BEAUTY
My fair lady As we come around to the ‘20s once again, let’s make the latest beauty trend a celebration of what makes us unique
H
ave you ever fretted your feet weren’t small enough, as the foot-bound ladies of ancient China must once have done? Or bandaged your chest to meet the boyish figure your 1920s sisters admired? Probably not, and yet you may have, at least once, thought it might be nice to sport an on-trend thigh gap – even though your Victorian ancestors might have worried you’d descended into abject poverty and starvation. ‘People have always wanted women to look a certain way, right back to antiquity,’ says UK historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes. An expert in ancient history who has featured on several BBC documentaries and written books on the subject,
Bettany uses Cleopatra – the last Pharaoh of Egypt – as an example of how our perception of beauty not only changes, but can be skewed over time. ‘Cleopatra is famous for being one of the most beautiful women who ever lived, but we know from coins minted at the time that she was probably quite jowly, with a hooked nose and a low forehead,’ she says. In other words, Cleopatra may not have fit the bill for what we’d call a “classic” beauty, let alone beauty of mythological proportions. So what was it about this ancient Egyptian ruler that caught history’s imagination? ‘We think when people were talking about Cleopatra’s beauty, they were actually talking about her power,
100 years of beauty Fashion trends – and the definition of what is beautiful – have changed with almost every decade of the 20th century
1900s
World War II
Most women would have squeezed into restrictive whale bone corsets that lifted and accentuated busts and cinched waists to a tiny 20 inches or less (ouch!).
For the first time, women in the Western world started wearing ‘slacks’ or trousers as mainstream fashion – inspired by their changing roles as they entered the workforce and were often required to wear masculine uniforms.
Roaring ’20s
1950s
The 1920s saw the rise of youth culture and a golden age of travel, sport and leisure. Girls defied their mothers by opting for a youthful, boyish silhouette and shorter hemlines – enabling them to Charleston the night away.
With men back from war, there was a push back to more traditional feminine roles and looks. This was also the baby boom era, so a wholesome, child-bearing look was coveted.
24 re:story THE VINTAGE ISSUE
