There is a distinct difference between the appropriate clothes for the young stout girl and those for the elderly stout woman. The first must work to emphasize trim smartness; the second simplicity and becomingness. Not so much difference in the two, you will say, but think carefully about it and you will realize that there is a difference. The whole idea of dress is different at 20, let us say, than it is at 50. If you are 20, you may wear 20–year clothes, but if you are 50, you may wear 40–year clothes. And you can truly look 40 if you learn to blend the lines suited to youth and maturity and to do it skilfully.

WHEN TAILORED CLOTHES ARE SMART

Work to achieve one of two types—tailored smartness or supple dignity. Neither need emphasize age and both can reduce the appearance of size. If you are best as a tailored girl, be one morning and evening. Remember that the soft wools, charmeen and poiret, are best, and often smart in stripe effect. One-piece wool frocks are a boon to slenderness and every season brings smart, simple straight lines especially adaptable to soft, clinging materials. Watch the length of your suit coat if you are young. Long Eton effects are often good, and don’t forget the beauty and long line possibilities in the very long suit coat.

Tend a little to the vampish black in the evenings, if you wish, but tailor the lines so that they are severely smart. Of course, if you are 18 you may not want to use black and look vampish, but you can, as far as size goes, wear cream, sky or old blue, or watery green effectively. In fact, any of these colors are wearable if you choose supple fabrics and wear them unadorned. If you choose boat necks, be sure to wear a scarf or necklace to break the line.

But here we are going to talk about the girl who is young, good-looking, and stout. You needn’t say that you are not good-looking. It’s your own fault if you aren’t, that’s certain. Read the women’s magazines. Every month they carry excellent articles on the care of the face, hands, hair and body, and if you are delightfully clean and follow even the simplest rules, you can be good to look at even if you weigh more than you would like to.

Fortunately, the flesh on a young stout girl is usually evenly distributed, thus making the chief consideration in dress one of choosing line and fabric that are becoming to youth. It is very easy for a young stout to be well corseted and that is an important essential, for correct corseting will go a long way toward avoiding additional fat.

YOUTHFUL STYLES YOU CAN WEAR

If you are young, don’t be indifferent about any phase of your dress, and don’t ever show any humiliation because of it. Women who are continually conscious of their size seem to look fatter than those who plan to make the least of it and to enjoy it. Emerson says, “Never go to a man to tell him that you can’t pay a debt when you haven’t any money. Your whole attitude will cause him to lose confidence in you.”

So it is with stout women. If you yourself tell about it, pity yourself, evidence it by word as well as by your appearance, then you deserve to be classed as “that fat Brown girl” instead of “the good-looking Brown girl.”

If you prefer short dresses, and short skirts are the vogue, be extremely careful about your feet. Have them perfectly shod. Wear hose of a neutral or dress-matching shade so that the height will not be broken. Severe lines for modish, clear-skinned girls with neat coiffures are often very effective and they have the additional advantage of youthfulness which older women must strive for.

Try to learn about your dress from study and observation rather than from experience. The latter is discouraging and expensive. Visit shops that specialize in tailored things. Study fashion pictures for line, not color or trimming, for you know you can vary these to suit your special slenderizing emphasis. Ice cream, like candy, is tempting to young folks, as are bright colors and new fads. So eat sparingly, but of the best, choose the choicest of the fads, the smartest of the new colors. Invariably they will be in good taste and created of a color and material or design that you can with discretion adopt.

Don’t be tempted to buy a bright colored cheviot suit when a navy charmeen or a smart black and white stripe would be much more distinctive and slenderizing.

Don’t let any one make you look old. Avoid bulk in your clothes, such as heavy skirts, bulging ornaments, ruffles, frills and flounces. Learn to delight in slenderizing. Enjoy it. It can become as much a hobby as can art in pictures or music. Remember you have the responsibility of your own loveliness. If you are not pleasing to see morning, noon and night, you can blame nary a soul but yourself. Wholesomeness is beautiful anywhere, any time, so work to achieve perfection by way of simplicity. Your responsibility will be less and the result more sure.

Wear trim, one-piece dresses with narrow belts and long, smart collars. Work yourself into the new fads wisely. Enjoy the new in dress but do it discreetly so that it blends perfectly with size, type and inclinations.

Don’t wear feathers; they are old and “filling.” Don’t over dress. Remember the fewer clothes the better—just enough to be respectable! Never bundle yourself up in clothes—wear them for comfort, beauty, and becomingness.

Put a double front in your slips and don’t wear petticoats. They pull you in at the wrong place. Let your slip also suffice for a corset cover. Use perspiration preventatives rather than dress shields, and don’t put linings in your dresses. Eliminate even seams that are bulky.

Avoid buttons. They are allowable for little folks and older folks, but are too matter of fact for smart simplicity. If you wear knickers be sure that they fit correctly; don’t let them extend too high at the waist or in wide-cuff effect below the knee. A band just below the knee is less heavy looking.

TRIMNESS IS YOUR GOAL

Watch out if you wear sweaters. A football type, never! Get soft, trim coat sweaters and button the last two buttons, or choose Tuxedos, which are best of all. White heavy skirts and bright red heavy sports sweaters can be your “Waterloo” if you are not careful. You can, however, wear a neat, white skirt that is soft, not too full, and just right in length, with a dull, soft blue-green or tan light-weight sweater and look very, very smart, especially if your shoes and stockings are all white—not cut up with black and white or sandal-like in shape. And then a perky felt or milan hat, trimmed at one side, can look a lot better for sports wear than a drooping wide brim which seems so “comfy” for big folk. Remember, trimness is your goal—“perfection in simplicity”—so don’t stop short of it in any detail.

Even in negligee and in night clothes consider every article, because habit is as big a factor as fat and quite as difficult to reckon with. In making your night dresses, you can panel them by means of tucks and make V yokes instead of round, or broad square ones. You may also have them sleeveless and tailored, all of which will help in making for slenderness. Soft crÊpe night dresses with a woven stripe in self color are attractive. Stiff materials will never do. Materials that are too sheer show the body outline too much, and if your material is “bumpy” of course it, too, is taboo.

Use short shoulders in your negligees and have definite length lines. If you must have pockets, point them down so that they won’t square the figure across the hips. And choose soft, easy colors that are becoming. Changeable taffetas are to be shunned like the measles. Soft crÊpes and small figured silks and stripes are all suitable. In this campaign, even the bedroom slippers should be of inconspicuous color so as not to take from the height.

Work for trimness, neatness, preciseness at all times. They all go with a tailored effect and must be observed to the letter if you wish to achieve the illusion of slenderness in dress.