DeKalb Women Studsr 

 Dress Design 



Bf Nell Flalt Goodman 



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lUR women wouldn't have 

 thought of using those sim- 

 ple little many-colored poul- 

 try bands for ornaments, " Mrs. E. D. 

 Schoonmaker, president of DeKalb 

 County Home Bureau explained in tell- 

 ing of lessons in dress design, "Yet, 

 clusters of these used in place of but- 

 tons down the front of a gold-colored 

 alpaca dress gave it a distinction worthy 

 of the Duchess of Windsor. We saw 

 that demonstrated. What we all must 

 have is a fair knowledge of good de- 

 sign, color, and a little imagination." 



Believing that one way to help wom- 

 en to become better homemakers is to 

 have them perk up a bit in personal 

 appearance. Home Bureau leaders in 

 DeKalb asked the state university to 

 recommend some one who could guide 

 them in this clothing question. "We 

 want som^ one with good taste," they 

 said. "Some one who knows what is 

 the proper costume for all occasions, 

 and some -one who is willing to frank- 

 ly judge us." Miss Venus Johnson be- 

 came their home advisor. 



How To Do It 



"You must decide what you want 

 your dress to do for you," Miss John- 

 son told the members after general 

 lessons on balance, proportion, and har- 

 mony in design principles. "If you 

 want to appear more slender, wear long 

 zippers, buttons down the front, un- 

 broken lines, small designs or plain 

 materials. To appear fatter, wear full- 

 ness on both sides, pockets, trimming 

 on sleeves, materials with large designs 

 and make a broken silhoutte. ' 



Last spring a dress clinic was held at 

 a member's home. Miss Johnson 

 brought samples of seasonable materials 

 and suitcases full of accessories and 

 trimmings. Generalities of the season 

 were soon covered and then individual 

 cases were studied. For example, an in- 

 consequental trimming was removed 

 from one dark dress and a varicolored 

 necklace put on. By experimentation, 

 the women found that not one, but two 

 necklaces twisted together resulted in 

 a better effect. 



"Very often ready made dresses, even 

 inexpensive ones, have good lines but 

 tawdry or poorly placed decorations," 

 Miss Johnson pointed out. "Avoid 

 ornaments that do nothing for you. 



Wear a flower or ornament where it 

 should be, at the top of a seam, or at 

 the base of the neck, never where 

 it appears about to topple off." 



Too conspicuous buckles at the belt 

 line the women discovered often tend 

 to bring a wrong emphasis. By replac- 

 ing colored or rhinestone ones with one 

 the same color as the dress, attention 

 could be diverted to more attractive 

 areas. They learned, too, that when a 

 scalloped edging is set in, if the scal- 

 lops were turned up the effect was more 

 youthful than when turned down. 



"Studying dresses on, and as, indivi- 

 duals we could see what made good 

 lines," Mrs. Harold Patterson confided. 

 "For instance, if a dress has too long 

 a shoulder seam or the puff hangs too 

 far over the arm, we found it really 

 did add pounds to the figure and years 

 to the age of the wearer." 



Change Accessories 



Conservative styles usually are safer 

 if only a few dresses are possible. Miss 

 Johnson emphasized. Change may be 

 brought about by accessories. On a buy- 

 ing trip to Chicago, Miss Johnson as- 

 sisted in refurbishing one woman's out- 

 fit with a few simple twirks. With a 

 navy blue dress to start, they purchased 

 a fuchsia shade of hat. Next, last years' 

 trimming was removed from the dress, 

 a fuchsia shade ruching put in the neck- 

 line, and a new picture was presented. 



At the summer conference in Spring- 

 field, Mrs. Schoonmaker and Mrs. Pat- 

 terson demonstrated, a few of the 



MRS. E. D. SCHOONMAKER 

 and Mrs. Harold Patterson 

 "demonstrated proper dresa (or the oc- 

 casion." 



teachings of the proper dress for the 

 occasion. In cotton dresses, with 

 touches of white, the freshness, simpli- 

 city, and restfulness of their costumes 

 caused a visitor to point them out as 

 "two of the prettiest women here." 



Knowledge of good line, control of 

 color in ornaments and in the entire 

 outfit were emphasized again and again. 

 With only a black coat in her ward- 

 robe, no amount of attractive depart- 

 ment store display could now lure a 

 DeKalb woman into buying brown 

 shoes. They have learned that not so 

 much all one color, but to put the 

 color where it will do something for 

 them. 



Suggestions offered by Miss Johnson 

 for the present season are: (1) if you 

 plan to wear the gold colored jewelry 

 so fashionable this fall, make it the one 

 accent on a plain dress; (2) avoid too 

 brightly hued hose; (3) don't wear 

 your skirts too short if you no longer 

 boast those school girl legs; and, (4) 

 beware the bustle, don't add another 

 if you already have one. 



Champaign County Home Bureau 

 has built this year's program around 

 two themes, to make Home Bureau 

 members better to look at and better 

 to live with. Mrs. Esther K. Thor, 

 home advisor, who attended the festival, 

 was an excellent example of the first. 

 She was lovely to look at in a soft 

 pink dress, a large straw-colored hat 

 and a large straw-colored bag hanging 

 over her shoulder. 



If your scissors are dull, cut through a 



piece of No. i sandpaper several times, 

 then No. 2 and finally No. 1. 



DEKALB'S MISS lOHNSON 

 "cautioned the ladies ahout short skiita." 



The 1939 Illinois average corn yield 



is estimated at 49 bu. an acre, highest 

 on record. Soybean yield is expected 

 to average 22 bu. 



OCTOBER. 1939 



