1920's Cosmetics Industry

Karen Halttunen, author of Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study Of Middle-Class Culture In America, 1830-1870, noted that “(a)dvice books, fashion magazines, and etiquette manuals cautioned young women against emulating the arts of the painted woman, sometimes a prostitute but more often a woman of fashion, who poisoned polite society with deception and betrayal by dressing extravagantly and practicing empty forms of false etiquette.” Likewise, the views towards red dresses and lipstick changed during this era as

Unmasked by Lori Wagner talks in depth about the origins of body art, make-up, and jewelry and how our culture has slowly distorted the world’s view of beauty. One of the many things I’ve learned from this book is the origin and birthing of jewelry. In addition, I also learned the truth behind body art, and how it contradicts the Word. Furthermore, I also learned about the starting point of makeup and how it has affected our society today. Today I am going to share what I have learned about jewelry, body art and make up, and how it has distorted our culture’s perspective of beauty.

Did you know that back before the 1920s, makeup and cosmetics were not accepted by American Society because of their relation to loose living and prostitution? But because of popular movie stars like Joan Crawford and Clara Bow, women began copying their makeup. Now makeup is even more widely accepted by society. This and other fun facts make the 1920s among some of the greatest decades of all time because of the interesting fashion, jazz music, and celebrities.

They plucked and redrew their eyebrows, wore heavy face powder, bright blush, dark red lipstick and smudged dark eye liner to give them a smoky eyed look (Howes 193). This new woman was more modern than the one before, but not any less

counterparts known as satchel purses, replaced clutches. The popularity of satchels increased during World War II, “when women needed to carry more things as they walked or rode public transportation to conserve gas for the war effort” . Beauty department during the 1930’s underwent a makeover. However, women still wore their hair cut nearly above their shoulders, now some dared to wear longer styles, inspired by glamorous Hollywood movie stars like Veronica Lake. Wavy hair was on of the most characteristic hairstyles of the decade – “women could freely wave their hair in many different ways: naturally, with the help of a variety of curlers, or with a professionally styled permanent” .

Part of the new style was the use of makeup. Wearing makeup before the 1920s was almost unheard of because the specific tools needed to apply makeup had not been invented yet. This made applying makeup very difficult to do, so many did not even bother with it. The movie scene was largely responsible for the uprising in makeup-wearing women. 1920s women wanted to look like the movie stars they grew to love.

After World War I, women’s fashion took a turn and prospered into an exciting and new vibrant style. Society previously held tight boundaries on how women should dress. There was no law to the way they could dress, but simply that their morals were tighter and they had an unspoken, common knowledge before the 1920s of how women should dress appropriately.

Before the 1920s there was a certain way women were expected to look

Little did I know how much of a movement the beauty industry and society would have on me and the generations after mine. Growing up, wearing the latest flavor of Lip Smacker was the trend, and now wearing a full face with highlight is the trend. A lot of girls growing up including myself, in my generation feel that in order to accept yourself with how you look in the outside, how much makeup a girl wears is going to improve that. I always told myself growing up that if there’s any way to hide your flaws to do so, and that’s what makeup does. As a result to all of this, girls are now growing up with the idea that their natural looks are not socially

1920s Fashion The 1920’s was a dynamic influence on men’s and women’s fashion. Moreso the impact woman had on society and how their influence manipulated the fashion of the 1920s. Jazz,World War I, prohibition, the 19th Amendment are just some of the factors that contributed to the dramatic shift in the culture that we still admire today. During this time ‘the fashion landscape shifted like tectonic plates” (“retro”), everyone wanted to be in style and have the newest and glamorous clothes. Designer brands and unique hairstyles is still a lifestyle that we still see in today 's society and is growing.

In this paper I will discuss how and why racial bias affects the cosmetic industry and find solutions to this large-scale social issue. Before we can dive into this issue, we need to ask ourselves one very important question. What is racial bias? According to Napoli Shkolnik PLLC “racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual’s understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner” (napo). Racial bias is most definitely a social issue that needs to be destroyed.

The shortage of men created by the war brought a demand for more alluring clothes, which found expression in the short skirt and the adoption of trousers by women for both formal and sportswear” (Presley 317). The image of women in the 1920s is young and bold- their fashion was risque and the lifestyle was extravagant. They enjoyed their freedom as strong individuals, they rebelled against tradition. Going against gender norms is an example of this, “The 1920s fashions allowed women to experiment with the appearance of gender... By the 1920s, the word "flapper" came to signify a young woman with a "boyish figure.

Society’s perception of male beauty isn’t tied as inherently to age as it is for women, in that cosmetic companies continually market products to consumers through the male gaze. Women are constantly defined by their appearance, which is problematic in and of itself, but this problem is exacerbated by society’s rampant ageism which tells women they must maintain youthful, feminine looks as they

33 percent of the women studied were concerned with appearance associated with aging such as sagging, wrinkles, and weight changes. However, only 21 percent of the men were concerned with how age affected their appearance (Olson, 2015). The double standard is also seen when observing the fact of women wearing make-up on a daily basis. The idea of appearance and growing old puts pressure on girls at a young age to wear make-up to enhance their physical appearance at all ages. Men do not wear make-up, but women will use makeup to disguise physical features associated with age.

I am going to research the male gaze throughout art history and how it has been transferred into advertising. Throughout almost all of history, art has been created by men and for men. I want to examine how this affects the portrayal of women and femeninity in art from cultures spanning the globe. The male gaze has also infiltrated the way advertisements are made and I am going to study the correlation between ancient and contemporary examples of this. The advertisement aspect of male gaze can also be tied to makeup, and worldwide beauty industries.