beauty

In the uncertain times following the end of World War II, tradition and conservative values made a big comeback. As men returned from battle reclaiming their jobs, women left their work-clothes behind and felt the need (fashion dictated) to be feminine again. After a long and costly war, sales were strengthened through advertisements illustrating what one should buy to become a better, happier and more desirable wife. It was a Mid-Century Conservative, and women were told that their primary goal was to catch a man and have a family. The effect was the creation of popular 50’s image of the glamorous woman at home, able to attend to all domestic chores without a hair out of place. Rule number one was that women were never supposed to leave the house looking sloppy. As a result, an extreme amount of time was spent living up to this ideal of beauty. The hourglass body type was highly desired, typified by the curvaceous movie stars of the time such as Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. Corsets and girdles became the obligatory underwear of all well-dressed women. They were used to press, lift, pull, and support the body in all the right places to give a smooth, but dramatic figure. In spite of their discomfort, advertisements of these garments promised a better life. A typical 50’s silhouette had the “wasp’s waist”, full skirt or pencil skirt, three-quarter-sleeve tops and coats, full belted skirts, button-downs, and prim sweaters. Women were taught to dress to allure, but rarely showed a great deal of skin. The makeup-trend of the time was the “doe eye,” created with shadow on the lids, eyebrow pencil, mascara and heavy eyeliner, along with a flawless pale, peaches and cream complexion and intensely colored lips. Women’s hair suffered immense abuse, as it was teased, styled, sculpted and sprayed into a helmet of perfectly formed curls, waves and bouffants. It was usually kept short at just below the shoulders, worn in soft, curly, or wavy styles. Since straight styles were considered undesirable, rollers became a girl’s best friend.  The 50’s was the decade of the Pin-up, the era that gave us the launch of Playboy magazine and the idolization of the soft, coquettish woman with overt sexuality. The 50’s was about the extreme opposites of gender roles, with an emphasis on what the perfect woman or man should be. The cause and effect was an unattainable ideal created by the advertisement industry to entice people to buy more products. Comically, this unnatural attention to perfection still keeps a large amount of people nostalgic (for a better time), decades later.  Original article: https://www.idealiststyle.com/blog/beauty-ideal-over-the-decades-part-2-the-50s

The 1940’s fashion was heavily influenced by the second World War. As the men were away being soldiers, much effort was put into advertisements recruiting the housewife’s to take over as the workforce.Because of wartime restrictions, utilitarian clothing was most common amongst normal women. The focus was no longer on glamour and femininity, and the new value was in functional and practical clothing. As a result, Dior’s new look was introduced, and designers like Chanel, Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli started designing form-fitting, classy attires. Classically beautiful women such as Veronica Lake were idolized, and as society became more body conscious, women started to really pay attention to what they ate. Fashion accentuated arms and legs, so women lifted light weights to build muscle tone. The new padded stretch cotton bra was introduced and promised to minimize the waist and give a glamorous look.  Throughout the 1940s, Hollywood’s leading ladies continued to set the trends in women’s fashion. Longer, more feminine hairstyles became popular again, and women started to copy Bette Davis’s curls, Betty Grable’s topknot with ringlets, and Rita Hayworth’s gleaming waves. Veronica Lake created a sensation by wearing a lock of hair that covered one eye, also known as the “peekaboo” hairstyle . Hairstyles was now more feminine than they had been in the 20’s, and the hairstyle that most symbolized this particular decade, was parted on the side with soft curls falling over the shoulder. Hair color varied depending on which movie star one was trying to imitate. You could be platinum blond as Betty Grable, redhead as Rita Hayworth, or a brunette as Ava Gardener. By the 1940’s, makeup trends had become a little less dramatic and more of a girl-next-door kind of look. Thanx to (or not so thankful, depending on your view on the matter) the influence of screen stars on standards of beauty, the pasty white skin trend was finally passé. Tanned skin was perceived as a symbol of high class for the first time in modern history, and women started opting for foundations closer to their natural complexions. In the same way as the first world war had a big impact on society, World War II pushed the world into another fast-paced change, taking a big leap towards a more modern lifestyle, a more causal sense of fashion, as well as a new view on the role of being a woman. It was the decade of the classic Pin-up girl, the height of The Hollywood Golden Age,advertisements were filled with political propaganda (And not shy of highly inappropriate messages. By modern standards that is). Last but not least, it was also the awakening of the (unholy) union between body image and public media, leading to an externally influenced perception of the ideal of beauty.  SOME FASHION ICONS OF THE 40sBette Davis, Betty Grable, The pin-up girl of the 1940s: “The girl with the Million Dollar Legs”,  Rita Hayworth, Veronica lake, Ava Gardener, Jean Harlow, Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich.  Original article: https://www.idealiststyle.com/blog/beauty-ideal-over-the-decades-part-9-the-40s