Black... in the Service of Woman

Black keeps its place in a woman's heart, and not one of them will give up a dress of this color, which she keeps in the pampered corner of her wardrobe.

Woman's attachment to this color goes back to the sober elegance it awakens in the soul, with which the woman of refined breeding loves to surround herself. It goes back also to that close bond between this color and the vague melancholy that floods every sensitive soul in its deepest depths.

The color black presupposes an extreme simplicity in dress, for sobriety does not agree with affectation and artifice. Yet this simplicity in dress does not mean that choosing it is easy, just as the mere fact that the color is black does not mean it is easy to choose. For there are many shades of black, and a woman must understand the properties of these shades if her choice is to be a happy one. Some of them are spoiled by ironing; some take on a sheen that robs them of their sobriety; some fade quickly. Moreover, no colored trimming should be used with black. If a lady wishes to lighten the somber atmosphere this color creates, she should choose a glossy black sash that awakens a touch of gaiety in the soul, or wear a white necklace or a piece of gold jewelry.

In Europe we find whole establishments devoted to designing fashions for the color black to match the majesty of this color. The English have excelled in this kind of dress, for it suits their temperament, which adores sober simplicity free of affectation.

These pictures show three recent fashions. In the first we notice the wide sash, invented expressly to go with the large necklace worn at the neck.

In the second we notice the choice of a narrow sash,

which suits the little flowers with which the dress is finished.

As for the third, we notice that the sash has been replaced by this fold at the waist, which produces large pleats whose lines harmonize with the line of buttons running from the neck down to the waist.