Happy 2012 from Sharrie Williams and The Maybelline Story

Happy New Year!!!!  I'm starting 2012 off with Erte's fabulous, 1920's Art Deco illustrations, and pictures of the most beautiful girls in the world!!!

I found this incredible Fresco painted in 1927, on a wall at the Hassayampa Inn, in down town Prescott, Arizona.  It captures the Erte, Art Deco era, just as women were coming out of their shell and making a statement, by wearing Maybelline for the first time. 

Between 1915–1937, Erte designed over 200 covers for Harper's Bazaar, and his illustrations appear in

 such publications, as Illustrated London News, Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal and Vogue.  Interesting fact, Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline, first appeared in these magzines at the same time.       

His delicate figures and sophisticated, glamorous designs are instantly recognisable, and his ideas and art still influence fashion into the 21st century. His costumes, programme designs, and sets were featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923.

Tom Lyle Williams also captured the spirit of Art Deco, in his exquisite, Lash-Brow-Ine, and Maybelline Ads in the 1920s. This one features Gloria Swanson,

the Queen of Silent Films, Art Deco Era.

Erte Clip, click on Video

Stay tuned this week, for more interesting, vintage Hollywood news.   Wishing all  my followers, from the 99 countries, who have checked into the Maybelline Blog, a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2012!!! 

Advertising was the secret to Maybelline's success in the 1930's and still is today.

When most companies were sinking 1n 1931 during the Great Depression Maybelline continued to endure.  Tom Lyle concentrated on Advertising as the power head of Maybelline's expansion.  He found that even during the worst economical times women spent money on Maybelline rather than putting meat on the table - just to have longer, darker more luxurious lashes. 

During Maybelline's Art Deco period, Tom Lyle used artist illustrations to produce sleek, modern, sophisticated images women emulated to appear as alluring as their favorite film stars.  His instincts were right and that target market of independent woman carried Maybelline through the depths of financial insecurity to the heights of world success.

Woman were hooked on glamour, style and beauty, refusing to ever be plain Jane's again.  Even today when luxuries are tossed by the wayside to survive, cosmetics  endure and steal the Lyon's share of the market.

If you'd like to comment please do, I'd love to hear how your great grandmother, grandmother, mother and even yourself and daughter can relate to what Tom Lyle did to bring women out of the shadows and into the light of confidence and Panache.