The second important point in matters of dress is the make or cut.
Upon this depends the question whether cheap materials can be worn. An
ordinary stuff or calico well made, fashionably made, and well put on,
is never out of place. It, not unfrequently, puts to shame many richer
materials which are not so well made nor so well selected.
This question of make or cut (call it which you please) is not
sufficiently considered, especially by the young.
Some people think no one can be well dressed who is not expensively
dressed, whose gown is not richly trimmed; but it is a great mistake.
Many persons are absolutely ill-dressed who spend a fortune upon their
clothes.
The young should bear in mind that simplicity is what harmonizes best
with youth, but care must be taken to avoid the simplicity of the
school-room and of a "miss in her teens." We can call to mind a young
lady who made her appearance at an evening party in London, where
"all the world and his wife" were collected together, and when it was
necessary to be somewhat smart, in a rather skimp spotted muslin, with
a black belt and a few black cherries in her hair. She looked, as the
reader will easily believe, like a young lady in her teens, who, as
Byron said, "smells of bread and butter." She was much on the wrong
side of twenty. By her side stood a young girl who had not passed
nineteen summers, dressed in the freshest costume of plain white
tulle, with bright turquoise blue flowers in her hair, the very
impersonation of youth and loveliness.
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