Cause A Frockus

Hello Beautiful

Feb 25, 2015 | by Ellen Dial

Becky’s fabulous Evelyn Nesbit piece got me thinking about beauty and what is considered beautiful. How has the standard and definition of beauty changed? Have we always been so beauty conscious?

When we browse photos of bygone actresses or leaf through old fashion mags there are definitely differences and changes in what was considered beautiful. Trying on vintage clothing opens our eyes to the fact that the shape and size of our bodies has changed considerably over the past 100 years.

The media blasts current beauty expectations at almost every turn and women are made painfully aware. If Hollywood is to be believed, our faces should be slim and strong featured. Have a defined jawline. We should have large eyes and a wide mouth with full lips. This facial structure reproduces well in today’s digital medium and on the small, high definition screens of our devices. Furthermore, we should all be young or at least look young. Be height/weight proportioned – leaning towards slim. Hair should be full, luxurious and shiny. Soft, dewy, wrinkle free complexions are the goal. Teeth should be paper white chicklets.

Fashion and make up ads are the most startling to me – apparently 15 year old children now model the latest couture and dewy faced 20 year olds encourage us to buy the latest anti-aging goop – using it will make us look just as young and fresh! Oh honey, I don’t think so! And please, if that outfit makes a 15 year old model, who is 5″10′ and weighs in at 100 pounds, look borderline lumpy? How is it going to make me look? Horrible. Awful. Terrible. Couldn’t be worse. My momma didn’t raise a fool.

Naturally, there exceptions. The fashion industry and Hollywood does surprise us from time to time – we fervently hope these surprises will foster change, but it is usually fleeting. We continue on as before. Chasing a youthful and slim ideal.

What is considered beautiful has changed significantly over the past century or so – women have looked like women, boys and everything in between. We’ve contorted our bodies into unimaginable and unnatural shapes and sizes. Donned padded brassieres or used creams to enhance our bosom. Conversely bound our breasts when fashion dictated a boyish silhouette. Used reducing soaps, swallowed tape worms and followed ridiculous diets to achieve the desired slim figure. Applied mercury infused and irradiated creams to our face with the hope of maintaining that youthful glow. Dilated our eyes with opium drops. Worn bundles of fake hair. Employed appliances to give us dimples or straighten our noses.

All in the pursuit of the beauty ideal. Craziness, right?

What has changed over the years? What was considered beautiful? Why?

Let’s take a look at the changing face of beauty and what factors prompted those changes.

Hello Beautiful | Hot House Flowers, Pigeons and Sylphs

Starting in the Victorian era, women became more body and beauty conscious. Prior to this time, health and vigor were considered more desirable than the perfect face and body. If a woman appeared healthy and she had a energetic constitution? She was awesome! Of course, a pretty face didn’t hurt.

Stylish Victorian ladies took cues from the fashion plates of the day. She focused upon a translucent, pale complexion. The ideal facial structure was rounded and girl-like. Large, widely spaced eyes. Small features. Soft jawline. Her mouth was sweetly bowed with naturally pink lips. She had a small frame. The ideal waist size was approximately 14 inches. Wait, what? You read that correctly. What normal, adult woman could possibly achieve this? Almost none. It was pursued through corsetry. Some women laced so tightly that they were unable to sit down, broke ribs and displaced internal organs. Complete madness.

In photos from the day – solemn, small statured women gaze back, they have tiny waists and TONS of hair – a great deal of it not theirs. Gross, right?

No make up, or very, very little. Only actresses and prostitutes utilized paint, not genteel ladies.

As the 19th century drew to a close, the beauty ideal shifted. Small waists were still expected, but not to the extreme of the mid-century. Women molded their bodies into a “pouter pigeon” shape – a small waist with a large, forward thrusting “mono” bosom. This morphed into an S-shape (Slyph) which morphed into the slim hipped, small waisted and larger bosomed body ideal at the end of the century. None of which was achieved naturally – all through corsetry and strategic padding.

Celebrated beauties have softer, rounded faces – think Evelyn Nesbit and the lovely Edwardian actress Maud Fealy. A mass of hair was still the ideal – piled upon one’s head in a soft chignon or bun-type style, a la Charles Dana Gibson and his iconic “Gibson Girl”.

A word on the Gibson Girl – the real life Girl and the idealized Girl look quite dissimilar. Evelyn Nesbit had soft features and was small in stature. The idealized Girl was long and lean. Plus, Gibson gives his ideal a bit more pronounced facial structure, not as soft. Perhaps this is the first example of “the girls in the magazines don’t look like the girls in the magazines”?

Fake hair was still used frequently to fill out the massive hair styles. Cosmetics were used sparingly. Again, youth was the ideal and desirable, at this time in history, women over 30 were deemed “of no use” to anyone. Really, I have no words. Men had until they were 40. Lucky men.

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The wildness of the 20’s fostered a whole new aesthetic. Gone were the small waists, ample bosoms and scads of hair – replaced with a boyish straight up and down shape and sleek bobs.Keeping in mind, the girlish Mary Pickford, America’s Sweetheart, still typified the soft, femininity of the prior decade – in direct contrast with the boyish, Deco look of Louise Brooks. Women were slim and short – both Pickford and Brooks were under 5″2′ and tiny. Ideal facial structure hadn’t changed significantly, but what they did with it and how they dressed themselves changed radically.

Red lipstick, rouge, kohl lined eyes, plucked eyebrows and mascara darkened lashes completed the look. Cosmetics made their way into the mainstream – it was OK to use them.

Fashion illustrations depicted women as long and lean (though they were usually short and slim). Hair was sleek and short – covered with beautiful skull skimming cloches. The developing Hollywood scene depicted women as boyish hoydens or voluptuous sirens. Dresses were tubular without a natural waist, making a boyish shape necessary. Women pulled on elastic corsets and bound their bosom to achieve the desired boyish proportions – your heavily beaded cocktail dress wouldn’t hang properly with an ample bosom or rounded bottom! As many curvy modern women quickly discover when trying on dresses from this time period.

The Crash of ’29 ushered in a new sensuality.

The female form reemerges – waists nip in, clothing has more structure and the joys of bias cut dresses abound. Hair was styled in lovely curls and/or finger waves. At this period in time, women become more body conscious than ever before. The ideal face has stronger features with discernible angles – women with this facial structure looked much better on film – more dramatic and defined.

Hollywood begins to set the standard as never before.

Cosmetics were more commercially available and were employed to create the desired angles if one didn’t have them naturally. Color selections started to fill out – dark lips, thinly plucked bows, darkened lashes and flawless complexions shone under clever hats. Powder and even liquid foundation were offered in more natural shades to create the perfect flawless complexion.

Couture houses, regardless of the massive economic downturn, continued to turn out beautiful clothing -look at the gorgeous Carol Lombard and Hedy Lamarr (shown here in spectacular rare technicolor!) Decked out in sensual bias cut gowns and delicious fur tipped day ensembles, they reigned supreme. Many stars move to the peroxide white blonde hair that so embodies the glamour and sensuality of the 1930’s. American women follow suit.

But the world was changing. In Europe, things were going from bad to worse, conflict was beginning to seem inevitable.

Hello Beautiful | Pin Up Dolls and Technicolor Dames

War!

The beauty ideal answers the siren call of war – movie stars and pin ups set the standards. Strong features, full lips and elaborate hair set the stage. Slim waists, long legs (shown as never before) and fuller bosoms are desired. Fashion enhances this ideal with nipped in jackets, shoulder pads and peplums.

The lush curves and long legs of popular pin ups graced many a GI’s locker and the nose cones of American fighter planes. These images portrayed the ideal – giving the war fighters something to dream about, to motivate them and lend some beauty to an otherwise ugly and intolerable situation.

The strength and power of the ideal is glorified.

Nearly all women used lipstick and powder – make up was advertised by Hollywood stars and they were oh so happy to share their beauty secrets was well! These products will make you as beautiful as Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. Hollywood stars must keep a youthful figure and complexion (therefore, so should you!) and this is how they do it.

Sidebar – I recently watched “Bringing Up Baby” with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn – Grant’s character was supposed to be mid-30’s (he was a PhD) and Hepburn early 20’s (naturally she was much younger – as is the custom, but that’s a whole other issue) they seemed 40 (by todays standards). May Robson, who played Hepburn’s wealthy Aunt – who I would assume was supposed to be MAYBE 60? Looked 102. Granny hair,mono bosom, dated clothes. Stereotypical matron.

The female lead was young and beautiful, with no identifiable job, but lived in a fabulous Manhattan apartment – the male lead older, accomplished and handsome. The Aunt? Old, silly and fat. Ah yes, the story line hasn’t really changed too much – even in the 21st century.

Back to beauty…..

Peace!

The beauty ideal turns yet again.

Why? Technicolor, baby!

The celebrated angular beauty of the of the 30’s and 40’s didn’t translate well into the new color medium. Different lighting. Different make up. Different processing. Flaws glared. Skin looked bumpy or muddy. Silver screen sirens suddenly looked craggy or drawn – not so good. Many careers came to a close.

What made the biggest impact? Skin. Skin became the thing. Acres of it. Women’s faces softened up a bit, features are more pert. Color contrasts were important (think Elizabeth Taylor, Lucille Ball, etc…) as was beautiful skin.

Curvaceous figures were celebrated, Elizabeth Taylor’s measurements were the ideal at 36-21-36 – and skin was shown, though in a ladylike manner. Marilyn Monroe’s measurements mapped to Taylor’s and both women were quite small – in stature and build, measurements notwithstanding. Monroe was known for her glorious skin, which was described as being “pneumatic”. Both were highly photogenic in this vivid color medium.

Both were the ideal and meant to be emulated.

Fashion dictated curves and flawless complexions. Girdles, waist cinchers and bust enhancing bras helped the average woman along. The first bust cream is openly advertised and amphetamine based diet pills go main-steam. Rhinoplasty and breast augmentation begin a slow creep.

As the 50’s close, change comes fast and furious!

One of the biggest catalysts? Twiggy, with her boyishly featured face and 5″6′, 90 pound frame sets the stage for the next several decades. Of course, fashions changed – we went mod, disco, prep, new wave, goth, grunge and heroine chic. Our hair got big, long, short, full, “dirty”, curly, natural, processed, dyed and straight. Make up became exaggerated and then cycled down to a more natural look. Our figures went from lush or not so much to amazon to anything goes.

Many women run, walk, dance, swim and cycle to exhaustion. Eat fat free, gluten free, carb free, high fructose corn syrup free, processed foods free and taste free – sometimes for actual clinical/ health reasons, but many times not. Put all manner of fruits, vegetables and other stuff into a blender and drink the unidentifiable outcome, many times in lieu of a well balanced solid meal. Doing a “cleanse” is the answer, right? Some staple their stomaches. Even more have various body parts made bigger, smaller or removed all together.

All to achieve the ideal. To look like the current, top trending pop culture icon or whoever made a gossip mags most beautiful women of the year, in the world or since the beginning of all recorded time list..

Keep in mind – the girls in the magazines don’t look like the girls in the magazines, next year it will be something different and this pursuit of the ideal is nothing new.

Dear readers – If you’re willing to share, what have you done to meet the ideal standard of beauty? What do YOU think is today’s ideal?

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The author would like to thank: randomhistory.com, “Perceptions of Female Beauty in the 20th Century by Louise Wood”on barneygrant.tripod.com, evoscience.com, thefashionspot.com, The Huffington Post, news.discovery.com. As well as those who share their images freely on the internet.

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