Remember that a dress or a hat is never a "creation" in itself. The
wearer must always be considered. Short, stout women should avoid
horizontal stripes or lines of ornamentation that call attention to
breadth, and should choose those perpendicular stripes and lines which
tend to give an impression of height and slenderness. A hat lining may
be used to put rosiness into a pale face, and a color may be selected
for a dress which will neutralize too much redness in the skin. But
these are matters of common knowledge to all women. The trouble is, that
in their desire to be "in style," many women forget, or even
deliberately ignore these fundamental principles of art in dress.
Fondness for a particular color, as a color, causes many women to wear
it, regardless of its relation to their complexion; and there have been
women of mystical mind who, believing that each quality of soul had its
correspondent in a particular hue, wore those colors which they thought
were significant of their chief traits of character--with weird results,
as you may imagine.

It is unnecessary, in this book of "practical suggestions," to discuss
in detail the question of etiquette, which may be defined as "the
prevailing fashion in social intercourse." Styles in visiting cards
change from year to year, and the social usages of one city differ from
another. If it is required to know these, the latest special work on
etiquette should be procured.

The general principles of good manners, however, which lie at the basis
of etiquette, just as good morals form the foundation of law, although
there are discrepancies in both cases, may appropriately be presented
here, though briefly.