Simplify, Simplify

Rummaging through a closet in the attic a few days ago,

I unearthed some fashion magazines of the summer of 1908

and was astonished to discover that since that short time ago,

women have apparently changed the form of their bodies and

the shape of their faces, as well as the style 

of their gowns and their hair dressing.

Summer Afternoon Dress

Maison Agnes Les Modes

(July 1908)

Photo by Henri Manuel

Perhaps the pensive lines and die-away expression of the faces

in the old-fashion plates were due to the tightly drawn-in waists and

the overdrawn-check effect of the choker collars, or it may be that

faces with such an expression just naturally called for that style of dressing.

However that may be, a comparison of those fashions with the easy,

comfortable styles of this summer, which give beauty and grace of line

with freedom of movement and plenty of breathing room, is enough cause

for celebrating a special Thanksgiving Day months ahead of the regular time.

There is still room for improvement in children's clothes. They are much too

fussy to be either beautiful or becoming. Why trouble with fancy, changeable

children's styles? There will be plenty of time for them to learn all the

vanities of dress later, and it is better to keep them 

simple and sweet as long as possible.

It would do away with a lot of needless bother and vexation if we copied

the English in their way of dressing little girls as their mothers were dressed,

in the same kind of simple little smock frock.

Fashions in other things than clothes have been and are still being simplified

for the sake of more economic production, thus lessening the cost of 

manufacturing by saving time, labor, and material.

Furniture makers cut down the number of their patterns several hundred

percent during the war, cutting out just that many varieties of furniture.

This was done on the advice of the War Industries Board to reduce the cost

of production and save materials and labor for other work.
 It was found to be such a benefit that it has been decided

 to keep on in the same way, and so we shall have

 fewer styles in furniture.

In the hardware trade the same plan is being used .
 There are something like 4,450 fewer styles of pocket knives

 for Johnnie to buy and lose than there were before the war,
 but it does seem that he should be able to please himself

by a choice from the 250 kinds left him.

There used to be 207 kinds of lawnmowers. Now there are only six.

This number does not include the regular mowing machine which the

Man of the Place uses so effectively in the front yard nor the pet colt

who mows the lawn and puts the clippings to such good use.

The idea of doing away with useless, unnecessary things is at work in

architecture also in the planning and building of houses, so that we are

hearing a great deal these days of the dining room-less house.

The dining room, if kept strictly as a dining room, is used for only a few

minutes three times a day which is not enough return for the work and thought

and expense of keeping up an extra room. The fact is that most dining rooms

are used by the family as a living room as well, and so in the new plans,

the rooms are frankly combined into one.

Sometimes where the kitchen is large, it is the kitchen and dining room

and many steps are saved. Either of these combination rooms may be made

very attractive and have been in small houses where people did not

wait for it to become a fashion.

Everyone is complaining of being tired, of not having time for what

they wish to do. It is no wonder when they are obliged to pick and choose

from such multitudes of thoughts and things.

The world is full of so many things, so many of them useless, so many,

many varieties of the same thing creating confusion and a feeling of being

overwhelmed by their number.  It would be a wonderful relief if, by

eliminating both both wisely and well, life might be simplified.

From left to right: Carrie, Mary, and Laura Ingalls

in a photograph taken shortly after the Hard Winter of 1881.

"Simplify, Simplify"

(July 1919)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867-1857)

Prolific American writer

 of the "Little House" book series.

An essay taken from the book,

"Little House In The Ozarks"

A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler

The Rediscovered Writings

Edited by Stephan W. Hines

Guideposts Edition

(1991)