If there is any one thing in the world that is not wanted it is too much fat on a woman. In my whole lifetime I have heard only one overweight woman say she would not be thin if she could. I have always regretted that I did not ask her why.

Before I tipped the scales so definitely myself, I paid little attention to the problems of the big woman, for of course I was not vitally interested in weight reduction or size concealment. But when I found my own clothes not meeting and the children in the family saying I was getting fat, I began to take notice. I must have read fifty-odd advertisements on “How To Get Thin,” and I was hopeful of some of the methods. We almost had to move from a duplex house because I did exercises to music and the neighbors could not sleep. I ate “woe-be-gone” bread. I even tried to melt away in reducing corsets but almost took the skin with them when I tried to get them off. I read every book I could find on “What To Eat” and “What Not To Eat,” and I lost three good cooks in my efforts to reduce the menu to a get-thin basis.

A prominent actress gave me a prescription for reducing. Her husband, on finding it out, came rushing to see me to tell me that the prescription was for a drug and that his wife in her eagerness to keep within bounds demanded by the stage had indulged only to become a hopeless addict.

Then I went to my physician and told him I was tired of bruising myself with rolling, my fear would not allow me to take drugs and I would have to leave home if I persisted in the diet. I begged him to give me something to remove the excess of thirty pounds and he promptly refused, pointing out to me the illnesses and other bad effects that could come from abnormal or unnatural reduction. He explained that he could give me something that would take off the fat but that it would age the tissues of the body ten to fifteen years. And youth is something that every woman wants to keep, no matter what her weight.

He explained the thyroid theory but refused to give me an ounce of the preparation for my relief and very frankly told me to forget my weight and enjoy the good health that I evidenced. I left his office crestfallen and disappointed, thinking that if he only knew how much the heavy woman wants to appear thin enough to wear smart clothes, if he could only know how she actually longs for the lovely things that fashion creates for the slender types, he would be more sympathetic. But he is a very sane and sensible man and all my appeals had no effect.

However, when my friends continued to say, “My, I believe you’re getting fat” instead of “How stunning you look,” I realized how necessary it was for me to persist in my determination to dispose of the thirty extra pounds and at the same time indulge my appreciation for pretty things which is the right of every woman, fat or thin.

I found my clothes problem daily growing more serious. Several times I purchased a new dress and after one wearing I would discard it because I looked heavier and older than I wanted to look. The problem was becoming increasingly difficult because each time I stepped upon the scales, I would invariably see recorded two or three pounds more than last time. I am sure that many of you have meekly slipped off the scales, as I have, scarcely waiting long enough to see what weight was actually registered, praying meanwhile that no one saw where the arrow pointed. I simply could not believe the scales were right, because before each weighing I was certain within myself that I had climbed enough stairs, done without enough candy, and touched my hands to the floor often enough to be at least three pounds lighter.

About this time an inspiration came to me. I would “get even” with my slender friends. If I could not safely reduce, I would at least give the appearance of having reduced. If I could not actually take off thirty pounds, I would make myself look thirty pounds lighter in the eyes of others.

And, after all, is that not what we are most concerned about? Plumpness is more often a sign of good health than bad. We could be supremely happy with our extra weight if only we could look slender. I recalled the advice of my physician to “go home and enjoy my good health.”

So I started on my campaign to lose thirty pounds in appearance. I did it and so quickly that my friends were amazed at the sudden change. I was congratulated on my success in reducing. I was told I had never looked so well. Friends persistently asked me what method of reducing I had followed. In fact the success of my plans has been so remarkable that I do want every overweight woman to know about them. And so into this book I am putting the whole story.

WHEN FASHION DEMANDS SLENDERNESS AND YOUTHFULNESS

We are all slaves to fashion. For many, many years it was the fashion to be plump. Venus herself was not slender, but well rounded and full of figure. Our mothers wore bustles, and bust ruffles if they needed them, but as for us, well, it is the fashion to look slender, and since it is, we must strive to keep within the dictates of the mode.

My own work is fashion work. I meet hundreds of fashion folks. The slender silhouette has been promoted, applauded, appreciated for years, and as the days and months went by and the youthful outline grew more important, more prominent, I began to realize what a handicap the stout woman was under in trying to find attractive clothes. I felt like an Eskimo on a summer’s day on Fifth Avenue. To go into a smart shop to buy a new dress only to be looked over and directed to the matron’s department or that of the stylish stouts was too much for my pride. I wasn’t willing to put myself in the out-of-fashion class and appear heavy and elderly wearing fronts and vests that had written all over them, “built especially for a stout.”

Frequently fashion magazines show suggestions for “length lines”—but they seem to assume that all overweight women must look matronly. Two, in particular, that I remember showed the effect of incorrect crosswise lines and of correct lengthwise lines. I studied them carefully for information and decided that I would prefer to look round and thirty, than straight up and down and sixty. Every one of the models, though satisfactory in design, added 20 to 30 years to the apparent age of the wearer, doing nothing to overcome one of the most dangerous things with which the stout has to contend. For although no dignified woman wants to look like a sixteen-year-old overgrown Susie, still she does want to look young, modish, and correctly dressed, and no woman is rightly dressed who by her clothes adds even one year to her age.

However, I now know that it is possible for every woman, whether she is only slightly too plump in certain places, or decidedly overweight, to make herself look smart, slender, and many years younger by studying certain vital rules of dress and adhering to them in planning her wardrobe.

BUSINESS AND SOCIAL LIFE MAKE SLENDERNESS AND YOUTHFULNESS A NECESSITY

Women, young, mature, or elderly, at home or in business, must always try to look their best. They must be so pleasingly and so correctly dressed as always to evidence good taste, for good taste, after all, is the only real authority in dress. Without it, dress loses all its power of charm or influence. Especially is this true for women in public life. The solo singer in the church, the leader of the club or mothers’ meeting, the social worker or politician, all must give evidence of good taste and be modestly and correctly attired if they are to gain favorable criticism. No woman who sings should ever allow it to be said of her, “I adored the song, but the singer’s hat annoyed me so that I could not listen.”

A woman’s clothes should be beautifully alluring and complimentary. This is woman’s heritage, and any woman who allows her lack of knowledge to make her unhappy or unpleasing to see has only herself to blame, for it doesn’t take money. It does take information, ingenuity, and a little energy. But oh, how worth while the result will be!

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR GOOD POINTS

Sometimes we women of over 36 bust become discouraged. There is really no reason for this because most of us have a great many good points that we simply do not use to the best of our advantage. We worry so unnecessarily about our bad points that we forget about the good ones, but there is much that we can do with little or no effort and the improvement in our appearance is its own reward. For instance, most big people have nice hair, and they should keep it. Any big woman who bobs her hair and leaves it that way hasn’t eyed herself sufficiently in her mirror. From her neck up she may look ten years younger, but from the neck down she probably looks ridiculous. For one of the chief rules for good looks is right balance, poise, and dignity. So why do anything to hinder these? You have one handicap—too many pounds. You must do everything you can, therefore, to retain every possible attraction, and your hair is one of them for it suggests womanliness.

We don’t want our friends to say that we have a great “mother lap” or a shoulder of Gibraltar to weep on, but we must set out to be substantial in thought, act, and deed to be attractive. A little slim girl can giggle and be silly if she wants to—she can even wear mussed up dresses—but a big girl must be modest, and always immaculate in every particular. And why not? It’s an effort, yes, to be always striving for perfection, but it can be made a real hobby. Study the attractive slender girl who looks well and dresses well. Adapt what you can of her attire. Oftentimes, you can learn more of the “trick” from the slim looking girl than from the stout.

As you go through fashion books, don’t discredit all the styles and say they are planned only for the slim. Study them carefully, find a collar from one and waist line from another, fabric suggestions from another. Dress to be fashionable, but learn to discriminate so that you can find the best for you in the new.

Sometimes I have thought what fun it would be if we big folks could dress up and reach a point of perfection—so much so that the artist would have to get a more flexible pencil to express the varying grace of line that would be manifest. And why not? Isn’t it our own fault if fashion forgets us? We deserve to be dowdy if we haven’t enough pride, ingenuity, and perseverance to conceal intelligently and comfortably a few extra pounds.

If you are tall and large but not fat, consider yourself a full well-proportioned figure and dress correctly but in plain good quality fabrics so that neither height nor width will be accentuated.

Don’t try to fool yourself by wearing clothes that are too small for you. It is said that fat men need the best tailors, and surely all large women should strive to have perfect fitting clothes.

When I was fourteen I wore on a special Sunday a long skirt and a bustle, thinking that it was better to look eighteen and “ladylike” than fourteen and overgrown. Don’t look overgrown in your clothes, but don’t ever make yourself any older than you are.

If your ankles are large, have your dresses a wee bit longer than fashion calls for. If your ankles are small and the legs large above the ankle, have your dress slightly long for the same reason. If the legs and ankles are correctly proportioned for the rest of the body, remember that even you need to have the skirt just a little bit longer because when you sit down you take up some of the skirt length. A fat woman sitting down with a dress that is too short is not pleasing to see—and we big women do love to sit down.

And in speaking of sitting down, a sanitary apron is a real protection to the backs of big folks’ dresses as it prevents wrinkling. Buy one, try it, and you will realize that the back of your dress looks much better after you get up from a two-hour sitting. And, besides, you can console yourself with the fact that if perspiration really reduces, your apron is serving you twofold—melting the fat and preventing skirt wrinkles all at the same time.

Don’t ever be tempted to wear frills, ruffles, tassels, or ornaments that go forward or wave about as you walk. They double your size every time and must be avoided.

A good plan for those of us who like ruffles, frills, and bright colors is to put them on our night clothes where no one but our very own selves can see.

The house, too, lends opportunity for our color appetites and there we may use color freely and safely. But because we love red, orange, or King’s blue is no sign we must wear it on our backs for all to see. Buy a little piece of fabric with just the colors you revel in; put it in the dresser drawer, or let it ornament a chair back, look at it every day, and thus satisfy your longing for color. Then wear those very simple things that you know will be becoming.

One woman whom I know and who looks like a fashion plate in the day time and like a dream lady at night, always gets everything together on the bed before she starts to dress. She insists that it takes only a little longer to do this, that it saves time when she does get ready to dress, and that she is always better satisfied with the results. She says, “I know then that I have the right slip, the right stockings, that my gloves are suitable, and that there are no holes that need attention. In putting them on the bed, I always make all the little repairs that are necessary and do all the brushing or freshening that is needed; then when I am ready to dress I feel a sense of satisfaction that I can find in no other way.”

And so, why don’t you, who are striving to express yourself more beautifully, to dress with more satisfaction and peace of mind, try this simple little plan of thinking about what you are going to wear and getting it ready before you start to dress? Then, watching always what you see in your mirror, your fashion books, on the streets, and in the shops, you will find that which is appropriate, becoming, and wholly lovely for you.

And to these material fundamentals, add your own wholesome pride. Don’t cheat yourself or those who must see you. Don’t be dowdy. Life is too short and too real for that. Learn to be proud of yourself and dress so that even you will feel a sense of security and assurance. After all, we can be rather selfish about just looking right. Other folks are glad to see us in pretty clothes—looking our best. A right hat, a right dress, correctly worn, can really do wonders as a tonic. Try it. It really is a good prescription.