THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2697, 30 December 1909, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

. -♦ —-• ; WHAT THE TALL WOMAN FOUND , , OUT. • The woes of tlie tell woman form a very real toilette problem; and the English contemporary which voiced the complaint of the plump, low-statured person, now affords the sensitive avillowwand her dne .share of sympathetic advice. The sufferer tells her own talc: — “J. shot up at the age of thirteen,” she.begins, ‘‘and was the despair of my mother, who could not keep my skirts long enough, nor the sleeves of my frocks and coats in uroper proportion to my lanky length of leg and arm . “At eighteen I ‘came out,’ and a very distinguished l modiste was asked to design my Court gown and to endeavor to make me look less like the hop-pole I felt and resembled. “His prescription was simple. He made me a white satin frock and the regulation Court train, absolutely untrimmed, save in a very common manner, by means of bunches of white button roses and lilies of the valley, which were used to pluck the skirt up in a series of simulated billowing scallops on the line of the knees, and on the train appeared in round masses at the side and edges. “The effect of the scallops, which were really only draperies, was to give me width, instead of length, and the same endeavor was repeated upon the corsage , which had a bertho of old lace, shoulder knots of blossom, and sleeves puffed rather more voluminously than fashion demanded. “ ‘ When you. are twenty years older,’ I remember the man of modes saying to me, ‘you may wear brocades with large and handsome patterns upon them, and velvet broche in the same way, but they must be in tones of self-color, not in contrasted shades. You must never look at stripes nor checks, because stripes will increase your apparent height if they run up and down, and if round, the figure will proclaim your desire to appear shorter, while the checks must be taboo because they will render you, with your inches, the cynosure of neighboring eyes. “ ‘Nevertheless/ lie added—and I have proved his wisdom to be very sound —‘do not lot your altitude worry, you ; carry yourself nice a queen, instead of advertising your desire to look like a pigmy, and glory in your inches instead of disliking them.’ Tin's course I have always tried' to follow, and I am certain' of its shrewdness. “My milliner also gave me adivee that was excellent, and as it is in direct contradiction to that usually dictated to tall girls, I -will narrate it. “‘I have observed/ said madamc, the maker of hats, ‘that my customers of graceful height insist upon ordering flat headgear, and is must be very small too. They fancy if a feather curves away from the turban it will make them look ab.surdlv tall, and if there are flowers of any size they refuse, them in favor of Lilliputian blossoms. “ ‘When a tall girl is also thin she looks ludicrous in a little cap. She wants the width of brim that a large hat possessc/f, and the softening influence of plenty of ostrich feathers. I would not give her flaunting quills, standing out in mad frenzy everywhere, nor flowers of any peculiarity, such as a size Tiut of all proportion to reality. But studiously insignificant millinery she should not wear.’ “There are some other types of toilette that the tall woman may wear which, on a shorter figure, would look ungainly. “To my hairdresser,” said the victim of more than the average height, in conclusion, “I owe much for clever hints as to the arrangements of my coiffure. He it is who points out to mo the tendency most tall girls share imparting their tresses in the centre and bringing them down almost over their ears. Their intention is obvious; they desire to avoid the extra height a ‘halo’ gives. But the'" are simply .accentuating what thev wish to disguise, for the long, straight line for the partrig to the ears adds another yard of pump-water to the general effect of tallness. “ ‘Bunch your hair out at the sides, avoid a parting, and on the top do not flatten it, though you need not exaggerate the pomnadour/ was my posticliuers excellent advice.”