well-proportioned feet, do not attempt to decorate the bottom of your dress, for it will not only shorten you but will call attention to your feet. If they are very small they make the body appear larger and if the ankles are large they give an undesirable heaviness, so that the very best way, in any event, is not to call attention to them.

Many authorities say that a black sheer stocking is the very best that a stout woman can wear, that a heavy black or dark colored stocking is conspicuous, and a light stocking is “taboo” because it breaks the height and interferes with the straight line effect. So choose sheer stockings, but don’t hesitate to buy “out” sizes if you need them. If they are big enough over the knees they will fit better around the ankles. I know some big women who refuse to buy “out” size stockings because they are ashamed to go in and ask for them, and I know some medium slender women who buy them because they think they last longer. So pretend that you are medium slender and buy them if they are more comfortable.

We big women usually have some one who loves us enough to give us jewelry and we in turn love them enough to want to wear it on every occasion. If it doesn’t express slenderness—if it’s a big cameo or a heavy pair of earrings or a string of round marble beads, especially in dog collar arrangement—put it away and forget where you put it. Wear such jewelry some morning when no one is looking; have your own little “revelry” and have it over with, for such jewelry puts on more pounds than entire boxes of candy and makes us look like jeweled couch cushions, which we can never afford to do.

A necklace that is slender, well made, and with a tendency to plainness is a real asset to a stout woman as it helps the collar line, slenderizes the face, and gives the appearance of length over the front that is pleasing, but avoid by all means heavy crystals and don’t ever wear beads unless they give a definitely desirable lengthening effect.

Watch your collars closely. Work for slenderness and becomingness. Avoid all neck lines that go around or that are conspicuously colored. A cream collar is always better than a snow white one and a soft piqué or linen collar is better than a starched one. Remember that long string ribbon ties can be real friends if you will let them. Tailor your collars or use soft lace that is not baby looking. We big folks must always keep away from babyishness, must learn to stand on our own two feet and look straight ahead toward the goal of slenderness.

PURSES, FANS AND OTHER ACCESSORIES

Pocketbooks and purse bags must be slender, never round or bulky looking, and must always harmonize with the dress and never be conspicuously colored. Remember too, not to let your bag dangle awkwardly from your hand or add to your width by the way you carry it. Let it be a part of the line of your costume just as it is in harmony with the color.

Graceful fans of subdued colors often aid in a pleasing gracefulness, but little fans allow of an uncomplimentary comparison, just as do small, gay parasols.

Fat fingers are shortened and made more fat by heavy rings.

Earrings widen the face. Sometimes a slender face accompanies a broad body. In such a case, earrings are an advantage if they are appropriate and graceful.

Jeweled belts, conspicuous in ornamentation, must all be given away to willowy friends, because they could prove helpful to them and a menace to you.

NEATNESS AND CLEANLINESS ARE ESSENTIAL

Once when I was writing a book on dress, a fashion authority and personal friend insisted that I should not put in a chapter on cleanliness, which I wanted very much to use, saying that it “put an ugly frame on an otherwise beautiful picture.” But personal cleanliness and careful grooming to my mind are so necessary that no book on dress would be complete without them.

We may not have beautiful clothes, and may grieve that we are not willowy enough to wear the smart extremes in dress, but our grieving is totally unnecessary. We can learn truly to be as attractive, as admirable as our slender sisters if we set out with the will and determination to express perfection so far as our ability and intelligence will allow. A fresh bath, some bath talcum, clean, well-fitting underthings, neat, good-looking shoes, and modest stockings can give an enhancing foundation for the dress we have so carefully planned. And when we are spic and span from the inside out we are sure to dress with more dignity, more poise, than we possibly could otherwise.

COSMETICS EITHER ADD OR DETRACT

Thick lips should never wear rouge, and black eyebrows should never be blackened; neither should a pale, grayed face be surrounded by a dull gray or black hat. This is all out of key and attracts unnecessary attention. We must express some color tone, just as we do personality, but it must be subtle or vivacious, discreet or bold, and in both cases must be individually becoming.

If the eyes are dull in color, do not wear bright colors on your hats for the eyes lose in comparison, and eyes can always express friendly happiness and individuality if we surround them properly.

Avoid a shiny nose as you would the Plague.

Beware of oily creams. Remember an astringent reduces and controls and that 99 cases out of a hundred need oilless creams rather than oily ones. Beware of rouge. Your face usually will have color enough. If it hasn’t, use it, oh, so wisely.

Study your face carefully, experiment with color in front of an honest mirror that is placed in full day light. Rouge and powder rightly applied can narrow the face and prove very advantageous, so experiment and put the color just where you need it, but don’t put on any until you have picked up a couple of things from the floor and walked around the room quickly at least twice. Work to look immaculate. It is so much more becoming. Baby faces and full proportioned bodies don’t go well together, and harmony we must have throughout this program.

If your forehead is low, powder the forehead generously and comb the hair back as much as becomingness will allow. This will tend to add height to the body and length to the face.

It is said that a large woman is usually very dainty in her habits just as a large man invariably has a very tiny, neat signature, so let it be an asset, and be dainty about your use of cosmetics. It is so much more pleasing than an extravagant use could ever be.

THINK OF THESE LITTLE THINGS BEFOREHAND

Buy a few things and have everything right. Think of all of your wardrobe at one time. Be sure that everything goes together agreeably. Take care to keep every part of your clothing in good repair and immaculately clean. Every woman can gain a reputation for being well dressed if she remembers not to be haphazard in buying, wearing, and caring for her clothes. If you have any of these habits, come, let us talk them over confidentially, because I, too, have had to learn by sheer necessity to overcome, one by one, these very expensive, annoying tendencies, and the only way I succeeded was to learn, as a matter of habit, to hang things up carefully when I took them off, to make sure that dress shields were in place, and to take special care to have everything in right shape when it was time to dress.

Take very special pains to have all supporters securely fastened, stockings on straight, and each garment rightly in place, for neatness in dress is more essential for us than almost any other thing. In fact, fastidious care of person and clothes is one feature which requires constant vigilance.

Avoid every tendency toward over dress. Don’t trim yourself too much. Modesty, simplicity—intricate simplicity perhaps, but a beautiful simplicity—is a definite part of our program and must be followed out religiously to conceal at all times an extra 30 or 40 pounds.

Be sure that the brassiere and corset overlap at their joining. The brassiere should come over the corset a good 2 inches to insure its holding. If the abdomen is full or stomach high, supporters fastened to the brassiere at the front are an advantage.

Never allow your shoes to squeak or your gloves to pinch in their tightness. Never allow a spot to show on any garment. Be immaculate, work at it, keep at it, for you, you know, have a definite purpose that must be achieved.