How to Dress: For Ladies and Gentlemen, the Art of Selecting and Arranging Colors to Suit Any Complexion and Figure Fully Explained (Classic Reprint)

Copy 1HOW TO DRESS. MATERIALS OF DRESS. It must not be supposed from the heading of this chapter that we are going to inflict upon the reader a long account of silks, satins, velvets, and the thousand and one materials which have been invented to furnish the infinite variety in ladies dresses. We refer to the subject chiefly to indicate the necessity that exists, in applying the laws of color, for considering the substance, surface, and texture of which the dress is composed. Materials which are rough in surface, or absorbeat in textuie, are very differently affected by the rays of light from those which are smooth and lustrous, and the colors they exhibit are different in themselves, and produce a different effect upon the eye. A piece, of crimson satin, for example, would differ in color and in effect from a piece of crimson silk, although of like intensity, of tone, and, in fact, dyed with it in the same vat; each, again, would differ still more from a piece of velvet, merino, or tarletan, although all were as similar as the art of the dyer could make them. In some colors the difference of value according to the material would be very marked and decisive. A yellow satin might be superb, where the same yellow in cloth would be simply detestable. And not only does the character of the color depend on the absorbent or reflective condition of the surface, but also very much of the accidental effects produced by play of light and shade, contact with other colors, and the like. Thus, in a strong light, while the parts of a rich satin dress, which catch the brightest light, are glittering and almost colorless, the folds exhibit almost every possible difference of tone, from the shadows being broken by the reciprocal reflections of the opposite parts. The same thing will be noticed in a less degree with silks; differently with velvets, yet producing the most beau
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)