Unless the income rises above twenty-five hundred dollars,
fifteen per cent will go with the greatest rapidity, and
home-made clothing will not pass muster. Nothing is
more humiliating than to be obliged to stay away from a
pleasant occasion because no suitable clothes are at
hand.
Here again knowledge pays; for if there is an aesthetic
touch, a personal atmosphere, an ideal, not a slavish,
following of fashion, a person may be well dressed with
very small expense. Fashion herself will approve, and
society not shrug the shoulder. It is the thoughtless
dowdy she disapproves, or the purchased, re^dy-made



CLOTHING IN RELATION TO HEALTH. lOI

air. It is not money but knowledge and care which
tell. One color is not much more expensive than another,
and one style does not require much more cloth than
another. It is in the perfection of detail, the fit, the per-
fect work, the care, far more than in the money-cost, that
taste is shows. The decadence of the use of the needle, the
lack of comprehension of what makes dress an ornament,
result in the hideous combinations seen on our streets,
and in a waste of money which might be spent on better
things.
Clothing from the standpoint of health is shelter,
protection from heat and cold, and is a corollary to food.
In cold climates the warmer the clothing the less food is
required.
One or more layers light in weight spread evenly over
the body so as to protect, so loose in texture as not to
prevent free circulation of air, soft enough not to irritate
the skin, the several layers of different rather than of
the same materials, will best accompUsh the purpose.
