THE SHORT, STOCKY WOMAN
There is someone at the Metropolitan Life Insurance company who says that most American women are under 5 feet five inches tall and weigh close to 120 pounds. So let us open the class with the problems of the short, stocky woman.
Let us say that this woman is sitting down at a table like everyone else. So long as this woman is hatted in proportion to the width of her neck, her shoulders and her head, she will be all right because nobody will know what is under the table anyhow. She should concentrate on wearing a hat that is in proportion to her face. She shouldn’t try to wear a little beany which will make her look like the moon. Any kind of completely rounded hat is a great mistake.
I think a short, stocky body can always overcome its sins best by wearing some kind of oversized beret, which is flexible and can be draped into a number of soft, unsymmetrical lines. I advise this type of woman in particular to find a good hat model and stick to it. Order it in hundreds of different colors and fabrics, but never change the basic line.
If you don’t care for the beret idea, I also think that a hat with a broad cown and a medium sized brim is good for you. But be careful not to make the hat bigger than is necessary or people will think that you are trying to live up to your proportions, which express only relative fatness. If you try to hide your width by exaggerating it, you are doomed to disappointment and failure. Live up to a beret instead, or something like a beret, and be a happy woman.
THE TALL STOCKY WOMAN
A tall, well-built woman is very fortunate as far as hats are concerned because she can wear almost anything. She will look well in a hat that is powerful in its atmosphere and bold in its architectural approach. The crown can be big and the brim can be elegantly dashing because she has the height and the width to carry it. She can also wear elegant trimmings on her hats in proportion to her size, and if she does choose a trimmed hat – let it be boisterous and daring. She has the size and the authority to get away with it. She should avoid itsy-bitsy trimmings and fussy materials, She can be the most bravely hatted woman of them all if she likes, so why not be like Sir Walter Raleigh, sister, and get on with it!
But don’t overdo it. Know when to stop, so that your friends will say “How dashing!” and mean it, and not “Good heavens!” behind your back.
