How a girl shall dress, with whom and under what conditions she shall find her social life, what she shall know of herself, of woman in general, of the opposite sex, what her relations with her mother shall be—­these things are more often than not left to chance or to the girl’s untrained inclination.

The dress question rests fundamentally upon the personal question, What do clothes mean to the girl?  Behind that we usually find what clothes mean to her mother, to her teachers, to the women who have a part in her social life.  Instinct teaches the girl to adorn her person.  Environment is largely responsible for the sort of adornment she will choose.  To bring the matter at once to a practical basis, what standards shall we set up for our girls to see, to admire, and to adopt as their own?

“Well dressed” may be interpreted to mean simply, or serviceably, or conspicuously, or becomingly, or fashionably, or cheaply, or appropriately, according to the standard of the person who uses the term.  It would necessarily be impossible to establish a common standard for any considerable group of women, since individual conditions must govern individual choice.  A wise standard for girls and their mothers, however, will conform to certain principles, even though the application of the principles be widely different.

These principles may be expressed somewhat as follows: 

  1.  Beauty in dress is expressed in line, color, and adaptation to
     personal appearance, not in expense.

  2.  Fitness depends upon the occasion and upon the relation of cost
     to the wearer’s income.

  3.  Simplicity conduces to beauty, fitness, and to ease of upkeep.

  4.  Upkeep, including durability and cleansing possibilities, is as
     important a consideration in selecting clothes as in selecting
     buildings and automobiles.  Freshness outranks elegance.

  5.  Individuality should be the keynote of expression in dress.

Conformity to the foregoing principles in establishing a personal standard will of necessity prevent slavish imitation and the striving to reach some other woman’s standard which bears again and again such bitter fruit.  The erroneous notion fostered by thousands of American women, that if you can only look like the women of some social set to which you aspire you are like them for all social purposes, is a fallacy, in spite of its general acceptance.  We might as well expect blue eyes, straight noses, or number three shoes to form the basis of a social group.