Maybelline's namesake, Mabel Williams Vintage 1925 Wedding Album pictures

Mabel may have put  the "M" in Maybelline, but, she had no interest in being just another "It Girl," or "Vamp."  She was a traditional, 32 year old, Southern Lady, waiting for her man to come along.  

Unbeknownst to her, Chester Randolph Hewes, was living in Chicago and working at Montgomery Wards, in the automotive, advertising department.

Mabel's brother, Maybelline founder, Tom Lyle Williams with the Bride and Groom and Chet's sister Bonnie.

At the time Chester, was involved with an English girl he'd met in England, while in the Navy, during
WW l.  He had said goodbye to her and her family after his stint was over, headed back to the US, got a job and was busy working.  When all of a sudden, Connie, her mother and several grown brothers showed up on his doorstep.

Mabel with her father, Thomas Jefferson Williams

He told her he did not want to marry her, but being a gentleman, arranged for an apartment for the family and  jobs for her brothers.  After awhile she realized Chester, just wasn't that into her, so, packed up her family and sadly, headed back to England.

1928 Mabel and Chet with their first child, Shirley

Mabel met Chester, through his sister Bonnie when he came to pick up Bonnie at a bridal shower given at the home of Chester's then girlfriend.  Mabel was also a guest and after Chester met her, he told a friend, Mabel was the girl he was going to marry.

1934, Mabel and Chet with their three children, Shirley, Tommy and baby Joyce.

Come visit me at my Hilarious 1964 High School blog called Saffrons Rule saffronsrule.com

Advertising and Fashion Capitalized on women's new found Sexuality, during the 1920's and 30's.

The horrors of the Great War lead to sex appeal
  in the 1920's and advertisers capitalized on it.

The 1920's were the beginning, of liberation for women, from being thought of as child-bearers and homemakers. to co-equals with men in society.

It was the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations Civil War mentality.

Young people began testing their new boundaries with more and more outrageous forms of behavior, as fast cars, short skirts and free thinking changed the rules of the game. 

Bathing suits in 1929, were made for board-thin, young figured women, who wanted total liberation, for their body as well as their mind.

Here is a photo, of my great aunt Bunny at 25, at Lake Zurich, Chicago, showing off, the art of looking feminine yet liberated, in 1929.  All these wonderful, vintage photos are from her, 83 year old album. I was lucky enough to get copies, before she died at 90 years of age.  

The Jazz Age represented, restlessness, idolization of youth, and dissatisfaction with the status quo.

My great aunt Bunny, on the right, (Nana's younger sister,) was 25 in this photo, and was beginning to develop a more womanly figure.  Fashion in the 1920's, was especially designed for girls with no breasts, hips or body fat.  Girls began to look like boys and boys like girls. 

"[The flapper] symbolized an age anxious to enjoy itself, anxious to forget the past, anxious to ignore the future." (from Jacques Chastenet, "Europe in the Twenties" in Purnell's History of the Twentieth Century)

Young women in the 1920s, didn't want the drudgery of social conventions and routine of daily life.  Of Course, the Film industry and Maybelline helped shape this idea.

Fashion and Maybelline, in the late 1920's appealed to the modern woman who wanted liberation from a repressive Victorian  past.

Single and married women in the cities and the country came to enjoy the comfort and ease, of the new relaxed style in fashion and eye make-up, that were once considered, for Flappers only. 

     

Advertising helped shape a new identity for the Jazz Age, generation - making it sexy, for both men and women to smoke, drink out of a flask and have the power to spend on anything they wanted, even if they didn't need it

Tom Lyle Williams shaped the new image, for a liberated woman in the 1920s, when he contracted Clara Bow and Louise Brooks, to infuse glamour into

Maybelline advertisements. 

Sharrie Williams on Good Morning Arizona

Stop by my Hilarious 1964 High School Diary Blog called Saffrons Rule at saffronsrule.com

1924 and 1925 fashion, from The Maybelline Story.

Vintage Maybelline Fashion Week, from Chicago, in 1924 and 1925, from The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It. 

1925 and 1925 fashion, featured a dropped waist, longer skirt lengths, straight tunic bodice, with a Grecian or Oriental influence.  Clothes were less structured than before and moved fashion firmly into the twentieth century.

My grandmother, Evelyn's, Sister, Verona (Boecher,) Stroh, seen here with her new baby, Billy Stroh, wears a chic, fashionable ensemble, ideal for a new mother married to a young successful businessman in 1924.

Verona (Boecher) Stroh with her husband, Charlie, and baby Billy, pose, as a stunningly well dressed couple in Chicago, outside their new home, being built in 1924.  Verona, never even went to the mailbox, without her Maybelline, earrings and...

 fashionable attire... her entire life.

My grandmother, Evelyn's sister Bunny (Boecher,) Cotter, was the sporty dresser among the three girls, and loved being seen in the latest Vogue fashion for every season.

1925 fashion for the average woman, (meaning - not a Flapper,) still appeared modest in length, but was usually accessorised and wrapped in fur.

Here are my grandparents, Preston and Evelyn (Boecher,) Williams in 1925.  Nana is wrapped in a fur coat, while Grandpa Preston, dressed to the teeth, looks like a High-Fashion, model.  Can you imagine young people in today's world taking the time and effort to look this stunning in their daily lives.  Nana was always a fashion plate, even in her late 70's, and Grampa Preston, modeled for Lord and Taylor after WW1. 

Bunny (Boecher,) Cotter, with her new husband Harold, in 1925, looks elegant, in a fur coat, with a fur collar.   Stay tuned this week for Bunny in a bathing suit, riding attire and dressed for driving in fast cars.

Verona (Boecher,) Stroh and Bunny (Boecher,) Cotter, always ahead of the fashion curve, inch their skirt's up, as 1926, approaches. 

Want to know what was going on in Chicago, as the Boecher Sister's, pose for the camera?  It all unfolds beautifully in my book, The Maybelline Story.  The blog is a nice complement to the book, for those who want to see more of my family, as they live their lives throughout the pages of my book. Get your copy today.

    Vintage Fashion week to be continued: