Feet as well as hands deserve care. In the summer especially they need some sort of attention for they are very much in view. Cut your toenails straight across and keep them short. Long nails cause stocking runs. If you wish, polish your toenails, matching the color to your hands. A bit of baby oil used daily at the back of your heel will prevent roughness caused by constant rubbing against your shoe.
And from head to toe, that's all there is to makeup. It is really very easy; all that is required is know-how, which comes with practice. If you don't succeed the first time, try again and again.
"See that model. Gee, I wish 1 looked like that."
Did you ever watch a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or make a dollar bill disappear? If you have, you've marveled how he ever managed to do it. Then, later, when someone explained to you how the trick was done, you ceased to marvel; the mystery became commonplace. The very same thing applies to models. When you come to understand the aces that a model holds up her sleeve, you cease to wonder why she is so beautiful and begin to see how you too can be a beauty.Is not like this. But like this.
There are tricks in modeling, just as there are tricks in magic-making. In fact, there is a great deal of similarity between magicians and models, because both have a wonderful degree of control over their muscles. It is the magician's muscle control that enables him to make a coin disappear, and it is a model's control of her muscles that makes her look so straight and tall.
You never see a model slouch, you never see a model with her fanny poked out or her chin resting on her breastbone. A model knows that good posture is basic to a good figure, and that a good carriage goes hand in hand with a good posture. Not even the most perfect figure from the point of view of the tape measure can look well if it is slumped in the midsection and thrust out of joint at the hip.
To look your best you must get in the habit of standing tall—all in one line. Pull up from the top of your head. Tuck your fanny under and get your hips in line. Keep your chest high and your tummy in. Someone once told me to stand as if I wore a beautiful jewel that I wanted to show off at my bosom, and I think perhaps it is the best advice I can pass on to you.
One of the worst faults most of us have is that we do not stand up. Even when we are in a vertical position in relation to the ground, we still tend to sit down. Our rib cages are slumped into our waistline and our shoulders are bent forward. One way to correct this habit is to concentrate on your rib cage.
Think about it and try to consciously pull it up out of your waistline. A deep breath will show you how much you can bring your whole chest area up into the air. Even if you could, you wouldn't have to hold your breath all the time in order to achieve good posture, but a deep breath every now and then is a good idea. It will help pull you into line.
Many teens seem to walk head first into everything—that is to say, they lead with their chin. This aggressive attitude comes from standing with the head jutted forward, shoulders slumped, and eyes focused on the ground. To correct this, bring your shoulders back, hold your neck straight, and let your chin fall into place so that it is directly above your breastbone. Keep your eyes straight ahead; you don't have to look after your feet, they'll take care of themselves. It won't hurt a bit if, in the beginning, you carry this position to West Point extremes until you get the feel of what it is really like to stand tall.
How you stand greatly influences how you walk. It may seem like a little thing, but an ungainly walk can be the ruin of even the most attractive girl. Youll realize this when you think how often comedians use a persons walk to characterize humor. Mimics who mock shuffling gaits, knock-kneed and pigeon-toed walks, are funny on the stage, but if you walk that way in real life youTl come to grief. Look to your own walk and see how it would bear up under criticism.
Further, if only because clothes look well on girls who stand and walk well, you will want to practice good walking. A model works on her walk constantly, because she knows that to show off a design to its best advantage she has to move her body gracefully.
This is the way a model walks. Her feet are pointed straight ahead—toes neither in nor out. She moves her leg from the hip in a swinging stride and puts her heel down first. Each time she takes a step she picks up her feet; she does not just push them along. She holds her weight high and puts her feet down lightly, not as if they were bearing the full load of her body.
To walk gracefully one must move the leg in one piece. The movement should start at the point where the leg is joined to the hip and continue in an unbroken line to the ankle. In that way the leg moves forward in one sweeping movement, instead of propelling itself by a series of awkward disjointed jerks. These jerks you sometimes see come from bending the knee as you walk and actually using the movement as the point from which the forward movement begins.
Get in the habit of moving your leg from the hip—if youVe ever studied modern dance, you'll know the feeling it gives, the sensation of fluid movement.
Some of you may have found this insistence of mine on how you stand and walk rather silly and tedious. I hope you won't think so when I point out to you that your posture and carriage greatly bear on how well you dance. A girl who stands with a sway back all day long is not magically going to change and be erect on the dance floor. Oh, no; her fanny will be just as outstanding—and what's more, it may be even worse, since her back is bent slightly more than normal as she leans against her partner. A girl who shuffles her feet along school corridors and city pavements will still shuffle every bit as much on the dance floor; moreover, she'll probably shuffle right on the long suffering toes of her partner. To be light on your feet, you have to pick your feet up and put them down again in a definite, precise movement.
Give some thought to how you look when you are dancing. After all, what the stag line sees of you is your posture—your face is temporarily hidden in the crook of your partner's arm. It is your back that is on display—plus the way you hold yourself. If you're sagging in the middle and dispiritedly moving along, you won't be a pretty sight from the sidelines. So the next time you get up to dance, pull in those tummy muscles, tuck in your fanny, pull up your rib cage, and then dance. If you keep your arm lightly on your partner's shoulder and your head high, you'll look as light as a thistledown, be you five feet one or five feet eleven.
Right now is as good a time as any to banish a misconception that many tall girls have. They believe that they can camouflage their height by slumping. Well, it is just not true. If you are tall, you'll still look tall if you slump, and you'll be awkward besides. There is nothing to be done about height except to wear it well. Stand up to your full number of inches and be proud that you can see over the crowd. Tall girls are blessed with their height, for they and they alone can wear the extremes of fashion. Most models are tall; they have to be in order to show off complicated clothes.
If most of the boys you know are unfortunately shorter than you, you won't get down to their level by slumping, so what's the use trying and mining your appearance in the process? Chances are that in time youll find a man as tall as you, and in the meantime make the best of it. Be consoled by the fact that the long-legged gal is the gal most often selected as the typical American beauty.