She does not want to learn to represent them, she wants to learn to select and enjoy them.

In costume work, these users of beauty need the practical training that will teach them to choose costumes suitable in color, fabric, and durability for the individual characteristics and income. They need to become acquainted with their own color possibilities, learn to select styles that are suitable for their individual types of figure.

If choosing color schemes for these costumes is to have meaning it must be done with the actual samples, just as in the case of the wall papers. Painting a paper doll will not teach a girl to choose the particular color of silk to combine with the cloth of the dress. Such procedure is asking her to think in terms of a symbol that she cannot use freely before she has had sufficient experience in handling colors in fabrics to know what she is trying to make the symbol represent. She must have the fabrics themselves to see, she must try them on herself, she must study the real dress and the pattern book. And when she knows the facts, and has reached the stage of expression, her natural symbol is the written or spoken word, not the drawing. Of course, the choice of good color in her own costume is the final test of the value of the work.

The solving of all these problems lies within the scope of any person with a fair amount of sensitiveness to visual impressions, and a little careful guidance by one who has already travelled over the road. Surely there is no need here for the uninspired to struggle in making designs; aesthetic pleasure can be provided for those who have too often thought themselves "inartistic."

Obviously, a course in appreciation that is to give any practical results may employ totally different methods from those we have recognized as studio methods. The teacher must make her standards graphic, must explain them by innumerable illustrations, must give more in explanation herself until she has built up in the pupils a sufficient number of experiences for them to compare and contrast for themselves. Then their reactions should not be in terms of drawing, but must come in definite form in the use of materials, not in a representation of materials through learning a symbol for them. This power of discrimination will always be in excess of their power to create. They need from the design specialists more and better creations which they may use. They do not need to make representations.

Historic costumes are interesting, and their study down through the

years can be left to the specialist who needs that knowledge; but to the average woman, what value to her what the Greeks wore if she picks out from the current fashion book the dress that will make her look twice her natural size? Or if, in her search after the unusual, she combines a green blue chiffon with a purple blue silk, thereby killing the effect of both? Or if with a sallow complexion, she insists on wearing a purple dress which increases the sallowness.

It has been with these thoughts in mind that the writers have been experimenting with a course in Costume Appreciation in the Vocational School for Girls in Somerville, Mass.; not to design costume accessories but to learn to select the dress that is appropriate for the individual, the color that is suited to the individual complexion, and the pattern from the fashion book that can best be adapted to a particular type of figure. The material that is beautiful, the combination of colors and textures to give the desired effect, the proportion and line that must be followed to give the best appearance, these are the practical results which are the right of every woman to demand.

These cardinal points of good taste in costume have been embodied in a course which is proving of intense interest to the girls in this particular school. The work has been assembled in the form of a problem in planning a wardrobe for a given amount of money.

In the first series of lessons, the girls were told that they were to plan the clothes of a woman in moderate circumstances. The wardrobe was to last her for a year. They were to assume that the wardrobe was entirely new, that there were no left-over clothes from a preceding year. This stand was necessary in order to avoid ingenious excuses for extravagance. The different kinds of dresses were discussed from the standpoint of cost, appropriate materials, and style correct for the occasion. Every article of clothing was considered and the girls kept a record of the wardrobe list.

The next series of lessons centered around the selection of two of the working dresses, in this case, the morning dresses of washable material. The girls first chose the color suited to the complexion. They studied the different types of complexion in the class, tested a great many large samples with the different types, and as a result came to some very definite conclusions as to what people with certain color, hair, skin, and eyes, could wear. Then each girl, unaided by the teacher, selected samples and made individual notes upon colors suitable for herself. These proved to be of much interest and indicated very

conclusively that the method had been successful. Out of some 85 girls only two or three made a poor choice. Following the color lessons the materials were studied for their pattern beauty. This was done by means of discussion of a great many samples, good and bad, with gradual elimination of the poor ones, and ultimate selection of two good samples by each student. The cloth for the two working dresses could now be selected.

The next step to consider was how to make the dresses. This involved study of line and proportion and that in turn furnished the problem of types of figures. What could the stout woman wear satisfactorily, the thin woman, the medium sized woman, the short waisted woman? Accordingly, the teacher made large pasteboard dolls having these different types of figures, and dresses were made for the dolls which showed contrast of good and bad design in yokes, tucks, ways of making skirts and placing trimming. These were discussed in detail, and notes made on the different designs to use with each type of figure. The test for the efficacy of this instruction was given in two ways. First, by each girl choosing one or more styles from fashion books, pasting them in her note book, and suggesting such modifications of the selected patterns as would make them suitable for the different types of figures, of which she had small reproductions in the large dolls. Secondly, by each girl choosing the style for her own dress according to her own type of figure. This work was made more vital by the paper modelling of patterns carried on at the same time by the teacher of dressmaking.

The next costume, the afternoon frock, embodies three new points: what fabrics to put together, what colors to harmonize in different fabrics, and what proportional amounts of color to use. The ability to decide on the color qualities to be used together is none too common, and girls need much training in this kind of selection. Working with color charts did not seem the right approach; it was too indefinite and too general. It was decided that practice in matching and selecting from a large supply of samples was needed. Accordingly, different typical colors such as light blue, bright blue, and dark blue in various fabrics were gathered with the assistance of the textile teacher who also supplied correlated work on durability and prices. After deciding on the kind of material to be used for trimmings, the girls were given much practice in choosing the right quality of color in this chosen fabric. From these concrete experiences were assembled general prin

ciples of color mixture regarding enhancing, neutralizing and modulating effects of different colors on each other. As a final test of the power gained, the girls selected samples of materials and combined them in a dress made for a doll. The material was simply cut out and pasted on the flat doll which had been supplied by the teacher. This, of course involved also the choice of proportion of different colors, and was treated by means of discussion of actual dresses, of colored plates, and large paper dolls dressed in fabrics. In this case the use of the paper doll has a real place, for the students looked at her only for color spotting. They did not have to draw the figure, as that was done by the teacher. Moreover by this time they had handled a sufficient number of fabrics, and enough fashion plates, for the symbol to have meaning. All of this involved repetition of the work given earlier in the course.

Work carried on in this way means much more for the teacher than by the ordinary methods. She must spend many hours gathering her samples, mounting them, making her large dolls and their dresses; and finally, in the class room, she must make herself such a guidebook of ways to look at patterns and colors that the girls easily follow her lead. The class criticism of the material must be preceded each time by her own analysis and explanation in terms that will make the girls see and feel what the lines are doing to their eyes. To sit back and ask these children why one design appeals to them more than another is quite useless. Better to take one good design, point out the elements that make it pleasing, and contrast it with one from which such a reaction is impossible. By the time that the teacher has done this with three or four designs some kind of standard has been established and the girls are ready to look at the new designs to see if they can find some of these same pleasing elements.

This course can be extended easily to meet the needs of upper grammar and high school pupils who are not interested in drawing. It is planned primarily for the purpose of bringing enriched aesthetic experiences within the reach of the many people to whom the manual operations of drawing are of little interest.

1

A CONTEST AND THE TALES IT TOLD

ANNA MERRITT EAST

New Housekeeping. Editor of the Ladies' Home Journal

"The best argument against woman's suffrage is the woman's page in the daily newspapers," brought me up with a start one day in New York and immediately I set out on a new tour-this time among the women's pages and home departments of newspapers and magazines. What did I find? Many interesting things and many astonishing. "facts," such as "put the milk on in a double boiler and boil," "all tea and tablespoons are rounding measurements;" "raisins are a fair substitute for meat, they are rich in sugar, and, considering the value they possess, they are one of the cheapest articles on the bill of fare;" "oysters are fat and very nutritious."

Then I asked the question, "Why are not women trained in Home Economics doing more of this writing?" "Why don't you try your hand at it?" Sometime afterwards, I was called to take up my present work, and had the opportunity of arranging a contest, in order to see whether the technically trained domestic science student or worker was really interested in this particular use of her training-to aid those not so fortunate as herself in having had the time and opportunity to devote to the mastery of both the theory and practice of household problems. In fine print on a back column of the November Ladies' Home Journal was announced this contest offering prizes for articles under three hundred words on the following topics: A Happier Method of Accomplishing an Old Household Task; A Household Superstition From Which I've Gained My Freedom; A Discovery I've Made in Food Preparation; My Suggestions for Improving Domestic Science Instruction.

Although Ladies' Home Journal contests usually bring in responses by the thousands, this, because of its technical limitations, brought in but three hundred and thirty-four articles. However, when those for which we had room had been edited, they brought forth the following interesting comment from our editor, Mr. Bok: "I don't pretend to know whether these 'discoveries' will hold water, but if they are all O. K. from a practical point of view, they certainly sound all right from a journalistic standpoint. It seems to me to be good stuff." This being true of about 50 per cent of the material submitted, it points out another great field of work for our girls who are taking Home Economics courses, for it is a