confusion. But no one living ever had a pink complexion unless a painted
one. The dolls in the Lowther Arcade were pink, and their pink dresses
were in harmony. No natural complexion whatever was improved by pink;
but gray would go with any. The tendency of gray was to give prominence
to the dominant hue in the complexion. When an artist wished to produce
flesh color he mixed white, light red, yellow ocher, and terra vert. The
skin of a fair person was a gray light red, tinged with green; the color
that would brighten and intensify it most was a gray light sea green,
tinged with pink--in other words, its complementary. A color always
subtracted any similar color that might exist in combination near it.
Thus red beside orange altered it to yellow; blue beside pink altered it
to cerise. Hence, if a person was so unfortunate as to have a muddy
complexion, the worst color they could wear would be their own
complexion's complementary--the best would be mud color, for it would
clear their complexion.

Passing on to the consideration of form in costume, the lecturer urged
that the proper function of dress was to drape the human figure without
disguising or burlesquing it. An illustration of Miss Mary Anderson,
attired in a Greek dress as Parthenia, was exhibited, and the lecturer
observed that while the dress once worn by Greek women was unequaled for
elegance, Greek women were not in the habit of tying their skirts in
knots round the knees, and the nervous pose of the toes suggested a more
habitual acquaintance with shoes and stockings.

An enlargement from a drawing by Walter Crane was shown as illustrating
the principles of artistic and natural costume--costume which permitted
the waist to be the normal size, and allowed the drapery to fall in
natural folds--costume which knew nothing of pleats and flounces, stays
and "improvers"--costume which was very symbolization and embodiment of