Whether you sew everything you wear, or whether you sew none of the things you wear, you all are interested about what to wear. Below I am listing my suggestions for an average high school wardrobe—you can make your own additions or subtractions to suit yourself.

1. A few well-fitting washable slips.

2. One or two half -slips—some nylon, some cotton (cotton to starch for wear under summer skirts).

3. Three or four bras.

4. Panties—preferably shirred to give good curve control.

5. Girdle.

6. Two or three pairs of nylon stockings—one pair of mesh for school, since those are least prone to runs.

7. White wool socks—these for school and sports.

8. Several pairs of colored socks to match your sweaters and skirts.

9. Assorted sweaters-some with long sleeves; classic standbys in classic colors: beige, gray, navy, green; and some with short sleeves; these fit well under suit jackets and can take the place of a blouse. They can be dressed up with scarves and

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10. One good basic suit, neutral in color and simple in line, to wear with everything. The kind that takes a long time to go out of style.

11. Skirts—in dark colors and in bright plaids. Wool usually wears the best. Have various styles, some pleated, some plain.

12. A raincoat—for really sloshy days and to use for hiking and biking trips when you need a covering that can take it.

13. A good basic coat—perhaps a classic camel hair, but something that will give you service and be in style at the same time. Here look for a box cut or flare cut so that it can slip easily over jackets and sweaters without bunchiness at the armhole or waist.

14. A dressy coat—here you can take to fitted lines, for you will wear this coat with party dresses and well-cut fitted suits. Keep to a basic color, though, unless you want to tire of it and discard it before its time.

15. A party dress.

16. A formal.

17. Low-heeled shoes for school (not "on-stage" ballet slippers, please).

18. Dress-up shoes with Cuban heel—in calf or suede.

19. Evening slippers.

20. Warm gloves for school—mittens or crochet string ones.

21. Dress-up gloves—a pair of white cottons, kept clean, will fill almost every bill.

22. A hat—for church and formal afternoon parties.

When you're on the prowl for a new skirt or a new dress, or anything new for that matter, keep your eye peeled on fashion. Follow the trends so that you can know what is on the way in and what is on the way out. If you are clever, you can in this way avoid buying a new outfit and finding out tc your horror that it is outdated in a few months. You will do well to watch what goes on in the high-priced fashion field, for those developments are soon copied in the lower-priced clothes, and then you will know what to look for.

But don't go jumping on the fashion bandwagon without a good idea of what you're jumping for. To buy a new outfit just to buy something new because it is new is a poor way to budget. The sooner you learn how to buy what you want when you need it, the faster you'll find that you have fewer difficulties in your wardrobe.

I don't think there's a person alive who hasn't made a mistake at one time or another, who was carried away by something that was just too beautiful to resist, and who subsequently discovered that the dress (or coat or suit) did absolutely nothing for her. Such calamities lie fallow in every closet. But there are ways you can keep your mistakes to a minimum.

Don't buy anything unless it fits your figure, your personality, and your present wardrobe. Consider what you have before you get something new. Try to have the new purchase dovetail into your scheme. Don't switch colors all of a sudden. Switch slowly via accessories and blouses and sweaters so that you can evolve a new color scheme over a period of time without wrecking the one you've already got.

There are times when a bargain turns out to be more than you bargained for, and there are times when it turns out to be a good deal less. A bargain is of no use to you unless it serves a purpose. If you never wear purple, buying a purple dress just because it is cheap is a total waste of money. If you look ghastly in peplums, don't buy a peplum suit just because it's marked down.

Do look before you leap. It is wiser in the long run to buy clothes that make sense than it is to save cents. Good basic costumes in neutral colors should be the backbone of every wardrobe—a wardrobe such as I outlined before. Allow yourself, at holiday time, at birthday time, when you have a chance to spend your checks or to hint at things you'd like to get, a bit of splurging. But confine your splurging to small items: scarves, blouses, sweaters, jewelry.

These small items put flesh on the basic skeleton of your wardrobe. They add color, they add dash, and they give you a chance to express yourself. Because they are inexpensive, they can be discarded when you are tired of them. Because they are adaptable, they can be changed to suit your fancy. A collection of colorful scarves can pep up a whole closet.

More substantial than accessories, but every bit as switch-able, are clothes that mix and match. Sweaters that team up with skirts, jackets that make suits with matching skirts, that look very unsuitlike with contrasting skirts. Blouses that look tailored with school skirts, devastatingly datelike with taffeta skirts. There can be no end to the possibilities of a small collection of separates, provided you have chosen each and every piece with the idea of wearing it with more than one thing you already possess.

The plain fact of the matter is that you are the common denominator of your wardrobe. If you are not divisible into eveiything you own, then you had better subtract the misfits. A wise girl has few clothes, but clothes that she knows are right and becoming. A foolish girl has lots of clothes, none of which is quite right, and she is always moaning, "But I haven't a thing to wear."

Youll always have something to wear if you plan ahead, if you buy with an eye to the future, a glance at the past, and a firm foothold in the present. It takes practice to straddle three tenses, but it can be done, and the girl who can do it knows that every bit of planning pays off—not only in dollars saved, but in compliments earned.

"// only I had the money ..."

The plaintive lament about money or rather the lack of it cannot fairly be said to apply strictly to teen-agers. Many adults and lots of children are afflicted by the same desire. However, teen-agers are in rather a special position in regard to money—they need more of it than children do and yet they are not free to earn it as an adult would.

Some teens, of course, have their own allowances, but sometimes these do not suffice for all the things that need be bought. Mothers and fathers do the best they can to provide for their offspring's needs, but when it comes to an extra formal or money for a frou-frou blouse, things that aren't desperately needed but desperately desired, then the best answer is to try and earn your own.