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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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this. You have a very broad face. It's broader between the two cheekbones than it is up at the top. Your head is narrower above the temples than it is at the cheek bones. Also, it slopes off very suddenly into your chin. The result is you always need to have as much width in your hat as you have width in your cheek bones. Never let yourself get a hat that is narrower than your cheekbones, because it makes you look ridiculous.” The salesman agreed with her, and she was dead right. My mother was an artist. She painted, drew and sketched, was aware of proportions and of human anatomy. She dressed very beautifully and elegantly herself, though she didn't have this broad, wide face that I have. She saw that I needed that balance. The tricorn does it, because the two things that stick out at the side are always at least as wide as the distance between the two cheekbones, and may be wider. It doesn't matter if it's wider, just as long as it's not narrower.

I've followed her advice ever since and have always bought a tricorn. I don't mean to say I haven't had other hats. Sometimes I would be caught on a railroad train with a sailor hat, or a broad-brimmed hat that was good to keep the sun out of your eyes. People would say, “Have you changed your style?”

I would say, “No, this is my private hat. When I have





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