CHAPTER XIV
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR FIGURE
FRANKLY determine how far your figure falls short of perfection. Perfection, that is, according to the canons of classic statuary. The standards of the Greek sculptors have never been improved. These are their undeviating rules:
The figure should be exactly six times as long as the foot. The face from the middle point of the hair line to the point of the chin should be one-tenth of the entire stature. The hand from the tip of the middle finger to the end of the palm should be of the same length as the face, and so also one-tenth of the length of the body. From the highest point of the forehead to the beginning of the chest should be one-seventh of the length of the body.
If the face from the hair line to the point of the chin is divided into three parts the first line of division is the point equidistant from the lowest points of the eyebrows. The second division line is that directly beneath the nostrils.
The body when standing with the arms extended horizontally should form a human Maltese cross. The length of the body should be the same as the distance across the body from the middle finger of one hand to the middle finger of the other.
The ideal face of the sculptors has always been pear-shaped, diminishing from a noble width at the forehead and top of the head to a slim delicacy of chin. The trend of feature formation in this age of personal dominance is in another direction, toward a widening and increasing of the weight of the jaw. This adds to the impression of strength of character, but it subtracts much from the sum of the beauty of a face.
I have referred to the face because I wish to apply it as a determining factor in judging the beauty of the figure. The sculptor’s test of the beauty of a face is its profile. If the profile is strong and beautiful, the face is equally strong and beautiful. In other words, the beauty of a face cannot exceed that of its profile. So the determining view of a figure as to its beauties or its defects is the profile view. The woman who would improve her figure should study it critically from the side. For this reason, the woman who sells her easy chair and buys a duplex or triple mirror is an economist of her own beauty.
Determine in what respect your figure varies from the canons of beauty, and try to conform to them. Are you a little too short for the breadth of your figure? Stretching exercises should add somewhat to your height. Stand before the open window, and with hands back to back, the finger tips touching, rise upon your toes and stretch to your greatest height.
So the woman who would be taller should recline a great deal, take as much sleep as possible. Physiologists have proven that the body is considerably taller in the morning than in the evening. This is because the muscles and joints have relaxed, while during the varied exercises of the day they have contracted. The mass of muscles have much in common with india rubber—they have elastic properties.
The critical view in the duplex or triple mirror may reveal that the figure is too broad or too thick for its height. If too broad the defect is serious, and will be difficult, if not impossible, of remedy. If too thick, diet, exercise or massage, or all of these, may be summoned. Breadth reveals the framework of the body, indicating usually that it is too massive. You cannot change the framework of a bridge, nor yet of the human body. The modification must take place in that which covers it, the layers of muscles and fat. The figure that is too thick, that is from front to back of waist, or from the middle of the spinal column to the point of the bust, may be materially improved.
For this improvement I would look first to the back—I always notice instantly whether the back be straight and flat or round and full. For in that difference lies much of the elegance or lack of it in a female figure. If the back is full and the hips bulge, the waist is large the figure has no elegance; is, indeed, common. If you are the possessor of such blemishes to beauty you should at once set at work to remove the defects.
First give attention to your diet. Eat much less than usual. Say reduce your diet at the beginning by one-quarter, then one-third, and after that one-half. The slimming results will soon become apparent.
But do not be satisfied with one means of securing a flatter back and slender hips. Exercise, especially in the open air. Walk, walk, walk, beginning with a short walk if you are unaccustomed to walking, and increasing the distance each day.
And if possible have recourse to massage. I have before said in this series of articles that I consider massage the first aid to beauty. It has always seemed to me a cure-all for defects in beauty. It improves the complexion, improves the figure, brightens the expression and makes more beautiful the eyes. Therefore, to give the flat back and narrow hips that are part of an elegant figure, I advise deep massage, with an astringent liquid preparation.
Some adventurous women have taken internal remedies under the advice of their physician, which is the only safe way to take any internal obesity medicine. I have never advised reduction remedies to be so taken. By absorption, however, I consider this to be a good remedy for over-development:
Oil of sweet almonds, 4 ounces; tincture of benzoin, 1 dram; extract of Portugal, 4 ounces; oil of neroli, 20 drops.
This, too, is a good astringent lotion:
Tincture of iodine, 30 minims; iodide of potassium, 60 grams; distilled water, 10 ounces; aniseed water, 170 minims.
Also this:
Tincture of iodine, 1 ounce; alcohol, 10 ounces.
If, on the other hand, the critical side view reveals not only the back and sides as too thin, but the entire outline as too meager, then this cream, freely applied by light and frequent massage, is an aid in curve-making and flesh-building:
Fresh mutton tallow, 6 ounces; lanolin, 6 ounces; spermaceti, ½ ounce; cocoanut oil, 4 ounces.
This, too, is a good tissue-feeding cream:
Lanolin, 60 grams; oil of sweet almonds, 40 grams; tannin, 1 gram.
Women who think their busts are too large write me often asking how they may reduce them. Personally, I do not approve of any treatment, except a general dietary and general exercise, such as tends to reduce all portions of the body. In view of the many requests I receive from determined women begging such a recipe, I give this European formula, but I protest against any woman using it unless with the sanction of her physician:
Oil of sweet almonds, 100 grams; white wax, 50 grams; tincture of benzoin, 25 grams; rosewater, 25 grams; tannin, 15 grams.
After exercise and diet for improving the figure, there is nothing so important as to be well corseted. If possible have your corsets made to order. Pay less for a gown if necessary to order a better corset. Get one that is pliable and hygienic and yet molds the figure into its best lines. To fit well the hips should be the first consideration. The rest of the body can take very good care of itself. Yet the corset should not be too tight about the hips nor abdomen. For this reason I always advise that there be rubber webbing in the sides of the corset.
Every corset should have eight elastics. Yes, I mean it—four on each side. These elastics not only hold the hose in well, but they hold in the abdomen and hips. The first pair of elastics should be fastened directly in front, on either side of the steel fronts of the corset. The next pair should be about an inch, or on a very stout woman two inches, to the right and left respectively. The third pair should be directly over the hips. The fourth should be at the back. While at first this maze of garters seems a hopeless tangle, one soon acquires the knack of fastening them. They add much to the trigness and tautness that contribute elegance to the figure.
The fourth desideratum is a good carriage. Keep the shoulders and abdomen back. Keep the bust and the chin up. Swing the hips well forward when you walk. Observe all women who are stout, that is, heavily stout. There is a distinction. Women may be stout and yet carry their bodies as though they were weightless. Others of no greater bulk walk as though they were weighted down with invisible handicaps.
The heavily stout woman walks with her hips back. In this faulty carriage lies much of her awkwardness and apparent weight. Walk on the balls of your feet, lightly. This becomes a habit that renders a woman graceful and almost without apparent weight.
For the consolation of women who have shapely figures, though built upon an ample scale, let me quote this dictum of an authority on womanly beauty: “It isn’t the size, but the shape that counts. Proportion is the thing.”
Some women are really tall enough, but they look dumpy. The thing for them to do at once is to reduce their weight. “If you reduce your hips you will look taller” is an axiom of the beauty culturists. So set about it. If you are short and thin, then hasten to broaden your shoulders, expand and inflate your lungs; draw back your elbows and breathe deeply. Fill out your bust and chest. This will actually make you taller and appear more so.
Short girls generally carry themselves badly. Keep your head thrown back and your chin out. The woman who keeps her chin down in her neck always looks shorter than she is. Take physical culture lessons, all you short girls who would be tall; learn to walk gracefully, and train your muscles into suppleness. Take walks in the open air with a light, buoyant step, your shoulders thrown back, breathing deeply through your nose. And stretch yourself, every moment of the day when you can.
Three inches, real or apparent, may be added to a woman’s stature by a little common sense.
The short girl who would be tall should go in systematically for stretching exercises. Lie down flat and stretch out your arms as far as possible above your head. Also practice neck movements—keep on stretching your neck out just like a goose, to elongate it. Stretch your legs out taut and keep stretching yourself on tiptoe. Hold up your chin and your abdomen, and stretch continually. Here are some excellent stretching exercises to make you supple and straight—and taller:
Lie flat on your back on a hard mattress. Plant palms downward straight at the sides, but do not grip the ticking with them. Now draw the legs up slowly, bending at the knees, and holding the knees in the air and heels close to the body. Now, with a quick, sudden movement, thrust the legs out straight and flat on the bed, the toes stretched as far as possible and pointing down. This brings into play every muscle from the knee to the tip of the toes and sets the limbs tingling. Draw up slowly, counting seven and inhaling; hold position through seven counts, and again thrust down, exhaling through the mouth. Rest four counts and repeat.
Lie flat on the back, heels and balls of the feet together, arms at sides, palms down. Breathe slowly seven times. Now, with the shoulders or upper part of the trunk rigidly flat on the bed, raise the middle of the trunk, generally known as the waist line, by the muscles of the hips. Inhale as you lift, counting seven; exhale as you fall. Next inhale deeply and lift the lower part of the trunk and let it fall in quick succession, repeating the movement perhaps five times while inhaling once.
Reverse the exercise described above; that is, let the lower part of the trunk rest on the bed and lift from the waist line up by means of the muscles of the shoulder blades. Use the same methods of counting, inhaling while counting seven; hold the position, then lower the trunk, counting seven, and exhaling. Then work rapidly, with five quick uplifts to each breath.
It is well to scan your figure occasionally in the mirror—to satisfactorily do this you need a full length mirror—and decide what are its flaws and how to rid yourself of them.
Perhaps you have a disfiguring stoop. Rid yourself of this, if necessary, by wearing shoulder braces. You can buy strong, reliable ones at most drug stores, and you can make them for yourself with two strong stitched bands of muslin to which cross pieces are attached. Fasten these to your corsets by safety pins. Perhaps that apparent stoop is due not to actual bending of the shoulders but to a roll of superfluous fat that accumulates just below the neck on women who have attained thirty years, or even before. Remove this unsightly blemish by several methods. First, throw away your pillow and lie with head and feet on a level. Form the habit of standing very erect. Stretch your arms sideways and on a level with your shoulders and twirl them rapidly backward.
There are always several preparations which can be used to advantage if applied outwardly. Bathe the shoulders every night with this, rubbing it thoroughly into the shoulders:
Iodide of potassium, 1 ounce; alcohol, 12 ounces.
If your limbs are too heavy, as is liable to be the case in America, where women’s figures are not so well proportioned as in many other countries, the lower part of the body being disposed to stoutness, walk much. This will reduce the bulk of the fat and make the muscles solid. Occasionally I receive letters asking me to tell a girl how to make the limbs larger and more shapely. Massage with olive oil should enlarge them. To inquiries as to how to make the thin ankles plumper I make the same reply.
No figure is attractive if the hips are out of proportion to the rest of the body. They should be neither too large nor too small, but in perfect accord with the rest of the figure. If the rest of the figure is thin and the hips plump the effect is ludicrous. If the body is ample and the hips flat the hips are incongruous. Fashion may dictate broad hips one season and narrow hips the next, but their ideal size remains the same. They must look as though they belong to that body and no other.
They should be amphora shaped, as any sculptor will tell you. An amphora, you know, is a large Roman vase with lines exquisitely curved downward. Study the pictures of statues of the ancient Greeks and you will comprehend the beauty of the hip line in the natural figure. They are neither over heavy nor too thin.
The bones should be well covered, but there should be no fat creases and no loose hanging skin. If there is too little flesh applications of olive oil will increase it. But the fault in the American woman’s figure is that she is unduly developed about the hips. For this figure blemish it would be absurd to bant, for her whole body would diminish under it and the hips remain proportionately as large as before. Massage and exercise are the hope of the woman of overdeveloped hips. Rub briskly and firmly, with a strong slapping motion, this mixture, prepared especially for each application.
Unsweetened butter, 1 tablespoonful; tincture of iodine, 20 drops.
Long corsets that are not too tight keep up a continual gentle friction that helps to some extent in reducing the hips, but these should never be worn so tight as to compress the inner organs nor constrict the muscles. Better too redundant hips than an interference with the circulation, which may cause varicose veins or other serious complications.
These exercises are simple, but will be found exceedingly helpful if persevered in, in diminishing the hips:
First, stand perfectly erect; the knees should not be bent. The heels should be held together. The palms of the hands should rest firmly upon the hips.
Second, swing the right leg slowly and firmly sidewise, raising the foot as high as you can. This should not be suddenly or violently done. Rest the weight of the body firmly on the left foot while so doing. Kick thus slowly a half dozen times or more, until the muscles begin to be weary. Then shift the weight to the right foot and kick in the same fashion with the left.
Third, stand with the weight on one foot and raise the other leg slowly, until it is on a level with the trunk. Lower the foot and repeat this exercise many times until you begin to grow weary. Then change the weight to that foot and repeat the exercise with the other leg.
Fourth, stand as I at first described, the body straight, the chest and head high, the heels together. Raise the hands sidewise above the head, bringing the tips of the fingers together. Then, in the posture that swimmers take before they dive, bend slowly forward, keeping the knees straight, until the finger tips reach the ground. Repeat this until fatigue warns you to stop. Never exercise until weary.
But even a perfect figure avails little unless you have grace. When I am asked how to be graceful, I answer: “Be careful of your movements when alone and unconscious of them when you are in public.” Grace can be cultivated. There is no excuse for a woman who is not deformed being awkward. There are degrees in grace, but every woman may possess it to some extent.
To the woman who wishes to enhance her natural grace, or who, having none, desires to add it to her charms, I advise first of all the study of great paintings and statuary that are models of line and poise. Line is important, but I have seen women who were all straight lines, to whom nature had given not one gracious curve, who were nevertheless graceful. The long, flowing lines of grace may be assisted by careful dressing, and this a dressmaker may do for us, but poise, which is a much bigger and better word than pose, including pose and much more, comes from within and may be self taught.
I wish that every woman who reads this chapter would pay a visit to the nearest art gallery and study, if there be one, a good copy of the wonderful Venus de Milo. Let her study it until something of the inward strength which gives it its wonderful balance and power and perfect symmetry is revealed to her.
One of the secrets of that marvelous statue is the calm soul it expresses. Again and again I have said that serenity is the chief secret of beauty, and I point to the Venus de Milo in proof of my assertion. The nervous, distraught, ill-centered woman reveals her soul state by nervous, abrupt awkward movements.
Compose yourself inwardly and see with what grace and strength you stand before your mirror. Permit some emotion to disturb you, and note the ravaging, unlovely effect. Grace is poise, and poise means a calm soul center.
For a graceful carriage we must consider how to stand, how to walk and how to sit. The late Heinrich Conried, being asked to describe a beautiful woman, said: “That is simple. She is harmonious.” What he meant was that she was harmonious within and harmonious without, the inward harmony revealing itself in the outer. There was no discord in her. To stand in a drawing room as you would stand on the ledge of a mountain would be inharmonious. To sit on a high-backed chair with straight lines, as you would sit upon an ottoman, or a tête-à-tête would be strikingly discordant. To walk into a ballroom as you would set forth for a walk along the beach would be ludicrous. There must be in every movement harmony with your surroundings, and you must yourself be governed by the immediate circumstances.
Lola Montez, the enchanting dancer and the dancing enchantress, well knew the value of a graceful carriage and of the cheerful spirit of which it is an expression. She said: “A crushed, sad, or moping spirit, especially if allowed at a tender age, when the body is forming, is a fatal cause of a flabby and moping body. A bent and stooping form is quite sure to come of a bent and stooping spirit. If you would stand well, sit well, walk well, lie well, ‘sway gracefully on the poised waist’ as upon a pivot.”
Given a straight healthy spine, straight, strong bones and the serene spirit of which I have spoken, and there remains for grace two necessities, knowledge and training. One must know how to hold the body correctly before she can so hold it.
The correct position, one in which the balance of all parts of the body is perfectly preserved, is almost, but not quite, erect. It should incline very slightly forward, above the hips. The weight of the body should rest firmly upon the balls of the feet. The heels should be close together. The knees should also be close neighbors. The arms in standing should hang naturally at the sides with the elbows close to the sides.
One position only is proper for the chin. It should be well up. Notice any woman whose chin is lowered. Shadows fall about the hollows of the face, or create an illusion of hollows there. Every woman looks five years older with her chin lowered. Also such a pose of the head will make wrinkles in the fairest and plumpest neck. Nature designed woman to hold her head as proudly as that of a mettlesome horse. The chest should be held up and out.
Observe how a well-trained soldier stands on parade. That is an excellent model. He appears to have no abdomen, so well is it held in. His shoulder blades are flat as a knife.
If the shoulder blades are not naturally flat, shoulder braces should be worn to correct the projecting ones and to destroy the round-shouldered effect so destructive of the beauty of a figure. These can be purchased at drug stores and department stores, but can be made at home at slight cost. Stitch two long strips of coutil two and a half inches wide in many parallel rows to make it strong. Fasten these at the back just over the shoulders with another horizontal stitched band of the same width. A simple exercise for sagging shoulders is to draw the arms behind you, bend them at the elbows and thrust a cane between the elbows and back.
Practice the proper posture in standing before the mirror. Study not only the front, but the profile view of your figure. If the chest sags, thrust it forward. If the abdomen protrudes, determinedly shift your weight so that it recedes. The prominent abdomen in half the cases I know is simply the result of bad habits of standing. If the shoulders curve forward, draw yourself erect until they are flat.
If you find your weight resting upon the heels, your figure will look awkward and countrified. If you rest upon the toes, it will look mincing and affected. Nature has indicated that to keep the balance of the body the weight must fall upon the balls of the feet. Try all these postures and notice how much better your figure looks when you stand correctly. It will be an object lesson you cannot forget.
Five minutes a day for two weeks ought to teach the dullest of us to stand well. After that the lesson of gracefully shifting the weight when you are tired may be practiced. Move one foot slightly forward, dividing the weight equally between the two. Then rest the full weight of the body on one foot. Then, by a quick, slight shift, change it to the other. But return quickly to the position of an equal division of weight. For when the body rests upon one foot the hip and shoulders of the other side will be raised.
A good walk is a thing of beauty. A bad walk is a pain to the beholder. A bird balancing lightly on the end of a twig is the best model I have ever seen for walking. He seems weightless. He vibrates with the joy of motion. The best walkers in the world are Spanish women. They move with a slight undulation that is exquisite. Their limbs move as though they have no weight. One of your clever American women describing the good walk said: “Move as though you lived altogether in the upper story.” “The upper story” was that part of the body above the waist. The remainder she classed as “the lower story.” It was an admirable hint. The upper half of the body should be evident in the walk. The lower should be merely a means to the end of walking.
The walk should invite attention only to the fine poise of the head, the perfect carriage of the chest, the straightness of the back. The limbs should be forgotten. A walk which attracts attention to them is always an awkward walk. The upper part of the body should be as free as though it turned itself upon a pivot. The lower part should be regarded and utilized merely as a pedestal for holding the upper. In walking as in standing the weight should rest upon the ball of the feet. The toes should be turned slightly outward. The knee joints should move easily and the movement of the whole of the lower part of the body should be a stately and apparently unconscious motion.
Some women there are who stand well and walk well, who sit badly. Indeed, they do not sit. They lounge. The same law of balance should hold in all. That is, the weight should be evenly distributed, no portion of the body having to bear the lion’s share of the burden. As a rule, the comfortable attitude is the correct one in sitting, though this is not true of the lazy person who sits with chin lowered upon breast and abdomen thrust forward, as a caricature of the human form. Sit with the feet resting upon the floor or upon a footstool. Never let them swing without support. Sit straight, or rest against a straight-backed chair, with the lower part of the body pushed close against the chairback. This is a much better way to rest than the half-lying, half-sitting posture that is so ungraceful.
In standing, don’t throw the hips far back. They should be straight, in easy line with the body. In walking, do not swing the arms. In sitting, keep the crown of the head up and back.
To test your carriage, pass the hand across the back. If the ends of the shoulder blades can be felt at a light touch of the fingers, the carriage is incorrect. The shoulders must be drawn farther back.