Book Description

Excerpt from The Art of Dressing Well: A Complete Guide to Economy, Style and Propriety of Costume Everybody, we may assume at the opening of this our volume on the Art of Dressing Well, desires to make a favorable impression upon society. No argument is needed to convince our readers of the advantage of dressing gracefully, richly, splendidly, or plainly, as time or place require, yet, with reference to themselves, always becomingly. In this age of black suits for the sterner sex, our opening chapters upon color must necessarily be more especially addressed to ladies. Every lady possesses that innate love of the beautiful which suggests the desire to appear at all times and in all places in appropriate and becoming costume. She does not need Sir Philip Sidney to tell her that in a happily chosen dress there is that "Which doth even beauty beautify, And most bewitch the captiv'd eye." And few will dispute the fact that the art of dressing well is greatly dependent, not only upon a skillful selection, but also on a tasteful arrangement of colors, or that without this artistic finish, the richest and costliest materials are of comparatively little avail. The pleasure derived from the contemplation of beautiful colors is one of the most universally diffused sources of enjoyment. Some have indeed supposed the feeling for beauty and harmony of color to be an innate faculty. This may be true of the educated and refined, to whom glaring tints and discordant combinations are repulsive, but the uncultivated eye is more often attracted by gaudy than harmonious hues. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.