=DON’T GET TOO MANY CLOTHES=

Choose the clothes which you must have, carefully, and if you must cut down, cut down on elaborate ones.  There is scarcely anywhere that you can not, fittingly go in plain clothes.  Very few, if any, people need fancy things; all people need plain ones.

A very beautiful Chicago woman who is always perfectly dressed for every occasion, worked out the cost of her own clothes this way:  On a sheet of paper, thumb-tacked on the inside of her closet door, she put a complete typewritten list of her dresses and hats, and the cost of each.  Every time she put on a dress she made a pencil mark.  By and by when a dress was discarded, she divided the cost of it by the number of times it had been worn.  In this way she found out accurately which were her cheapest and which her most expensive clothes.  When getting new ones she has the advantage of very valuable information, since she avoids the dress that is never put on, which is a bigger handicap for the medium-sized allowance than many women realize.

=WHAT TO WEAR IN A RESTAURANT=

Restaurant dress depends upon the restaurant and the city.  Because women in New York wear low-necked dresses and no hats, does not mean that those who live in New Town should do the same, if it is not New Town’s custom.  But you must never wear an evening dress and a hat!  And never wear a day dress without one.  If in the city where you live, people wear day clothes in the evening, you can only very slightly differ from them.

It is never good form to be elaborately dressed in a public place, except in a box at the opera or at a charity ball.

=AT A WEDDING, A GARDEN PARTY OR AFTERNOON TEA=

These are the occasions when elaborate day dresses are appropriate.  But if you have very few clothes, you can perfectly well wear any sort of day dress that may be in fashion.  A coat and skirt is not appropriate, since a skirt and shirt-waist is and always has been a utility combination.  Unless, of course, the waist is of a color to match the skirt so that it has the appearance of a dress.

You need, however, seldom worry about your appearance because you are not as “dressed” as the others; the time to worry is when you are more dressed than any one else.

For a garden-party a country dress is quite all right; though if you have a very elaborate summer dress, this is the only time you can wear it!

No one has to be told what to wear to church.  In small country churches, at the seashore, people go to church in country clothes; otherwise, as every one knows, one puts on “town” clothes, and gloves.

At a formal luncheon in town, one sees every sort of dress from velvet to tailor-made.  Certain ladies, older ones usually, who like elaborate clothes, wear them.  But younger people are usually dressed in worsted materials or silks that are dull in finish, and that, although they may be embroidered and very expensive, give an effect of simplicity.  One should always wear a simpler dress in one’s own house than one wears in going to the house of another.