Evening Star Newspaper, June 29, 1930, Page 89

An Italian beauty painted by Gustav Brisgand, poised to show fine. flexible hands, for which her countrywomen are distinguished. Anglo-Saxon heads are the most‘ aristocratic.c. In Germany good color is placed before other consid- erations. Italian women have the most remarkable figures. The English have inherited the taste of the Egyptians for women with small and narrow hips. In the United States there is such a wide variety of types and tastes that it is hardly possible to discover the national preference. BY R. S. FENDRICK. PARIS. HAT is feminine beauty? Is it possible to lay down the canons of the ideal fe- male form—the esthetic rules to which woman’s figure must coriorm? Can it be explained why man, the judge, is atiracted by one Venus and repelled by another made in almost identically the same mold; why the difference of one degree in the angle of two imaginuwry lines drawn across the face will change masculine adoration into indifference, or vice versa? A pair of French connoisseurs, Marcel Bar- riere, the writer, and Gustav Brisgand, the illustrator, have just finished a tour of the world to try to find the answer toc these and many other such fascinating questions. _n the most serious, painstaking way they studied women of all the white races, taking their weights and measures, studying their movements and expressions, reducing their charms t0 geometrical formulas, charting their curves, checking their graces and ncting their elegaxes: The investigators—they call themseives plas- ticians—have recoru®™ the result of the pile grimage in a book, “La Plastique Feminine,” published by Albin Michel, Paris. uA FAULTLESS knee is a rarity in all coun- tries,” is one of their conclusions. “There is nothing more admirable nor ador- able than beautiful legs, but how seldom are they beautiful?” “To judge exactly the shape of a woman's head one would have to have the courage to shave it.” “The three little steps of hair above the tem- ple are a mark of rare beauty, and belong al- most exclusively to aristocratic visages.” “A pretty ear must not be higher than the eyeln~hes nor lower than the nostrils.” “No:hing is more evident than the analogy between the human face and that of animals. When the eyes are excessively close together they give the expression something of the vivac- ity of a monkey; when far apart, that of a eat or cther feline.” § 3 “The nape of the neck is the keystone of the body, and the sculptor who knows his job always looks at it first.” “Irreproachable shoulders usually accompany & perfect nape.” “It is relatively easy today, thanks to modern fashions, to decide theoretically whether a ‘woman one sees walking in the street is justified in entering a contest of beautiful figures.” “The dressmaker’s art consists in concealing volumes and revealing curves.” M. Barriere declares that women are dis- tinctly more beautiful tpday than they used to be, and their beauty lasts longer. They are taller and more slender, their necks more free ' and their bosoms modeled better. More impor- " tant still, their legs are straighter and more gracefully shaped, which gives them unusual grace and elegance, both in walking and stand- ing. As in the case of the ancient Athenians, MTHE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE. 29, 1930 Two Celebrated French Artists, Touring the * Globe in Analysis of Fair Sex Among All " Races, Find Improved Standards in “Feminine Pulchritude Everywhere Due to Healthful Exercise and | Sensible Dress. Dorothy Knapp, prominent on the stage and adjudged by many arusis and showmen the most beautiful girl in America. he attributes this improvement to sport, nota- bly tennis, skating, fencing and classical danc- ing, and also to more sensible clothes. “For how long can a woman conserve her charm and physical beauty?” he inquires in taking up this agonizing angle of feminine problems. “For 20, 25, years? If one wishes to be generous and take into consideration the improvement in hygiene, we can say 30 years, “with & maximum of 35—that is, it is possible -for a woman to keep all her graces from the age of 15 o 50. “The great Rodin fixed the age of 45 as the extreme point of all feminine plastic worthy of his chisel. The celebrated sculptor had a certain taste for the first moment of decay, but he must be excused; for he loved to exalt the cleverness of the defense that superior women oppose to the attacks of age.” But M. Barriere refuses to go on record as to the most perfect type of physical beauty. He found that every race had a different taste. The Egyptians preferred a woman with small and narrow hips, and the English particularly have inherited this taste. On the contrary, the Arabs like plump women and deliberately fatten up their wives as they would fatten a goose. He considers that the Italian women have the most remarkable figures, but the Spanish legs are magnificent. In Germany the lords and mas- ters place a good color before all other con- siderations. The Russians don’t pay the slight- est attention to beautiful nudes. Incidentally, the Anglo-Saxon head is the most aristocratic, and the Italian and Sicilian hand the finest and most flexible. He has practically nothing to say of Frenchwomen, and as for the United States he simply throws up his hands. The plastician found such a wide variety of types and tastes there that he could not discover any definite national trend. TAKING up the various parts of the body one by one, the expert declares that the regularity of a profile depends on the angle formed by two imaginary lines, a horizontal one from the base of the noss to the opening of the ear and a vertical one from the center of the forehead to the center of the chin. “A face is well proportioned to the degree that these lines cut each other perpendicularly; that is to say, at a right angle,” M. Barriere explains. “An acute facial angle gives to the profile a character of animality that is agree- able only in wom°n of the Negro race.” . Speaking of ears, he remarks that a certain 17 . A World Search for Pertect BEAUTY Alice Diplarakou of Athens, crowned “Miss Europe” early this year, repre- sents the ancient Hellenic 1ype of beauty. : type called pointed adds much piquancy. “When it accompanies a nose that is slightly aquiline and a chin somewhat projecting, it gives the feminine head a faunian aspect that is mno$ without charm.” But ears are not so important, for if they are imperfect they can nearly always be hidden. The eyes, the nose and the mouth —these are the essential parts of a face that make a woman beautiful or ugly. All may vary greatly, but there must be a harmony between them. Long eyelashes and fine, silky hair help to make a perfect ensemble. A woman'’s upper lip should have the form of the bow of but the plastician encountered lips that did not bear the slightest resemblance to this com= ventional model, but were, nevertheless, very charming! A mouth should be of practically the same width as the distance between the pupils of the eyes or a trifle less. : M. Barriere goes into raptures in describing necks that are shaped like those of swans and is equally enthused over beautiful shoulders. When the head is held up high, the profile of the nape must be vertical and neither concave nor convex. This rule is absolute. S to a well proportioned body, the plage tician declares that it must be about the height of seven and a half heads, counting & head as from the summit of the skull i the base of the nape of ¢he neck, and unless the groin divides the form into two equal parts the latter is not graceful. The width of the shoulders must never surpass twice the lengt_h of the head. The hips can be as wide as the shoulders, but no more so. . “But there is nothing more shocking to the eye and to the taste of the plastician,” M. Barriere continues, “than the ugly or ungrae cious backs that so many women have.” A well shaped arm, including hand, musi be as long as three times the length of the head and cannot exceed this rule by more tham one-fourth of a head. A leg should be four times the length of the head. Long arms snd legs are preferable to short ones. The upper ‘arm should measure three-quarters to fivew sixths of the circumference of the neck at the base; the forearm should measure two-thirds of this; the wrist should be half the upper arm measurement. Legs should be high in nnkz ‘and knee. The maximum circumference 4 the calf should equal that of the base of the neck and, if reproduced in a straight linef should equal the distance from the ankle t9 the base of the knee. Ankle circumference should be half that of the calf. Feet should be one-sevénth of the woman's total height im length, or from eight to ten inches long, ace cording to the size of the woman. Feminine beauty, according to M. Barriere, is best seen in motion. A woman's walk reveals her intrinsic grace. Her clothes are highly ime portant. The modern dressmaker’s art “cone sists in concealing volumes and revealing curves.” To seem, without being, thin is theé secret of elegance. Powder and rouge, if artis« tically applied, meet with his approval. . (Copyright, 1930.) ]