THE LADIES’ WORLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2723, 31 January 1910, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

WHAT MEN THINK OE 'WOMEN’S

DRESS

Contradict it as ho may. the average man is as mucii concerned with a woman’s dress as with her beauty. T° prove this, one may as well point out at the commencement that he is even conceited enough to imagine that women dress and enhance their beauty solely lor his benefit (says a lady worker). When a woman spends a few hours before a- glass deciding on the correct tilt - of her headgear, when she incases her feet in agonisingly tight shoes and hoots, when she allows her body to bo swathed in impossible skirts, and herself crushed under those awful monstrosities dignified b.v the name of hats, man promptly decides, with no small satisfaction at woman’s stupidity, that all the .bother is for him and him alone!

Of course, we women, when we are in love, devote a little more attention to the care of our complexions and take minute pains ever the correct whiteness of our hands and the redness of our lips, when it lias reached the hand and lip kissing stage of the “business.”

And it is very natural that wo should take care to run a ribbon through our hair to show off to perfection these tints that “lie” declared were sun-kiss-ed and wear “frilly, frothy and billowy” laces, round our necks instead of the* orthodox collar, simply because he may have expressed his dislike to have those “delicious little'curves,” hidden from his ardent gaze. But to say we dress on every occasion solely for men is a complete f.Nurditv.

Every woman dresses, when she is not in love, to please herself, for she knows there is no greater satisfaction than the knowledge that she lias on a stunning gown, and looks w.ell in it. When a woman is convinced that she “looks nice” it makes her good tempered for the rest of the daj', and one is inclined to disagree with the lady novelists who depict their fair heroines gorgeously gowned and bejewelled, on the verge of suicide, or bemoaning their dire fate. It is quite impossible to wring one’s hands successfully when once they are loaded with a small fortune in diamonds ; also it is clearly, hard to bo miserable in a gown worth a few hundred pounds!

A witty critic once declared that women not only dress to please themselves —but to outshine other women. Wliy, if the end Of the world were to witness the presence of two women alone on the face of the earth, each would be discovered trying to outdo the other and look the better dressed of the two.

And a man says we dress to please him!

Now, every man thinks he is a perfect connoisseur of a woman’s dress. ,H't> may not, lie will assure you, be able to grasp the intricacies of flounces, furbelows, and foulard, but he flatters himself he can tell when a woman looks nice.

He much prefers to be seen out with a woman who has a happy knack of dressing well, for not only does she reflect some of her radiance on him. but he likes to be known as a man with a nice sense of discrimination.

Though a man likes his sweetheart to dress well and do him credit, as it wore, he is, strange to say, not so very keen on the matter when lie is married.

Of course, to have to pay the bills of those dreams of hats and ravishing dresses is somewhat apt to take the zest out of the thing, and is it to be wondered at that he agrees with the cynic who declared tha dress in a sweetheart was admirable, but in a wife it was nothing short of a distinct impertinence ? Therefore, the wife who would retain her husband’s love and admiration must be one of those wonderful creatures who can dress well on next to nothing. sSlie must be able to manufacture a Parisian hat out of a few yards of felt and a couple of shilling's worth of ribbon and feathers. Also, she should be for ever willing to renovate a two-year-old garment into a latest creation.