Illustrated with thirteen pictures of the most popular U.S. makeup products used throughout the Forties, this article provides a fascinating look at how World War II effected the American cosmetic industry and how that same industry benefited the American war effort.
The U.S. cosmetics industry was effected in many ways, read the article and find out.
Click here to read a 1954 article about Marilyn Monroe.
The antidote to the austere fashion deprivations of the 1930s and the wartime fabric restrictions that characterized the Forties arrived in the immediate post-war period when designers were at last permitted to make manifest their restrained cleverness and create an aesthetic style in a mode that was overindulgent in its use of fabric. This fashion revolt commenced in Paris, when Christian Dior showed his first collection in 1947 – couturiers in every style capitol in the West willingly kowtowed and a new era in fashion was born.
In the Sixties the most popular fashion model was Twiggy (né Lesley Hornby, b. 1949), and in the Fifties the top model was Suzy Parker (1932 – 2003: truly the first Super Model). But in the 1940s the honor went to Jinx Falkenburg (1919 – 2003).
The 1940’s was the decade in which the advertising world began to gaze more favorably upon photographers rather than illustrators, who had long held the prominent place since printers ink was first invented. During the earliest days of her career Falkenburg’s likeness was often painted until the her bookings with photographers quickly picked up. She was the firstMiss Rheingold (appointed, not elected), she appeared in movies, entertained the troops and when she stood before the cameras she was paid all of $25.00 an hour (the term super Model wouldn’t come about until the Seventies).
The attached photo essay will give you some more information.
From Amazon:
This one is from the more things change, the more they stay the same department; it was penned by an outraged woman who was plenty peeved that nascent Hollywood chose to cast geezers to play the rolls of mothers in their movies. In light of the fact that women had babies at far, far younger ages one hundred years ago, she illustrated her point with an anecdote pulled from the annals of the Chicago Police Department.
One Autumn evening in 1949, New York fashion model Anna-Lee Daniels and her gay boyfriend, Henry, took it upon themselves to demonstrate just how chic ladies’ undergarments were becoming. Recognizing that the latest slips were so minimal in their design – appearing much like the dresses flappers were often seen wearing back in the day It was soon decided that the two should step out for a night on the town – with young Anna-Lee sporting the slip – just to see if anyone caught on.
Two years before this article went to press, some Delphian at Quick Magazine scribbled these words:
Expect fashion designers to jump on the African trend in literature and entertainment. Examples: four new African [themed] films (Cry the Beloved Country
– next thing you know, down fashion’s runways sashay the teen waifs – all clad as if they were the striped and spotted beasts who prance upon the Serengeti Plain.
Originally writing for the Forrest Park Review, Flapper advocate Myrtle Heilman (1895 – 1973) opined that the Flapper was the one and only topic of the day worth thinking about:
Analyze her dress. It’s the most sensible thing since Eve. She wears rolled socks and why shouldn’t she? They are extremely cool and comfortable. Her toddle pumps are fairly low-heeled and she doesn’t try to squeeze into a Cinderella. Her skirts are short because it’s the fashion. Her bobbed hair is cool, sensible and sanitary. There is a twinkle in her eye and she has a saucy cock-sureness. And why shouldn’t she?
She does respect her parents and she obeys them, just as well as her grandmother did hers, but she has common sense and she knows when it’s time to use her own judgment and exercise her own authority.
A smattering of cartoons depicting those sweet young things of yore who were partial to bathtub gin, short skirts and
short hair styles.
In 1919 you didn’t have to be plugged-in 24/7 to the youth scene in order to recognize that bobbed hair was where the fickle finger of fashion was pointing. Perhaps the editors of VANITY FAIR presumed that a bobbed hair party was the best social alternative that could have been offered six months after the 1919 passage of the 18th Amendment, which ushered in the Prohibition of alcohol throughout the United States.
Paulette, the fashion critic for the long-defunct Beverly Hills society rag, Rob Wagner’s Script, joyfully reported that color had at long-last come to liven-up the drab wardrobe for the Great American male:
The myriads of color, diversity of design and gamut of styles displayed in men’s shops are revolutionary…The new page in fashion history began when daring members of the nations’ social elite first braved formal dinners in suits showing decided sheens of blue and red.
One evening in 1947, Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of Esquire Magazine, realized that his magazine alone was not sufficient enough in circulation for passing the word along to his fellows that the rules for men’s evening wear were rapidly being rewritten; knowing full-well that Collier’s was one of the preeminent American magazines of its day, he no-doubt must have pleaded the urgency of his case to their editors and, in so doing, saved the collective faces of the homo Americanus once more! We’re delighted that he did so, because now you will have a more thorough understanding as to how you might have dressed had you lived in post-war America.
