Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1928)

Friendly Advice from Carolyn Van Wyck on DEAR CAROLYN VAN WYCK, With clothes what they are this year, how can just an average working girl, with little time to shop and less money to spend, dress with distinction? I'm five feet four, twenty }ears old, weigh 125 pounds and have hips. I have good skin, but my coloring is indefinite — rather muddy blonde hair, my eyes sometimes brown, sometimes blue. How can I buy so I won't appear just another flapper? Dorothy. I KNOW exactly how Dorothy feels about the models displaced for this winter's clothes. I have been experiencing the feeling myself. Everj-where clothes, regardless of the price, are being made on practically the same, sane lines. It is smart but monotonous. How to win distinction, when j'ou haven't money or time to expend? My answer is — by the clever use of color. Today color assumes a new importance in smart dressing. Correctly used it can make the simplest costume distinguished. I advise Dorothy first — even at the risk of advertising my own department — to consult the shopping ser^■ice of Photoplay or other magazines. Here she will find simple, excellent models at moderate prices and if they suit her, she will be saved the toil and worry of shopping. But she must herself decide upon the proper colors for her type. There used to be a standard color table. Blondes wore blue or pink, brunettes brown or yellows until by observing the color of the gown you could always forecast the complexion of the girl. Today we know better. There are few pronounced blondes or brunettes. Like Dorothy most of us are a bit muddy. It is wise, of course, for the fair blonde with flaxen hair to wear clear whites, dark browns, all the blues and the delicate pastels. The red-haired fair girl can wear pale green, taupe, amber, yellow and pale blue. The chestnut-haired should favor bronze, darkest purple, pale pink and blue. The pale brunette, all shades of brown, sapphire blue, orchid, burgundy and dark red. The olive brunette, browns, apricot, beige and terra cotta. The highly colored brunette, pale shades, pale blues, silver grays, old rose, coral. But it is the manner in which these basically becoming colors are combined that marks the successful costume. Dorothy works, so most of her dresses rnust be simple, straight little one or two piece dresses with a full blouse and a tight hip line, in her case, to make her figure more 16 Distinctive Dressing Is This Month's Problem WITH hats the same tight little shapes, with dresses the same slender models, it's hard for a busy girl to find distinctive clothes. Read how color helps the clever girl. I will be glad to give advice to specific types or answer letters on any subject relating to beauty, health or happiness. Letters with stamped envelopes enclosed will be answered by return mail; those without postage, in the columns of the magazine. Pamphlets on the care of the skin will also be yours for the sending of a stamped, selfaddressed envelope — and a booklet on weight reduction may be had for ten cents. Carolyn Van Wyck. symmetrical. Since her skin is good, she can wear black, which is always smart, and most practical for business hours. But she can also gain distinction for herself about her work by wearing over her simple dresses gay colored smocks, that are inexpensive and afford an actual saving of her gowns. Then when she starts out for home, let her think twice. Is her hat in good color contrast to her dress? Does the color of her shoes match in with anything else she is wearing or quarrel with it all? What about her handbag? What about her gloves? Is she wearing flesh colored stockings or black? And why? Dorothy should unify her costumes by means of color. Black alone is a successful ensemble shade. Black shoes, stockings, dress and hat make a chic outfit, but blue or brown similarly used will mark her as dowdy. Of course, too many colors may not be worn simultaneously. Three is the outside limit and two is better. Dorothy's shoes should match either her dress or hat. Her handbag should match either her coat or hat, and the coat preferably because the two will be more used to /-pjGirls' /-Toblems gether. If her silk-stocking allowance is limited — and whose isn't? — she should buy only nude shades which blend with everything. It is not the gown one wears, or the hat or shoes that makes for distinction. It is the manner in which these garments are successfully combined that makes for smartness. Cheapness comes not from price tickets but from the carelessness of combined colors, designs and models. You can't slam e^■en a forty-dollar hat on your head and make it look smart. But a clever girl will pull a little three-fifty coral felt cloche carefully down over her left eyebrow, contrast it cleverly with her grey chiffon dress, her nude stockings and her well-heeled grey pumps and make the crowd notice her as she passes. T AST summer when I was in Hollywood I •^-'lunched with Adrian, the costume designer at the DeMille studio. We are old friends and he was confiding to me his discouragement about dressing a very beautiful girl recently put under contract by the studio. Finally he exclaimed: "An ugly woman should thank God. A pretty girl, no matter how dressed, remains merely a pretty girl. But a plain girl carefully gowned attains immediate personality." That is the secret which Paris knows and which^ Dorothy must learn. When you haven't a perfect face and figure, scorn comrnonplace prettiness and go in for chic and distinction. After all, the most important single thing to spend on clothes is thought. Helen Waters: Aged sixteen, four feet eleven, you should not weigh much more than 105 pounds. You are an olive-skinned brunette, I judge. Your best colors are ivory and cream white, mahogany and negro brown, darkest blue, dark green, dark, warm reds, terra cotta, buff and apricot, pink in pale shades. A^■oid solid black, gray and purple. Just as there are always neglected girls in schools, so there are neglected boys. Both sexes are held back from popularity by the same things — shyness, self-consciousne,ss, lack of poise. For a girl, to some extent, any hoy will do socially. What she really wants is to be able to prove to the other girls she isn't a social frost. But boys want one of two things from girls — they want pals or they want mothers. Apparently you don't appeal to them in the pal sense. Why not try mothering a few? I don't mean anything too sugary, but look up a couple of the more diffident boys and see if you can't draw them out. What you want for the present is simply a male escort. Get one and the rest will come more easily. [ CONTINUED ON PAGE 86 1