VINTAGE FASHION WEEK - on the Maybelline Blog

Fashion Week may be over, but I'm still reminded of how designers pulled some of their stunning creations, from the 1920s.  

Designers showed their 2012 creations last week.

Designer, Marc Jacobs added a splash of 1920s flavor to his collection at Fashion Week and this collection reminded me of my fashionable grandmother, Evelyn Boecher Williams, and her two sisters, Verona and Bunny.  

My great aunt, 19 year old Bunny Boecher, bobbed her hair, shortened her skirt and kicked up her heals after women got the vote...Prohibition was in full swing, the Jazz age exploded and "The Vamp" was born.

Maybelline mascara was available for girls, ready to hop on the band wagon and flirt with boys.

 Girls rolled up their skirts, rolled down their stockings and made up their eyes in rebellion of the Victorian age.

Tight fitting clothes gave way to loose fitting chemise dresses inching higher by 1922. 

By the Spring of 1922, aunt-Bunny wore eye make-up, lipstick, rough, earrings and a curled up Bob.

The Boucher Sister's, were never shy to say the least and caught onto the latest fad... including this new style bathing suit made for the brave fashionista.

All three sisters had beautiful legs and ready for any photo-op to show them off.

Fall of 1922 meant fur, fur and more fur in Chicago and Bunny and her sisters had a closet full.

The Bocher sisters were known as spoiled rotten daddy's girls, clothes horse's and born with a silver spoon in their mouth, around Chicago.  Here is my grandmother Evelyn, on the left with Verona and Bunny, wearing basic black accessorized from top to bottom.

 

While most young ladies were still wearing their skirts mid-calf, the Boucher sisters turned heads with their early Flapper silhouettes.

Compare Bunny's short skirt with the pictures of fashion in 1922, just click for images of ladies fashion.

My grandmother Evelyn and her sister's, Verona and Bunny, play a big part in my book, The Maybelline Story. I hope you'll buy a copy today.  I guarantee,  you won't be able to but it down.

Maybeline New York, getting hair and make up ready for Fashion Week.  Click on video.

Stay tuned for more Fashion Week tomorrow, as I take you through the 1920s with the Ladies from the, Maybelline Story.

Maybelline and the "New Woman" in 1920

Girls, I don't think we're in Kansas any more!

Vogue, Nov, 1920 reveals the new, modern woman.

Two major shifts, in culture and conscienceness, took place in 1920;  Prohibition and American women winning the right to vote.


Women's contempt for Prohibition was a factor in the rise of the flapper.  With newly bobbed hair and heavily made up eyes, the modern woman embraced Maybelline, endorsed by Hollywood Stars,  like Ethel Clayton in 1920.

Social mores in place for a century were obliterated among young women in 1920.  Liquor consumption sky rocketed, skirts shortened, music heated up and America's Sweetheart morphed into The Vamp.

Women, like my great aunt Bunny, discarded old, rigid ideas about roles and embraced consumerism and personal choice.  They were often described in terms of representing a "culture war" of old versus new.

"New Style" feminists, admitted that a full life,

called for marriage and children - 

but had an irresistible compulsion to be 

individuals in their own right."

Read more about Maybelline and it's effect on the modern woman during the 1920's in The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It.  Signed copy available.

Old Hollywood's sexy, power-couple, Viola Dana and Lefty Flynn, featured in The Maybelline Story..

Viola Dana was one the the first beautiful Photoplay stars to appear in a Maybelline ad.  She endorsed Lash-Brow-Ine as well as Maybelline in 1920.


Maurice "Lefty" Flynn and Viola Dana, during the height of the Silent Film era, between 1925 - 1929.

Maybelline model and Silent Film actress, Viola Dana with her husband, actor, Lefty Flynn.

Maybelline model, Viola Dana appeared in film magazines throughout the 1920's.

 Maurice Flynn became "Lefty" Flynn because he kicked the ball with his left foot, while attending Yale University  in 1910. He was expelled from Yale in 1913 after he marrying Irene Leary, a chorus girl.  They divorced 11 days later.  "Lefty,"  kept his wild-man reputation and made 40 films between 1919 and 1927. 

Often as the lead actor, and sometimes as a sports hero or daring adventurer, "Lefty's" athletic appearance and abilities made him one of Hollywood's first "Hunks."



Read more about sexy Viola Dana and "Lefty" Flynn in The Maybelline Story, and how Preston Williams, played into the mix. 

Maybelline during Prohibition and Hollywood's Heyday -1920's.

Women became aware of Lash-Brow-Ine, as Hollywood  broke the Victorian code of sexual silence. 

Risque photographs in the early 1900's revealed skin, as well as theatrical make-up - still not accepted on the street yet!

Hollywood introduced a new standard of beauty through the lens of a camera, and the public slowly replaced virtue - as a measure of beauty - for vanity.

Tom Lyle, through Hollywood Star endorsements, promoted Lash-Brow-Ine, as films were being pumped out and sent to theaters all over the country.

In 1920, Gloria Swanson, one of Hollywood's biggest Stars, endorsed Lash-Brow-Ine - raising the bar for courageous women to makeup their eyes - the same year women got the vote and Prohibition became the Law of the land.

Read more about Hollywood Silent Film Stars, Lash-Brow-Ine and Maybelline in The Maybelline Story.

Watch PBS PROHIBITION (click here)

Check out the trailer for Season 3, Boardwalk Empire, and get the feeling of Prohibition and the 1920's. 

 

The Maybelline Story, also captures Prohibition in gangland Chicago and Hollywood.  Be sure to purchase a copy at www.maybelliebook.com